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 , and 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 , and of rebuke , and of rejection ; for the children have come to the birth , and there is no strength to give birth .

⁴It may be the LORD your God will hear 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, ‘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 heard that he had departed from Lachish .

⁹He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia , “He has come out to fight against you .” When he heard it , he sent messengers to Hezekiah , saying,

¹⁰“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah , saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you , saying, “Jerusalem won’t 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 . Shall 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 , and 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 to the LORD , saying,

¹⁶“LORD of Armies , the God of Israel , who is enthroned amongst the cherubim , you are the God , even you alone , of all the kingdoms of the earth . You have made heaven and earth .

¹⁷Turn your ear , LORD , and hear . Open your eyes , LORD , and behold . Hear all of the words of Sennacherib , who has sent to defy the living God .

¹⁸Truly, LORD , the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land,

¹⁹and 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 .

²⁰Now therefore , LORD our God , save us from his hand , that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD , even you only .”

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah , saying, “The LORD , the God of Israel says , ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word which 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 .

²³Whom 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 .

²⁴By your servants , 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 . I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees . I will enter into its farthest height , the forest of its fruitful field .

²⁵I have dug and drunk water , and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt .”

²⁶“‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago , and formed it in ancient times ? Now I have brought it to pass , that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities , turning them into ruinous heaps .

²⁷Therefore 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 a field before its crop has grown .

²⁸But I know your sitting down , your going out , your coming in , and your raging against me .

²⁹Because 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 .

³⁰“‘This shall be the sign to you : You will eat this year that which grows of itself , and in the second year that which springs from it ; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards , and eat their fruit .

³¹The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward , and bear fruit upward .

³²For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out , and survivors will escape from Mount Zion . The zeal of the LORD of Armies will perform this .’

³³“Therefore the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city , nor shoot an arrow there , neither will he come before it with shield , nor cast up a mound against it .

³⁴He will return the way that he came , and he won’t come to this city ,’ says the LORD .

³⁵‘For I will defend this city to save it , for my own sake , and for my servant David ’s sake .’”

³⁶Then the LORD ’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning , behold , these were all dead bodies .

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed , went away , returned to Nineveh , and stayed there .

³⁸As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword ; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place .