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2 Kings 19-20
Holman Christian Standard Bible
2 Kings 19-20
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel
19 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth,(A) and went into the Lord’s temple.(B) 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,(C) and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth,(D) to the prophet Isaiah(E) son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth,(F) but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 Perhaps Yahweh your God(G) will hear(H) all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke(I) him for the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.’”(J)
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 who said to them, “Tell your master this, ‘The Lord says: Don’t be afraid(K) because of the words you have heard, that the king of Assyria’s attendants(L) have blasphemed(M) Me with. 7 I am about to put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land(N) where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”(O)
Sennacherib’s Departing Threat
8 When(P) the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,(Q) he returned and found him fighting against Libnah.(R) 9 The king had heard this about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, whom you trust,(S) deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.(T) 11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12 Did the gods of the nations(U) that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—nations such as Gozan,(V) Haran,(W) Rezeph, and the Edenites(X) in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’”(Y)
Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah took(Z) the letter(AA) from the hand of the messengers, read it, then went up to the Lord’s temple, and spread it out before the Lord.(AB) 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord:
Lord God of Israel who is enthroned above the cherubim,(AC) You are God—You alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.(AD) 16 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see.(AE) Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.(AF) 17 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.(AG) 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone.(AH) So they have destroyed them. 19 Now, Lord our God, please save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God—You alone.(AI)
God’s Answer through Isaiah
20 Then(AJ) Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “The Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘I have heard your prayer(AK) to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.’(AL) 21 This is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
Virgin Daughter Zion(AM)
despises you and scorns you:
Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head behind your back.[a](AN)
22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed?(AO)
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!(AP)
23 You have mocked the Lord[b] through[c] your messengers.(AQ)
You have said:
With my many chariots(AR)
I have gone up to the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon.
I cut down its tallest cedars,
its choice cypress trees.
I came to its farthest outpost,
its densest forest.
24 I dug wells,
and I drank foreign waters.
I dried up all the streams of Egypt(AS)
with the soles of my feet.
25 Have you not heard?(AT)
I designed it long ago;
I planned it in days gone by.
I have now brought it to pass,(AU)
and you have crushed fortified cities
into piles of rubble.
26 Their inhabitants have become powerless,
dismayed, and ashamed.
They are plants of the field,
tender grass,
grass on the rooftops,(AV)
blasted by the east wind.[d]
27 But I know your sitting down,[e](AW)
your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.
28 Because your raging against Me
and your arrogance have reached My ears,
I will put My hook in your nose(AX)
and My bit in your mouth;
I will make you go back
the way you came.
29 “This will be the sign(AY) for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 The surviving remnant(AZ) of the house of Israel will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For a remnant will go out from Jerusalem and survivors, from Mount Zion.(BA) The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.(BB)
32 Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow there
or come before it with a shield
or build up an assault ramp against it.(BC)
33 He will go back
on the road that he came
and he will not enter this city.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
34 I will defend this city and rescue it
for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.”(BD)
Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!(BE) 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.(BF)
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech(BG) and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.(BH) Then his son Esar-haddon(BI) became king in his place.
Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery
20 In those days(BJ) Hezekiah became terminally ill.(BK) The prophet Isaiah(BL) son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order,[f] for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”(BM)
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall(BN) and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Please Lord, remember(BO) how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases You.”[g](BP) And Hezekiah wept bitterly.(BQ)
4 Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader(BR) of My people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer;(BS) I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. 6 I will add 15 years to your life. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”(BT)
7 Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.(BU)
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign(BV) that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day?”
9 Isaiah said, “This is the sign(BW) to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised: Should the shadow go ahead 10 steps or go back 10 steps?”
10 Then Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen 10 steps. No, let the shadow go back 10 steps.” 11 So Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow[h] back the 10 steps it had descended on Ahaz’s stairway.[i](BX)
Hezekiah’s Folly
12 At that time(BY) Merodach-baladan[j] son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick. 13 Hezekiah gave them a hearing and showed them his whole treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.(BZ)
14 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”
Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”
15 Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 ‘The time will certainly come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’(CA) says the Lord. 18 ‘Some of your descendants who come from you will be taken away,(CB) and they will become eunuchs[k] in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”(CC)
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,”(CD) for he thought: Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?
Hezekiah’s Death
20 The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool(CE) and the tunnel and brought water into the city,(CF) are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.(CG) 21 Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.(CH)
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 19:21 Lit behind you
- 2 Kings 19:23 Many mss read Lord
- 2 Kings 19:23 Lit by the hand of
- 2 Kings 19:26 DSS; MT reads blasted before standing grain; Is 37:27
- 2 Kings 19:27 LXX, DSS read your rising up and your sitting down; Is 37:28
- 2 Kings 20:1 Lit Command your house
- 2 Kings 20:3 Lit what is good in Your eyes
- 2 Kings 20:11 Lit shadow on the steps
- 2 Kings 20:11 Tg, Vg; DSS read on the steps of Ahaz’s roof chamber; Is 38:8
- 2 Kings 20:12 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Tg, some Vg mss, Is 39:1; other Hb mss read Berodach-baladan
- 2 Kings 20:18 Or court officials
2 Kings 19-20
New International Version
2 Kings 19-20
New International Version
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold(A)
19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore(B) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim(C) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,(D) all wearing sackcloth,(E) to the prophet Isaiah(F) son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment(G) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule(H) the living God, and that he will rebuke(I) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant(J) that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid(K) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed(L) me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report,(M) I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.(N)’”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,(O) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.(P)
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,[a] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend(Q) on deceive(R) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver(S) them—the gods of Gozan,(T) Harran,(U) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”(V)
Hezekiah’s Prayer(W)
14 Hezekiah received the letter(X) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,(Y) you alone(Z) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear,(AA) Lord, and hear;(AB) open your eyes,(AC) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods(AD) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.(AE) 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver(AF) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms(AG) of the earth may know(AH) that you alone, Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall(AI)(AJ)
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard(AK) your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against(AL) him:
“‘Virgin Daughter(AM) Zion
despises(AN) you and mocks(AO) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head(AP) as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?(AQ)
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One(AR) of Israel!
23 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,(AS)
“With my many chariots(AT)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down(AU) its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 “‘Have you not heard?(AV)
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned(AW) it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.(AX)
26 Their people, drained of power,(AY)
are dismayed(AZ) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,(BA)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched(BB) before it grows up.
27 “‘But I know(BC) where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook(BD) in your nose
and my bit(BE) in your mouth,
and I will make you return(BF)
by the way you came.’
29 “This will be the sign(BG) for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,(BH)
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards(BI) and eat their fruit.
30 Once more a remnant(BJ) of the kingdom of Judah
will take root(BK) below and bear fruit above.
31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,(BL)
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.(BM)
“The zeal(BN) of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;(BO)
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defend(BP) this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David(BQ) my servant.’”
35 That night the angel of the Lord(BR) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!(BS) 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.(BT) He returned to Nineveh(BU) and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek(BV) and Sharezer killed him with the sword,(BW) and they escaped to the land of Ararat.(BX) And Esarhaddon(BY) his son succeeded him as king.
Hezekiah’s Illness(BZ)
20 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember,(CA) Lord, how I have walked(CB) before you faithfully(CC) and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard(CD) your prayer and seen your tears;(CE) I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend(CF) this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil,(CG) and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”
9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign(CH) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
10 “It is a simple(CI) matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back(CJ) the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
Envoys From Babylon(CK)(CL)
12 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. 13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.”
15 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.(CM) Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your descendants,(CN) your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”(CO)
19 “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool(CP) and the tunnel(CQ) by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region
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