Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold^(A)

19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore^(B) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. ² He sent Eliakim^(C) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,^(D) all wearing sackcloth,^(E) to the prophet Isaiah^(F) son of Amoz. ³ They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment^(G) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴ It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule^(H) the living God, and that he will rebuke^(I) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant^(J) that still survives.”

⁵ When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid^(K) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed^(L) me. ⁷ Listen! When he hears a certain report,^(M) I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.^(N)’”

⁸ When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,^(O) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.^(P)

⁹ Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,^[a] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: ¹⁰ “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend^(Q) on deceive^(R) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ ¹¹ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? ¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver^(S) them—the gods of Gozan,^(T) Harran,^(U) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”^(V)