2 Kings 19

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 Death

³⁵And ^uit came to pass on a certain night that the ⁴angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. ³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at ^vNineveh. ³⁷Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons ^wAdrammelech and Sharezer ^xstruck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then ^yEsarhaddon his son reigned in his place.