2 Kings 19

Revised Geneva Translation

19 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and came into the House of the LORD,

² and sent Eliakim, who was the steward of the house, and Shebna the chancellor, and the elders of the priests clothed in sackcloth to Isaiah, the Prophet, the son of Amoz.

³ And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke and blasphemy. For the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

⁴ ‘If so be that the LORD your God has heard all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to rail on the living God, and to reproach Him with words which the LORD your God has heard, then lift up your prayer for the remnant who are left.’”

⁵ So, the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “So shall you say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

⁷ “Behold, I will send a blast 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 had departed from Lachish).

⁹ Also, about Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, he heard men say, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” Therefore, he departed and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, and say, ‘Do not let your God in Whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

¹¹ ‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, how they have destroyed them. And shall you be delivered?

¹² ‘Have the gods of the heathen delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed—Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden—who 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 from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the House of the LORD. And Hezekiah spread it before the LORD.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, “O LORD God of Israel, Who dwells between the Cherubim. You are Elohim, alone over all the kingdoms of the Earth. You have made Heaven and Earth.

¹⁶ “LORD, bow down Your Ear, and hear.: LORD, open Your Eyes and behold. And hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to blaspheme the living God.

¹⁷ “It is true, 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, wood and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them.

¹⁹ “Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the Earth may know that You, O LORD, are the only God.”

²⁰ Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I have heard that which you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria.’

²¹ “This is the Word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘O virgin daughter of Zion! He has despised you, laughed you to scorn. O daughter of Jerusalem! He has shaken His Head at you.

²² ‘Whom have you railed on? And Whom have you blasphemed? And against Whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? —against the Holy One of Israel.

²³ ‘By your messengers you have railed on the LORD, and said, “By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the top of the mountains, by the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down their high cedars, their fair fir trees. And I will go into the lodging of his borders, and into the forest of his fruit.

²⁴ “I have dug and drunk the waters of others. And with the plant of my feet I have dried all the rivers of entrenchment.”

²⁵ ‘Have you not heard how in ancient times I made it, and formed it long ago? And should I now bring it to be destroyed, and laid on ruinous heaps, as defensed cities,

²⁶ ‘whose inhabitants have small power, are afraid, and confounded? They are like the grass of the field, and green herb, grass on the house tops, or as corn blasted before it is grown.

²⁷ ‘I know your dwelling, your going out and your coming in, and your fury against Me.

²⁸ ‘And because you rage against Me, and your tumult has come up to My Ears, I will put My hook in your nostrils, and My bridle in your lips, and will bring you back again the same way you came.

²⁹ ‘And this shall be a sign to you. This year, you shall eat such things as grow by themselves, and the next year such as grow without sowing, and the third year you shall sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruits.

³⁰ ‘And the remnant of the House of Judah that has escaped, shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

³¹ ‘For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and some who shall escape out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall do this.’

³² “Therefore, thus says 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 siege mount against it.

³³ ‘He shall return the way he came, and shall not come into this city,’ says the LORD,

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

³⁵ And the same night, the Angel of the LORD went out and struck a hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. 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, killed him with the sword. And they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.