Hezekiah Consults Isaiah
1 And this happened: When King Hezekiah heard, he tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the temple of Yahweh.
2
And he sent Eliakim, who [was] {in charge of} the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests {covered} with sackcloth to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.
3
And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day [is] a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to [the] cervical opening, and there is no strength to give birth.
4
Maybe Yahweh your God heard [the] words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt [the] living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.'"
5
When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
6
Isaiah said to them, "You must say this to your master: 'Thus says Yahweh: "You must not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, [with] which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7
Look! I [am] about to {put} a spirit in him {so that} he shall hear a rumor and he shall return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land." '"
8
And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had left from Lachish.
9
Now he heard concerning Tirhakah the king of Cush, saying, "He has set out to fight against you." When
he heard [it], he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10
"You shall say this to Hezekiah, king of Judah: '[Do] not let your God in whom you trust in him deceive you by saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
11
Look! you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands to destroy them, and you--shall you be delivered?
12
Did the gods of the nations that my {predecessors} destroyed deliver them--Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who [were] in Telassar?
13
Where [is] the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?'"
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it. Then he went up [to] the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before the {presence} of Yahweh.
15
And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
16
"Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel {who is enthroned on} the cherubim, you [are] the one, God by yourself, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you are the one who made the heavens and the earth.
17
Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God!
18
Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands and their land,
19
to {set} their gods in the fire, for they [were] not gods, but [the] work of human hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them.
20
So now, Yahweh, our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you [are] Yahweh, you alone!"
God’s Answer
21 And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: 'Because you have prayed to me {concerning} Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
22
this [is] the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She shows contempt for you; she derides you, virgin daughter of Zion; she shakes [her] head behind you, daughter of Jerusalem.
23
Whom have you taunted and blasphemed, and against whom have you raised up [your] voice and lifted your eyes upward? To the holy one of Israel!
24
By the hand of your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said, "With my many chariots, I myself have gone up [the] height of [the] mountains, [to] the remote areas of Lebanon. And I cut off {its tall cedars}, the choicest of its junipers. And I came [to] the height of its limit, the forest of its orchard.
25
I myself dug and drank waters, and I caused all the streams of Egypt to dry up by the sole of my feet."
26
Have you not heard from {a long time ago}? I have made it from days of primeval time, and I formed it. Now I have brought it [about], and it is for fortified cities to collapse into heaps of destroyed stones.
27
And their inhabitants [are] {weak}; they are dismayed, and they are ashamed; they have become [like] plants of [the] field, and [like] greens of grass, [like] grass on [the] roofs and a cultivated field {before} the standing grain.
28
And I know your sitting down and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging {against} me.
29
Because you were enraged {against} me, and your noise has come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips, and I will turn you back on the way [by] which you came.
30
And this [shall be] the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants this year, and in the second year self-seeded plants, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31
And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall {grow} roots downwards and make fruit upwards.
32
For a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem and survivors from mountain Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.'
33
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria: 'He shall not come to this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there, and he shall not meet it [with] a shield, and he shall not heap a siege ramp up against her.
34
He shall return by the way that he came, and he shall not come to this city,' {declares}
Yahweh.
35
'And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.'"
Sennacherib’s Defeat
36 And the angel of Yahweh set out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When they rose in the morning, look! All of them [were] dead corpses.
37
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria left, went, and returned and lived at Nineveh.
38
And this happened: he [was] bowing in worship [in] the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword. And they themselves escaped [to] the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son reigned as king in his place.