¹³ During the fourteenth year of the reign of^[a] King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria approached all of the walled cities of Judah and seized them. ¹⁴ So Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: “I have offended you. Withdraw from me, and I’ll accept whatever tribute you impose.” So the king of Assyria required Hezekiah to pay him 300 talents^[b] of silver and 30 talents^[c] of gold. ¹⁵ Hezekiah gave him all the silver that could be removed from the Lord’s Temple and from the treasuries in the king’s palace. ¹⁶ At that time, Hezekiah removed the doors to the Lord’s Temple and the doorposts that he had overlaid with gold,^[d] and gave the gold^[e] to the king of Assyria.

Assyria’s King Taunts Hezekiah^(A)

¹⁷ Sometime later, the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, accompanied with a large army. ¹⁸ When they called for the king, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them. ¹⁹ Rab-shakeh told them, “Tell Hezekiah right now, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:

²⁶ At this, Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah asked Rab-shakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it, but don’t speak the language of Judah to us within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷ But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, “Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine^[g]—along with you?” ²⁸ Then Rab-shakeh stood up and cried out loud, “Listen to what the great king, the king of Assyria has to say. ²⁹ This is what the king says:

³⁶ But the people remained silent and did not answer with even so much as a word, because the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”

³⁷ But Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn^[m] and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

19 When King Hezekiah heard Eliakim’s report,^[n] he tore his clothes, put on a sackcloth covering, entered the Lord’s Temple, ² and sent Eliakim the household supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests—all of them covered in sackcloth—to Amoz’s son, the prophet Isaiah. ³ They announced to him:

⁵ That is how the King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah.

⁶ In reply, Isaiah responded to them, “Here’s how you’re to report to your master:

Sennacherib Defies God^(B)

⁸ So Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria at war with Libnah, because Rab-shakeh had heard that the king had left Lachish. ⁹ When he heard that it was being said about King Tirhakah of Ethiopia,^[q] “Look! He has come out to attack you!” he again sent messengers to Hezekiah.

The messengers were told, ¹⁰ “This is what you are to say to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you by telling you^[r] “Jerusalem won’t be turned over to the control^[s] of Assyria’s king.” ¹¹ ‘Look! you’ve heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands—they completely destroyed them! Will you be spared? ¹² Did the gods of those nations whom my ancestors destroyed deliver them, including Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s descendants in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sephar-vaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer for Help

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the messages from the couriers, read them, went up to the Lord’s Temple, and laid them out in the presence of the Lord. ¹⁵ Then Hezekiah prayed in the presence of the Lord, “Lord God of Israel! You live between the cherubim! You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have fashioned the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶ Turn^[t] your ear, Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, Lord, and observe! Listen to the message sent by Sennacherib to insult the living God! ¹⁷ Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated nations and their territories, ¹⁸ throwing their gods into the fire, since they weren’t gods but rather were the product of men’s handiwork—wood and stone. And so they destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now, Lord our God, I’m praying that you will deliver us from his control, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God!”

God’s Answer through Isaiah the Prophet

²⁰ Then Amoz’s son Isaiah sent word to Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria, I have listened.’”

²¹ “This is what the Lord has spoken against him:

²⁹ “This will serve as a sign for you: you’ll eat this year from what grows by itself, in the second year what grows from that, and in the third year you’ll sow, reap, plant vineyards, and enjoy^[w] their fruit. ³⁰ Those who survive from Judah’s household will again put down deep roots and bear fruit extensively,^{[x] 31} because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord^[y] will bring this about.”

³² “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘Not only will he not approach this city or shoot an arrow in its direction, he won’t approach it with so much as a shield, nor will he throw up a siege ramp against it. ³³ He’ll return on the same route by which he came—he won’t come to this city,’ declares the Lord. ³⁴ ‘I will defend this city and preserve it for my own reasons, and because of my servant David.’”

² Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander,^[a] along with a very^[b] large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the field commander stopped at the aqueduct at the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman’s Field, ³ Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah, the recorder, went out to him.

⁴ The field commander told them:

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to him,^[p] “Please speak with^[q] your servants—with us^[r]—in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew^[s] where the people sitting on^[t] the wall can hear.”

¹² But the field commander asked, “Was it only to all of you and to your^[u] master that my master sent me to speak these things? Wasn’t it also to the men sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

¹³ Then the^[v] commander stood up and shouted out loud in Hebrew:^[w]

²¹ But the people remained silent and didn’t respond to him with so much as a single word, because the king had commanded, “Don’t answer him.”

²² Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah, the recorder, approached Hezekiah with their clothes torn,^[ai] and let him know what the field commander had said.