I. And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord [to humble himself before Jehovah, and pray for help (comp. 2Chronicles 32:20)].

2. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

3. And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke [chastisement (Hosea 5:9)], and blasphemy [provocation]: for the children are come [expressive of the utter collapse of all human resources (comp. Hosea 13:13)] to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up [heavenwards] thy [a] prayer for the [existing (or present)] remnant that are left.

5. So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6. ¶ And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants [denoting apparently personal attendants (comp. chaps. 2Kings 4:12, 2Kings 5:20, 2Kings 8:4; Exodus 33:11; Judges 7:10; 2Samuel 9:9; 1Kings 20:15)] of the king of Assyria have blasphemed [not the root as in 2Kings 19:3 (Numbers 15:30; Psalm 44:16; Isaiah 51:7)] me.

7. Behold, I will send a blast upon him [Behold, I am about to put a spirit within him], and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8. ¶ So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

9. And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,

10. Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee [through prophets, or dreams, or any other recognised medium of communication], saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?

12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my father have destroyed; as Gozan [chap. 2Kings 17:6], and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?

13. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?

14. ¶ And Hezekiah received the letter [2Kings 19:10-13 may be regarded as embodying the substance of the letter, which the envoys first delivered orally, and then presented the letter to authenticate it] of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.

15. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel which dwellest between the cherubims [which sittest above the cherubim, or, the cherub-throned (comp. Exodus 25:22; 1Samuel 4:4; Psalm 18:10; Ezekiel 1:26)], thou [emphasis on "thou"] art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

16. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear [not so much my prayer as the words of Sennacherib]: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see [interfere actively between me and my enemy]: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him [which he hath sent] to reproach the living God [in contrast with the lifeless idols of Hamath, etc.].

17. Of a truth [It is even as Sennacherib boasteth], Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,

18. And have cast [put] their gods into the fire [comp. 1Chronicles 14:12]: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them:

19. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

20. ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

21. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning [against] him; The virgin [the term Virgin naturally denotes the inviolable security of the citadel of Jehovah] the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee [hath nodded behind thee (comp. Psalm 22:8)].

22. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? [towards heaven (Isaiah 40:26). (Comp. Isaiah 14:13-14)] even against the Holy One of Israel [a favourite expression of Isaiah, in whose book it occurs twenty-seven times, and only five times elsewhere in the Old Testament],

23. By [Heb., By the hand of] thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down [and I will fell the tallest cedars thereof. Cedars and firs in Isaiah's language symbolise kings, princes, and nobles, and all that is highest and most stately (Isaiah 2:13, Isaiah 10:33-34)] the tall cedar-trees thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.

24. I have digged and drunk strange waters [scarcity of water has hitherto been no bar to my advance], and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged [or fenced] places.

25. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

26. Therefore their inhabitants were of small power [literally, short-handed (comp. Isaiah 1, Isaiah 2, Isaiah 59:1)], they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

27. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

28. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou earnest.

29. And this shall be a [the] sign unto thee [the prophet now addresses Hezekiah], Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

30. And the remnant [the survival, survivors of the house of Judah that are left] that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal [jealousy] of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

32. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there [at it], nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

33. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into [unto] this city, saith the Lord.

34. For I will defend [And I will cover (with a shield) (comp. Isaiah 31:5, Isaiah 38:6; chap. 2Kings 20:6)] this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

35. ¶ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.

36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37. And it came to pass [twenty years afterwards], as he was worshipping his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia [Heb., Ararat]. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.