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¹ AND it came to pass, 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, who was 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 is a day of distress and of rebuke and of anger; for the children have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.⁴ It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove him on account of the words which the LORD your God has heard; wherefore beseech and pray for the remnant that is left.⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.⁶ And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you say to your master: Thus says the LORD: Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, wherewith the messengers of the king of Assyria have blasphemed in my presence.⁷ Behold, I will send a blast against him, and he shall hear a rumor and 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 was departed from Lachish.⁹ And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come forth to fight with you. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,¹⁰ Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will 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 lands by destroying them utterly; and shall you be delivered?¹² Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, even Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the inhabitants of Eden, and them of Bedlassar?¹³ Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arphad and the king of the city of Sepharvim and of Dena and of Aka?¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD.¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, saying,¹⁶ O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest above the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.¹⁷ Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to reproach the living God.¹⁸ Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands;¹⁹ And have burned their lands and their gods with fire; for they were no gods, but the work of mens hands, of wood, of silver, and of stone; therefore they have destroyed them.²⁰ Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hands, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the God, even thou only.

²¹ Then Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: All that you have prayed before me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria have I heard;²² This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you and laughs you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem wags her head at you.²³ Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!²⁴ By the hand of your messengers you have reproached the LORD, and you have said, By the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the height of its border, to the forest of Carmel.²⁵ I will dig, and drink water; and with the hoofs of my horses will I dry up all the great rivers.²⁶ Have you not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of the days of old, that I have prepared it? Now I have brought it to pass, that you should be laid waste and desolate as when fortified cities are in ruin,²⁷ Whose inhabitants were weak, and were defeated and confounded, and became like the grass of the field and the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, as tender blades of wheat blasted before it is grown up.²⁸ I know your conduct and your going out and your coming in and your daring threat in my presence.²⁹ Because you have dared in my presence and your blasphemous words have come up into my ears, therefore I will put a hook in your nose and a bit between your lips, and I will cause you to return by the way by which you came.³⁰ And this shall be a sign for you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year you shall sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.³¹ And the remnant that survives of the house of Judah shall again return, and shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward;³² For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion; the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.³³ 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 cast siege-works against it.³⁴ But by the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not enter this city, says the LORD.³⁵ For I will defend this city and save it for my own sake and for my servant Davids sake.³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand: and when the soldiers arose early in the morning, behold, their comrades were all dead.³⁷ So Sennacherib departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.³⁸ And it came to pass as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god that Adrammeleck and Sharezar, his sons, slew him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Kardo, and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.