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Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help

¹ Now it happened that ^(C1)when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh.² Then he sent ^(C1)Eliakim, who was over the household with ^(C2)Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to ^(C3)Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.³ And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a ^(C1)day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for ^(C2)children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth.⁴ 'Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(F1)(C1)reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^(C2)the remnant that is left.'"

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.⁶ And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says Yahweh, "^(C1)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.⁷ "Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ^(C1)hear a report and ^(C2)return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land."'"

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(C1)Libnah, for he had heard that ^(F1)the king had set out from ^(C2)Lachish.⁹ Then he ^(C1)heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^(F1)(C2)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 ^(F1)Judah, '^(C1)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."¹¹ '^(C1)Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered?¹² 'Did the gods of ^(F1)those nations, which my fathers have brought to ruin, deliver them, even ^(C1)Gozan and ^(C2)Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?¹³ 'Where 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

¹⁴ Then Hezekiah took the ^(F1)letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ^(F2)spread it out before Yahweh.¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh saying,¹⁶ "O Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ^(C1)who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the ^(C2)God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. ^(C3)You have made heaven and earth.¹⁷ "^(C1)Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and ^(C2)listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ^(F1)(C3)reproach the living God.¹⁸ "Truly, O Yahweh, the ^(C1)kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the countries and their lands¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the ^(C1)work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have ^(C2)destroyed them.²⁰ "But now, O Yahweh our God, ^(C1)save us from his hand that ^(C2)all the kingdoms of the earth may know that ^(F1)You are Yahweh, You alone."

Yahweh's Answer Through Isaiah

²¹ Then ^(C1)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,²² this is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him:

"She has despised you and mocked you,
The ^(C1)virgin ^(C2)daughter of Zion;
She has ^(C3)shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!

²³ "Whom have you ^(F1)(C1)reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you heightened your voice
And ^(F2)haughtily ^(C2)lifted up your eyes?
Against the ^(C3)Holy One of Israel!

²⁴ "Through your servants you have ^(F1)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 ^(C1)Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall ^(C2)cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I will go to its ^(F2)highest peak, its thickest ^(C3)forest.

²⁵ 'I dug wells and drank waters,
And ^(C1)with the sole of my feet I dried up
All the rivers of ^(F1)Egypt.'

²⁶ "^(C1)Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From days of old I ^(C2)formed it.
Now ^(C3)I have brought it to pass,
That ^(C4)you should devastate fortified cities into ^(C5)ruinous heaps.

²⁷ "So their inhabitants were short of power;
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the ^(C1)plant of the field and as the green herb,
As ^(C2)grass on the rooftops ^(F1)is scorched before it rises.

²⁸ "But I ^(C1)know your sitting down
And your going out and your coming in
And your raging against Me.

²⁹ "Because of your raging against Me
And because your ^(F1)(C1)presumptuousness has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My ^(C2)hook in your nose
And My ^(C3)bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back ^(C4)by the way which you came.

³⁰ "Then this shall be the sign for you: ^(F1)you will eat this year what ^(C1)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.³¹ "And the ^(C1)surviving ^(C2)remnant of the house of Judah will again ^(C3)take root downward and bear fruit upward.³² "For out of Jerusalem will go forth a ^(C1)remnant and out of Mount Zion ^(F1)survivors. The ^(C2)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 ^(C1)siege ramp against it.³⁴ '^(C1)By 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 ^(C1)defend this city to save it ^(C2)for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'"

The Defeat and Death of Sennacherib

³⁶ Then the ^(C1)angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And ^(F1)the men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead bodies.³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and ^(F1)returned home and lived at ^(C1)Nineveh.³⁸ Now 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 ^(C1)Ararat. And ^(C2)Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.