2 Kings 19
19
1When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s temple. 2Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
3They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn’t have the strength to do it. 4The Lord your God may have heard all the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy the living God. The Lord your God may punish him because of the message that the Lord your God heard. Pray for the few people who are left.”
5So King Hezekiah’s men went to Isaiah. 6Isaiah answered them, “Say this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king’s assistants slandered me. 7I’m going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I’ll have him assassinated in his own country.’ ”
8The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. 9Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him.
Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. 11You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? 12Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’ ”
14Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers, read them, and went to the Lord’s temple. He spread them out in front of the Lord 15and prayed to the Lord, “Lord of Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.#19:15 Or “cherubim.” You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. 16Turn your ear toward me, Lord, and listen. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the message that Sennacherib sent to defy the living God. 17It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have leveled nations.#19:17 Greek; Masoretic Text “nations and their country.” 18They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren’t real gods. They’re only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. 19Now, Lord our God, rescue us from Assyria’s control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are the Lord God.”
Isaiah’s Prophecy against King Sennacherib of Assyria
(Isaiah 37:21–38)
20Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: You prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria. I have heard you. 21This is the message that the Lord speaks to him,
‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you.
My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
22Whom are you defying and slandering?
Against whom are you shouting?
Who are you looking at so arrogantly?
It is the Holy One of Israel!
23Through your servants #19:23 Isaiah 37:24; Masoretic Text “kings.” you defy the Lord and say,
“With my many chariots I’ll ride up the high mountains,
up the slopes of Lebanon.
I’ll cut down its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses.
I’ll come to its most distant borders
and its most fertile forests.
24I’ll dig wells and drink foreign water.
I’ll dry up all the streams of Egypt
with the trampling of my feet.”
25“ ‘Haven’t you heard? I did this long ago.
I planned it in the distant past.
Now I make it happen so that you will turn fortified cities
into piles of rubble.
26Those who live in these cities are weak, discouraged, and ashamed.
They will be like plants in the field,
like fresh, green grass on the roofs,
scorched before it sprouted.
27I know when you ⌞get up⌟ and sit down,
when you go out and come in,
and how you rage against me.
28Since you rage against me and your boasting has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bridle in your mouth.
I will make you go back the way you came.
29“ ‘And this will be a sign for you, Hezekiah: You will eat what grows by itself this year and next year. But in the third year you will plant and harvest, plant vineyards, and eat what is produced. 30Those few people from the nation of Judah who escape will again take root and produce crops. 31Those few people will go out from Jerusalem, and those who escape will go out of Mount Zion. The Lord is determined to do this.’
32“This is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
He will never come into this city,
shoot an arrow here,
hold a shield in front of it,
or put up dirt ramps to attack it.
33He will go back the way he came,
and he won’t come into this city,”
declares the Lord of Armies.
34“I will shield this city to rescue it for my sake
and for the sake of my servant David.”
35It happened that night. The Lord’s angel went out and killed 185,000 ⌞soldiers⌟ in the Assyrian camp. When the Judeans got up early in the morning, they saw all the corpses.
36Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left. He went home to Nineveh and stayed there. 37While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer assassinated him and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Currently Selected:
2 Kings 19: GW
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
2 Kings 19
19
1And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 2And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4It may be the LORD thy 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 the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
Isaiah's Counsel
5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, 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.
8So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9And 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, 10Thus 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. 11Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
14And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 16LORD, 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. 17Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, 18and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. 19Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. 22Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. 23By 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, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel. 24I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. 26Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. 27But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 28Because 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.
29And this shall be a 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. 30And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. 32Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning 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. 33By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 34For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
Jerusalem Delivered
35And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37And 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 Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Learn More About King James Version