Historical
18 4 Hezekiah king of Judah putteth down the brazen serpent, and destroyeth the idols, 7 and prospereth. 11 Israel is carried away captive. 30 The blasphemy of Sennacherib.
1 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah king of Israel, (A)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi the daughter of Zechariah,
3 And he did [a]uprightly in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
4 He took away the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the (B)brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it [b]Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel: so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, neither were there any such before him.
6 For he clave to the Lord and departed not from him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
7 So the Lord was with him, and he prospered in all things which he took in hand, also he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.
8 He smote the Philistines unto Gaza, and the coasts thereof, [c]from the watchtower unto the defensed city.
9 ¶ (C)And in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, (which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel) Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
10 And after three years they took it, even in the sixth year of Hezekiah: that is, (D)the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel was Samaria taken.
11 Then the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
12 Because they would not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant: that is, all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded, and would neither obey nor do them.
13 ¶ (E)Moreover, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the strong cities of Judah, and took them.
14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent unto the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, [d]I have offended: depart from me, and what thou layest upon me, I will bear it. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold.
15 Therefore Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king’s house.
16 At the same season did Hezekiah pull off the plates of the doors of the Temple of the Lord, and the pillars (which the said Hezekiah king of Judah had covered over) and gave them to the king of Assyria.
17 ¶ And the king of Assyria sent [e]Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up, and came to Jerusalem, and when they were come up, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is by the path of the fuller’s field,
18 And called to the king. Then came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was steward of the house, and Shebna the chancellor, and Joah the son of Asaph the [f]recorder.
19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Tell ye Hezekiah, I pray you, Thus saith the great king, even the great king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
20 Thou thinkest, Surely I have [g]eloquence, [h]but counsel and strength are for the war. On whom then doest thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21 Lo, thou trustest now in this broken staff of reed, to wit, on [i]Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.
22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God, is not that he whose high places, and whose altars Hezekiah hath [j]taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
23 Now therefore give [k]hostages to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able to set riders upon them.
24 For how canst thou despise any captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?
25 Am I now come up without the [l]Lord to this place, to destroy it? the Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said unto Rabshakeh, Speak I pray thee, to thy servants in the [m]Aramites’ language, for we understand it, and talk not with us in the Jews’ tongue, in the audience of the people that are on the wall.
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words, and not to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink [n]their own piss with you?
28 So Rabshakeh stood, and spake, saying, Hear the words of the great king, of the king of Assyria.
29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you [o]out of mine hand.
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you to trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given over into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31 Hearken not unto Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make [p]appointment with me, and come out to me, that every man may eat of his own vine, and every man of his own fig tree, and drink every man of the water of his own well,
32 Till [q]I come, and bring you to a land like your own land, even a land of wheat and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive’s oil, and honey, that ye may live and not die: and obey not Hezekiah, for he deceiveth you, saying, The Lord will deliver us.
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arpad? where is the god of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? how have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35 Who are they among all the gods of the nations, that have delivered their land out of mine hand, that the [r]Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36 But the people held their peace, and answered not him a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer ye him not.
37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah which was steward of the house, and Shebna the chancellor, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
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 (F)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 [s]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 [t]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 [u]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 [v]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 [w]He heard also men say of Tirhakah king of [x]Ethiopia, [y]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 [z]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 [aa]Lord.
15 And Hezekiah [ab]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 [ac]bow down thine ear, and hear: Lord open thine eyes and behold, and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to blaspheme the [ad]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 [ae]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 [af]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 [ag]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 [ah]lodging of his borders, and into the forest of his [ai]Carmel.
24 I have dug and drunk the waters of others, and with the plant of my feet have I dried all the [aj]floods closed in.
25 Hast thou not heard, how I have of old time made it, and have formed it long ago? [ak]and should I now bring it, that it should be destroyed, and laid on ruinous heaps, as cities defensed?
26 Whose [al]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 [am]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 [an]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 [ao]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 [ap]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 ¶ (G)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 [aq]slew him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
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