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2 Kings 19
New English Translation

19 1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests,[a] clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This is a day of distress, insults,[b] and humiliation,[c] as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through.[d] 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God.[e] When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said.[f] So pray for this remnant that remains.’”[g]

5 When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master this: ‘This is what the Lord has said: “Don’t be afraid because of the things you have heard, because the Assyrian king’s officers have insulted me. 7 Look, I will take control of his mind;[h] he will receive[i] a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down[j] with a sword in his own land.”’”

8 When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning.[k] 9 The king[l] heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him.[m] He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: 10 “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over[n] to the king of Assyria.” 11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands.[o] Do you really think you will be rescued?[p] 12 Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed—the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar—rescued by their gods?[q] 13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair,[r] Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

14 Hezekiah took the letter[s] from the messengers and read it.[t] Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: “Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim![u] You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky[v] and the earth. 16 Pay attention, Lord, and hear! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God![w] 17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. 18 They have burned the gods of the nations,[x] for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.[y] 19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only God.”

20 Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord God of Israel has said: ‘I have heard your prayer[z] concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. 21 This is what the Lord says about him:[aa]

“‘“The virgin daughter Zion[ab]
despises you, she makes fun of you;
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head after you.[ac]
22 Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?
At whom have you shouted,[ad]
and looked so arrogantly?[ae]
At the Holy One of Israel![af]
23 Through your messengers you taunted the Sovereign Master,[ag]
‘With my many chariots[ah]
I climbed up the high mountains,
the slopes of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars
and its best evergreens.
I invaded its most remote regions,[ai]
its thickest woods.
24 I dug wells and drank
water in foreign lands.[aj]
With the soles of my feet I dried up
all the rivers of Egypt.’
25 [ak] Certainly you must have heard![al]
Long ago I worked it out.
In ancient times I planned[am] it;
and now I am bringing it to pass.
The plan is this:
Fortified cities will crash
into heaps of ruins.[an]
26 Their residents are powerless,[ao]
they are terrified and ashamed.
They are as short-lived as plants in the field,
or green vegetation.[ap]
They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops[aq]
when it is scorched by the east wind.[ar]
27 I know where you live
and everything you do.[as]
28 Because you rage against me,
and the uproar you create has reached my ears,[at]
I will put my hook in your nose,[au]
and my bridle between your lips,
and I will lead you back the way
you came.”

29 [av] “‘This will be your confirmation that I have spoken the truth:[aw] This year you will eat what grows wild,[ax] and next year[ay] what grows on its own from that. But in the third year you will plant seed and harvest crops; you will plant vines and consume their produce.[az] 30 Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit.[ba]

31 “‘For a remnant will leave Jerusalem;
survivors will come out of Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies[bb] will accomplish this.
32 So this is what the Lord has said about the king of Assyria:
“He will not enter this city,
nor will he shoot an arrow here.[bc]
He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors,[bd]
nor will he build siege works against it.
33 He will go back the way he came.
He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.

34 “‘I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.’”[be]

