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Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help

¹ And ^(C1)when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the LORD.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 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a ^(C1)day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for ^(C2)children have come to birth, and there is no strength to ^(F1)deliver.⁴ 'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(C1)reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(C2)the remnant that is left.'"

⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.⁶ Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD, "^(C1)Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.⁷ "Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will ^(C1)hear a rumor 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 left ^(C2)Lachish.⁹ When he ^(C1)heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^(F1)(C2)Cush, "He has come out to fight against you," and when he heard it he 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, destroying them completely. So will you be ^(F1)spared?¹² 'Did the gods of ^(F1)those nations which my fathers have destroyed 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 the LORD and ^(F2)spread it out before the LORD.¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying,¹⁶ "O LORD 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 LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and ^(C2)listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ^(C3)reproach the living God.¹⁸ "Truly, O LORD, the ^(C1)kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands,¹⁹ 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 "Now, O LORD our God, ^(C1)deliver us from his hand that ^(C2)all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, ^(F1)are God."

God Answers through Isaiah

²¹ Then ^(C1)Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,²² this is the word that the LORD 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 ^(C1)reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice
And ^(F1)haughtily ^(C2)lifted up your eyes?
Against the ^(C3)Holy One of Israel!

²⁴ "Through your servants you have 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 ^(F1)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 ancient times I ^(C2)planned it.
Now ^(C3)I have brought it to pass,
That ^(C4)you should turn fortified cities into ^(C5)ruinous heaps.

²⁷ "Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the ^(C1)vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As ^(C2)grass on the housetops ^(F1)is scorched before it is grown up.

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)arrogance 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 itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.³¹ "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 the LORD of hosts will perform this."'

³³ "Therefore, thus says the LORD 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 the LORD.³⁵ 'For I will ^(C1)defend this city to save it ^(C2)for My own sake and for My servant David's sake.'"

Assyrians Destroyed

³⁶ Then the ^(C1)angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when ^(F1)men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were ^(F2)dead.³⁷ So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and ^(F1)returned home and lived at ^(C1)Nineveh.³⁸ It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of ^(C1)Ararat. And ^(C2)Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.