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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 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.
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 rumour, and shall return to
his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So
Rab-shakeh 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 cherubims, 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
the 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 Esar- haddon his son reigned in his stead.
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