The Second of Kings 19:1-37
19 As soon as King Hez·e·kiʹah heard this, he ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.+
2 Then he sent E·liʹa·kim, who was in charge of the household,* Shebʹnah the secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah,+ the son of Aʹmoz.
3 They said to him: “This is what Hez·e·kiʹah says, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke,* and of disgrace; for the children are ready to be born,* but there is no strength to give birth.+
4 Perhaps Jehovah your God will hear all the words of the Rabʹsha·keh, whom the king of As·syrʹi·a his lord sent to taunt the living God,+ and he will call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard. So offer up a prayer+ in behalf of the remnant who have survived.’”
5 So the servants of King Hez·e·kiʹah went in to Isaiah,+
6 and Isaiah said to them: “This is what you should say to your lord, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “Do not be afraid+ because of the words that you heard, the words with which the attendants of the king of As·syrʹi·a blasphemed me.+
7 Here I am putting a thought in his mind,* and he will hear a report and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”+
8 After the Rabʹsha·keh heard that the king of As·syrʹi·a had pulled away from Laʹchish,+ he returned to him and found him fighting against Libʹnah.+
9 Now the king heard it said about King Tir·haʹkah of E·thi·oʹpi·a: “Here he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers+ again to Hez·e·kiʹah, saying:
10 “This is what you should say to King Hez·e·kiʹah of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying: “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of As·syrʹi·a.”+
11 Look! You have heard what the kings of As·syrʹi·a did to all the lands by devoting them to destruction.+ Will you alone be rescued?
12 Did the gods of the nations that my forefathers destroyed rescue them? Where are Goʹzan, Haʹran,+ Reʹzeph, and the people of Eʹden who were in Tel-asʹsar?
13 Where is the king of Haʹmath, the king of Arʹpad, and the king of the cities of Seph·ar·vaʹim, and of Heʹna, and of Ivʹvah?’”+
14 Hez·e·kiʹah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them. Hez·e·kiʹah then went up to the house of Jehovah and spread them* out before Jehovah.+
15 And Hez·e·kiʹah began to pray+ before Jehovah and say: “O Jehovah the God of Israel, sitting enthroned above* the cherubs,+ you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth.+ You made the heavens and the earth.
16 Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear!+ Open your eyes,+ O Jehovah, and see! Hear the words that Sen·nachʹer·ib has sent to taunt the living God.
17 It is a fact, O Jehovah, that the kings of As·syrʹi·a have devastated the nations and their lands.+
18 And they have thrown their gods into the fire, because they were not gods+ but the work of human hands,+ wood and stone. That is why they could destroy them.
19 But now, O Jehovah our God, please save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God, O Jehovah.”+
20 Isaiah son of Aʹmoz then sent this message to Hez·e·kiʹah: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer+ to me concerning King Sen·nachʹer·ib of As·syrʹi·a.+
21 This is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion despises you, she scoffs at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?+
Against whom have you raised your voice+And lifted your arrogant eyes?
It is against the Holy One of Israel!+
23 Through your messengers+ you have taunted Jehovah+ and said,‘With the multitude of my war chariotsI will ascend the heights of mountains,The remotest parts of Lebʹa·non.
I will cut down its lofty cedars, its choice juniper trees.
I will enter its farthest retreats, its densest forests.
24 I will dig wells and drink foreign waters;I will dry up all the streams* of Egypt with the soles of my feet.’
25 Have you not heard? From long ago it was determined.*+
From days gone by I have prepared* it.+
Now I will bring it about.+
You will turn fortified cities into desolate piles of ruins.+
26 Their inhabitants will be helpless;They will be terrified and put to shame.
They will become as vegetation of the field and green grass,+As grass of the roofs that is scorched by the east wind.
27 But I well know when you sit, when you go out, when you come in,+And when you are enraged against me,+
28 Because your rage against me+ and your roaring have reached my ears.+
So I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle+ between your lips,And I will lead you back the way you came.”+
29 “‘And this will be the sign for you:* This year you will eat what grows on its own;* and in the second year you will eat grain that sprouts from that;+ but in the third year you will sow seed and reap, and you will plant vineyards and eat their fruitage.+
30 Those of the house of Judah who escape, those who are left,+ will take root downward and produce fruit upward.
31 For a remnant will go out of Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.+
32 “‘Therefore this is what Jehovah says about the king of As·syrʹi·a:+
“He will not come into this city+Or shoot an arrow thereOr confront it with a shieldOr cast up a siege rampart against it.+
33 By the way he came he will return;He will not come into this city,” declares Jehovah.
34 “I will defend this city+ and save it for my own sake+And for the sake of my servant David.”’”+
35 On that very night the angel of Jehovah went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the As·syrʹi·ans.+ When people rose up early in the morning, they saw all the dead bodies.+
36 So King Sen·nachʹer·ib of As·syrʹi·a departed and returned to Ninʹe·veh+ and stayed there.+
37 And as he was bowing down at the house* of his god Nisʹroch, his own sons A·dramʹme·lech and Shar·eʹzer struck him down with the sword+ and then escaped to the land of Arʹa·rat.+ And his son Eʹsar-hadʹdon+ became king in his place.
Footnotes
^ Or “palace.”
^ Or “insult.”
^ Lit., “have come to the opening of the womb.”
^ Lit., “a spirit in him.”
^ Lit., “it.”
^ Or possibly, “between.”
^ Or “the Nile canals.”
^ Lit., “done.”
^ Or “formed.”
^ Or “the growth from spilled kernels of grain.”
^ That is, Hezekiah.
^ Or “temple.”
