Top of Page
Page Style
King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, and of rebuke, and of disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore offer up your prayer for the remnant that is left’.”
5 When the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me with. 7 Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a rumour, he will return to his own land. Then I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land’.”
8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found that the king was fighting against Libnah.
9 Now Sennacherib heard a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush, “He has set out to attack you and fight against you.” So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Tell this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you when He says, “Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria”. 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have completely destroyed them. How then will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my forefathers destroyed deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena, or Ivah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the House of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
16 “O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned between the cherubim, You and You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, and see; hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
18 “It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, 19 and have hurled all their gods into the fire. Yet they were not gods, but only the work of men’s hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 20 Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord, and You alone.”
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
‘The virgin, Daughter Zion
despises you and laughs you to scorn;
the Daughter of Jerusalem
shakes her head behind your back.
23 ‘Who is it that you have mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
and lifted up your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, “With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the farthest recesses of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tall cedars,
and its choice cypress trees.
I reached to its remotest heights,
and to its finest forests.
25 I have dug wells
and drank water.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt”.
26 ‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I designed it.
From ancient times I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you should lay waste fortified cities
and turn them into piles of rubble.
27 Their inhabitants are drained of strength;
they are dismayed and confounded.
They have become like the plants of the field,
like tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the housetops,
blasted by the wind before it grows up.
28 ‘But I know your sitting down,
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.
29 Because you rage against Me,
and your insolence has reached up to My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose,
and My bridle in your mouth,
and I will turn you back
on the way by which you came.
30 ‘This will be a sign for you, O Hezekiah:
‘This year you will eat what grows of itself,
and in the second year what springs from that.
Then in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 The remnant that survives from the house of Judah
will again take root downward,
and bear fruit upward.
32 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth,
and survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
will accomplish this’.
33 ‘Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He will not come into this city,
or shoot an arrow there,
or come before it with a shield,
or throw up a siege ramp against it.
34 By the way that he came,
by the same way he will return,
and he will not come into this city’,
says the Lord.
35 For I will defend this city and rescue it,
for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David’.”
36 Then the angel of the Lord went out, and struck down in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, they were all dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned to Ninevah and stayed there.
38 One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adremmelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.