35 That very night the angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When they[bf] got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses.[bg] 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh.[bh] 37 One day,[bi] as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch,[bj] his sons[bk] Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword.[bl] They escaped to the land of Ararat; his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 19:2 tn Heb “elders of the priests.”
  2. 2 Kings 19:3 tn Or “rebuke,” “correction.”
  3. 2 Kings 19:3 tn Or “contempt.”
  4. 2 Kings 19:3 tn Heb “when sons come to the cervical opening and there is no strength to give birth.”
  5. 2 Kings 19:4 tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”
  6. 2 Kings 19:4 tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”
  7. 2 Kings 19:4 tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”
  8. 2 Kings 19:7 tn Heb “I will put in him a spirit.” The precise sense of רוּחַ (ruakh), “spirit,” is uncertain in this context. It may refer to a spiritual being who will take control of his mind (see 1 Kgs 22:19), or it could refer to a disposition of concern and fear. In either case the Lord’s sovereignty over the king is apparent.
  9. 2 Kings 19:7 tn Heb “hear.”
  10. 2 Kings 19:7 tn Heb “cause him to fall,” that is, “kill him.”
  11. 2 Kings 19:8 tn Heb “and the chief adviser returned and he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.”
  12. 2 Kings 19:9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  13. 2 Kings 19:9 tn Heb “heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, ‘Look, he has come out to fight with you.’”
  14. 2 Kings 19:10 tn Heb “will not be given in the hand.”
  15. 2 Kings 19:11 tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”
  16. 2 Kings 19:11 tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”
  17. 2 Kings 19:12 tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them—Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”
  18. 2 Kings 19:13 sn Lair is a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.
  19. 2 Kings 19:14 tc The MT has the plural, “letters,” but the final mem is probably dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular.
  20. 2 Kings 19:14 tc The MT has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual issue concerning the plural word “letters.” The parallel passage in Isa 37:14 has the singular suffix.
  21. 2 Kings 19:15 sn This refers to the cherub images that were above the ark of the covenant.
  22. 2 Kings 19:15 tn Or “the heavens.”
  23. 2 Kings 19:16 tn Heb “Hear the words of Sennacherib which he sent to taunt the living God.”
  24. 2 Kings 19:18 tn Heb “and they put their gods in the fire.”
  25. 2 Kings 19:18 tn Heb “so they destroyed them.”
  26. 2 Kings 19:20 tn Heb “what you have prayed to me.”
  27. 2 Kings 19:21 tn Heb “this is the word which the Lord has spoken about him.”
  28. 2 Kings 19:21 sn Zion (Jerusalem) is pictured here as a young, vulnerable daughter whose purity is being threatened by the would-be Assyrian rapist. The personification hints at the reality which the young girls of the city would face if the Assyrians conquer it.
  29. 2 Kings 19:21 sn Shaking the head was a mocking gesture of derision.
  30. 2 Kings 19:22 tn Heb “have you raised a voice.”
  31. 2 Kings 19:22 tn Heb “and lifted your eyes on high?”
  32. 2 Kings 19:22 sn This divine title pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.
  33. 2 Kings 19:23 tn The word is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay), “lord,” but some Hebrew mss have יְהוָה (yehvah), “Lord.”
  34. 2 Kings 19:23 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has בְּרֶכֶב (berekhev), but this must be dittographic (note the following רִכְבִּי [rikhbi], “my chariots”). The marginal reading (Qere) בְּרֹב (berov), “with many,” is supported by many Hebrew mss and ancient versions, as well as the parallel passage in Isa 37:24.
  35. 2 Kings 19:23 tn Heb “the lodging place of its extremity.”
  36. 2 Kings 19:24 tn Heb “I dug and drank foreign waters.”
  37. 2 Kings 19:25 tn Having quoted the Assyrian king’s arrogant words in vv. 23-24, the Lord now speaks to the king.
  38. 2 Kings 19:25 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The rhetorical question expresses the Lord’s amazement that anyone might be ignorant of what he is about to say.
  39. 2 Kings 19:25 tn Heb “formed.”
  40. 2 Kings 19:25 tn Heb “and it is to cause to crash into heaps of ruins fortified cities.” The subject of the third feminine singular verb תְּהִי (tehi) is the implied plan, referred to in the preceding lines with third feminine singular pronominal suffixes.
  41. 2 Kings 19:26 tn Heb “short of hand.”
  42. 2 Kings 19:26 tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.
  43. 2 Kings 19:26 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
  44. 2 Kings 19:26 tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah), “standing grain,” to קָדִים (qadim), “east wind” (with the support of 1Q Isaa in Isa 37:27).
  45. 2 Kings 19:27 tc Heb “your going out and your coming in.” The MT also has here, “and how you have raged against me.” However, this line is probably dittographic (note the beginning of the next line).
  46. 2 Kings 19:28 tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (shaʾananekha), “your complacency,” is emended to שַׁאֲוַנְךְ (shaʾavanekha), “your uproar.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38.
  47. 2 Kings 19:28 sn The word picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.
  48. 2 Kings 19:29 tn At this point the word concerning the king of Assyria (vv. 21-28) ends and the Lord again directly addresses Hezekiah and the people (see v. 20).
  49. 2 Kings 19:29 tn Heb “and this is your sign.” In this case the אוֹת (ʾot), “sign,” is a future confirmation of God’s intervention designated before the actual intervention takes place. For similar “signs” see Exod 3:12 and Isa 7:14-25.
  50. 2 Kings 19:29 sn This refers to crops that grew up on their own (that is, without cultivation) from the seed planted in past years.
  51. 2 Kings 19:29 tn Heb “and in the second year.”
  52. 2 Kings 19:29 tn The four plural imperatival verb forms in v. 29b are used rhetorically. The Lord commands the people to plant, harvest, etc. to emphasize the certainty of restored peace and prosperity. See IBHS 572 §34.4.c.
  53. 2 Kings 19:30 tn Heb “The remnant of the house of Judah that is left will add roots below and produce fruit above.”
  54. 2 Kings 19:31 tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them. The Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, has “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” rather than “the zeal of the Lord” (Kethib). The translation follows the Qere here.
  55. 2 Kings 19:32 tn Heb “there.”
  56. 2 Kings 19:32 tn Heb “[with] a shield.” By metonymy the “shield” stands for the soldier who carries it.
  57. 2 Kings 19:34 tn Heb “for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”
  58. 2 Kings 19:35 tn This refers to the Israelites and/or the rest of the Assyrian army.
  59. 2 Kings 19:35 tn Heb “look, all of them were dead bodies.”
  60. 2 Kings 19:36 tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”
  61. 2 Kings 19:37 sn The assassination probably took place in 681 b.c.
  62. 2 Kings 19:37 sn No such Mesopotamian god is presently known. Perhaps the name Nisroch is a textual variation of Nusku, the Mesopotamian god of light and fire. Other proposals have tried to relate the name to Ashur, the chief god of the Assyria, or to Ninurta, the Assyrian god of war.
  63. 2 Kings 19:37 tc Although “his sons” is absent in the Kethib, it is supported by the Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions. Cf. Isa 37:38.
  64. 2 Kings 19:37 sn Extra-biblical sources also mention the assassination of Sennacherib, though they refer to only one assassin. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 239-40.
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2 Kings 19
1599 Geneva Bible

