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¹ AND when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.² And he sent Eliakim, the steward of 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 to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress and of rebuke and of anger; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength in the mother to bring forth.⁴ It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom his master, the Assyrian king has sent to reproach the living God; and will rebuke him for the words which the LORD your God has heard; therefore beseech and pray for the remnant that is left.⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah the prophet.⁶ And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you say to your master: Thus says the LORD, Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the ambassadors of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.⁷ Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸ So the Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.⁹ And when he heard it said concerning Tarhak king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,¹⁰ Thus shall you say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria.¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lances by destroying them utterly; and shall you be delivered?¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, such as Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and the inhabitants of Eden who were in Thelasar?¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of Sepharvim, and of Dena, and Ivah?¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letters from the hand of the messengers, and read them; and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD.¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, O LORD God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, over all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made the heaven and the earth.¹⁶ O LORD, incline thine ear and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent messages to reproach the living God.¹⁷ Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,¹⁸ And have burned their gods in fire; for they were no gods, but the works of mens hands, wood and stone; therefore they have burned them.¹⁹ Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hands, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou alone.

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the LORD God of Israel: That which you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.²¹ This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin the daughter of Zion despises you and laughs you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.²² Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voices and lifted up your eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel.²³ By your messengers you have reproached the LORD and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I will go up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the extreme limits of the forest of Carmel.²⁴ I will dig and drink strange waters, and with the hoofs of my horses I will dry up all the great rivers.²⁵ Have you not heard long ago how I have done it, and of the days of old how I prepared it? And now I have brought it to pass, that you lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps;²⁶ Therefore their inhabitants became weak, they were defeated and confounded, and became like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like tender grass blasted before it is grown up.²⁷ But I know your dwelling place and your coming in and your going out and your rage against me.²⁸ Because you have dared and raged against me, and your blasphemy has come to my ears, therefore I will put a hook in your nose and a bit in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.²⁹ And this shall be a sign to you: you shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and. eat the fruits thereof.³⁰ And the remnant that is left of the house of Judah shall increase, they shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.³¹ For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of the mount of Zion; the zeal of the LORD Of hosts shall do this.³² Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shields nor lay an ambush against it.³³ But by the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not enter this city, says the LORD.³⁴ For I will abide in this city and save it for my own sake and for my servant Davids sake.

³⁵ And it came to pass that night, the angel of the LORD went out and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when the survivors arose early in the morning, they looked, and behold, their comrades were all dead.³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.³⁷ And as he worshipped in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammeleck and Sharezer his sons slew him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Sarhaddom his son reigned in his stead.