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King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to ridicule the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer up a prayer for the remnant that still survives’.”
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 and Isaiah said to them, “Tell this to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says, “Do not be afraid because of the words you have heard, that the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me with. 7 Behold, I will put such a spirit in him that he will hear a rumour and return to his own land, and there I will have him fall by the sword in his own land’.”
8 Meanwhile, the Rabshakeh heard a report that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, so he returned there and found that the king was fighting against Lachish.
9 Now Sennacherub the king of Assyria received a report that his adversary Tirhakah king of Cush had set out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, instructing them, 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 Surely you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely! 12 Did the gods of the nations that my forefathers destroyed deliver them—the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?’ ”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and he read it. Then he went up to the House of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
“O Lord, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are God—You alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the works of men’s hands. 19 Now, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You, O Lord, are God, and You alone.”
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah:
“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have heard your prayer to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria’.
21 “This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:
‘The virgin, Daughter Zion
despises you,
and laughs you to scorn.
The Daughter Jerusalem
shakes her head at you
behind your back.
22 Who is it you mocked and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
and lifted up your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 By your messengers
you have insulted the Lord.
And you said:
“With my many chariots
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon.
I have cut down its loftiest cedars,
its choicest cypress trees.
I have penetrated to its most remote parts,
to the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in distant lands
and I drank foreign waters.
With the soles of my feet
I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.
25 ‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I designed it;
from ancient times I planned it,
and now I have brought it to pass,
that you have crushed fortified cities
into heaps of rubble.
26 Their inhabitants were overpowered,
they became dismayed and confounded.
They are like the plants of the field,
and tender green shoots,
like grass sprouting on the rooftops,
scorched before it is grown.
27 ‘But I know where you stay,
and your going out and your coming in,
and your raging against Me.
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,
and I will make you return
by the way which you came.
29 ‘O King Hezekiah, this will be a sign for you:
‘This year you will eat what grows of itself,
and in the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year you will sow and reap,
plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
30 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah
will again take root below and bear fruit above.
31 For a remnant shall come forth from Jerusalem,
and a band of survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
32 ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria,
‘He will not come into this city,
or shoot an arrow there,
He will not come against it with a shield,
or build a siege mound against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return,
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 ‘For I will defend this city
to save it for My own sake,
and for the sake of My servant David’.”
35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Then when the people arose as the morning dawned, the Assyrians were all just dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Ninevah and stayed there.
37 Then one day, while Sennacherib was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.