Hezekiah’s Prayer^(A)

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter^(B) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,^(C) you alone^(D) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Give ear,^(E) Lord, and hear;^(F) open your eyes,^(G) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

¹⁷ “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. ¹⁸ They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods^(H) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^{(I) 19} Now, Lord our God, deliver^(J) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms^(K) of the earth may know^(L) that you alone, Lord, are God.”

³⁵ That night the angel of the Lord^(A) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!^{(B) 36} So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.^(C) He returned to Nineveh^(D) and stayed there.

³⁷ One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek^(E) and Sharezer killed him with the sword,^(F) and they escaped to the land of Ararat.^(G) And Esarhaddon^(H) his son succeeded him as king.