Sennacherib Invades Judah
aNow it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that bSennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2 And the aking of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force. And he stood by the bconduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 Then aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.
4 Then aRabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this trust that you have? 5 I say, ‘Your counsel and might for the war are only empty words.’ Now in whom do you trust, that ayou have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you trust in the astaff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. bSo is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He awhose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8 So now, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them. 9 How then can you turn away one official of the least of my master’s servants and atrust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 So now, have I come up without the approval of Yahweh against this land to make it a ruin? aYahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”
11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in aAramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in bJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood and acried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah adeceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you; 15 and do not let Hezekiah make you atrust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his avine and each of his fig tree, and drink each of the bwaters of his own cistern, 17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, “aYahweh will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of aHamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of aSepharvaim? And when have they bdelivered Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the agods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that bYahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”
21 But they were silent and aanswered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 22 Then aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and bShebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help
Now it happened that awhen King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. 2 Then he sent aEliakim, who was over the household with bShebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to cIsaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a aday of distress, reproof, and rejection; for bchildren have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. 4 Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to areproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for bthe remnant that is left.’”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “aDo not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ahear a report and breturn to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against aLibnah, for he had heard that the king had set out from bLachish. 9 Then he aheard them say concerning Tirhakah king of bEthiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘aDo not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11 aBehold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even aGozan and bHaran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 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 in the Temple
14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying, 16 “O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, awho is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the bGod, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. cYou have made heaven and earth. 17 aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and blisten to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to creproach the living God. 18 Truly, O Yahweh, the akings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands 19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the awork of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have bdestroyed them. 20 But now, O Yahweh our God, asave us from his hand that ball the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are Yahweh, You alone.”
Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah
21 Then aIsaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:
“She has despised you and mocked you,
The avirgin bdaughter of Zion;
She has cshaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
23 Whom have you areproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you heightened your voice
And haughtily blifted up your eyes?
Against the cHoly One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of aLebanon;
And I cut down its tall bcedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest cforest.
25 I dug wells and drank waters,
And awith the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of Egypt.’
26 aHave you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From days of old I bformed it.
Now cI have brought it to pass,
That dyou should devastate fortified cities into eruinous heaps.
27 So their inhabitants were short of power;
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the aplant of the field and as the green herb,
As bgrass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises.
28 But I aknow your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.
29 Because of your raging against Me
And because your apresumptuousness has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My bhook in your nose
And My cbridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back dby the way which you came.
30 “Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what agrows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the asurviving bremnant of the house of Judah will again ctake root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a aremnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The bzeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.”’
33 “Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a asiege ramp against it. 34 aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh. 35 ‘Indeed I will adefend this city to save it bfor My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib
36 Then the aangel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and returned home and lived at aNineveh. 38 Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of aArarat. And bEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.