Read the Bible

¹ Whan Ezechias ye kynge herde this, he rente his clothes, & put on a sack cloth, & wente in to ye house of the LORDE,² & sent Eliachim the stewarde & Sobna the Scrybe with the Eldest prestes, clothed in sackcloth, vnto the prophet Esay ye sonne of Amos,³ & they saide vnto him: Thus sayeth Ezechias: This is a daye of trouble, & of defiaunce & blasphemy. The childre are come to the byrth, & there is no strength to be delyuered of them.⁴ Yf happly the LORDE thy God wil heare all the wordes of ye chefe butler, whom his lorde the kynge of Assiria hath sent, to blasphemie ye lyuynge God, & to defye him with soch wordes as the LORDE thy God hath herde, therfore lifte thou vp thy prayer for the remnaunt, which are yet lefte behynde.⁵ And wha kynge Ezechias seruauntes came to Esay,⁶ Esay sayde vnto them: Speake thus vnto youre lorde: Thus sayeth the LORDE: Feare not thou the wordes yt thou hast herde, wherwith the kynge of Assirias seruauntes haue blasphemed me.⁷ Beholde, I wil put him in another mynde, so yt he shall heare tydinges, & go agayne in to his awne countre, and in his awne londe wil I cause him to fall thorow the swerde.

⁸ And whan ye chefe butlar came agayne, he founde the kynge of Assiria fightinge agaynst Libna: for he had herde that he was departed from Lachis.⁹ And he herde of Taracha the kynge of the Morians: Beholde, he is gone forth to fighte with the.¹⁰ Then turned he back, & sent messaungers to Ezechias, & caused to saye vnto him: Let not thy God disceaue the, on whom thou trustest & sayest: Ierusalem shal not be geue in to the hade of the kynge of Assiria.¹¹ Beholde, thou hast herde what the kynges of Assiria haue done vnto all londes, & how they daned them, & shalt thou be delyuered?¹² Haue ye goddes of ye Heithen delyuered the, whom my father destroyed, as Gosan, Haran, Reseph, & the childre of Eden which were at Thalassar?¹³ Where is ye kynge of Hemath, ye kynge of Arphad, & ye kinge of ye cite Sepharnaim, Hena & Iua?¹⁴ And whan Ezechias had receaued the letters of the messaungers and had red them, he wente vp vnto the house of the LORDE, and layed them abrode before the LORDE,¹⁵ & made his prayer before the LORDE, and sayde: O LORDE God of Israel, thou that syttest vpo the Cherubins, thou onely art God amonge all ye kyngdomes of the earth, thou hast made heauen and earth.¹⁶ Enclyne thine eare O LORDE, and heare: open thine eyes, and beholde, and heare the wordes of Sennacherib, which hath sent hither to blaspheme the lyuynge God.¹⁷ It is true (O LORDE) that the kynges of Assiria haue destroyed the Heythen and their londe with the swerde,¹⁸ and haue cast their goddes in the fyre: for they were not Goddes, but ye worke of mes hondes, wodd and stone, therfore haue they destroyed them.¹⁹ But now O LORDE helpe thou vs out of his hande, that all the kyngdomes vpon earth maye knowe, that thou LORDE art God alone.

²⁰ Then sent Esay the sonne of Amos vnto Ezechias, sayenge: Thus sayeth the LORDE God of Israel: Where as thou hast made thy prayer vnto me concernynge Sennacherib ye kynge of Assiria, I haue herde it.²¹ This is it that the LORDE hath spoken agaynst him: He hath despysed ye and mocked the O virgin thou doughter Sion: he hath shake his heade at the O doughter Ierusalem.²² Whom hast thou despysed & blasphemed? Ouer whom hast thou lifte vp thy voyce? Eue agaynst ye holy one in Israel hast thou lifte vp thine eyes:²³ thou hast blasphemed ye LORDE by thy messaungers, and sayde: Thorow the multitude of my charettes haue I gone vp to the toppes of the mountaynes, vpon the sydes of Libanus. I haue hewen downe his hye Ceders and his chosen Pyne trees, and am come to the vttemost habitacion of the wod of Carmel that belongeth vnto it.²⁴ I haue dygged and dronke vp the straunge waters, and with ye soles of my fete haue I dryed vp the See.²⁵ But hast thou not herde how that I haue done this longe agoo, and haue prepared it from the begynnynge? Now haue I caused it for to come, that contencious stronge cities mighte fall into a waist heape of stones,²⁶ & they that dwell therin, shal be faynte, and fearfull and a shamed, and shal be as the grasse vpon the felde, and as ye grene herbe and hay vpon the house toppes, that wythereth afore it be growne vp.²⁷ I knowe thy habitacion, thy out and ingoynge, and that thou ragest agaynst me.²⁸ For so moch then as thou ragest agaynst me, and seynge thy presumpcion is come vp to myne eares, therfore wyll I put a rynge in thy nose, and a brydle bytt in thy lippes, and wyll brynge the agayne, euen the same waye thou camest.²⁹ And let this be a token vnto the O Ezechias. In this yeare eate yt which is fallen. in the seconde yeare soch as groweth of it selfe: In ye thirde yeare sowe and reape, and plante vynyardes, and eate the frute therof.³⁰ And the doughter Iuda which is escaped & remayneth, shall from hence forth take rote beneth, and beare frute aboue.³¹ For the remnaunt shal go forth from Ierusalem, & they yt are escaped, shall go out fro mount Sion. The gelousy of the LORDE Zebaoth shall brynge this to passe.³² Therfore thus sayeth the LORDE concernynge ye kynge of the Assyrians: He shall not come in to this cite, and shall shute no arowe therin, nether shal there come eny shylde before it, nether shall he dygge eny backe aboute it,³³ but shal go agayne the waye that he came, and shall not come in to this cite, sayeth the LORDE:³⁴ and I wyll defende this cite, to helpe it for myne awne sake, and for my seruaunt Dauids sake.

³⁵ And in the same nighte wente the angell of the LORDE, and smote in the hoost of the Assyrians, an hundreth and fyue and foure score thousande men. And whan they gatt them vp in the mornynge, beholde, all laye full of deed coarses.³⁶ So Sennacherib the kinge of Assyria brake vp, and departed, and returned, and abode at Niniue.³⁷ And as he worshipped in ye house of Nesrach his god, his awne sonnes Adramalech and Sarazer smote him with the swerde, and fled in to ye londe of Ararat. And Asarhadon his sonne was kynge in his steade.