2 Kings 19-21

Young's Literal Translation

19 And it cometh to pass, at king Hezekiah's hearing, that he rendeth his garments, and covereth himself with sackcloth, and entereth the house of Jehovah,

² and sendeth Eliakim, who [is] over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz,

³ and they say unto him, `Thus said Hezekiah -- A day of distress, and rebuke, and despising [is] this day; for come have sons unto the birth, and power there is not to bring forth.

⁴ `It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear all the words of the chief of the butlers with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.'

⁵ And the servants of king Hezekiah come in unto Isaiah,

⁶ and Isaiah saith to them, `Thus do ye say unto your lord: Thus said Jehovah, Be not afraid because of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have reviled Me.

⁷ Lo, I am giving in him a spirit, and he hath heard a report, and hath turned back to his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.'

⁸ And the chief of the butlers turneth back and findeth the king of Asshur fighting against Libnah, for he hath heard that he hath journeyed from Lachish.

⁹ And he heareth concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, `Lo, he hath come out to fight with thee;' and he turneth and sendeth messengers unto Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰ `Thus do ye speak unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God lift thee up in whom thou art trusting, saying, Jerusalem is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur.

¹¹ Lo, thou hast heard that which the kings of Asshur have done to all the lands -- to devote them; and thou art 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 [are] in Thelassar?

¹³ Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'

¹⁴ And Hezekiah taketh the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and readeth them, and goeth up to the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spreadeth it before Jehovah.

¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayeth before Jehovah, and saith, `O Jehovah, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubs, Thou [art] God Himself -- Thyself alone -- to all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made the heavens and the earth.

¹⁶ Incline, O Jehovah, Thine ear, and hear; open, O Jehovah, Thine eyes, and see; and hear Thou the words of Sennacherib with which he hath sent him to reproach the living God.

¹⁷ `Truly, O Jehovah, kings of Asshur have laid waste the nations, and their land,

¹⁸ and have put their gods into fire, for they [are] no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone, and destroy them.

¹⁹ And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, we pray Thee, out of his hand, and know do all kingdoms of the earth that Thou [art] Jehovah God -- Thyself alone.'

²⁰ And Isaiah son of Amoz sendeth unto Hezekiah, saying, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed unto Me concerning Sennacherib king of Asshur I have heard:

²¹ this [is] the word that Jehovah spake concerning him: `Trampled on thee -- laughed at thee, Hath the virgin daughter of Zion Behind thee shaken the head -- Hath the daughter of Jerusalem?

²² Whom hast thou reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up a voice? Yea, thou dost lift up on high thine eyes -- Against the Holy One of Israel!

²³ By the hand of thy messengers Thou hast reproached the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains -- The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the lodging of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel.

²⁴ I have digged, and drunk strange waters, And I dry up with the sole of my steps All floods of a bulwark.

²⁵ Hast thou not heard from afar, it I made, From days of old that I formed it? Now I have brought it in, And it becometh a desolation, Ruinous heaps [are] fenced cities,

²⁶ And their inhabitants [are] feeble-handed, They were broken down, and are dried up, They have been the herb of the field, And the greenness of the tender grass, Grass of the roofs, And blasted corn -- before it hath risen up!

²⁷ And thy sitting down, and thy going out, And thy coming in, I have known, And thine anger towards Me;

²⁸ Because of thine anger towards Me, And thy noise -- it came up into Mine ears, I have put My hook in thy nose, And My bridle in thy lips, And have caused thee to turn back, In the way in which thou camest.

²⁹ And this to thee [is] the sign, Food of the year [is] the spontaneous growth, And in the second year the self-produced, And in the third year sow ye, and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat their fruits.

³⁰ And it hath continued -- The escaped of the house of Judah That hath been left -- to take root beneath, And hath made fruit upward.

³¹ For from Jerusalem goeth out a remnant, And an escape from mount Zion; The zeal of Jehovah [of Hosts] doth this.

³² Therefore, thus said Jehovah, Concerning the king of Asshur: He doth not come in unto this city, Nor doth he shoot there an arrow, Nor doth he come before it with shield. Nor doth he pour out against it a mount.

³³ In the way that he cometh in -- In it he turneth back, And unto this city he doth not come in, The affirmation of Jehovah --

³⁴ And I have covered over this city, To save it, for Mine own sake, And for the sake of David My servant.'

³⁵ And it cometh to pass, in that night, that a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred eighty and five thousand, and they rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them [are] dead corpses.

³⁶ And Sennacherib king of Asshur journeyeth, and goeth, and turneth back, and dwelleth in Nineveh;

³⁷ and it cometh to pass, he is bowing himself in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adramelech and Sharezar [his sons] have smitten him with the sword, and they have escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-Haddon his son reigneth in his stead.

20 In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet, and saith unto him, `Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.'

² And he turneth round his face unto the wall, and prayeth unto Jehovah, saying,

³ `I pray Thee, O Jehovah, remember, I pray Thee, how I have walked habitually before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and that which [is] good in Thine eyes I have done;' and Hezekiah weepeth -- a great weeping.

