2 Kings 19 (New American Standard)

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

1 ¹And when King Hezekiah heard it, he ²tore his clothes, ³covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD. 2 Then 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. 3 They 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. 4 '⁶Perhaps 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.' " 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah 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. 7 "Behold, 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

8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ¹³Libnah, for he had heard that ^athe king had left ¹⁴Lachish. 9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^bCush, "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 ^cJudah, 'Do not ¹⁵let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, "¹⁶Jerusalem 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 the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be ^dspared ? 12 '¹⁷Did the gods of ^ethose nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even ¹⁸Gozan and ¹⁹Haran and Rezeph and ²⁰the sons of Eden who were in Telassar ? 13 '²¹Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah ?' "

Hezekiah's Prayer

14 Then ²²Hezekiah took the ^fletter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and ^gspread it out before the LORD. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, ²³who are ^henthroned above the cherubim, ²⁴You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 "²⁵Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear ; ²⁶open Your eyes, O LORD, and see ; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ²⁷to reproach the living God. 17 "Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, ²⁸for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 "Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand ²⁹that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ³⁰LORD, are God."

God's Answer through Isaiah

20 Then 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, ³¹I have heard you.' 21 "This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: 'She has despised you and mocked you, ³²The virgin daughter of Zion ; She ³³has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem ! 22 'Whom have you ³⁴reproached and ³⁵blasphemed ? And against whom have you raised your voice, And ⁱhaughtily lifted up your eyes ? Against the ³⁶Holy One of Israel ! 23 '³⁷Through 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 ^jcut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I ^kentered its farthest lodging place, its ³⁸thickest forest. 24 "I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I ^l39dried up All the rivers of ^mEgypt." 25 '⁴⁰Have you not heard ? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. ⁴¹Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 26 'Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame ; They were ⁴²as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. 27 'But ⁴³I know your sitting down, And your going out and your coming in, And your raging against Me. 28 'Because of your raging against Me, And because your ⁿarrogance has come up to My ears, Therefore I ⁴⁴will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips, And ⁴⁵I will turn you back by the way which you came. 29 'Then this shall be ⁴⁶the sign for you: ^oyou 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. 30 '⁴⁷The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 'For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and ⁴⁸out of Mount Zion ^psurvivors. ⁴⁹The zeal of ^qthe LORD will perform this. 32 'Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, "⁵⁰He 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. 33 "⁵¹By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,"' declares the LORD. 34 '⁵²For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ⁵³for My servant David's sake.' " 35 ⁵⁴Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians ; and when ^rmen rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were ^sdead . 36 So ⁵⁵Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at ⁵⁶Nineveh. 37 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that ^t57Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword ; and they escaped into ⁵⁸the land of Ararat. And ⁵⁹Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.