[1] When King Hezeki'ah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself
with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. [2] And he sent
Eli'akim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the
senior priests, clothed with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of
Amoz. [3] They said to him, "Thus says Hezeki'ah, `This day is a day of
distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the birth, and
there is no strength to bring them forth. [4] It may be that the LORD your
God heard the words of the Rab'shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria
has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD
your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is
left.'" [5] When the servants of King Hezeki'ah came to Isaiah, [6] Isaiah
said to them, "Say to your master, `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 reviled me. [7] Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so
that he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will make him
fall by the sword in his own land.'" [8] The Rab'shakeh returned, and found
the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that the king
had left Lachish. [9] Now the king heard concerning Tirha'kah king of
Ethiopia, "He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it, he
sent messengers to Hezeki'ah, saying, [10] "Thus shall you speak to
Hezeki'ah king of Judah: `Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you
by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of
Assyria. [11] Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered? [12] Have
the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers
destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in
Tel-assar? [13] Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of
the city of Sepharva'im, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'" [14]
Hezeki'ah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it;
and Hezeki'ah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the
LORD. [15] And Hezeki'ah prayed to the LORD: [16] "O LORD of hosts, God of
Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the God, thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. [17]
Incline thy ear, O LORD, and hear; open thy eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear
all the words of Sennach'erib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
[18] Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the
nations and their lands, [19] and have cast their gods into the fire; for
they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore
they were destroyed. [20] So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand,
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou alone art the LORD."
[21] Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezeki'ah, saying, "Thus says the
LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning
Sennach'erib king of Assyria, [22] this is the word that the LORD has
spoken concerning him: `She despises you, she scorns you-- the virgin
daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.
[23] `Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your
voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! [24]
By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many
chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses
of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I came to
its remotest height, its densest forest. [25] I dug wells and drank waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt. [26]
`Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of
old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash
into heaps of ruins, [27] while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are
dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like
tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
[28] `I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your
raging against me. [29] Because you have raged against me and your
arrogance has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit
in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.' [30]
"And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself,
and in the second year what springs of the same; then in the third year sow
and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. [31] And the surviving
remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear
fruit upward; [32] for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out
of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
accomplish this. [33] "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of
Assyria: He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come
before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. [34] By the
way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into
this city, says the LORD. [35] For I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." [36] And the angel of
the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the
camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold,
these were all dead bodies. [37] Then Sennach'erib king of Assyria
departed, and went home and dwelt at Nin'eveh. [38] And as he was
worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adram'melech and Share'zer, his
sons, slew him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ar'arat. And
E'sar-had'don his son reigned in his stead.
