2Ch 32:1-23, Isa 10:28-32, 37:22-36, Mic 1:12 | ESV | STEP | After these things and these acts of faithfulness , Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities , thinking to win them for himself.

2 Chronicles 32:1-23

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1 ^aAfter these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. 2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, 3 he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. 4 A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and ^bthe brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?” 5 He set to work resolutely and built up ^call the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it, ^{▼▼Vulgate; Hebrew and raised upon the towers} and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the ^eMillo in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance. 6 And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke ^fencouragingly to them, saying, 7 ^g“Be strong and courageous. ^hDo not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, ⁱfor there are more with us than with him. 8 With him is ^jan arm of flesh, ^kbut with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Sennacherib Blasphemes

9 After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was besieging Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, 10 “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘On what are you trusting, that you endure the siege in Jerusalem? 11 Is not Hezekiah misleading you, that he may give you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he tells you, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”? 12 ^lHas not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, “Before one altar you shall worship, and on it you shall burn your sacrifices”? 13 Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to deliver their lands out of my hand? 14 Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? 15 Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this fashion, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand!’”

16 And his servants said still more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. 17 And he wrote letters to cast contempt on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who have not delivered their people from my hands, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.” 18 And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. 19 And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.

The Lord Delivers Jerusalem

20 Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. 21 And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with ^mshame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. 22 So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side. 23 And many ⁿbrought gifts to the Lord to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward.

Isaiah 10:28-32

28 He has come to Aiath;
he has passed through ^oMigron;
at Michmash he stores ^phis baggage;
29 they have crossed over ^qthe pass;
at ^rGeba they lodge for the night;
^sRamah trembles;
^tGibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Cry aloud, O daughter of ^uGallim!
Give attention, O Laishah!
O poor ^vAnathoth!
31 Madmenah is in flight;
the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.
32 This very day he will halt at ^wNob;
he will shake his fist
at the mount of ^xthe daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 37:22-36

22 this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
^ythe virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
23 “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against ^zthe Holy One of Israel!
24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ^aaWith my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon,
^abto cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.
25 I dug wells
and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
all ^acthe streams ^adof Egypt.
26 ^ae“‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted ^{▼▼Some Hebrew manuscripts and 2 Kings 19:26; most Hebrew manuscripts like a field} before it is grown.
28 “‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
29 ^agBecause you have raged against me
and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and ^ahI will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’
30 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^aishall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32 ^ajFor out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^akThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

33 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^alcast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 35 ^amFor I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^anthe sake of my servant David.”

36 ^aoAnd the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

Micah 1:12

12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down ^apfrom the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.