(Isaiah 37:1–7)
1
And when King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes and put on sackecloth, and came into the house of the Lord,
2
And sent Eliakim which was the stewarde of the house, and Shebnah the chanceller, and the Elders of the Priestes clothed in sackecloth to Isaiah the Prophet the sonne of Amoz.
3
And they said vnto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke, and blasphemie: for the childre are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring foorth.
4
If so be the Lord thy God hath heard all the wordes of Rabshakeh, whome the King of Asshur his master hath sent to raile on the liuing God, and to reproch him with wordes which the Lord thy God hath heard, then lift thou vp thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5
So the seruants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6
And Isaiah said vnto them, So shall ye say to your master, Thus sayeth the Lord, Be not afraide of the words which thou hast heard, wherewith the seruants of the king of Asshur haue blasphemed me.
7
Beholde, I will sende a blast vpon him, and he shall heare a noyse, and returne to his owne lande: and I will cause him to fall by the sworde in his owne lande.
Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter
(Isaiah 37:8–13)
8
So Rabshakeh returned, and founde the King of Asshur fighting against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
9
He heard also men say of Tirhakah King of Ethiopia, Beholde, he is come out to fight against thee: he therefore departed and sent other messengers vnto Hezekiah, saying,
10
Thus shall ye speake to Hezekiah King of Iudah, and say, Let not thy God deceiue thee in whome thou trustest, saying, Ierusalem shall not be deliuered into the hande of the King of Asshur.
11
Beholde, thou hast heard what the Kings of Asshur haue done to all landes, how they haue destroyed them: and shalt thou be deliuered?
12
Haue the gods of the heathen deliuered them which my fathers haue 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 citie of Shepharuaim, Hena and Iuah?
Hezekiah’s Prayer
(Isaiah 37:14–20)
14
So Hezekiah receiued the letter of the hande of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went vp into the house of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it before the Lord.
15
And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and saide, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest betweene the Cherubims, thou art very God alone ouer all the kingdomes of the earth: thou hast made the heauen and the earth.
16
Lord, bow downe thine eare, and heare: Lord open thine eyes and behold, and heare the wordes of Saneherib, who hath sent to blaspheme the liuing God.
17
Trueth it is, Lord, that the Kings of Asshur haue destroyed the nations and their landes,
18
And haue set fire on their gods: for they were no gods, but the worke of mans hands, euen wood and stone: therefore they destroyed them.
19
Nowe therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, saue thou vs out of his hande, that all the kingdomes of the earth may knowe, that thou, O Lord, art onely God.
Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied
(Isaiah 37:21–35)
20
Then Isaiah the sonne of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I haue heard that which thou hast prayed me, concerning Saneherib King of Asshur.
21
This is the worde that the Lord hath spoken against him, O Virgine, daughter of Zion, he hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorne: O daughter of Ierusalem, he hath shaken his head at thee.
22
Whome hast thou railed on? and whome hast thou blasphemed? and against whome hast thou exalted thy voyce, and lifted vp thine eyes on hie? euen against the Holie one of Israel.
23
By thy messengers thou hast rayled on the Lord, and said, By the multitude of my charets I am come vp to the toppe of the mountaines, by the sides of Lebanon, and will cut downe the hie cedars thereof, and the faire firre trees thereof, and I will goe into the lodging of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24
I haue digged, and drunke the waters of others, and with the plant of my feete haue I dried all the floods closed in.
25
Hast thou not heard, howe I haue of olde time made it, and haue formed it long ago? and should I nowe bring it, that it should be destroyed, and laid on ruinous heapes, as cities defensed?
26
Whose inhabitants haue small power, and are afraid, and confounded: they are like the grasse of the field, and greene herbe, or grasse on ye house toppes, or as corne blasted before it be growen.
27
I knowe thy dwelling, yea, thy going out, and thy comming in, and thy furie against me.
28
And because thou ragest against me, and thy tumult is come vp to mine eares, I will put mine hooke in thy nostrels, and my bridle in thy lippes, and will bring thee backe againe the same way thou camest.
29
And this shalbe a signe vnto thee, O Hezekiah, Thou shalt eate this yeere such things as growe of them selues, and the next yeere such as growe without sowing, and the third yeere sowe ye and reape, and plant vineyardes, and eate the fruites thereof.
30
And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Iudah, shall againe take roote downewarde, and beare fruite vpwarde.
31
For out of Ierusalem shall goe a remnant, and some that shall escape out of mount Zion: the zeale of the Lord of hostes shall doe this.
32
Wherefore thus saith the Lord, concerning the King of Asshur, He shall not enter into this citie, nor shoote an arrowe there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it:
33
But he shall returne the way he came, and shall not come into this citie, saith the Lord.
34
For I will defende this citie to saue it for mine owne sake, and for Dauid my seruants sake.
Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians
(2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)
35
And the same night the Angell of the Lord went out and smote in the campe of Asshur an hundreth foure score and fiue thousande: so when they rose earely in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36
So Saneherib King of Asshur departed, and went his way, and returned, and dwelt in Nineueh.
37
And as he was in the Temple worshipping Nisroch his god, Adramelech and Sharezer his sonnes slewe him with the sworde: and they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his sonne reigned in his steade.