Read the Bible

¹ So it came to passe, that when king Hezekia hearde it, he rent his clothes, & put on sacke, & came into the house of the Lorde,² And sent Eliakim which was the steward of the houshold, and Sobna the scribe, and the elders of the priestes clothed in sacke, to Isai the prophete, the sonne of Amoz.³ And they sayd vnto him, thus sayth Hezekia: This day is a day of tribulation, & of rebuke and blasphemie: For the children are come to the byrth, and there is no strength to be deliuered.⁴ Peraduenture the Lorde thy God will heare al the wordes of Rabsakeh, who the king of Assyria his maister hath sent to rayle on the lyuing God, & to rebuke him with wordes which the Lorde thy God hath hearde: And lift thou vp thy prayer for the remnaunt that are left.⁵ So the seruauntes of king Hezekia came to Isai.⁶ And Isai sayde vnto them, So shall ye say to your maister: Thus sayth the Lorde, Be not afrayde of the wordes which thou hast heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria haue rayled on me.⁷ Beholde, I will put hym in another mynde, and he shall heare tydinges, and so returne to his owne land, and I will bring to passe, that he shall fall vpon the sworde euen in his owne land.

⁸ And Rabsakeh went backe againe, and founde the king of Assyria fighting against Libna: for he had hearde howe that he was departed from Lachis.⁹ And when he hearde men say of Thirhaka king of the blacke Mores, Behold he is come out to fight against thee: he departed, and sent messengers vnto Hezekia, saying.¹⁰ Thus speake to Hezekia king of Iuda, saying: Let not thy God deceaue thee in whom thou trustest, saying: Hierusalem shall not be deliuered into the hand of the king of Assyria.¹¹ Beholde, thou hast hearde what the kinges of Assyria haue done to all landes, how they haue vtterly destroyed them: And shalt thou escape?¹² Haue the gods of the heathen deliuered them, whiche myne auncestours haue destroyed? As Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelassar?¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, the king of the citie of Sepharuaun, and of Hena and Iua?¹⁴ And Hezekia receaued the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: And Hezekia went vp into the house of the Lorde, and layde it abrode before the Lorde.¹⁵ And Hezekia prayed before the Lord, and sayd: O Lord God of Israel which dwellest betweene ye Cherubs, thou art God alone ouer al the kingdomes of the earth, thou hast made heauen & earth.¹⁶ Lorde bowe downe thyne eare, and heare: Open Lorde thyne eyes, [I besech thee,] and see: and heare the wordes of Sennacherib whiche hath sent [this man] to rayle on the lyuing God.¹⁷ Of a trueth Lorde, the kinges of Assyria haue destroyed nations and their landes,¹⁸ And haue set fire on their gods: For they were no gods, but the worke of the handes of man, euen of wood and stone: and they destroyed them.¹⁹ Nowe therfore O Lord our God I besech thee, saue thou vs out of his hande, that all the kingdomes of the earth may knowe that thou onely art the Lorde God.

²⁰ And Isai the sonne of Amoz sent to Hezekia, saying, Thus sayth the Lorde God of Israel: That whiche thou hast prayed me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I haue hearde it.²¹ This is therefore the worde that the Lorde hath sayd of him: The virgin, euen the daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorne [O thou king of Assyria,] the daughter of Hierusalem hath shaken her head at thee.²² Whom hast thou rayled on? and whom hast thou blasphemed? Against whom hast thou exalted thy voyce, and lyfted vp thyne eyes so hye? Euen against the holy of Israel.²³ By the hande of thy messengers thou hast rayled on the Lord, and sayd: With the multitude of my charets I am come vp to the toppes of the mountaynes, euen along by the sides of Libanon, and I will cut downe the hye Cedar trees and the lusty fyrre trees therof: and I will go into the lodging of his borders, and into the wood of his Carmel.²⁴ I haue digged and druncke straunge waters: & with the steppe of my goyng wil I drye al the water pooles that are besieged.²⁵ Hast thou not heard howe I haue ordeyned such a thing a great whyle a go, and haue prepared it from the beginning? And shall I not nowe bring it foorth that it may destroy and bring strong cities into wast heapes of stones?²⁶ And the inhabiters of them shalbe of litle power, and faynt hearted, and confounded, and shalbe lyke the grasse of the field, or greene hearbe, or as the hay on the toppes of the houses, or as the corne that is vnripe & smitten with blasting.²⁷ I knowe thy dwelling, thy comming out and thy goyng in, and thy fury against me.²⁸ And because thou ragest against me, & thy tumult is come vp to myne eares, I will put my hoke in thy nostrels, and my byt in thy lippes, and wil bring thee backe againe the same way thou camest.²⁹ And this shalbe a signe vnto thee, O Hezekia: Ye shall eate this yere of such thinges as grow of them selues, and the next yere such as come vp of those that dyd growe of their owne accorde, and the thirde yere sowe ye and reape, plant vineyardes, and eate the fruites therof.³⁰ And it that is escaped and left of the daughter of Iuda, shall yet againe take roting downewarde, and beare fruite vpwarde.³¹ For out of Hierusalem shall go a remnaunt and a number that shall escape out of mout Sion: The zeale of the lord of hoastes shal bring this thing to passe.³² Wherfore thus sayth the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: he shall not come to this citie, nor shote an arrowe into it, nor come before it with shielde, nor cast a banke against it.³³ But shall go backe againe the way he came, and shall not come into this citie, sayth the Lorde.³⁴ For I will defende this citie, to saue it, for myne owne sake, and for Dauid my seruauntes sake.

³⁵ And it came to passe, that the selfe same night the angell of the Lorde went out, and smote in the hoast of the Assyrians an hundred fourescore & fyue thousand: And when the remnaunt were vp early in the morning, beholde they were all dead coarses.³⁶ And so Sennacherib king of Assyria auoyded and departed, and went againe and dwelt at Niniue.³⁷ And it fortuned, that as he was in a temple worshipping Nisroch his God, Adramelech & Saresar his owne sonnes smote hym with the sworde: And they escaped into the lande of Armenia, and Asarhaddon his sonne raigned in his steade.