And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heardit, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of theLORD.
And he sent Eliakim, whichwasover the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This dayisa day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, andthere isnot strength to bring forth.
It may be theLORDthy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which theLORDthy God hath heard: wherefore lift upthyprayer for the remnant that are left.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith theLORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed;asGozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden whichwerein Thelasar?
Whereisthe king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of theLORD, and spread it before theLORD.
And Hezekiah prayed before theLORD, and said, OLORDGod of Israel, which dwellestbetweenthe cherubims, thou art the God,eventhou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open,LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
Of a truth,LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
And have cast their gods into the fire: for theywereno gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
Now therefore, OLORDour God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thouarttheLORDGod,eventhou only.
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith theLORDGod of Israel,Thatwhich thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
Thisisthe word that theLORDhath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee,andlaughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exaltedthyvoice, and lifted up thine eyes on high?evenagainst the HolyOneof Israel.
By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof,andthe choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders,and intothe forest of his Carmel.
I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
Hast thou not heard long agohowI have done it,andof ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced citiesintoruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they wereasthe grass of the field, andasthe green herb,asthe grass on the housetops, andas cornblasted before it be grown up.
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
And thisshall bea sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of theLORDof hostsshall do this.
Therefore thus saith theLORDconcerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith theLORD.
For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of theLORDwent out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, theywereall dead corpses.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.