2 Kings 18:13-19:37

New American Standard Bible 1995

Invasion of Judah

^13 (A)Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. ¹⁴ Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “^(B)I have done wrong. ^[a]Withdraw from me; whatever you ^[b]impose on me I will bear.” So the king of Assyria ^[c]required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ^15 (C)Hezekiah gave him all the silver which was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. ¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria sent ^(D)Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the ^(E)conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the ^[d]fuller’s field. ¹⁸ When they called to the king, ^(F)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(G)Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

¹⁹ Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “^(H)What is this confidence that you ^[e]have? ²⁰ You say (but they are ^[f]only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, ^(I)that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Now behold, you ^[g](J)rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his ^[h]hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. ²² But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and ^(K)whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? ²³ Now therefore, ^[i]come, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ²⁴ How then can you ^[j]repulse one ^[k]official of the least of my master’s servants, and ^[l]rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵ Have I now come up ^[m]without the Lord’s approval against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

²⁶ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we ^[n]understand it; and do not speak with us in ^[o](L)Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷ But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸ Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, ^[p]saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. ²⁹ Thus says the king, ‘^(M)Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from ^[q]my hand; ³⁰ nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “^[r]Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat ^(N)each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, ³² until I come and take you away ^(O)to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” ^33 (P)Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ^34 (Q)Where are the gods of Hamath and ^(R)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and ^[s](S)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵ Who among all the gods of the lands ^[t]have delivered their land from my hand, ^(T)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷ Then ^(U)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^(V)with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

19 ^(W)And when King Hezekiah heard it, he ^(X)tore his clothes, ^(Y)covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. ² Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^(Z)covered with sackcloth, to ^(AA)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. ^4 (AB)Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(AC)to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(AD)the remnant that is left.’” ⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ^(AE)servants of the king of Assyria ^(AF)have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ^(AG)he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And ^(AH)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Defies God

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(AI)Libnah, for he had heard that ^[u]the king had left ^(AJ)Lachish. ⁹ When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^[v]Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[w]Judah, ‘Do not ^(AK)let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, “^(AL)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 the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be ^[x]spared? ^12 (AM)Did the gods of ^[y]those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even ^(AN)Gozan and ^(AO)Haran and Rezeph and ^(AP)the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (AQ)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴ Then ^(AR)Hezekiah took the ^[z]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and ^[aa]spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, ^(AS)who are ^[ab]enthroned above the cherubim, ^(AT)You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ^16 (AU)Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^(AV)open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^(AW)to reproach the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands ¹⁸ and have cast their gods into the fire, ^(AX)for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand ^(AY)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ^(AZ)Lord, are God.”

God’s Answer through Isaiah

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^(BA)I have heard you.’ ²¹ This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

²⁹ ‘Then this shall be ^(BP)the sign for you: ^[ai]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ^30 (BQ)The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹ For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and ^(BR)out of Mount Zion ^[aj]survivors. ^(BS)The zeal of ^[ak]the Lord will perform this.

³² ‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “^(BT)He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. ^33 (BU)By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. ³⁴ ‘^(BV)For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ^(BW)for My servant David’s sake.’”

^35 (BX)Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when ^[al]men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were ^[am]dead. ³⁶ So ^(BY)Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at ^(BZ)Nineveh. ³⁷ It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that ^[an](CA)Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into ^(CB)the land of Ararat. And ^(CC)Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.