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.
19:2 And he sent Eliakim, who [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.
19:3 And they said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day [is] a
day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children
have come to the birth, and [there is] not strength to bring
forth.
19:4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of
Rab-shakeh, 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.
19:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
19:6 And Isaiah said to 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.
19:7 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.
19:8 So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria
warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he had departed
from Lachish.
19:9 And when he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Cush, Behold,
he hath come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers
again to Hezekiah, saying,
19:10 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.
19:11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have
done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou
be delivered?
19:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my
fathers have destroyed; [as] Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph, and
the children of Eden who [were] in Thelasar?
19:13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and
the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
19:14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of
the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
19:15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God
of Israel, who dwellest [between] the cherubim, thou art the
God, [even] thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou
hast made heaven and earth.
19:16 LORD, bow down thy ear, and hear: open, LORD, thy eyes,
and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent him
to reproach the living God.
19:17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the
nations and their lands,
19:18 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.
19:19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou
us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know
that thou [art] the LORD God, [even] thou only.
19:20 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.
19:21 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.
19:22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom
hast thou exalted [thy] voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high:
[even] against the Holy [One] of Israel.
19:23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and hast
said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the
hight of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut
down its tall cedar trees, [and] its choice fir trees: and I
will enter into the lodgings of his borders, [and into] the
forest of his Carmel.
19:24 I have digged and drank strange waters, and with the sole
of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
19:25 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 shouldst be to lay waste fortified cities
[in] ruinous heaps.
19:26 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 is grown up.
19:27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming
in, and thy rage against me.
19:28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into
my 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.
19:29 And this [shall be] a sign to 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 of it.
19:30 And the remnant that hath escaped of the house of Judah
shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
19:31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they
that escape from mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD [of hosts]
shall do this.
19:32 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.
19:33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and
shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
19:34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for my own sake,
and for my servant David's sake.
19:35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD
went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and
eighty five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning,
behold, they [were] all dead corpses.
19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
19:37 And it came to pass, as he was worshiping 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 Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.
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