⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which ^(A)the servants of the king of Assyria have ^(B)reviled me.

³⁵ Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, ^(A)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

¹⁷ And the king of Assyria sent the ^(A)Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by ^(B)the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field.

⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. ⁷ Behold, ^(A)I will put a spirit in him, so that ^(B)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and ^(C)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸ The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(D)Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left ^(E)Lachish. ⁹ Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of ^(F)Cush,^[a] “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ^(G)‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ^12 (H)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^(I)Gozan, ^(J)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (K)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer for Deliverance

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶ “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, ^(L)enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; ^(M)you have made heaven and earth. ^17 (N)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear ^(O)all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸ Truly, O Lord, ^(P)the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, ¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ²⁰ So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”

Sennacherib's Fall

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, ²² this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

³⁰ “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³¹ And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah ^(Z)shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ^32 (AA)For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. ^(AB)The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

³³ “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or ^(AC)cast up a siege mound against it. ³⁴ By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ^35 (AD)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for ^(AE)the sake of my servant David.”

^36 (AF)And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at ^(AG)Nineveh. ³⁸ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of ^(AH)Ararat, ^(AI)Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

¹⁵ And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ^(A)‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, ^(B)for the battle is not yours but God's.

⁶ It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling,^[a] that is, those who dwell in heaven.