¹When King Hezekiah heard it , he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth , and went into the LORD ’s house .

²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household , Shebna the scribe , and the elders of the priests , covered with sackcloth , to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

³They said to him , “Hezekiah says , ‘Today is a day of trouble , of rebuke , and of rejection ; for the children have come to the point of birth , and there is no strength to deliver them .

⁴It may be the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh , whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God , and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard . Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left .’”

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah .

⁶Isaiah said to them , “Tell your master this : ‘The LORD says , “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard , with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me .

⁷Behold , I will put a spirit in him , and he will hear news , and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

⁸So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah ; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish .

⁹When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia , “Behold , he has come out to fight against you ,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah , saying,

¹⁰“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this : ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you , saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹Behold , you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly . Will you be delivered ?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them , which my fathers have destroyed —Gozan , Haran , Rezeph , and the children of Eden who were in Telassar ?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath , the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim , of Hena , and Ivvah ?’”

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it . Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD ’s house , and spread it before the LORD .

¹⁵Hezekiah prayed before the LORD , and said, “LORD , the God of Israel , who are enthroned above the cherubim , you are the God , even you alone , of all the kingdoms of the earth . You have made heaven and earth .

¹⁶Incline your ear , LORD , and hear . Open your eyes , LORD , and see . Hear the words of Sennacherib , which he has sent to defy the living God .

¹⁷Truly, LORD , the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ,

¹⁸and 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 .

¹⁹Now therefore , LORD our God , save us , I beg you , out of his hand , that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you , LORD , are God alone .”

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah , saying, “The LORD , the God of Israel , says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you .

²¹This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him : ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you . The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you .

²²Whom have you defied and blasphemed ? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high ? Against the Holy One of Israel !

²³By your messengers , you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots , I have come up to the height of the mountains , to the innermost parts of Lebanon , and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees ; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place , the forest of his fruitful field .

²⁴I have dug and drunk strange waters , and I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt with the sole of my feet .”

²⁵Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago , and formed it of ancient times ? Now I have brought it to pass , that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps .

²⁶Therefore their inhabitants had little power . They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field and like the green herb , like the grass on the housetops and like grain blasted before it has grown up .

²⁷But I know your sitting down , your going out , your coming in , and your raging against me .

²⁸Because of your raging against me , and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips , and I will turn you back by the way by which you came .’

²⁹“This will be the sign to you : This year , you will eat that which grows of itself , and in the second year that which springs from that ; and in the third year sow and reap , and plant vineyards and eat their fruit .

³⁰The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward , and bear fruit upward .

³¹For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out , and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape . The LORD ’s zeal will perform this .

³²“Therefore the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city , nor shoot an arrow there . He will not come before it with shield , nor cast up a mound against it .

³³He will return the same way that he came , and he will not come to this city ,’ says the LORD .

³⁴‘For I will defend this city to save it , for my own sake and for my servant David ’s sake .’”

³⁵That night , the LORD ’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning , behold , these were all dead bodies .

³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed , went home , and lived at Nineveh .

³⁷As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place .