The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Kings 19
1 When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore
his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.
2 He sent Eliakim, who was over the
household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of
rejection;for the childrenhave come to the
point of birth, and there is no strength to
deliver them.
4 It may be Yahweh your God will hear all
the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of
Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which
Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore
lift up your prayer for the remnant that is
left.’ ”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came
to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master
this: ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the
words that you have heard, with which
the servants of the king of Assyria have
blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he
will hear news, and will return to his own
land. I will cause him to fall by the sword
in his own land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned and found the
king of Assyria warring against Libnah;
for he had heard that he had departed
from Lachish.
9 When he heard it said of Tirhakah
king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out
to fight against you,” he sent messengers
again to Hezekiah, saying,
10 “Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this:
‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be
given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, youhaveheard whatthe kings
of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered
them, which my fathers have destroyed—
Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of
Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king
of Arpad, and the king ofthe city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the
hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and
spread it before Yahweh.
15 Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and
said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, who are
enthroned above the cherubim, you are
the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven
and earth.
16 Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear.
Openyour eyes, Yahweh, and see. Hear the
words of Sennacherib, which he has sent
to defy the living God.
17 Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria
have laid waste the nations and their
lands,
18 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.
19 Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save
us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know that you,
Yahweh, are God alone.”
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to
Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against
Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have
heard you.
21 This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter
of Zionhasdespisedyouandridiculedyou.
The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her
head at you.
22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted
your voice and lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers, you have defied
the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the
height of the mountains, to the innermost
parts of Lebanon, and I will cut down its
tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and
I will enter into his farthest lodging place,
the forest of his fruitful field.
24 I have dug and drunk strange waters,
and I will dry up allthe rivers of Egypt with
the sole of my feet.”
25 Haven’t you heard how I have done it
long ago, and formed it of ancient times?
Now Ihave broughtitto pass,thatit should
be yours to lay waste fortified cities into
ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants had little
power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the
field and like the green herb, like the grass
on the housetops and like grain blasted
before it has grown up.
27 But I know your sitting down, your
going out, your coming in, and your raging
against me.
28 Because of your raging against me,
and because your arrogance has come up
into my ears, therefore I will 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.’
29 “This will be the sign to you: This year,
you will eat that which grows of itself, and
in the second year that which springs from
that; and in the third year sow and reap,
and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 The remnant that has escaped of the
house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go
out, and out of Mount Zion those who shall
escape. Yahweh’s zeal will perform this.
32 “Therefore Yahweh says concerning
the king of Assyria, ‘He willnot come to this
city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not
come before it with shield, nor cast up a
mound against it.
33 He will return the same way that he
came, and he will not come to this city,’
says Yahweh.
34 ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for
my own sake and for my servant David’s
sake.’ ”
35 That night, Yahweh’s angel went out
and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When
men arose early in the morning, behold,
these were all dead bodies.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went home, and lived at Nineveh.
37 As he was worshiping in the house
of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and
Sharezer struck him with the sword; and
they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar
Haddon his son reigned in his place.