2 Kings 19

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

11And when King Hezekiah heard it, he 2tore his clothes, 3covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. 2Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, 4covered with sackcloth, to 5Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. 46Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent 7to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for 8the remnant that is left.’” 5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the 9servants of the king of Assyria 10have blasphemed Me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that 11he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And 12I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Defies God

8Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against 13Libnah, for he had heard that 14the king had left 15Lachish. 9When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of 16Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, 10“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of 17Judah, ‘Do not 18let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, “19Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be 20spared? 1221Did the gods of 22those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even 23Gozan and 24Haran and Rezeph and 25the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 1326Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14Then 27Hezekiah took the 28letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and 29spread it out before the Lord. 15Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, 30who are 31enthroned above the cherubim, 32You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 1633Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; 34open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent 35to reproach the living God. 17Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18and have cast their gods into the fire, 36for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand 37that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O 38Lord, are God.”

God’s Answer through Isaiah

20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 39I have heard you.’ 21This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him: ‘She has despised you and mocked you, 40The virgin daughter of Zion; She 41has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!22Whom have you 42reproached and 43blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, And 44haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the 45Holy One of Israel!2346Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, “With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I 47cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I 48entered its farthest lodging place, its 49thickest forest.24I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I 5051dried up All the rivers of 52Egypt.”

25‘53Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. 54Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.26Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were 55as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.27But 56I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me.28Because of your raging against Me, And because your 57arrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I 58will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And 59I will turn you back by the way which you came.

29‘Then this shall be 60the sign for you: 61you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 3062The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and 63out of Mount Zion 64survivors. 65The zeal of 66the Lord will perform this.

32‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “67He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. 3368By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. 34‘69For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and 70for My servant David’s sake.’”

3571Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when 72men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were 73dead. 36So 74Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at 75Nineveh. 37It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that 7677Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into 78the land of Ararat. And 79Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.