2 Kings 19
New Living Translation
Hezekiah Seeks the Lord’s Help
19 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby. 4 But perhaps the Lord your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff,[a] sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”
5 After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah, 6 the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers. 7 Listen! I myself will move against him,[b] and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’”
8 Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.
9 Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia[c] was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:
10 “This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria. 11 You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different? 12 Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all! 13 What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. 16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 18 And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. 19 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Predicts Judah’s Deliverance
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria. 21 And the Lord has spoken this word against him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and laughs at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem
shakes her head in derision as you flee.
22 “Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
Against whom did you raise your voice?
At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
It was the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers you have defied the Lord.
You have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have conquered the highest mountains—
yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars
and its finest cypress trees.
I have reached its farthest corners
and explored its deepest forests.
24 I have dug wells in many foreign lands
and refreshed myself with their water.
With the sole of my foot
I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’
25 “But have you not heard?
I decided this long ago.
Long ago I planned it,
and now I am making it happen.
I planned for you to crush fortified cities
into heaps of rubble.
26 That is why their people have so little power
and are so frightened and confused.
They are as weak as grass,
as easily trampled as tender green shoots.
They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,
scorched before it can grow lush and tall.
27 “But I know you well—
where you stay
and when you come and go.
I know the way you have raged against me.
28 And because of your raging against me
and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth.
I will make you return
by the same road on which you came.”
29 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that what I say is true:
“This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,
and next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;
you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 And you who are left in Judah,
who have escaped the ravages of the siege,
will put roots down in your own soil
and will grow up and flourish.
31 For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,
a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies[d]
will make this happen!
32 “And this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria:
“His armies will not enter Jerusalem.
They will not even shoot an arrow at it.
They will not march outside its gates with their shields
nor build banks of earth against its walls.
33 The king will return to his own country
by the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city,
says the Lord.
34 For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,
I will defend this city and protect it.”
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians[e] woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. 36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.
37 One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons[f] Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.
Footnotes
- 19:4 Or the rabshakeh; also in 19:8.
- 19:7 Hebrew I will put a spirit in him.
- 19:9 Hebrew of Cush.
- 19:31 As in Greek and Syriac versions, Latin Vulgate, and an alternate reading of the Masoretic Text (see also Isa 37:32); the other alternate reads the Lord.
- 19:35 Hebrew When they.
- 19:37 As in Greek version and an alternate reading of the Masoretic Text (see also Isa 37:38); the other alternate reading lacks his sons.
2 Kings 19
Common English Bible
Hezekiah and Isaiah
19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. 2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. 3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength to see it through. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God has heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king—how he insulted the living God—perhaps God will punish him for the words the Lord your God heard. Send up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. 7 I’m about to put a spirit in him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.’”
8 The field commander heard that the Assyrian king had left Lachish. So he went back to the king and found him attacking Libnah. 9 Then the Assyrian king learned that Cush’s King Tirhakah was on his way to fight against him. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah again, saying, 10 “Say this to Judah’s King Hezekiah: Don’t let the God you trust in persuade you by saying, ‘Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the Assyrian king.’ 11 You yourself have heard what Assyrian kings do to other countries, wiping them out. Is it likely that you will be saved? 12 Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar—save them? 13 Where now is Hamath’s king, Arpad’s king, or the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?”[a]
Hezekiah’s prayer
14 Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went to the temple and spread them out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord God of Israel, you sit enthroned on the winged creatures. You alone are God over all the earth’s kingdoms. You made both heaven and earth. 16 Lord, turn your ear this way and hear! Lord, open your eyes and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words. He sent them to insult the living God! 17 It’s true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have destroyed many nations and their lands. 18 The Assyrians burned the gods of those nations with fire because they aren’t real gods. They are only man-made creations of wood and stone. That’s how the Assyrians could destroy them. 19 So now, Lord our God, please save us from Sennacherib’s power! Then all the earth’s kingdoms will know that you, Lord, are the only true God.”
20 Then Isaiah, Amoz’s son, sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: I have heard your prayer about Assyria’s King Sennacherib. 21 This is the message that the Lord has spoken against him:
The young woman, Daughter Zion, despises you and mocks you;
Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
22 Whom did you insult and ridicule?
Against whom did you raise your voice
and pridefully lift your eyes?
It was against the holy one of Israel!
23 You’ve insulted the Lord with your messengers;
you said, ‘I, with my many chariots,
have gone up to the highest mountains,
to the farthest reaches of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars,
the best of its pine trees.
I have reached its most remote lodging place,
its best forest.
24 I have dug wells,
have drunk waters in foreign lands.[b]
With my own feet, I dried up
all of Egypt’s streams.’
25 Haven’t you heard?
I set this up long ago;
I planned it in the distant past!
Now I have made it happen,
making fortified cities
collapse into piles of rubble.
26 Their citizens have lost their power.
They are frightened and ashamed.
They’ve become like plants in a field,
tender green shoots,
the grass on rooftops,
burned up before it matures.
27 I know where you live,
how you go out and come in,
and how you rage against me.
28 And because you rage against me
and because your pride has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose,
and my bit in your mouth.
I will make you go back
the same way you came.
29 “Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, sow seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 The survivors of the house of Judah who have escaped will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 Those who remain will go out from Jerusalem, and those who survive will go out from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces[c] will do this.
32 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Assyria’s king: He won’t enter this city. He won’t shoot a single arrow there. He won’t come near the city with a shield. He won’t build a ramp to besiege it. 33 He will go back by the same way he came. He won’t enter this city, declares the Lord. 34 I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 That night the Lord’s messenger went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, there were dead bodies everywhere. 36 So Assyria’s King Sennacherib departed, returning to Nineveh, where he stayed. 37 Later, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. They then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 19:13 Or the king of the city of Sepharvaim or the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah
- 2 Kings 19:24 Heb uncertain
- 2 Kings 19:31 Qere, some Heb sources, and the parallel in Isa 32; Kethib lacks of heavenly forces.
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Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible