2 Kings 19
New American Standard Bible
Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah
19 (A)Now when King Hezekiah heard the report, he (B)tore his clothes, (C)covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, (D)covered with sackcloth, to (E)Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 (F)Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent (G)to taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for (H)the remnant that is [a]left.’” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘The Lord says this: “Do not be fearful because of the words that you have heard, with which the (I)servants of the king of Assyria (J)have blasphemed Me. 7 Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that (K)he will hear news and return to his own land. And (L)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
Sennacherib Defies God
8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against (M)Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left (N)Lachish. 9 When he heard them say about Tirhakah king of [b]Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of [c]Judah: ‘Do not (O)let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “(P)Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” 11 Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? 12 (Q)Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: (R)Gozan, (S)Haran, Rezeph, and (T)the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 (U)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Then (V)Hezekiah took the [d]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and [e]spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “Lord, God of Israel, [f](W)enthroned above the cherubim, (X)You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 (Y)Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; (Z)open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent (AA)to taunt the living God. 17 It is true, Lord; the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have [g]hurled their gods into the fire; (AB)for they were not gods, but only the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 But now, Lord our God, please, save us from his hand, (AC)so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, (AD)Lord, are God.”
God’s Answer through Isaiah
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, (AE)I have heard you.’ 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
‘She, (AF)the virgin daughter of Zion, has shown contempt for you and mocked you;
She, the daughter of Jerusalem, (AG)has shaken her head behind you!
22 Whom have you (AH)taunted and (AI)blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice,
And [h]haughtily raised your eyes?
Against the (AJ)Holy One of Israel!
23 (AK)Through your messengers you have taunted the Lord,
And you have said, “With my many chariots
I went up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall cedars and its choicest junipers.
And I entered its farthest resting place, its (AL)thickest forest.
24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters,
And with the soles of my feet I (AM)dried up
All the streams of Egypt.”
25 ‘(AN)Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From ancient times I planned it.
(AO)Now I have brought it about,
That you would turn fortified cities into ruined heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were [i]powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame.
They were (AP)like the vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like grass on the housetops that is scorched before it has grown.
27 But (AQ)I know your sitting down,
Your going out, your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
28 Because of your raging against Me,
And because your complacency has come up to My ears,
I (AR)will put My hook in your nose,
And My bridle in your lips,
And (AS)I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
29 ‘Then this shall be (AT)the sign for you: [j]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what grows by itself, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 (AU)The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and survivors (AV)out of Mount Zion. (AW)The zeal of [k]the Lord will perform this.
32 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: “(AX)He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield nor heap up an assault ramp against it. 33 (AY)By the way that he came, by [l]the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. 34 ‘(AZ)For I will protect this city to save it for My own sake, and (BA)for My servant David’s sake.’”
35 (BB)Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of [m]the 185,000 were [n]dead. 36 So (BC)Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and [o]returned home, and lived at (BD)Nineveh. 37 Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that [p](BE)Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to (BF)the land of Ararat. And his son (BG)Esarhaddon became king in his place.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 19:4 Lit found
- 2 Kings 19:9 Or Ethiopia
- 2 Kings 19:10 Lit Judah, saying,
- 2 Kings 19:14 Lit letters...read them
- 2 Kings 19:14 Lit Hezekiah spread
- 2 Kings 19:15 Lit sitting
- 2 Kings 19:18 Lit given
- 2 Kings 19:22 Lit on high
- 2 Kings 19:26 Lit short of hand
- 2 Kings 19:29 Lit to eat
- 2 Kings 19:31 Some ancient mss the Lord of armies
- 2 Kings 19:33 Lit it
- 2 Kings 19:35 Lit them
- 2 Kings 19:35 Lit dead bodies
- 2 Kings 19:36 Lit went and returned
- 2 Kings 19:37 Some ancient mss his sons Adrammelech
2 Kings 19
Living Bible
19 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the Temple to pray. 2 Then he told Eliakim, Shebnah, and some of the older priests to clothe themselves in sackcloth and to go to Isaiah (son of Amoz), the prophet, with this message:
3 “King Hezekiah says, ‘This is a day of trouble, insult, and dishonor. It is as when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver it. 4 Yet perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian general defying the living God and will rebuke him. Oh, pray for the few of us who are left.’”
5-6 Isaiah replied, “The Lord says, ‘Tell your master not to be troubled by the sneers these Assyrians have made against me.’ 7 For the king of Assyria will receive bad news from home and will decide to return; and the Lord will see to it that he is killed when he arrives there.”
8 Then the Assyrian general returned to his king at Libnah (for he received word that he had left Lachish). 9 Soon afterwards news reached the king that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was coming to attack him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent back this message to King Hezekiah:
10 “Don’t be fooled by that god you trust in. Don’t believe it when he says that I won’t conquer Jerusalem. 11 You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone; they have completely destroyed everything. Why would you be any different? 12 Have the gods of the other nations delivered them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden in the land of Telassar? The former kings of Assyria destroyed them all! 13 What happened to the king of Hamoth and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went over to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 Then he prayed this prayer:
“O Lord God of Israel, sitting on your throne high above the angels,[a] you alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You created the heavens and the earth. 16 Bend low, O Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Listen to this man’s defiance of the living God. 17 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all those nations 18 and have burned their idol-gods. But they weren’t gods at all; they were destroyed because they were only things that men had made of wood and stone. 19 O Lord our God, we plead with you to save us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone are God.”
20 Then Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: “The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have heard you! 21 And this is my reply to King Sennacherib: The virgin daughter of Zion isn’t afraid of you! The daughter of Jerusalem scorns and mocks at you. 22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? And toward whom have you felt so cocky? It is the Holy One of Israel!
23 “‘You have boasted, “My chariots have conquered the highest mountains, yes, the peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down the tallest cedars and choicest cypress trees and have conquered the farthest borders. 24 I have been refreshed at many conquered wells, and I destroyed the strength of Egypt just by walking by!”
25 “‘Why haven’t you realized long before this that it is I, the Lord, who lets you do these things? I decreed your conquest of all those fortified cities! 26 So of course the nations you conquered had no power against you! They were like grass shriveling beneath the hot sun, and like grain blighted before it is half grown. 27 I know everything about you. I know all your plans and where you are going next; and I also know the evil things you have said about me. 28 And because of your arrogance against me, I am going to put a hook in your nose and a bridle in your mouth and turn you back on the road by which you came. 29 And this is the proof that I will do as I have promised: This year my people will eat the volunteer wheat and use it as seed for next year’s crop; and in the third year they will have a bountiful harvest.
30 “‘O my people Judah, those of you who have escaped the ravages of the siege shall become a great nation again; you shall be rooted deeply in the soil and bear fruit for God. 31 A remnant of my people shall become strong in Jerusalem. The Lord is eager to cause this to happen.
32 “‘And my command concerning the king of Assyria is that he shall not enter this city. He shall not stand before it with a shield, nor build a ramp against its wall, nor even shoot an arrow into it. 33 He shall return by the road he came, 34 for I will defend and save this city for the sake of my own name and for the sake of my servant David.’”
35 That very night the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian troops, and dead bodies were seen all across the landscape in the morning.
36 Then King Sennacherib returned to Nineveh; 37 and as he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him. They escaped into eastern Turkey—the land of Ararat—and his son Esarhaddon became the new king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 19:15 angels, literally, “cherubim.”
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.