19 6 God promiseth by Isaiah victory to Hezekiah. 35 The Angel of the Lord killeth an hundred and fourscore and five thousand men of the Assyrians. 37 Sennacherib is killed of his own sons.

1 And (A)when King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, and came into the house of the Lord,

2 And sent Eliakim which was the steward of the house, and Shebna the chancellor, and the Elders of the Priests clothed in sackcloth [a]to Isaiah, the Prophet the son of Amoz.

3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to [b]the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

4 If so be the Lord thy God hath heard all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to rail on the living God, and to reproach him with words which the Lord thy God hath heard, then lift thou up thy prayer for the [c]remnant that are left.

5 ¶ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said unto them, So shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

7 Behold, I will send a blast [d]upon him, and he shall hear a noise, and return to his own land: and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8 ¶ So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

9 [e]He heard also men say of Tirhakah king of [f]Ethiopia, [g]Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he therefore departed and sent other messengers unto Hezekiah, saying,

10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, and say, Let not thy [h]God deceive thee in whom thou trustest, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, how they have destroyed them: and shalt thou be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the heathen delivered them which my fathers have destroyed? as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Shepharvaim, Hena and Ivah?

14 ¶ So Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it before the [i]Lord.

15 And Hezekiah [j]prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubims, thou art very God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heaven and the earth.

16 Lord [k]bow down thine ear, and hear: Lord open thine eyes and behold, and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to blaspheme the [l]living God.

17 Truth it is, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,

18 And have set fire on their gods: for they were no gods, but the work of man’s hands, even wood and stone: therefore they destroyed them.

19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the [m]kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou O Lord, art only God.

20 ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have heard that which thou hast prayed me, concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.

21 This is the word that the Lord hath spoken against him, O [n]Virgin daughter of Zion, he hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: O daughter of Jerusalem, he hath shaken his head at thee.

22 Whom hast thou railed on? and whom hast thou blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even [o]against the holy One of Israel.

