2 Kings 19

And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the ^aLORD. ² And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³ And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. ^{4 b}It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, ^cwhom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will ^dreprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore ^elift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. ⁵ So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

^{6 g}And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, ^fBe not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. ⁷ Behold, I will send ^ha blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸ So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed ⁱfrom Lachish. ⁹ And ^jwhen he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God ^kin whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, ^land Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of ^mEden which were in Thelasar? ^{13 n}Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and ^oIvah?

^{14 p}And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, ^rwhich dwellest between the cherubims, ^qthou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ LORD, ^sbow down thine ear, and hear: ^topen, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. ¹⁷ Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the ^uwork of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, ^vthat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria ^wI have heard. ²¹ This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin ^ythe daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem ^xhath shaken her head at thee. ²² Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against ^zthe Holy One of Israel. ²³ By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, ^aWith the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel. ²⁴ I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. ²⁵ Hast thou not heard long ago how ^cI have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that ^bthou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. ²⁶ 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 ^dthe grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

²⁷ But ^eI know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. ²⁸ Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore ^fI will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. ²⁹ And this shall be ^ga sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. ³⁰ And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. ³¹ For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: ^hthe zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. ³² Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. ³³ By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. ³⁴ For ⁱI will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and ^jfor my servant David's sake.

³⁵ And ^kit came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. ³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at ^lNineveh. ³⁷ And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And ^mEsarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

2 Kings 20