2 Kings
Chapter 19
1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on rough cloth, and went to God’s house.
2 He sent Eliakim, the household manager, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests dressed in rough cloth to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son.
3 They told him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, criticism, and disrespect; the babies are ready to be born, but there is no strength to deliver them.’”
4 It might be that God will hear all of Rabshakeh’s words, which the king of Assyria’s master sent to insult the living God, and will correct what God has heard: so pray for the survivors who remain.
5 King Hezekiah’s servants went to Isaiah.
6 Isaiah told them, “Tell your master this: God says, ‘Do not be afraid of the words you’ve heard, which the king of Assyria’s servants have used to insult me.’”
7 I will send a disaster on him, and he will hear a rumor and go back to his land; there he will die by the sword.
8 So Rabshakeh went back and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah because he heard that the king had left Lachish.
9 When he heard that Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, was coming to fight him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with a message.
10 Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, “Don’t be fooled by your God you trust, who says ‘Jerusalem won’t be given to the Assyrian king.’”
11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands, completely destroying them: and will you be saved?
12 Did the gods of other nations save those places my ancestors destroyed, like Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Eden people in Thelasar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to God’s house and laid it out before God.
15 Hezekiah prayed to God and said, “O God of Israel, who sits among the cherubs, you are the one true God of all the earth’s kingdoms; you created the heavens and the earth.
16 God, lean down and listen; open your eyes, God, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent them to insult the living God.
17 Truly, God, the kings of Assyria have ruined other countries and their lands.
18 They threw their gods into the fire because they were not real gods, just objects made by human hands from wood and stone, so they destroyed them.
19 Now then, our God, I ask you, save us from his power, so all the kingdoms of the world will know that you are God, and only you.
20 Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah: “God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer about Sennacherib, king of Assyria.’”
21 This is what God has said about him; The young woman, the daughter of Zion, looks down on you and laughs at you; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.
22 Who have you insulted and spoken against? Against whom have you raised your voice and looked up with arrogance? It is against the Holy One of Israel.
23 Your messengers insulted God, saying, “With my many chariots, I’ve climbed to the mountain tops, to Lebanon’s edges, and I’ll chop down its tall cedars and best firs. I’ll go into its farthest stays and into its fruitful forest.”
24 I have dug and drunk from unfamiliar waters, and with my feet I have dried up all the rivers near attacked cities.
25 Didn’t you hear long ago what I did? Didn’t you learn how I planned it long ago? Now I have made it happen, and you have turned fortified cities into piles of rubble.
26 So the people living there were weak, they were scared and confused; they were like the grass in the field, and like small plants, like the grass on the rooftops, and like grain destroyed before it fully grows.
27 I know where you live, how you leave and return, and how angry you are with me.
28 Because you are angry with me and your noise has reached my ears, I will put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth, and I will make you go back the way you came.
29 This will be a sign for you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, next year you will eat what grows from that, and in the third year plant crops, harvest them, and plant vineyards to eat their fruit.
30 The survivors from Judah’s family will grow roots below and produce fruit above.
31 From Jerusalem, some will survive, and from Mount Zion, some will escape; God’s passionate commitment will make this happen.
32 So, God says about the king of Assyria: He won’t enter this city, shoot arrows here, approach it with shields, or build a siege ramp against it.
33 He will go back the same way he came and will not enter this city, says God.
34 I will protect this city and save it for myself and for my servant David.
35 That night, God’s angel went out and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. In the morning, they were all found dead.
36 So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, left, went back, and lived in Nineveh.
37 While he was praying in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they ran away to Armenia. After that, his son Esarhaddon became king.