2 Kings

19 And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard, that he rent his clothes,—and covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh;

2 and sent Eliakim who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,—unto Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz;

3 and they said unto him—Thus saith Hezekiah, A day of trouble, and rebuke, and reviling, is this day,—For children are come to the birth, and strength is there none to bring forth!

4 It may be that Yahweh thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord hath sent to reproach a Living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh thy God hath heard,—Wherefore lift thou up a prayer, for the remnant that remaineth.

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came unto Isaiah.

6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your lord,—Thus saith Yahweh—Be not thou afraid, because of the words which thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me:

7 Behold me! about to let go against him a blast, and when he heareth the report, then will he return to his own country,—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 had broken up from Lachish.

9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, saying, Lo! he hath come forth to fight with thee,—then he again sent messengers unto Hezekiah, saying—

10 Thus shall ye speak unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying—Let not thy God in whom thou art trusting beguile thee, saying,—Jerusalem shall not be given over, into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11 Lo! thou thyself hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands in devoting them to destruction,—and shalt thou be delivered?

12 Did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed, Gozan, and Haran,—and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 Where are the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim,—of Hena, and Ivvah?

14 And when Hezekiah had received the letter at the hand of the messengers, and had read it, then went he up to the house of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before Yahweh.

15 And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, O Yahweh, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubim, Thou thyself art GOD alone, for all the kingdoms of the earth,—Thou didst make the heavens and the earth.

16 Bow down, O Yahweh, thine ear, and hear, Open, O Yahweh, thine eyes, and see,—Yea hear thou the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent—To reproach a Living God!

17 Of a truth, O Yahweh,—the kings of Assyria have devoted to destruction the nations and their lands;

18 and have put their gods in the fire,—for no-gods were they, but the work of the hands of men—wood and stone, and so they destroyed them.

19 Now therefore, O Yahweh our God, save us, we pray thee, out of his hand, That all the kingdoms of the earth may know, That thou Yahweh art God alone!

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying,—Thus saith Yahweh, God of Israel, What thou hast prayed unto me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.

21 This is the word that Yahweh hath spoken concerning him,—The virgin daughter of Zion laugheth thee to scorn, mocketh thee, The daughter of Jerusalem after thee doth wag her head.

22 Whom hast thou reproached and insulted? And against whom hast thou lifted high thy voice? Yea thou hast proudly raised thine eyes against the Holy One of Israel.

23 Through thy messengers thou hast reproached My Lord, and hast said—With my multitude of chariots have I ascended The height of the mountains, The recesses of Lebanon,—And have cut down Its tallest cedars, Its choicest firs, And have entered The shelter of its summit, Its thick garden forests.

24 I have digged, and have drunk foreign waters,—And have dried up with the soles of my feet all the streams of besieged places.

25 Hast thou not heard—That long ago that is what I appointed, And from days of old devised it? Now have I brought it to pass, That thou mightest serve to lay waste in desolate ruins fortified cities;

26 And their inhabitants being powerless were overthrown and put to shame,—They became Grass of the field, and Young herbage, Grass on housetops, and Seed withered before it came up.

27 Howbeit, thine abode, and thy coming out and thy going in, I know,—and thy raging against me.

28 Because thy raging against me, and thy contempt have come up into mine ears, Therefore will I put My ring in thy nose, and My bit in thy lips, And will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

29 And this unto thee is the sign—Eating this year the growth of scattered seeds, And in the second year that which groweth after,—Then in the third year, Sow ye and reap, Plant ye vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof;

30 Then shall the escaped of the house of Judah that remain, again—Take root downward, And bear fruit upward;

31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And that which hath escaped—out of Mount Zion,—The jealousy of Yahweh of hosts will perform this.

32 Therefore—Thus saith Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not enter this city, Nor shoot there an arrow,—Nor attack it with shield, Nor cast up against it a mound;

33 By the way that he cometh in, By the same shall he return,—And into this city shall he not enter, Declareth Yahweh!

34 Thus will I throw a covering over this city to save it,—For mine own sake, And for the sake of David my servant.

35 And it came to pass during that night, that the messenger of Yahweh went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when men arose early in the morning, lo! they were all dead bodies!

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria brake up and went his way, and returned,—and remained in Nineveh.

37 And it came to pass, as he was bowing down in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer [his sons] smote him with the sword, howbeit they escaped into the land of Ararat,—and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.