[1] And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put on
haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord. [2] And he sent Eliakim,
who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests,
dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. [3] And they
said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and
shame; for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no
strength to give birth to them. [4] It may be that the Lord your God will
give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his
master, sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his
words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of the people.
[5] So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. [6] And Isaiah said to
them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not
troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said
against me in your hearing. [7] See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad
news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I
will have him put to death by the sword. [8] So the Rab-shakeh went back,
and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah,
for it had come to his ears that he had gone away from Lachish. [9] And
when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack
on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah again, saying, [10] This is
what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom
is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given
into the hands of the king of Assyria. [11] No doubt the story has come to
your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them
to the curse; and will you be kept safe? [12] Did the gods of the nations
keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and
Rezeph and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? [13] Where is the
king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of
Sepharvaim, of Hena and of Ivvah? [14] And Hezekiah took the letter from
the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah
went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord.
[15] And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, the God of
Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the
kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. [16] Let your ear be
turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see; take note
of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the
living God. [17] Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the
nations and their lands, [18] And have given their gods to the fire; for
they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they
have given them to destruction. [19] But now, O Lord our God, give us
salvation from his hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of
the earth that you and only you, O Lord, are God. [20] Then Isaiah, the son
of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The
prayer which you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has
come to my ears. [21] This is the word which the Lord has said about him:
In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at;
the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you. [22] Against whom have you
said evil and bitter things? against whom has your voice been loud and your
eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel. [23] You have sent
your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my
war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost
parts of Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of
its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.
[24] I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I
have made all the rivers of Egypt dry. [25] Has it not come to your ears
how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given
effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into
masses of broken walls. [26] This is why their townsmen had no power, they
were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the
green plant, like grass on the house-tops. [27] But I have knowledge of
your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in.
[28] Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have come up to
my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I
will make you go back by the way you came. [29] And this will be the sign
to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself; and
in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you
will put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and take
of their fruit. [30] And those of Judah who are still living will again
take root in the earth and give fruit. [31] For from Jerusalem those who
have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out
of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be
done. [32] For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will
not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come
before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it; [33] By the way he
came he will go back, and he will not get into this town, says the Lord.
[34] For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of
my servant David. [35] And that night the angel of the Lord went out and
put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five
thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning, there was
nothing to be seen but dead bodies. [36] So Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
went back to his place at Nineveh. [37] And it came about, when he was
worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and
Sharezer put him to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the
land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place.
