The Second Book of the Kings

⭑ Literal Standard Version 2020 ⭑

- Chapter 19 -

(Isaiah 37:1–7)

And it comes to pass, at King Hezekiah’s hearing, that he tears his garments, and covers himself with sackcloth, and enters the house of YHWH,

and sends Eliakim, who [is] over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elderly of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz,

and they say to him, “Thus said Hezekiah: This day [is] a day of distress, and rebuke, and despising; for sons have come to the birth, and there is not power to bring forth.

It may be your God YHWH hears all the words of the chief of the butlers with which the king of Asshur his lord has sent him to reproach the living God, and has decided concerning the words that your God YHWH has heard, and you have lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.”

And the servants of King Hezekiah come to Isaiah,

and Isaiah says to them, “Thus you say to your lord, Thus said YHWH: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have reviled Me.

Behold, I am giving a spirit in him, and he has heard a report, and has turned back to his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.”

Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter

(Isaiah 37:8–13)

And the chief of the butlers turns back and finds the king of Asshur fighting against Libnah, for he has heard that he has journeyed from Lachish.

And he hears concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, “Behold, he has come out to fight with you”; and he turns and sends messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

“Thus you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you are trusting lift you up, saying, Jerusalem is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur.

Behold, you have heard that which the kings of Asshur have done to all the lands—to devote them; and are you delivered?

Did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed—Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who [are] in Thelassar?

Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

(Isaiah 37:14–20)

And Hezekiah takes the letters out of the hand of the messengers and reads them, and goes up to the house of YHWH, and Hezekiah spreads it before YHWH.

And Hezekiah prays before YHWH and says, “O YHWH, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubim, You [are] God Himself—You alone—to all the kingdoms of the earth: You have made the heavens and the earth.

Incline, O YHWH, Your ear, and hear; open, O YHWH, Your eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib with which he has sent him to reproach the living God.

Truly, O YHWH, kings of Asshur have laid waste the nations and their land,

and have put their gods into fire, for they [are] no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone, and destroy them.

And now, O our God YHWH, please save us out of his hand, and all kingdoms of the earth know that You [are] YHWH God—You alone.”

Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied

(Isaiah 37:21–35)

And Isaiah son of Amoz sends to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus said YHWH, God of Israel: That which you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Asshur I have heard;

this [is] the word that YHWH spoke concerning him: Trampled on you—laughed at you || Has the virgin daughter of Zion; Shaken the head behind you || Has the daughter of Jerusalem!

Whom have you reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up a voice? Indeed, you lift up your eyes on high—Against the Holy One of Israel!

By the hand of your messengers || You have reproached the Lord, and say, || In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains—The sides of Lebanon, || And I cut down the height of its cedars, || The choice of its firs, || And I enter the lodging of its extremity, || The forest of its Carmel.

I have dug, and drunk strange waters, || And I dry up with the sole of my steps || All floods of a bulwark.

Have you not heard from afar [that] I made it, || From days of old that I formed it? Now I have brought it in, || And it becomes a desolation, || Ruinous heaps [are] fortified cities,

And their inhabitants [are] feeble-handed, || They were broken down, and are dried up, || They have been the herb of the field, || And the greenness of the tender grass, || Grass of the roofs, || And blasted grain—before it has risen up!

And your sitting down, and your going out, || And your coming in, I have known, || And your anger toward Me;

Because of your anger toward Me, || And your noise—it came up into My ears, || I have put My hook in your nose, || And My bridle in your lips, || And have caused you to turn back || In the way in which you came.

And this [is] the sign to you, || Food of the year [is] the spontaneous growth, || And in the second year the self-produced, || And in the third year you sow, and reap, || And plant vineyards, and eat their fruits.

And it has continued—The escaped of the house of Judah || That has been left—to take root beneath, || And has made fruit upward.

For a remnant goes out from Jerusalem, || And an escape from Mount Zion; The zeal of YHWH [of Hosts] does this.

Therefore, thus said YHWH, || Concerning the king of Asshur: He does not come into this city, || Nor does he shoot an arrow there, || Nor does he come before it with shield, || Nor does he pour out a mound against it.

In the way that he comes in—In it he turns back, || And to this city he does not come in, || A declaration of YHWH—

And I have covered over this city, || To save it for My own sake, || And for the sake of My servant David.”

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

(2 Chronicles 32:20–23; Isaiah 37:36–38)

And it comes to pass, in that night, that a messenger of YHWH goes out, and strikes one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of Asshur, and they rise early in the morning, and behold, all of them [are] dead corpses.

And Sennacherib king of Asshur journeys, and goes, and turns back, and dwells in Nineveh;

and it comes to pass, he is bowing himself in the house of his god Nisroch, and [his sons] Adramelech and Sharezar have struck him with the sword, and they have escaped to the land of Ararat, and his son Esar-Haddon reigns in his stead.