2 Kings 19
The Voice
19 King Hezekiah tore his clothes after he heard what had been said. He then covered himself with sackcloth and entered the Eternal’s temple. 2 Hezekiah dispatched the palace administrator, Eliakim, along with Shebna the lawyer and the priest-elders, to go meet with the prophet Isaiah (Amoz’s son). Eliakim, Shebna, and the elders all went wearing sackcloth.
Eliakim, Shebna, and the Elders (to Isaiah): 3 This is Hezekiah’s message: “Today is filled with hours of sorrow, pain, anxiety, and reproof. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Eternal One your God will disprove the words of Rabshakeh, whom Assyria’s king has sent to taunt the living God. So pray hard that your God, the Eternal One, will rebuke those words and save His few children who remain.”
5 King Hezekiah’s servants approached Isaiah, 6 and Isaiah spoke to them.
Isaiah: Go back and tell your master, “This is the Eternal’s urgent message: ‘Have no fear of the blasphemy which the servants of Assyria’s kings have spoken. They are merely empty words. 7 I am going to infect Assyria’s king with a spirit, and he will hear a rumor and go back to his homeland. There I will cause him to die by the sword.’”
8 Rabshakeh returned to the Assyrian king who was now battling against the city of Libnah because he had heard that the king had abandoned Lachish.
9-10 Sennacherib then received word about Tirhakah, Cush’s king: “He is preparing to fight you.” So Sennacherib sent a message again to Hezekiah.
Sennacherib’s Message: Hezekiah, king of Judah, I warn you not to be fooled by your God, on whom you rely, when He says, “Jerusalem will not be conquered by Assyria’s king.” 11 Surely you have heard about how the kings of Assyria demolished all the nations completely—every last one of them. Do you really think you will be rescued? 12 Were the people of those nations saved by their gods when my fathers attacked? Were Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden’s sons in Telassar ever rescued? No! 13 And what happened to the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim’s city, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and then placed it before the Eternal in His temple.
Hezekiah (praying to the Lord): 15 O Eternal One, Israel’s God, who sits above the winged guardians, You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth, the One who made heaven and earth. 16 Eternal One, open up Your ears and Your eyes so You may hear and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib uses to reject the living God. 17 Eternal One, I certainly know that the Assyrian kings have destroyed the nations and lands. 18 I know how they have thrown the gods of the nations into the flames of the fire and destroyed them, but those gods were created out of wood and stones by men. 19 Eternal One, our True God, I pray You save us now from Sennacherib’s conquest—the fate that all the other nations have suffered—so that every nation on earth will know that You alone, Eternal One, are God.
20 Isaiah (Amoz’s son) sent a message to Hezekiah.
Isaiah’s Message: This is the message of the Eternal One, Israel’s God: “Because you have come to Me about Assyria’s king, Sennacherib, I have heard every word you have prayed.”
21 This is the Eternal’s message against Sennacherib:
“She has abhorred and ridiculed you,
Zion’s virgin daughter.
She has ridiculed you behind your back,
Jerusalem’s daughter!
22 Whom have you rebuked and spoken blasphemies against?
Whom do you speak loudly against?
And arrogantly lift up your eyes
against the Holy One, Israel’s God?
23 Your messengers have been your vessels of rebuke against the Lord;
you have spoken, ‘In the company of my countless chariots,
I arrived at the mountain heights.
At the most distant lands of Lebanon,
I chopped down the tallest cedars
and the finest-looking cypress trees.
I went to its most distant resting place,
in its deepest forest.
24 I made wells in the ground
and quenched my thirst with foreign waters;
With the bottom of my feet I soaked up
every last drop of Egypt’s rivers.’
25 Don’t you know?
I did this thing a long time ago;
From the beginning, I planned it.
I have now done it,
So that you might cause strong cities
to turn into piles of rubble.
26 Those who lived there were weak;
they were distressed and humiliated.
They became like the grass that grows in the field
and also like the green herb,
Just like grass that grows on the roofs of houses
but is burned by the sun before it gets too high and thick.
27 But I am aware of everything you do—
when you sit down, when you go out, when you return—
and I am aware of your fury against Me.
28 Because you have raged against Me,
because your arrogance has flooded My ears,
I am going to insert My hook into your nose
and harness your lips with My bridle,
And I will send you back in the direction
from which you came.
29 “This will be the sign for you: for the first year, you will feast on what grows on its own; for the second year, you will feast on what grows from the original source; and for the third year, you will prepare the soil, gather, plant vineyards, and feast on their fruit. 30 Whatever is left of Judah’s house will again spread its roots down into the soil and grow upward with fruit. 31 A remnant will depart from Jerusalem; survivors will depart from Mount Zion. This will all be accomplished by the intense passion of the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.”
32 This is the Eternal’s message regarding Assyria’s king: “He will not approach this city, nor will he shoot an arrow toward it. He will not approach it with a shield in hand or construct a ramp against it. 33 He will go back the same way he came, and he will not approach this city.” This is the Eternal’s message. 34 “I will defend this city in order to preserve it for My own honor and for the honor of David, My servant.”
35 That night one of the Eternal One’s heavenly messengers invaded the Assyrian camp and struck 185,000 men. When they woke up the next morning, the camp was filled with corpses. 36 Assyria’s king, Sennacherib, went away and returned to his own land, Nineveh.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword. Then they fled to Ararat. Sennacherib’s son, Esarhaddon, then inherited the throne.
2 Kings 19
English Standard Version
Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah
19 (A)As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, (B)he tore his clothes and (C)covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, (D)covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 (E)It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent (F)to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for (G)the remnant that is left.” 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 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 (H)the servants of the king of Assyria have (I)reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that (J)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him (K)fall by the sword in his own land.’”
Sennacherib Defies the Lord
8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against (L)Libnah, for he heard that the king had left (M)Lachish. 9 (N)Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God (O)in whom you trust deceive you by promising that (P)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 (Q)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, (R)Gozan, (S)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of (T)Eden who were in Telassar? 13 (U)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
14 Hezekiah received (V)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 before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, (W)enthroned above the cherubim, (X)you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth. 16 (Y)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; (Z)open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent (AA)to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, (AB)but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, (AC)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that (AD)you, O Lord, are God alone.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria (AE)I have heard. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
“She despises you, she scorns you—
(AF)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she (AG)wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 “Whom have you (AH)mocked and (AI)reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against (AJ)the Holy One of Israel!
23 (AK)By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, (AL)‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of (AM)Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most (AN)fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams (AO)of Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard
that (AP)I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what (AQ)now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become (AR)like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
(AS)and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will (AT)put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and (AU)I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
29 “And this shall be (AV)the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 (AW)And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion (AX)a band of survivors. (AY)The zeal of the Lord will do this.
32 “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 (AZ)cast up a siege mound against it. 33 (BA)By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 (BB)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake (BC)and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 And that night (BD)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. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at (BE)Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, (BF)Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
