2 Kings 18:13–19:37

¹³And ^sin the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ¹⁴Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵So Hezekiah ^tgave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house. ¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave ⁶it to the king of Assyria.

Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent the ⁷Tartan, the ⁸Rabsaris, and the ⁹Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the ^uaqueduct from the upper pool, ^vwhich was on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. ¹⁸And when they had called to the king, ^wEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the ¹scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. ¹⁹Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: ^x“What confidence is this in which you trust? ²⁰You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are ²mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? ^21yNow look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²²But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He ^zwhose ³high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” ’ ²³Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! ²⁴How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ²⁵Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”

^26aThen Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in ^bAramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in ⁴Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?”

²⁸Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in ⁵Hebrew, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹Thus says the king: ^c‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand; ³⁰nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me ⁶by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own ^dvine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ³²until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, ^ea land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” ^33fHas any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴Where are the gods of ^gHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and ^hIvah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, ⁱthat the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

³⁶But the people held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^jwith their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Assures Deliverance

19And ^aso it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with ^bsackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ²Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to ¹bring them forth. ^4cIt may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^dreproach the living God, and will ^erebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ^6fAnd Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be ^gafraid of the words which you have heard, with which the ^hservants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Surely I will send ⁱa spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer

⁸Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed ^jfrom Lachish. ⁹And ^kthe king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God ^lin whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? ^12mHave the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of ⁿEden who were in Telassar? ^13oWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

^14pAnd Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One ^qwho dwells between the cherubim, ^rYou are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ^16sIncline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^topen Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, ^uwhich he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁷Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were ^vnot gods, but ^wthe work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. ¹⁹Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, ^xthat all the kingdoms of the earth may ^yknow that You are the Lord God, You alone.”

The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^z‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^aI have heard.’ ²¹This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

‘The virgin, ^bthe daughter of Zion,

Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;

The daughter of Jerusalem

^cHas shaken her head behind your back!

²²‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

Against whom have you raised your voice,

And lifted up your eyes on high?

Against ^dthe Holy One of Israel.

^23eBy your messengers you have reproached the Lord,

And said: ^f“By the multitude of my chariots

I have come up to the height of the mountains,

To the limits of Lebanon;

I will cut down its tall cedars

And its choice cypress trees;

I will enter the extremity of its borders,

To its fruitful forest.

²⁴I have dug and drunk strange water,

And with the soles of my feet I have ^gdried up

All the brooks of defense.”

²⁵‘Did you not hear long ago

How ^hI made it,

From ancient times that I formed it?

Now I have brought it to pass,

That ⁱyou should be

For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

²⁶Therefore their inhabitants had little power;

They were dismayed and confounded;

They were as the grass of the field

And the green herb,

As ^jthe grass on the housetops

And grain blighted before it is grown.

²⁷‘But ^kI know your dwelling place,

Your going out and your coming in,

And your rage against Me.

²⁸Because your rage against Me and your tumult

Have come up to My ears,

Therefore ^lI will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will turn you back

^mBy the way which you came.

²⁹‘This shall be a ⁿsign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows ²of itself,

And in the second year what springs from the same;

Also in the third year sow and reap,

Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

^30oAnd the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah

Shall again take root downward,

And bear fruit upward.

³¹For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,

And those who escape from Mount Zion.

^pThe zeal of the Lord ³of hosts will do this.’

³²“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall ^qnot come into this city,

Nor shoot an arrow there,

Nor come before it with shield,

Nor build a siege mound against it.

³³By the way that he came,

By the same shall he return;

And he shall not come into this city,’

Says the Lord.

³⁴‘For ^rI will ^sdefend this city, to save it

For My own sake and ^tfor My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and…