Old Testament · History

2 Kings chapter 19

When King heard this, he , put on rough , and went into .He sent the palace administrator, the court secretary, and the senior priests—all wearing sackcloth—to the prophet son of Amoz.They told Isaiah, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of , , and . It’s like when a baby is ready to be born but there’s no strength left to deliver it.”“Maybe Yahweh your God will hear everything the said—how the king of Assyria sent him to the —and will respond to the words Yahweh your God has heard. So lift up a prayer for the that’s still here.”When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,Isaiah told them, “Tell your master this: ‘Yahweh says: Don’t be afraid of the words you heard—the way the king of Assyria’s servants .’”“Watch this—I’m going to so that when he hears a certain , he’ll head back to his own country. And I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”The Rabshakeh withdrew and found the king of Assyria fighting against , because he had heard that the king had moved on from .Then received a report about king of : “He’s marching out to fight you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying:“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: Don’t let your God—the one you’re relying on—fool you into thinking Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the king of Assyria.”“Look, you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to every other land—. And you think you’re going to be rescued?”“Did the gods of those nations rescue them—the ones my ancestors destroyed? What about , Haran, Rezeph, and the people of in Tel-Assar?”“Where is the king of , or the king of Arpad, or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to Yahweh’s house and .And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh: “Yahweh, God of Israel—you who sit — over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.”“, Yahweh, and hear. , Yahweh, and see. Listen to the message Sennacherib sent to mock the living God.”“It’s true, Yahweh—the kings of Assyria have to the nations and their lands.”“They’ve thrown their gods into the fire—because they weren’t really gods at all, just out of wood and stone. That’s why they could destroy them.”“So now, Yahweh our God, us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you, Yahweh, are God—.”Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what Yahweh, God of Israel, says: about Sennacherib king of Assyria.”This is the word Yahweh has spoken against him: “She despises you. She laughs at you— the . She behind your back— the daughter of Jerusalem.”“Who have you mocked and spoken trash against? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes so high? Against !”“Through your messengers you mocked the Lord, and you said: ‘With my many chariots I have climbed the highest mountains, the farthest reaches of . I have cut down its tallest , its finest cypress trees. I have reached its remotest heights, its densest forests.’”“‘I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the sole of my foot I have .’”“Haven’t you heard? . In ancient days I shaped it. Now I have brought it to pass— that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.”“Their inhabitants, drained of strength, were shattered and put to shame. They became like plants in a field, like tender green shoots, like — scorched before it can even grow.”“But I know where you sit, when you come and when you go, and how you .”“Because your rage against me and your arrogance have reached my ears, I will put my and my , and I will turn you back the way you came.”“And this will be the for you, Hezekiah: This year you’ll eat . Next year, the same. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.”“The surviving of the house of Judah will once again .”“For out of Jerusalem a remnant will emerge, and from Mount Zion, survivors. The of will make this happen.”“So this is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city. He will not shoot a single arrow here. He will not advance against it with shields. He will not build a against it.”“He will go back the way he came. He will not enter this city,” declares Yahweh.“I will defend this city and rescue it— and for the sake of .”That very night, the went out and struck down men in the Assyrian camp. When the survivors got up the next morning—there they were, all those dead bodies.So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He went back to and stayed there.One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god , his own sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword. They escaped to the land of , and his son became king in his place.