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Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah's Help

¹ Now ^(C1)when King Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD.² Then he sent ^(C1)Eliakim, who was in charge of 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, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'This day is a ^(C1)day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for ^(C2)children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to ^(F1)deliver them.⁴ 'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ^(C1)taunt the living God, and will avenge 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 And Isaiah said to them, "This is what you shall say to your master: 'This is what the LORD says: "^(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 am going to put a spirit in him so that he will ^(C1)hear news 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 Now he ^(C1)heard them say regarding 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 "This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^(F1)Judah: '^(C1)Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, "Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria."¹¹ '^(C1)Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved?¹² 'Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: ^(C1)Gozan, ^(C2)Haran, 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 "LORD of armies, 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 made heaven and earth.¹⁷ "^(C1)Incline Your ear, LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, LORD, and see; and ^(C2)listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to ^(C3)taunt the living God.¹⁸ "Truly, LORD, the ^(C1)kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries and their lands,¹⁹ and have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but only the ^(C1)work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have ^(C2)destroyed them.²⁰ "But now LORD, our God, ^(C1)save us from his hand, so that ^(C2)all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, ^(F1)LORD, are God."

God Answers through Isaiah

²¹ Then ^(C1)Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: '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 shown contempt for you and derided you,
The ^(C1)virgin ^(C2)daughter of Zion;
The daughter of Jerusalem has ^(C3)shaken her head behind you!

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

²⁴ "Through your servants you have taunted 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 junipers.
And I will come 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 canals 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 about
That ^(C4)you would turn fortified cities into ^(C5)ruined heaps.

²⁷ "Therefore their inhabitants were ^(F1)powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame;
They were like the ^(C1)vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like ^(C2)grass on the housetops ^(F2)that is scorched before it has grown.

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

²⁹ "Because of your raging against Me
And because your ^(C1)complacency has come up to My ears,
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 that 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 grows from the same, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.³¹ "The ^(C1)survivors that are ^(C2)left of the house of Judah will again ^(C3)take root downward and bear fruit upward.³² "For out of Jerusalem a ^(C1)remnant will go, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The ^(C2)zeal of the LORD of armies will perform this."'

³³ "Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: 'He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, nor heap up an ^(C1)assault 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)protect 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 the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of ^(F1)the 185,000 were ^(F2)dead.³⁷ So Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and ^(F1)returned home and lived in ^(C1)Nineveh.³⁸ Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to the land of ^(C1)Ararat. And his son ^(C2)Esarhaddon became king in his place.