2 Kings 19
1And
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 LORD.
2And 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.
3And 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.
4It
may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the
living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that
are left.
5So the servants of king Hezekiah
came to Isaiah.
6And Isaiah said unto them,
Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants
of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7Behold,
I will send a 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.
8So Rabshakeh returned,
and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to
fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive
thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by
destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
12Have
the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children
of Eden which were in Thelasar?
13Where is
the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
14And 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.
15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims,
thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
16LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
17Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18And 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.
19Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms
of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20Then 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 I have heard.
21This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised
thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
22Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With 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.
24I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried
up all the rivers of besieged places.
25Hast
thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that
thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26Therefore 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 house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27But I know thy abode, and thy going out,
and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28Because
thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I 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.
29And this shall be a 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.
30And the remnant that
is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount
Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32Therefore
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.
33By
the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant
David's sake.
35And it 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.
36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37And 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 Esarhaddon his
son reigned in his stead.