2 Kings 19

And it happened when King Hezekiah heard that he tore his clothes, and he covered himself with sackcloth, and he went {into} the house of God.

And he sent Eliakim, who {was} over the house, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, having covered themselves with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. \*

And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day {is} a day of trouble and chastisement and reproach, for sons have come to the birth canal, but {there is} no strength to give birth.

Perhaps God your God will have heard all of the words of the Rabshakeh, him whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent to taunt the living God, and he will chastise the words that God your God has heard. And may you lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant {that is} found.’” \*

And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,

and Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says God, “Do not be afraid from the face of the words that you have heard, {by} which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Behold me, putting a spirit in him, and he will hear a report, and he will return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”’” \*

And the Rabshakeh returned, and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

Then he heard concerning Tirhakah, the king of Cush, saying, “Behold, he has come out to fight with you.” And he returned and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, \*

“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, saying, ‘Do not let your God, in whom you are trusting, deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

Behold, you, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all of the lands by destroying them. So you, will you be delivered? \*

Did the gods of the nations that my fathers destroyed deliver them, Gozan or Haran or Rezeph or the sons of Eden who {were} in Tel Assar?

Where {is} the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’” \*

And Hezekiah took the writings from the hand of the messengers, and he read them. And he went up {to} the house of God, and Hezekiah spread it out to the face of God.

And Hezekiah prayed to the face of God and said, “God, the God of Israel, sitting {above} the cherubim, you {are} he, God, you alone, over all of the kingdoms of the earth. You, you made the heavens and the earth. \*

Incline your ear, God, and hear. Open your eyes, God, and see. And hear the words of Sennacherib {by} which he has sent it to taunt the living God.

Truly, God, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their land.

And they have put their gods in the fire, for they {are} not gods, but rather the work of the hands of man, wood and stone, and they have destroyed them. \*

And now, God our God, please save us from his hand, so that all of the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, God, {are} God, you alone.” \*

And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says God, the God of Israel, ‘What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, I have heard.’

This {is} the word that God has spoken about him. ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion, despises you, she derides you. The daughter of Jerusalem shakes a head after you.

Whom have you mocked and taunted? And against whom have you raised a voice and lifted your eyes upward? Against the Holy {One} of Israel! \*

By the hand of your messengers you mocked the Lord and said, “With the multitude of my chariotry, I, I went up {to} the height of the mountains, the recesses of Lebanon. And I cut down the heights of its cedars, the choicest of its cypress trees, that I might enter the lodging place of its end, the forest of its garden.

I, I dug, and I drank foreign waters. And with the sole of my feet I will dry up all of the streams of Matsor.” \*

Have you not heard? From long ago, I did it; from days of antiquity, I formed it. Now I have brought it, that you should be for devastating fortified cities {into} ruined heaps.

And their dwellers {are} short of hand; they feel dismay and feel shame. They are vegetation of the field or green of herb; grass of roofs, blasting to the face of growing up. \*

But I know your dwelling and your going out and your coming in and your raging against me.

Because of your raging against me, and your arrogance has come up into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your lips, and I will make you return on the way by which you came.’ \*

And this {will be} the sign for you. This year, you will eat wild grain, and in the second year, {its} offspring. But in the third year, sow and harvest, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

And the remaining survival of the house of Judah will again {take} root downward, and it will make fruit upward.

For a remnant will come out from Jerusalem, and a survival from Mount Zion. The zeal of God will do this. \*

Therefore, thus says God about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not come to this city, and he will not shoot an arrow there, and he will not come before it {with} a shield, and he will not pour out a mound against it.

He will return by the way on which he came, and he will not come to this city.’ The declaration of God.

‘For I will cover over this city to save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’” \*

And it happened in that night that the angel of God went out and struck in the camp of Assyria 185,000. And they arose early in the morning and behold, all of them {were} dead corpses.

And he departed and went, and Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, returned and stayed in Nineveh.

And it happened, he was prostrating himself {in} the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword, and they, they escaped {to} the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. \*