2 Kings 19

And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Yahweh.

Then he sent Eliakim who was Over the House, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says, ‘This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke and of disgrace, for the children have come to the point of birth and there is no strength for giving birth.

It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

And Isaiah said to them, “Tell your lord this: ‘This is what Yahweh says, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servant boys of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and will return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

And Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

Now Sennacherib had heard a report concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia saying, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers back to Hezekiah, saying,

“This is what you are to say to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘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.”

Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be rescued?

Have the gods of the nations rescued those whom my fathers have destroyed, such as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?

Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

And Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the house of Yahweh and Hezekiah spread it out before Yahweh.

Then Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.

Incline your ear, O Yahweh, and hear! Open your eyes, O Yahweh, and see! And hear the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to defy the living God.

It is true, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands

and have put their gods in the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, so they have destroyed them.

But now, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, are God, you alone!”

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what Yahweh the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.’

This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: “The virgin Daughter Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. Daughter Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

Through the hand of your messengers you have defied the Lord and have said, ‘With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon, and I have cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees, and I have entered into its farthest lodging place, the forest of its fruitful field.

I have dug wells and drank the waters of foreigners, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.’

“Have you not heard? Long ago I made it and I formed it in ancient times. Now I have brought it to pass, crashing fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and put to shame. They were like the plants of the field and like the green vegetation, like the grass on the housetops and like standing grain scorched before it has grown up.

“But I know your sitting down, and your going out and your coming in and your raging against me.

Because of your raging against me and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will make you return by the road on which you came.

“And this will be the sign to you, Hezekiah: this year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs up that same way, but in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

The remnant of the house of Judah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and survivors will come from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will accomplish this!”’

“Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there, nor will he come before it with shield nor build up a siege ramp against it.

By the road that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come into this city,’ says Yahweh.

‘For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’”

And that night the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when they got up early in the morning, behold, all of them were corpses; dead men.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and he went away and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.

And 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 Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.