³⁴ So Jacob ^(A)tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.

David’s Lament for Abner

³¹ Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, “^(A)Tear your clothes and gird on sackcloth and lament before Abner.” And King David walked behind the bier.

²⁷ Now it happened when Ahab heard these words, that ^(A)he tore his clothes and put ^[a]on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about ^[b]despondently.

Isaiah Tells Hezekiah Not to Be Afraid

19 ^(A)Now it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he ^(B)tore his clothes, ^(C)covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ² Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^(D)covered with sackcloth, to ^(E)Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³ And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ^4 (F)Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(G)to ^[a]reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^(H)the remnant that is left.’” ⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ^(I)young men of the king of Assyria ^(J)have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ^(K)he will hear a report and return to his own land. And ^(L)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Deceives Hezekiah

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(M)Libnah, for he had heard that ^[b]the king had set out from ^(N)Lachish. ⁹ Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ^[c]Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, ¹⁰ “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[d]Judah, ‘Do not ^(O)let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “^(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 the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ^12 (Q)Did the gods of ^[e]those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even ^(R)Gozan and ^(S)Haran and Rezeph and ^(T)the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (U)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 ^(V)Hezekiah took the ^[f]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ^[g]spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^(W)who is ^[h]enthroned above the cherubim, ^(X)You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ^16 (Y)Incline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; ^(Z)open Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them ^(AA)to ^[i]reproach the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸ and have put their gods into the fire, ^(AB)for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand ^(AC)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ^(AD)Yahweh, are God.”

Isaiah Speaks of Sennacherib’s Fall

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

²⁹ ‘Then this shall be ^(AT)the sign for you: ^[r]you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ^30 (AU)And 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 ^(AV)out of Mount Zion ^[s]survivors. ^(AW)The zeal of ^[t]Yahweh will do this.

³² ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, “^(AX)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 (AY)By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares Yahweh. ³⁴ ‘^(AZ)Indeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ^(BA)for My servant David’s sake.’”

^35 (BB)Now it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the ^[u]men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of ^[v]them were dead bodies. ³⁶ So ^(BC)Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went away and returned home and lived at ^(BD)Nineveh. ³⁷ Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, ^[w](BE)Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into ^(BF)the land of Ararat. And ^(BG)Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Israel Confesses Their Sins

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of ^(A)this month the sons of Israel gathered ^(B)with fasting, in sackcloth and with ^(C)dirt upon them.

Esther Writhes in Anguish

4 Now Mordecai came to know of ^(A)all that had been done. And ^[a]he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried out loudly and bitterly.

The Day of Yahweh Is Near

⁵ And the ^[a]people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a ^(A)fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. ⁶ Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, ^(B)covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ^[b]ashes. ⁷ And he ^(C)cried out and said,

¹⁰ Then God saw their works, that they ^(G)turned from their evil way, so ^(H)God ^[i]relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would ^[j]bring upon them. And He did not ^[k]bring it upon them.