| 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. |
