II Kings 19

1. Then it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth. And he went into the house of the LORD.

2. And he sent Eliakim who 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.

3. And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This is a day of trouble and of rebuke and contempt, for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

4. It may be the LORD your God will hear all the words of the chief field commander with which his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. And you shall lift up prayer for the rest who are left.’ ”

5. And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6. And Isaiah said to them, “You shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

7. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and shall return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

8. And the chief field commander returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

9. And 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. “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Do not let your God in Whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

11. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by completely destroying them. And shall you be delivered?

12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them, nations which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden in Telassar?

13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivah?’ ”

14. And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.

15. And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, “O LORD God of Israel, Who dwells between the cherubim, You are God Himself, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made the heavens and the earth.

16. LORD, bow down Your ear and hear. O LORD, open Your eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God.

17. Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,

18. And have thrown their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, and they have destroyed them.

19. And now, O, LORD our God, I beseech You, save us out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, and You only.”

20. And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I have heard what you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria.’

21. This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you and laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

22. Whom have you mocked and blasphemed? And against Whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel!

23. You have mocked the LORD by your messengers, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down its tall cedar trees, its choice fir trees. And I will enter into the lodgings of its borders, its densest forest;

24. I have dug and drunk foreign waters, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.”

25. Have you not heard it from afar, that I made it? From days of old, that I fashioned it! Now I have caused it to come to pass that you should make fortified cities desolate heaps of ruins.

26. Therefore their people had little power, they were fearful and put to shame. They were like the grass of the field, and the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it was grown up.

27. But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against Me.

28. Because of your rage against Me, and because your arrogance has come up into My ears, even I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips. And I will turn you back by the way in which you came.

29. And this shall be a sign to you: you shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs up of the same. And in the third year, sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruits of them.

30. And the remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward,

31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they who escape out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall do this.’

32. Therefore thus says 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 throw up a bank against it.

33. By the way that he came, by the same way he shall return, and shall not come into this city,’ says the LORD,

34. ‘For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

35. And it came to pass that night, the angel of the LORD went out and struck a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. Now when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies.

36. And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed. And he went and returned and lived at Nineveh.

37. And it came to pass as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.