|
Chapter 19 |
| 1 | And it came to
pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered
himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. |
| 2 | And he
sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the
elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of
Amoz. |
| 3 |
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children are come to the
birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. |
| 4 | It may be the
LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his
master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which
the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that
are left. |
| 5
| So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
|
| 6 | And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith
the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the
servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. |
| 7 | Behold, I will
send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own
land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. |
| 8 |
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah:
for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. |
| 9 | And when he
heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against
thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, |
| 10 | Thus shall
ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou
trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand
of the king of Assyria. |
| 11 | Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of
Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be
delivered? |
| 12
| Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my
fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of
Eden which were in Thelasar? |
|
13 | Where is the king of Hamath, and the
king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
|
| 14 | And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read
it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the
LORD. |
| 15 |
And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of
Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. |
| 16 |
LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
|
| 17 | Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and
their lands, |
|
18 | 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 have
destroyed them. |
|
19 | Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save
thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou
art the LORD God, even thou only. |
| 20 | Then Isaiah the son of Amoz
sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou
hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. |
| 21 |
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the
daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of
Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. |
|
22 | Whom hast thou reproached
and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up
thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. |
| 23 | By thy
messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast said, With the multitude of
my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of
Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir
trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the
forest of his Carmel. |
| 24 | I have digged and drunk strange waters, and
with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged
places. |
| 25
| Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of
ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou
shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. |
| 26 |
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and
confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the
grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. |
| 27 |
But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage
against me. |
|
28 | Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come
up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in
thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest. |
| 29 |
And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow
of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in
the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits
thereof. |
| 30
| And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah
shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. |
| 31 | For out
of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion:
the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. |
|
32 | Therefore thus saith
the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor
shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against
it. |
| 33 |
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and
shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. |
| 34 | For I will
defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's
sake. |
| 35 |
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD
went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five
thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead
corpses. |
| 36
| So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. |
| 37 | And it came to pass, as he
was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer
his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia.
And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. |