23 By thy messengers thou hast railed on the Lord, and said, By the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the top of the mountains, by the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the high cedars thereof, and the fair fir trees thereof, and I will go into the [p]lodging of his borders, and into the forest of his [q]Carmel.

24 I have dug and drunk the waters of others, and with the plant of my feet have I dried all the [r]floods closed in.

25 Hast thou not heard, how I have of old time made it, and have formed it long ago? [s]and should I now bring it, that it should be destroyed, and laid on ruinous heaps, as cities defensed?

26 Whose [t]inhabitants have small power, and are afraid, and confounded: they are like the grass of the field, and green herb, or grass on the house tops, or as corn blasted before it be grown.

27 I know thy dwelling, yea, thy going out and thy coming in, and thy fury against me.

28 And because thou ragest against me, and thy tumult is come up to mine ears, I will put mine [u]hook in thy nostrils, and my bridle in thy lips, and will bring thee back again the same way thou camest.

29 And this shall be a [v]sign unto thee, O Hezekiah, Thou shalt eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and the next year such as grow without sowing, and the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah, shall again take [w]root downward, and bear fruit upward.

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and some that shall escape out of mount Zion: the [x]zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

32 Wherefore thus saith the Lord, concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not enter into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it:

33 But he shall return the way he came, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

34 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for David my servant’s sake.

35 (B)And the same night the Angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of Assyria an hundred four score and five thousand: so when they rose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went his way, and returned and dwelt in Nineveh.

37 And as he was in the Temple worshipping Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons [y]slew him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 19:2 To hear some new prophecy, and to have comfort of him.
  2. 2 Kings 19:3 The dangers are so great, that we can neither avenge this blasphemy, nor help ourselves no more than a woman in her travail.
  3. 2 Kings 19:4 Meaning, for Jerusalem which only remained of all the cities of Judah.
  4. 2 Kings 19:7 The Lord can with one blast blow away all the strength of man, and turn it into dust.
  5. 2 Kings 19:9 That is, Sennacherib.
  6. 2 Kings 19:9 Or, black Moors.
  7. 2 Kings 19:9 For the Kings of Ethiopia and Egypt joined together against the King of Assyria because of his oppression of other countries.
  8. 2 Kings 19:10 The more near that the wicked are to their destruction, the more they blaspheme.
  9. 2 Kings 19:14 Before the Ark of the covenant.
  10. 2 Kings 19:15 He showeth what is the true refuge and succor in all dangers, to wit, to flee to the Lord by earnest prayer.
  11. 2 Kings 19:16 Show by effect that thou wilt not suffer thy Name to be blasphemed.
  12. 2 Kings 19:16 By this title he discerneth God from all idols and false gods.
  13. 2 Kings 19:19 He showeth for what end the faithful desire of God to be delivered: to wit, that he may be glorified by their deliverance.
  14. 2 Kings 19:21 Because as yet Jerusalem had not been taken by the enemy, therefore he calleth her virgin.
  15. 2 Kings 19:22 God counteth that injury done to him, and will revenge it, which is done to any of his Saints.
  16. 2 Kings 19:23 Meaning, Jerusalem, which Isaiah calleth the height of his borders, to wit, of Judah, Isa. 37:24.
  17. 2 Kings 19:23 Or, pleasant country.
  18. 2 Kings 19:24 Or, the waters of cities besieged.
  19. 2 Kings 19:25 He declareth that forasmuch as he is the author and beginning of his Church, he will never suffer it utterly to be destroyed, as other cities and kingdoms.
  20. 2 Kings 19:26 Thus he describeth the wicked, which for a time flourish, and afterward fade and decay like flowers.
  21. 2 Kings 19:28 I will bridle thy rage, and turn thee to and fro as pleaseth me.
  22. 2 Kings 19:29 God did not only promise him the victory, but giveth him a sign to confirm his faith.
  23. 2 Kings 19:30 The Lord will multiply in great number, that small remnant of Judah that is escaped.
  24. 2 Kings 19:31 The love, that God beareth toward his Church shall overcome the counsels and enterprises of men.
  25. 2 Kings 19:37 This was the just judgment of God for his blasphemy, that he should be slain before that idol, whom he preferred to the living God, and by them, by whom ought by nature to have been defended.
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