2 Kings 19–21

¹And it cometh to pass, at king Hezekiah’s hearing, that he rendeth his garments, and covereth himself with sackcloth, and entereth the house of Jehovah, ²and sendeth Eliakim, who is over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, ³and they say unto him, ‘Thus said Hezekiah—A day of distress, and rebuke, and despising is this day; for come have sons unto the birth, and power there is not to bring forth.

⁴‘It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear all the words of the chief of the butlers with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.’ ⁵And the servants of king Hezekiah come in unto Isaiah, ⁶and Isaiah saith to them, ‘Thus do ye say unto your lord: Thus said Jehovah, Be not afraid because of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have reviled Me. ⁷Lo, I am giving in him a spirit, and he hath heard a report, and hath turned back to his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.’

⁸And the chief of the butlers turneth back and findeth the king of Asshur fighting against Libnah, for he hath heard that he hath journeyed from Lachish. ⁹And he heareth concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, ‘Lo, he hath come out to fight with thee;’ and he turneth and sendeth messengers unto Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰‘Thus do ye speak unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God lift thee up in whom thou art trusting, saying, Jerusalem is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur. ¹¹Lo, thou hast heard that which the kings of Asshur have done to all the lands—to devote them; and thou art delivered! ¹²did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed—Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who are in Thelassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ¹⁴And Hezekiah taketh the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and readeth them, and goeth up to the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spreadeth it before Jehovah. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayeth before Jehovah, and saith, ‘O Jehovah, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubs, Thou art God Himself—Thyself alone—to all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶Incline, O Jehovah, Thine ear, and hear; open, O Jehovah, Thine eyes, and see; and hear Thou the words of Sennacherib with which he hath sent him to reproach the living God.

¹⁷‘Truly, O Jehovah, kings of Asshur have laid waste the nations, and their land, ¹⁸and have put their gods into fire, for they are no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone, and destroy them. ¹⁹And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, we pray Thee, out of his hand, and know do all kingdoms of the earth that Thou art Jehovah God—Thyself alone.’

²⁰And Isaiah son of Amoz sendeth unto Hezekiah, saying, ‘Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed unto Me concerning Sennacherib king of Asshur I have heard: ²¹this is the word that Jehovah spake concerning him: ‘Trampled on thee—laughed at thee, Hath the virgin daughter of Zion Behind thee shaken the head—Hath the daughter of Jerusalem? ²²Whom hast thou reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up a voice? Yea, thou dost lift up on high thine eyes—Against the Holy One of Israel! ²³By the hand of thy messengers Thou hast reproached the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains—The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the lodging of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel. ²⁴I have digged, and drunk strange waters, And I dry up with the sole of my steps All floods of a bulwark. ²⁵Hast thou not heard from afar, it I made, From days of old that I formed it? Now I have brought it in, And it becometh a desolation, Ruinous heaps are fenced cities, ²⁶And their inhabitants are feeble-handed, They were broken down, and are dried up, They have been the herb of the field, And the greenness of the tender grass, Grass of the roofs, And blasted corn—before it hath risen up! ²⁷And thy sitting down, and thy going out, And thy coming in, I have known, And thine anger towards Me; ²⁸Because of thine anger towards Me, And thy noise—it came up into Mine ears, I have put My hook in thy nose, And My bridle in thy lips, And have caused thee to turn back, In the way in which thou camest. ²⁹And this to thee is the sign, Food of the year is the spontaneous growth, And in the second year the self-produced, And in the third year sow ye, and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat their fruits. ³⁰And it hath continued—The escaped of the house of Judah That hath been left—to take root beneath, And hath made fruit upward. ³¹For from Jerusalem goeth out a remnant, And an escape from mount Zion; The zeal of Jehovah of Hosts doth this. ³²Therefore, thus said Jehovah, Concerning the king of Asshur: He doth not come in unto this city, Nor doth he shoot there an arrow, Nor doth he come before it with shield. Nor doth he pour out against it a mount. ³³In the way that he cometh in—In it he turneth back, And unto this city he doth not come in, The affirmation of Jehovah— ³⁴And I have covered over this city, To save it, for Mine own sake, And for the sake of David My servant.’

³⁵And it cometh to pass, in that night, that a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred eighty and five thousand, and they rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them are dead corpses. ³⁶And Sennacherib king of Asshur journeyeth, and goeth, and turneth back, and dwelleth in Nineveh; ³⁷and it cometh to pass, he is bowing himself in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adramelech and Sharezar his sons have smitten him with the sword, and they have escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-Haddon his son reigneth in his stead.

Chapter 20

¹In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet, and saith unto him, ‘Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.’ ²And he turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah, saying, ³‘I pray Thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which is good in Thine eyes I have done;’ and Hezekiah weepeth—a great weeping. ⁴And it cometh to pass—Isaiah hath not gone out to the middle court—that the word of Jehovah hath been unto him, saying, ⁵‘Turn back, and thou hast said unto Hezekiah, leader of My people: Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I give healing to thee, on the third day thou dost go up to the house of Jehovah; ⁶and I have added to thy days fifteen years, and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city for Mine own sake, and for the sake of David My servant.’ ⁷And Isaiah saith, ‘Take ye a cake of figs;’ and they take and lay it on the boil, and he reviveth. ⁸And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, ‘What is the sign that Jehovah doth give healing to me, that I have gone up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?’ ⁹And Isaiah saith, ‘This is to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth the thing that He hath spoken—The shadow hath gone on ten degrees, or it doth turn back ten degrees?’ ¹⁰And Hezekiah saith, ‘It hath been light for the shadow to incline ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow turn backward ten degrees.’ ¹¹And Isaiah the prophet calleth unto Jehovah, and He bringeth back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down in the degrees of Ahaz—backward ten degrees.

¹²At that time hath Berodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick; ¹³and Hezekiah hearkeneth unto them, and sheweth them all the house of his treasury, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the good ointment, and all the house of his vessels, and all that hath been found in his treasuries; there hath not been a thing that Hezekiah hath not shewed them, in his house, and in all his dominion. ¹⁴And Isaiah the prophet cometh in unto king Hezekiah, and saith unto him, ‘What said these men? and whence come they unto thee?’ And Hezekiah saith, ‘From a land afar off they have come—from Babylon.’ ¹⁵And he saith, ‘What saw they in thy house?’ and Hezekiah saith, ‘All that is in my house they saw; there hath not been a thing that I have not shewed them among my treasures.’ ¹⁶And Isaiah saith unto Hezekiah, ‘Hear a word of Jehovah: ¹⁷Lo, days are coming, and borne hath been all that is in thy house, and that thy father have treasured up till this day, to Babylon; there is not left a thing, said Jehovah; ¹⁸and of thy sons who go out from thee, whom thou begettest, they take away, and they have been eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁹And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, ‘Good is the word of Jehovah that thou hast spoken;’ and he saith, ‘Is it not—if peace and truth are in my days?’ ²⁰And the rest of the matters of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and bringeth in the waters to the city, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²¹And Hezekiah lieth with his fathers, and reign doth Manasseh his son in his stead.

Chapter 21

¹A son of twelve years is Manasseh in his reigning, and fifty and five years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother is Hephzi-Bah; ²and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel, ³and he turneth and buildeth the high places that Hezekiah his father destroyed, and raiseth altars for Baal,…