Sennacherib, Hezekiah, and Isaiah. ⁹ The king of Assyria heard a report: “Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, has come out to fight against you.” Again he sent messengers to Hezekiah to say: ¹⁰ “Thus shall you say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ ¹¹ You, certainly, have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands: they put them under the ban! And are you to be rescued?

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then he went up to the house of the Lord, and spreading it out before the Lord, ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed in the Lord’s presence: “Lord, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. It is you who made the heavens and the earth.^{(A) 16} Incline your ear, Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, Lord, and see! Hear the words Sennacherib has sent to taunt the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands. ¹⁸ They gave their gods to the fire—they were not gods at all, but the work of human hands—wood and stone, they destroyed them. ¹⁹ Therefore, Lord, our God, save us from this man’s power, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”^(B)

²⁰ Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you have prayed concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria: I have listened! ^21 [a]This is the word the Lord has spoken concerning him:

³² “Therefore, thus says the Lord about the king:

³⁵ That night the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there they were, dead, all those corpses!^(B)

³⁶ So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, broke camp, departed, returned home, and stayed in Nineveh.