Photo by Ju00e1nos Csatlu00f3s on Pexels.com

2 Kings 19

2 Kings 19:1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahveh’s temple.

2 Kings 19:2 He sent Eliakim, who oversaw the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the leading priests, who were wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.

2 Kings 19:3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

2 Kings 19:4 Perhaps Yahveh your God will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his lord king of Assyria sent to mock the living God and will rebuke him for the words that Yahveh your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.'”

2 Kings 19:5 So the slaves of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah,

2 Kings 19:6 who said to them, “Tell your lord, ‘Yahveh says this: Don’t be afraid because of the words you have heard, with which the king of Assyria’s boys have blasphemed me.

2 Kings 19:7 I am about to put a breath in him, and he will hear a rumor and return to his land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.'”

2 Kings 19:8 When the royal spokesman heard that the king of Assyria had pulled out of Lachish, he left and found him fighting against Libnah.

2 Kings 19:9 The king had heard concerning King Tirhakah of Cush, “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So, he again sent agents to Hezekiah, saying,

2 Kings 19:10 “Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah: ‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 19:11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: They destroyed them. Will you be rescued?

2 Kings 19:12 Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed rescue them– nations such as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?

2 Kings 19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah? ‘”

2 Kings 19:14 Hezekiah took the letter from the agents’ hands, read it, then went up to Yahveh’s temple and spread it out before Yahveh.

2 Kings 19:15 Then Hezekiah prayed before Yahveh: Yahveh, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the land. You made the heavens and the land.

2 Kings 19:16 Listen closely, Yahveh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahveh, and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.

2 Kings 19:17 Yahveh, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands.

2 Kings 19:18 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made by human hands—wood and stone. So, they have destroyed them.

2 Kings 19:19 Now, Yahveh our God, please save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the land may know that you, Lord, are God– you alone.

2 Kings 19:20 Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent a message to Hezekiah: ” Yahveh, the God of Israel says, ‘I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.’

2 Kings 19:21 This is the word Yahveh has spoken against him: Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and scorns you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.

2 Kings 19:22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

2 Kings 19:23 You have mocked Yahveh through your agents. You have said, ‘With my many chariots, I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, its choice cypress trees. I came to its farthest outpost, its densest forest.

2 Kings 19:24 I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands. I dried up all the streams of Egypt with the soles of my feet.’

2 Kings 19:25 Have you not heard? I designed it long ago; I planned it in days gone by. I have now brought it to pass, and you have crushed fortified cities into piles of rubble.

2 Kings 19:26 Their inhabitants have become powerless, dismayed, and ashamed. They are wild plants, tender grass, and grass on the rooftops, blasted by the east wind.

2 Kings 19:27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and your coming in, and your raging against me.

2 Kings 19:28 Because your raging against me and your arrogance have reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came.

2 Kings 19:29 “This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what grows from that. But in the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

2 Kings 19:30 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

2 Kings 19:31 Because a remnant will go out from Jerusalem, and survivors, from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahveh of Armies will accomplish this.

2 Kings 19:32 Therefore, Yahveh says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, shoot an arrow here, come before it with a shield, or build a siege ramp against it.

2 Kings 19:33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city. This is Yahveh’s declaration.

2 Kings 19:34 I will defend this city and rescue it for my sake and the sake of my slave David.”

2 Kings 19:35 That night, the agent of Yahveh went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the following day — there were all the dead bodies!

2 Kings 19:36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.

2 Kings 19:37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then, his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.