2 Kings 19

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah

1And it happened when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and contempt, for children have come to the opening of the womb, but there is no strength to give birth. 4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his lord the king of Assyria sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is found.”

Isaiah Promises Deliverance

5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6Isaiah said to them, “Thus you will say to your lord: Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Look, I am putting a spirit in him, and he will hear a report and return to his land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”

Sennacherib Sends Another Threat

8The Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9He heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Look, he has gone out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus you will say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 11Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. And will you be rescued? 12Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors destroyed rescue them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?”

Hezekiah Spreads the Letter before the LORD

14Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. 15Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD, God of Israel, who sits above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 16Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, O LORD, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God. 17Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18and have put their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of human hands, wood and stone, and so they destroyed them. 19And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

Isaiah Sends the LORD’s Answer

20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: What you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:

Virgin daughter Zion
despises you
and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head behind you. 22Whom have you taunted
and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel! 23By the hand of your messengers
you have taunted the Lord
and said:

‘With the multitude of my chariots
I have gone up
to the height of the mountains,
to the farthest parts of Lebanon.
I cut down its tall cedars,
the choice of its cypresses.
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its thickest forest. 24I dug wells
and drank foreign waters;
with the sole of my feet
I dried up
all the streams of Egypt.’

Assyria Is Only an Instrument

25Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
from days of old
I formed it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
collapse into heaps of ruins. 26Their inhabitants, weak-handed,
were shattered and put to shame.
They became like vegetation of the field,
like green grass,
grass on housetops
scorched before it grows. 27Yet I know your sitting down,
your going out,
your coming in,
and your raging against me. 28Because your raging against me
and your arrogance
have come up into my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your lips,
and I will turn you back
by the way you came.

A Sign for Hezekiah

29“And this will be the sign for you:

This year eat what grows of itself,
and in the second year
what springs from that.
But in the third year
sow and reap,
plant vineyards
and eat their fruit. 30The escaped remnant
of the house of Judah
will again take root downward
and bear fruit upward. 31For from Jerusalem
a remnant will go out,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts
will do this.

Sennacherib Will Not Enter Jerusalem

32“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:

He will not enter this city,
nor shoot an arrow there,
nor come before it with shield,
nor cast up a siege mound against it. 33By the way that he came,
by it he will return,
and into this city
he will not enter,
says the LORD. 34I will defend this city
to save it,
for my own sake
and for the sake of David my servant.”

The Assyrian Army Is Struck

35And it happened that night that the messenger of the LORD went out and struck in the camp of Assyria one hundred eighty-five thousand. When people arose early in the morning, look, all of them were dead bodies. 36Then Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went and returned and lived at Nineveh. 37And it happened as he was bowing down in the house of Nisroch his god that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Esar-Haddon his son became king in his place.