2 Kings 19
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 He sent Eliakim, the palace administrator, Shebna, the secretary, and the elders of the priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for the children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.
4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent to insult the living God, and will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. So offer a prayer for the remnant that still remains.’”
5 The servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The LORD says, «Do not be afraid of the words you heard, the words with which the servants of the king of Assyria insulted me.
7 I will put a spirit in him. He will hear a report and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.»’”
8 Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9 The king heard a report about Tirhakah, king of Cush: “He has come out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:
10 “Tell Hezekiah, king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying, «Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.»
11 You have surely heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. Will you be delivered?
12 Did the gods of the nations deliver those whom my fathers destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?’”
13 “‘Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivvah?’”
14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers’ hands and read them. Then he went up to the house of the LORD and spread them out before the LORD.
15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: “LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
16 Incline your ear, LORD, and hear; open your eyes, LORD, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he sent to insult the living God.
17 It is true, LORD: the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands.
18 They threw their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but human handiwork, wood and stone; so they destroyed them.
19 Now, LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God.”
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have heard your prayer to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria.’
21 This is the word the LORD has spoken about him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; behind you, the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head.
22 Whom have you insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 Through your messengers you have insulted the Lord and said, «With my many chariots I climbed to the heights of the mountains, to the farthest reaches of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its finest cypresses. I reached its most distant lodging, its richest forest.
24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters; with the soles of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt.»
25 Have you not heard? Long ago I made this happen; from ancient days I planned it. Now I have brought it about, so that you have reduced fortified cities to heaps of ruins.’”
26 “‘Their inhabitants, powerless, were dismayed and put to shame. They became like field grass, green plants, grass on rooftops, scorched before it could grow.
27 I know when you sit, when you go out and when you come in, and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips. I will make you return by the way you came.’
29 This will be the sign for you: this year, eat what grows on its own; in the second year, eat what springs from that. In the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 The remnant of the people of Judah who survive will again take root below and bear fruit above.
31 For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this.
32 Therefore the LORD says this about the king of Assyria: «He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with a shield or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way he came, he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the LORD.
34 I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.»’”
35 That night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up in the morning, there they were—all dead bodies.
36 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, set out, went away, and returned to Nineveh, where he stayed.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
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