⁴ And it cometh to pass -- Isaiah hath not gone out to the middle court -- that the word of Jehovah hath been unto him, saying,

⁵ `Turn back, and thou hast said unto Hezekiah, leader of My people: Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I give healing to thee, on the third day thou dost go up to the house of Jehovah;

⁶ and I have added to thy days fifteen years, and out of the hand of the king of Asshur I deliver thee and this city, and have covered over this city for Mine own sake, and for the sake of David My servant.'

⁷ And Isaiah saith, `Take ye a cake of figs;' and they take and lay [it] on the boil, and he reviveth.

⁸ And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, `What [is] the sign that Jehovah doth give healing to me, that I have gone up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?'

⁹ And Isaiah saith, `This [is] to thee the sign from Jehovah, that Jehovah doth the thing that He hath spoken -- The shadow hath gone on ten degrees, or it doth turn back ten degrees?'

¹⁰ And Hezekiah saith, `It hath been light for the shadow to incline ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow turn backward ten degrees.'

¹¹ And Isaiah the prophet calleth unto Jehovah, and He bringeth back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down in the degrees of Ahaz -- backward ten degrees.

¹² At that time hath Berodach-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick;

¹³ and Hezekiah hearkeneth unto them, and sheweth them all the house of his treasury, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the good ointment, and all the house of his vessels, and all that hath been found in his treasuries; there hath not been a thing that Hezekiah hath not shewed them, in his house, and in all his dominion.

¹⁴ And Isaiah the prophet cometh in unto king Hezekiah, and saith unto him, `What said these men? and whence come they unto thee?' And Hezekiah saith, `From a land afar off they have come -- from Babylon.'

¹⁵ And he saith, `What saw they in thy house?' and Hezekiah saith, `All that [is] in my house they saw; there hath not been a thing that I have not shewed them among my treasures.'

¹⁶ And Isaiah saith unto Hezekiah, `Hear a word of Jehovah:

¹⁷ Lo, days are coming, and borne hath been all that [is] in thy house, and that thy father have treasured up till this day, to Babylon; there is not left a thing, said Jehovah;

¹⁸ and of thy sons who go out from thee, whom thou begettest, they take away, and they have been eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'

¹⁹ And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, `Good [is] the word of Jehovah that thou hast spoken;' and he saith, `Is it not -- if peace and truth are in my days?'

²⁰ And the rest of the matters of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and bringeth in the waters to the city, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²¹ And Hezekiah lieth with his fathers, and reign doth Manasseh his son in his stead.

21 A son of twelve years [is] Manasseh in his reigning, and fifty and five years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Hephzi-Bah;

² and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel,

³ and he turneth and buildeth the high places that Hezekiah his father destroyed, and raiseth altars for Baal, and maketh a shrine, as did Ahab king of Israel, and boweth himself to all the host of the heavens, and serveth them.

⁴ And he hath built altars in the house of Jehovah, of which Jehovah said, `In Jerusalem I put My name.'

⁵ And he buildeth altars to all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of Jehovah;

⁶ and he hath caused his son to pass through fire, and observed clouds, and used enchantment, and dealt with a familiar spirit and wizards; he hath multiplied to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah -- to provoke to anger.

⁷ And he setteth the graven image of the shrine that he made in the house of which Jehovah said unto David and unto Solomon his son, `In this house, and in Jerusalem, that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I put My name -- to the age;

⁸ and I do not add to cause the foot of Israel to move from the ground that I gave to their fathers, only, if they observe to do according to all that I commanded them, and to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.'

⁹ And they have not hearkened, and Manasseh causeth them to err, to do the evil thing above the nations that Jehovah destroyed from the presence of the sons of Israel.

¹⁰ And Jehovah speaketh by the hand of his servants the prophets, saying,

¹¹ `Because that Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations -- he hath done evil above all that the Amorites have done who [are] before him, and causeth also Judah to sin by his idols;

¹² therefore thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Lo, I am bringing in evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever heareth of it, tingle do his two ears.

¹³ And I have stretched out over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and wiped Jerusalem as one wipeth the dish -- he hath wiped, and hath turned [it] on its face.

¹⁴ `And I have left the remnant of Mine inheritance, and given them into the hand of their enemies, and they have been for a prey and for a spoil to all their enemies,

¹⁵ because that they have done the evil thing in Mine eyes, and are provoking Me to anger from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt, even unto this day.'

¹⁶ And also, innocent blood hath Manasseh shed very much, till that he hath filled Jerusalem -- mouth to mouth; apart from his sin that he hath caused Judah to sin, to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah.

¹⁷ And the rest of the matters of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁸ And Manasseh lieth with his fathers, and is buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza, and reign doth Amon his son in his stead.

¹⁹ A son of twenty and two years [is] Amon in his reigning, and two years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz of Jotbah,

²⁰ and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, as did Manasseh his father,

²¹ and walketh in all the way that his father walked in, and serveth the idols that his father served, and boweth himself to them,

²² and forsaketh Jehovah, God of his fathers, and hath not walked in the way of Jehovah.

²³ And the servants of Amon conspire against him, and put the king to death in his own house,

²⁴ and the people of the land smite all those conspiring against king Amon, and the people of the land cause Josiah his son to reign in his stead.

²⁵ And the rest of the matters of Amon that he did, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁶ and [one] burieth him in his burying-place in the garden of Uzza, and reign doth Josiah his son in his stead.