2Ki 19 | ABEn | STEP | And it came to pass as [ 3 heard 1 king 2 Hezekiah], that he tore his garments, and put on sackcloth, and entered into the house of the lord .

2 Kings 19

CHAPTER 19 Hezekiah Distressed Over Syria's Threats

1 And it came to pass as [³heard ¹king ²Hezekiah], that he tore his garments, and put on sackcloth, and entered into the house of the lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim the manager, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, having put on sackcloths, to Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet. 3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, A day of affliction, and of rebuke, and provocation to anger is this day; for [³came ¹the ²sons] unto birth pangs, and there is no strength to give birth. 4 If by any means [³shall hearken to ¹the lord ²your God] all the words of Rabshakeh, whom [⁴sent ⁵him ¹the king ²of the Assyrians ³his master] to berate the living God, and to reprove by words which [³heard ¹the lord ²your God], that you shall take up a prayer for the remnant being found. 5 And [⁵came ¹the ²servants ³of king ⁴Hezekiah] to Isaiah. 6 And [²said ³to them ¹Isaiah], Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the lord, You should not fear from the words which you heard, which [⁶blasphemed ⁷against ⁸me ¹the ²servants ³of the ⁴ king ⁵of the Assyrians]. 7 Behold, I give a spirit to him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return unto his land, and I will cast him down by the broadsword in his land. 8 And Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of the Assyrians waging war against Libnah; for he heard that he departed from Lachish. 9 And he heard concerning Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians, saying, Behold, he comes forth to wage war against you. And he returned, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 Thus shall you say to Hezekiah king of Judah, Let not [³you ²deceive ¹your God] in whom you rely upon him, saying, In no way should Jerusalem be delivered up into the hands of the king of the Assyrians. 11 Behold, you heard all as much as [³did ¹the king ²of the Assyrians] in all the lands, as they utterly destroyed them; and how shall you be rescued? 12 Have [⁵rescued ¹the ²gods ³of the ⁴nations] which [²utterly destroyed ¹my fathers] -- both Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, the ones in Thelasar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim -- Hena and Ivah?

Hezekiah Reads the Scrolls

14 And Hezekiah took the scrolls from out of the hand of the messengers and read them. And he ascended into the house of the lord, and [²unrolled ³them ¹Hezekiah] before the lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the lord, saying, O Lord God of Israel, the one sitting upon the cherubim, you are God alone among all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heaven and the earth. 16 Lean, O lord, your ear, and hear! Open, O lord, your eyes, and behold! And hear the words of Sennacherib! which he sent to berate the living God. 17 For truth, O lord, [³made desolate ¹the kings ²of the Assyrians] the nations, and all their land, 18 and put their gods into the fire, for [²not ³gods ¹they are], but only the works of the hands of men -- wood and stone. And they destroyed them. 19 And now, O lord our God, deliver us from out of his hand! And they shall know in all the kingdoms of the earth that you are the lord God alone. 20 And [⁴sent ¹Isaiah ²son ³of Amoz] to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the lord God of Israel, I heard what you pray for to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians. 21 This is the word which the lord spoke against him, [⁴treats you with contempt ⁵and ⁶sneers at ⁷you ¹The virgin ²daughter ³of Zion]. Over you [⁴her head ³shakes ¹the daughter ²of Jerusalem]. 22 Whom have you berated and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised up your voice, and lifted [²into ³the height ¹your eyes]? even against the holy one of Israel. 23 By the hand of your messengers you have berated the lord, and said, By the multitude of my chariots I ascended into the height of the mountains, the sides of Lebanon, and I felled the greatness of his cedar, [²chosen ³cypresses ¹his], and I came in the midst of the grove of Carmel. 24 I cooled myself and drank [²waters ¹alien]; and I made quite desolate with the sole of my feet all the rivers of the citadel. 25 Heard you not that far off I made her? From [²days ¹ancient] I formed her, and now I brought her. And she became for haughtiness [⁴resettlements ³of combative ²cities ¹of fortified]. 26 And the ones dwelling in them weakened in the hand. They were alarmed and were disgraced. They became as grass of the field, and as the green pasturage; as tender shoots growing on roofs, and trampled before standing. 27 And of your sitting-down, and of your exiting, and of your entering, and of your rage against me I knew. 28 On account of your being provoked to anger against me, that your indulgence ascended to my ears, and I shall put my hook in your nostrils, and bits in your lips, and I will return you in the way which you came by it. 29 And this is to you the sign. You shall eat this year the things grown by themselves, and in in the [²year ¹second] the things rising up, and [³year ¹the ²third] you shall sow, and you shall reap, and you shall plant vineyards, and you shall eat their fruit. 30 And he shall add to the one being preserved of the house of Judah, the one being left behind as a root below. And he shall produce fruit upward. 31 For from out of Jerusalem shall come forth a vestige, and the one rescuing from out of mount Zion. The zeal of the lord of the forces shall do this. 32 Therefore thus says the lord to the king of the Assyrians, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there, and he shall not anticipate it with a shield, nor shall he pour out dirt against it for a seige mound. 33 By the way in which he came by it, he shall return; and into this city he shall not enter, says the lord. 34 And I shall shield over this city to deliver her because of myself, and because of David my servant.

The Angel of The LORD Strikes the Assyrians

35 And it came to pass at night, that there came forth an angel of the lord, and he struck among the camp of the Assyrians a hundred eighty-five thousand. And they rose early in the morning, and behold, all [²bodies ¹dead]. 36 And [⁴departed ⁷and ⁸returned ⁵and ⁶went ¹Sennacherib ²king ³of the Assyrians], and he lived in Nineveh. 37 And it came to pass when he did obeisance in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with a sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And [³reigned ¹Esar-haddon ²his son] instead of him.