2 Kings 19:20-34

God's Answer through Isaiah

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent [a message] to Hezekiah: "The Lord, the God of Israel says: 'I have heard your prayer to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.'
21 This is the word the Lord has spoken against him: The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and scorns you: Daughter Jerusalem shakes [her] head behind your back.[a]
22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised [your] voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel![b]
23 You have mocked the Lord [c] through[d] your messengers. You have said: With my many chariots I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypress trees. I came to its farthest outpost, its densest forest.
24 I dug [wells], and I drank foreign waters. I dried up all the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet.
25 Have you not heard?[e] I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by. I have now brought it to pass, and you have crushed fortified cities into piles of rubble.
26 Their inhabitants have become powerless, dismayed, and ashamed. They are plants of the field, tender grass, grass on the rooftops,[f] blasted by the east wind.[g]
27 But I know your sitting down,[h][i] your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me.
28 Because your raging against Me and your arrogance have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose[j] and My bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came.
29 This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 The surviving remnant of the house of Israel will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
31 For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
32 Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or build up an assault ramp against it.
33 He will go back on the road that he came and he will not enter this city, declares the Lord.
34 I will defend this city and rescue it for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.[k]

2 Kings 19:20-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 19

This chapter relates that King Hezekiah, on a report made to him of Rabshakeh's speech, sent a message to the prophet Isaiah to pray for him, who returned him a comfortable and encouraging answer, 2Ki 19:1-7 and that upon Rabshakeh's return to the king of Assyria, he sent to Hezekiah a terrifying letter, 2Ki 19:8-13, which Hezekiah spread before the Lord, and prayed unto him to save him and his people out of the hands of the king of Assyria, 2Ki 19:14-19, to which he had a gracious answer sent him by the prophet Isaiah, promising him deliverance from the Assyrian army, 2Ki 19:20-34, which accordingly was destroyed by an angel in one night, and Sennacherib fleeing to Nineveh, was slain by his two sons, 2Ki 19:35-37.

Footnotes 11

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