2 Kings 19:8-34

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

8The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^aLibnah, for he heard that the king had left ^bLachish. 9 ^cNow the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God ^din whom you trust deceive you by promising that ^eJerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 ^fHave the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^gGozan, ^hHaran, Rezeph, and the people of ⁱEden who were in Telassar? 13 ^jWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14Hezekiah received ^kthe 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. 15And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, ^lenthroned above the cherubim, ^myou are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 ⁿIncline your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^oopen your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^pto mock the living God. 17Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, ^qbut the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, ^rthat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that ^syou, O Lord, are God alone.”

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria ^tI have heard. 21This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

“She despises you, she scorns you—
^uthe virgin daughter of Zion;
she ^vwags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 “Whom have you ^wmocked and ^xreviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against ^ythe Holy One of Israel!
23 ^zBy your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, ^aa‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of ^abLebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most ^acfruitful forest.
24I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams ^adof Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard
that ^aeI determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what ^afnow I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become ^aglike plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
^ahand your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will ^aiput my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and ^ajI will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
29“And this shall be ^akthe sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 ^alAnd the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion ^ama band of survivors. ^anThe zeal of the Lord will do this.

32“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 ^aocast up a siege mound against it. 33 ^apBy the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 ^aqFor I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake ^arand for the sake of my servant David.”