Isaiah Assures Deliverance
And aso it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with bsackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 aIt may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to breproach the living God, and will crebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 aAnd Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be bafraid of the words which you have heard, with which the cservants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send aa spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”
Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer
8 Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed afrom Lachish. 9 And athe king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God ain whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 aHave the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of bEden who were in Telassar? 13 aWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”
14 aAnd Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One awho dwells between the cherubim, bYou are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 aIncline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; bopen Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, cwhich he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were anot gods, but bthe work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. 19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, athat all the kingdoms of the earth may bknow that You are the Lord God, You alone.”
The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: a‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, bI have heard.’ 21 This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:
‘The virgin, athe daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
bHas shaken her head behind your back!
22 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against athe Holy One of Israel.
23 aBy your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And said: b“By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter the extremity of its borders,
To its fruitful forest.
24 I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have adried up
All the brooks of defense.”
25 ‘Did you not hear long ago
How aI made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That byou should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As athe grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.
27 ‘But aI know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.
28 Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore aI will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
bBy the way which you came.
29 ‘This shall be a asign to you:
‘You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And in the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.
30 aAnd the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
aThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.’
32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:
‘He shall anot come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the Lord.
34 ‘For aI will bdefend this city, to save it
For My own sake and cfor My servant David’s sake.’ ”
Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death
35 And ait came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at aNineveh. 37 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons aAdrammelech and Sharezer bstruck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then cEsarhaddon his son reigned in his place. The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson.
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