Berean Standard Bible

2 Kings 19:8-37

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

9Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush:1 “Look, he has set out to fight against you.”

So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah:

‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction.2 Will you then be spared? 12Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? 13Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

14So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD:

“O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between 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. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

17Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

19And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him:

‘The Virgin Daughter of Ziondespises you and mocks you;the Daughter of Jerusalemshakes her head behind you.22Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?Against whom have you raised your voiceand lifted your eyes in pride?Against the Holy One of Israel!23Through your servants you have taunted the Lord,and you have said:

“With my many chariotsI have ascendedto the heights of the mountains,to the remote peaks of Lebanon.I have cut down its tallest cedars,the finest of its cypresses.3I have reached its farthest outposts,the densest of its forests.24I have dug wellsand drunk foreign waters.With the soles of my feetI have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

25Have you not heard?Long ago I ordained it;in days of old I planned it.Now I have brought it to pass,that you should crush fortified citiesinto piles of rubble.26Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power,are dismayed and ashamed.They are like plants in the field,tender green shoots,grass on the rooftops,scorched before it is grown.

27But I know your sitting down,your going out and coming in,and your raging against Me.28Because your rage and arrogance against Mehave reached My ears,I will put My hook in your noseand My bit in your mouth;I will send you backthe way you came.’

29And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah:

This year you will eatwhat grows on its own,and in the second yearwhat springs from the same.But in the third year you will sow and reap;you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.30And the surviving remnant of the house of Judahwill again take root belowand bear fruit above.31For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem,and survivors from Mount Zion.The zeal of the LORD of Hosts4will accomplish this.

32So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria:

‘He will not enter this cityor shoot an arrow into it.He will not come before it with a shieldor build up a siege ramp against it.33He will go back the way he came,and he will not enter this city,declares the LORD.34I will defend this cityand save itfor My own sakeand for the sake of My servant David.’”

35And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies! 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

37One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer5 put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

Read all of 2 Kings 19

Notes

1. 2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region ↩
2. 2 Kings 19:11 Forms of the Hebrew cherem refer to the giving over of things or persons to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering. ↩
3. 2 Kings 19:23 Or pines or junipers or firs ↩
4. 2 Kings 19:31 LXX, many Hebrew manuscripts, and an alternate MT reading; the other alternate reads The zeal of the LORD. ↩
5. 2 Kings 19:37 LXX and an alternate MT reading (see also Isaiah 37:38); MT lacks his sons. ↩

Notes

Commentaries on 2 Kings 19