1When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3And they said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. The children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them out.'"
4"'It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to insult the living God. And the LORD your God may rebuke the words that he has heard. So lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
6And Isaiah said to them, "Say this to your master: 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me."
7"Look, I will send a blast upon him. He will hear a rumour, and go back to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"
8So Rabshakeh went back, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9And the king heard it said about Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to make war with you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10"Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
11Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
12Did the gods of the nations deliver those whom my fathers destroyed, such as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
13"Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?'"
14Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it out before the LORD.
15And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,
16"O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubims, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth."
17"Turn your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, O LORD, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God."
18"It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,"
19"and have thrown their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. That is why they destroyed them."
20"Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, you only."
21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Because you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,"
22this is the word which the LORD has spoken about him: The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, and laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
23Whom have you insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
24By your servants you have insulted the Lord, and have said, With my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the far parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choicest fir trees. I will go into its farthest height, and the forest of his Carmel.
25I have dug wells, and drunk water. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
26Have you not heard long ago how I did it, and that in ancient times I planned it? Now I have brought it about, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
27So their people had little power. They were dismayed and ashamed. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green plant, like grass on the housetops, and like grain blighted before it is grown up.
28But I know where you live, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against me.
29Because your rage against me and your uproar have come up into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way you came.
30And this will be a sign to you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and in the second year what springs up from that. But in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
31And the remnant of the house of Judah that has escaped will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
32For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and those who escape from mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
33Therefore this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with shields, or build a ramp against it.
34By the way that he came, by the same way he will return, and he will not come into this city, says the LORD.
35"For I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"
36Then the angel of the LORD went out, and struck down in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men. When people got up early in the morning, look, they were all dead bodies.
37So Sennacherib king of Assyria left, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.
38And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword. They escaped into the land of Armenia, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.