Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

1Now it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. 2Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household with Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. 4Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to [†]reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a report and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

8Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that [†]the king had set out from Lachish. 9Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of [†]Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” So he heard it and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of [†]Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem 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 the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? 12Did the gods of [†]those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

14Then Hezekiah took the [†]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and [†]spread it out before Yahweh. 15And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying, 16“O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to [†]reproach the living God. 18Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands 19and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 20But now, O Yahweh our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that [†]You are Yahweh, You alone.”

Yahweh’s Answer Through Isaiah

21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:

“She has despised you and mocked you,

The virgin daughter of Zion;

She has shaken her head behind you,

The daughter of Jerusalem!

23Whom have you [†]reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom have you heightened your voice

And [†]haughtily lifted up your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

24Through your servants you have [†]reproached the Lord,

And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,

To the remotest parts of Lebanon;

And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.

And I will go to its [†]highest peak, its thickest forest.

25I dug wells and drank waters,

And with the sole of my feet I dried up

All the rivers of [†]Egypt.’

26Have you not heard?

Long ago I did it;

From days of old I formed it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

27So their inhabitants were short of power;

They were dismayed and put to shame;

They were as the plant of the field and as the green herb,

As grass on the rooftops [†]is scorched before it rises.

28But I know your sitting down

And your going out and your coming in

And your raging against Me.

29Because of your raging against Me

And because your [†]presumptuousness has come up to My ears,

Therefore I will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

30“Then this shall be the sign for you: [†]you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 32For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion [†]survivors. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.”’

33“Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. 34By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares Yahweh. 35‘Indeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

36Then the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And [†]the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and [†]returned home and lived at Nineveh. 38Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.