Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 It happened, when king Hizkiyahu heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
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When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God.
2 He sent Elyakim, who was over the household, and Shevna the Sofer, and the Zakenim of the Kohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha`yahu the prophet the son of Amotz.
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He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of them also dressed in penitential burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, Thus says Hizkiyahu, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.
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They said to him, "Hezekiah says, 'This is a black day. We're in crisis. We're like pregnant women without even the strength to have a baby!
4 It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Ravshakeh, whom the king of Ashshur his master has sent to defy 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.
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Do you think your God heard what the Rabshekah said, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living God? And do you think your God will do anything about it? Pray for us, Isaiah. Pray for those of us left here holding the fort!'"
5 So the servants of king Hizkiyahu came to Yesha`yahu.
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Then King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah.
6 Yesha`yahu said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says the LORD, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Ashshur have blasphemed me.
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Isaiah said, "Tell your master this: 'God's Message: Don't be upset by what you've heard, all those words the servants of the Assyrian king have used to mock me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
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I personally will take care of him. I'll arrange it so that he'll get a rumor of bad news back home and rush home to take care of it. And he'll die there. Killed - a violent death.'"
8 So Ravshakeh returned, and found the king of Ashshur warring against Livna; for he had heard that he was departed from Lakhish.
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The Rabshekah left and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. (He had gotten word that the king had left Lachish.)
9 He heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Kush, He is come out to fight against you. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, saying,
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Just then the Assyrian king received an intelligence report on King Tirhakah of Ethiopia: "He is on his way to make war on you."
10 Thus shall you speak to Hizkiyahu king of Yehudah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Yerushalayim shall not be given into the hand of the king of Ashshur.
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"Don't let your God, on whom you so naively lean, deceive you, promising that Jerusalem won't fall to the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Ashshur have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
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Use your head! Look around at what the kings of Assyria have done all over the world - one country after another devastated! And do you think you're going to get off?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Retzef, and the children of `Eden who were in Telassar?
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Have any of the gods of any of these countries ever stepped in and saved them, even one of these nations my predecessors destroyed - Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who lived in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamat, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sefarvayim, of Hena, and `Ivvah?
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Look around. Do you see anything left of the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, the king of Ivvah?"
14 Hizkiyahu received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hizkiyahu went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
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Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messengers and read it. Then he went into the sanctuary of God and spread the letter out before God.
15 Hizkiyahu prayed to the LORD, saying,
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Then Hezekiah prayed to God:
16 LORD of hosts, the God of Yisra'el, who sits [above] the Keruvim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the eretz; you have made heaven and eretz.
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"God-of-the-Angel-Armies, enthroned over the cherubim-angels, you are God, the only God there is, God of all kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.
17 Turn your ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and behold; and hear all the words of Sancheriv, who has sent to defy the living God.
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Listen, O God, and hear. Look, O God, and see. Mark all these words of Sennacherib that he sent to mock the living God.
18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Ashshur have laid waste all the countries, and their land,
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It's quite true, O God, that the kings of Assyria have devastated 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 have destroyed them.
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They've thrown their gods into the trash and burned them - no great achievement since they were no-gods anyway, gods made in workshops, carved from wood and chiseled from rock. An end to the no-gods!
20 Now therefore, LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the eretz may know that you are the LORD, even you only.
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But now step in, O God, our God. Save us from him. Let all the kingdoms of earth know that you and you alone are God."
21 Then Yesha`yahu the son of Amotz sent to Hizkiyahu, saying, Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashshur,
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Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this word to Hezekiah: "God's Message, the God of Israel: Because you brought King Sennacherib of Assyria to me in prayer,
22 this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Tziyon has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Yerushalayim has shaken her head at you.
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here is my answer, God's answer: "'She has no use for you, Sennacherib, nothing but contempt, this virgin daughter Zion. She spits at you and turns on her heel, this daughter Jerusalem.
23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Yisra'el.
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"'Who do you think you've been mocking and reviling all these years? Who do you think you've been jeering and treating with such utter contempt All these years? The Holy of Israel!
24 By your servants have you defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Levanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it; and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field;
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You've used your servants to mock the Master. You've bragged, "With my fleet of chariots I've gone to the highest mountain ranges, penetrated the far reaches of Lebanon, Chopped down its giant cedars, its finest cypresses. I conquered its highest peak, explored its deepest forest.
25 I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Mitzrayim.
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I dug wells and drank my fill. I emptied the famous rivers of Egypt with one kick of my foot.
26 Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be your to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
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"'Haven't you gotten the news that I've been behind this all along? This is a longstanding plan of mine and I'm just now making it happen, using you to devastate strong cities, turning them into piles of rubble
27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as a field [of grain] before it is grown up.
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and leaving their citizens helpless, bewildered, and confused, drooping like unwatered plants, stunted like withered seedlings.
28 But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.
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"'I know all about your pretentious poses, your officious comings and goings, and, yes, the tantrums you throw against me.
29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
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Because of all your wild raging against me, your unbridled arrogance that I keep hearing of, I'll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. I'll show you who's boss. I'll turn you around and take you back to where you came from.
30 This shall be the sign to you: you shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.
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"'And this, Hezekiah, will be your confirming sign: This year's crops will be slim pickings, and next year it won't be much better. But in three years, farming will be back to normal, with regular sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting.
31 The remnant that is escaped of the house of Yehudah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
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What's left of the people of Judah will put down roots and make a new start.
32 For out of Yerushalayim shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Tziyon those who shall escape. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will perform this.
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The people left in Jerusalem will get moving again. Mount Zion survivors will take hold again. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this.'
33 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Ashshur, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
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"Finally, this is God's verdict on the king of Assyria: "'Don't worry, he won't enter this city, won't let loose a single arrow, Won't brandish so much as one shield, let alone build a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city, says the LORD.
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He'll go back the same way he came. He won't set a foot in this city. God's Decree.
35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
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I've got my hand on this city to save it, Save it for my very own sake, but also for the sake of my David dynasty.'"
36 The angel of the LORD went forth, and struck in the camp of the Ashshur one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
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Then the Angel of God arrived and struck the Assyrian camp - 185,000 Assyrians died. By the time the sun came up, they were all dead - an army of corpses!
37 So Sancheriv king of Ashshur departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.
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Sennacherib, king of Assyria, got out of there fast, back home to Nineveh.
38 It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisrokh his god, that Adrammelekh and Sar'etzer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar-Haddon his son reigned in his place.
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As he was worshiping in the sanctuary of his god Nisroch, he was murdered by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. They escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esar-haddon became the next king.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.