II Kings Chapter 19

II Kings 19 — English translation

Translation: THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. Verse numbers match the Hebrew text below.

1. 1When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of G OD .
2. 2He also sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3. 3They said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of chastisement, and of disgrace. The babes have reached the birthstool, but the strength to give birth is lacking.
4. 4Perhaps the E TERNAL your God will take note of all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will mete out judgment for the words that the E TERNAL your God has heard—if you will offer up prayer for the surviving remnant.”
5. 5When King Hezekiah’s ministers came to Isaiah,
6. 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows: Thus said G OD : Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria.
7. 7I will delude him; he will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”
8. 8The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the king] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah.
9. 9But [the king of Assyria] learned that King Tirhakah of Cush had come out to fight him; so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10. 10“Tell this to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God, on whom you are relying, mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria.
11. 11You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have annihilated them; and can you escape?
12. 12Were the nations that my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Beth-edenites in Telassar—saved by their gods?
13. 13Where is the king of Hamath? And the king of Arpad? And the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14. 14Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of G OD and spread it out before G OD .
15. 15And Hezekiah prayed to the E TERNAL and said, “O G OD of Hosts, Enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
16. 16O E TERNAL One, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God!
17. 17True, O E TERNAL One, the kings of Assyria have annihilated the nations and their lands,
18. 18and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but the handiwork of mere mortals, wood and stone.
19. 19But now, O E TERNAL One our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You alone, O E TERNAL One, are God.”
20. 20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus said the E TERNAL , the God of Israel: I have heard the prayer you have offered to Me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria.
21. 21This is the word that G OD has spoken concerning him: “Fair Maiden Zion despises you, She mocks at you; Fair Jerusalem shakes Her head at you.
22. 22Whom have you blasphemed and reviled? Against whom made loud your voice And haughtily raised your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23. 23Through your envoys you have blasphemed my Sovereign. Because you thought, ‘Thanks to my vast chariotry, It is I who have climbed the highest mountains, To the remotest parts of the Lebanon, And have cut down its loftiest cedars, Its choicest cypresses, And have reached its remotest lodge, Its densest forest.
24. 24It is I who have drawn and drunk the waters of strangers; I have dried up with the soles of my feet All the streams of Egypt.’
25. 25Have you not heard? Of old I planned that very thing, I designed it long ago, And now have fulfilled it. And it has come to pass, Laying waste fortified towns In desolate heaps.
26. 26Their inhabitants are helpless, Dismayed and shamed. They were but grass of the field And green herbage, Grass of the roofs that is blasted Before the standing grain.
27. 27I know your stayings And your goings and comings, And how you have raged against Me.
28. 28Because you have raged against Me, And your tumult has reached My ears, I will place My hook in your nose And My bit between your jaws; And I will make you go back by the road By which you came.
29. 29“And this is the sign for you: This year you eat what grows of itself, and the next year what springs from that; and in the third year, sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30. 30And the survivors of the House of Judah that have escaped shall regenerate its stock below and produce boughs above.
31. 31For a remnant shall come forth from Jerusalem, Survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of G OD of Hosts Shall bring this to pass.
32. 32Assuredly, thus said G OD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city: He shall not shoot an arrow at it, Or advance upon it with a shield, Or pile up a siege mound against it.
33. 33He shall go back By the way he came; He shall not enter this city —declares G OD .
34. 34I will protect and save this city for My sake, And for the sake of My servant David.”
35. 35That night an angel of G OD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
36. 36So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh.
37. 37While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer struck him down with the sword. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

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