2 Kings 19

1When King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his garments, clad himself in sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.

2He sent Eliakim, who was over the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the priests' elders wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz.

3They said to him, "So says Hezekiah: Today, a day of trouble, rebuke, and reproach—for children have come to birth, and no strength remains to bring forth."

4Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God has heard, so lift up your prayer for the remnant that remains.

5King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah.

6Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master this: 'Yahweh declares thus: Do not fear the words you have heard, with which the servants of Assyria's king have blasphemed me.'"

7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a report and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that he had left Lachish.

9When he heard what was said about Tirhakah, king of Cush—"Behold, he has come out to fight against you"—he turned back and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10Thus you shall say to Hezekiah, king 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 Assyria.

11See, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, completely destroying them. Will you be delivered?

12Did the gods of the nations that my fathers destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar—deliver them at all?

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

14Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it before Yahweh.

15Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, "Yahweh, God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you made the heavens and the earth."

16Yahweh, bend your ear and hear, open your eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib that he sent to revile the living God.

17Indeed, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have desolated the nations and their lands.

18And they put their gods into the fire, for those were no gods, but the work of human hands—wood and stone—so they destroyed them.

19Now, Yahweh our God, please rescue us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know you alone, Yahweh, are God.

20Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel: I have heard what you prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria."

21This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind you.

22Whom have you taunted and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel.

23Through your messengers you defied the Lord and said, With the abundance of my chariots I ascended to the summits of the mountains, to the farthest reaches of Lebanon; I will cut down its towering cedars and its prime firs, and I will reach its remotest lodging place, the forest of its fruitful field.

24I have dug and drunk foreign waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

25Have you not heard that long ago I made it and from ancient days formed it? Now I have brought it about that you ruin fortified cities into desolate heaps.

26Their inhabitants had little strength; they were terrified and ashamed, like grass in the countryside, fresh greenery, grass on the roofs, and scorched crops before they stand tall.

27I know your dwelling, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.

28Because you raged against me and your haughty uproar reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and turn you back by the way you came.

29This is the sign for you: this year eat what grows on its own, the second year what springs up from it, and the third year sow seed, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

30The remnant of the house of Judah that remains shall take root downward again and bear fruit upward.

31For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

32Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria: He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor advance against it with a shield, nor raise a ramp upon it.

33He will return by the way he came and will not come to this city, says Yahweh.

34I will defend this city to deliver it, for my sake and for David my servant's sake.

35It happened that night: the angel of Yahweh went out and struck a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and when they rose early in the morning, there they all lay, dead corpses.

36Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, came back, and settled in Nineveh.

37It happened as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.