The Second Book of the Kings

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- Kapitel 19 -

(Isaiah 37:1–7)

When King Hezekiah heard what they reported, he tore his clothes and put on clothes made of rough cloth because he was very distressed. Then he went to the temple to ask God what to do.

Then he summoned Eliakim and Shebna and the older priests, who were also wearing clothes made of rough sackcloth, and told them to talk to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz.

He said to them to say these things to Isaiah: “King Hezekiah says that this is a day when we have great distress. Other nations are causing us to be insulted and disgraced like a woman who is about to give birth to a child, but she is not strong enough to do it.

Perhaps Yahweh our God has heard everything that the official from Assyria said. Perhaps he knows that his master, the king of Assyria, sent him to insult the all-powerful God and that Yahweh will punish him for what he said. And Hezekiah requests that you pray for the few of us who are still alive here in Jerusalem.”

When the messengers from Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and

Isaiah instructed them to go back to their master and tell him what Yahweh says: “Those messengers from the king of Assyria have said evil things about me. But you should not be disturbed because of what they said.

Listen to this: I will cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor that will worry him, that other armies are about to attack his country. So he will return to his own country, and there I will cause him to be assassinated by some men.”

Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter

(Isaiah 37:8–13)

The official from Assyria found out that the King of Assyria and his army had left the city of Lachish, and that they were attacking Libnah, which was a nearby city. So the official went there to report to him what had happened in Jerusalem.

Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was leading his army to attack them. But before King Sennacherib left Libnah to fight against the army from Ethiopia, he sent other messengers to King Hezekiah with a letter.

In the letter he wrote this to Hezekiah: “Do not allow your god on whom you are relying to deceive you by promising that my army will never capture Jerusalem.

You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries. Our armies have completely destroyed them. So do you think that you will escape?

Did the gods of the nations that were about to be destroyed by the armies of the previous kings of Assyria rescue them? Did those gods rescue the people in the region of Gozan or in the cities of Haran and Rezeph in northern Aram? Did they rescue the people of Eden who had been deported to the city of Tel Assar? None of the gods of those cities was able to rescue them.

What happened to the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, and Ivvah? They are all dead.”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

(Isaiah 37:14–20)

Hezekiah received the letter that the messengers gave him, and he read it. Then he went up to the temple and spread out the letter in front of Yahweh.

Then Hezekiah prayed this: “Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong, you are seated on your throne above the statues of creatures with wings, above the sacred chest. Only you are truly God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created everything on the earth and in the sky.

So, Yahweh, please listen to what I am saying, and look at what is happening. And listen to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the all-powerful God.

Yahweh, it is true that the armies of the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many nations and ruined their lands.

And they have thrown the idols of those nations into fires and burned them. But that was not difficult to do, because they were not gods. They were only statues made of wood and stone, idols that were shaped by humans, and that is why they were destroyed easily.

So now, Yahweh our God, please rescue us from the power of the king of Assyria, in order that the people in all the kingdoms of the world may know that you, Yahweh, are the only one who is truly God.”

Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied

(Isaiah 37:21–35)

Then Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah to tell him what Yahweh, the God to whom the Israelites belonged, said in response: “I have heard what you prayed to me about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

This is what I say to that king: The people of Jerusalem despise you and make fun of you. They wag their heads to mock you.

Who do you think that you were despising and ridiculing? Who do you think you were shouting at? Who do you think you were looking at very proudly? It was I, the holy God whom the Israelites worship.

The messengers whom you sent made fun of me. You said, ’With my many chariots I have gone to the highest mountains, to the highest mountains in Lebanon. We have cut down its tallest cedar trees and its best cedar trees. We have been to the most distant peaks and to its densest forests.

We have dug wells in other countries and drunk water from them. And by marching through the streams of Egypt, we dried them all up!’

But I reply, ’Have you never heard that long ago I planned that those things would happen? I planned it long ago, and now I have been causing it to occur. I planned that your army would have the power to capture many cities that were surrounded by high walls, and cause them to become piles of rubble.

The people who lived in those cities have no power, and as a result they became dismayed and discouraged. They are as frail as plants and grass in the fields, as frail as grass that grows on the roofs of houses and is scorched before it can grow tall.

But I know everything about you. I know when you are in your house and when you go outside; I also know that you are raging against me.

So, because you have raged against me, and because I have heard you do this, it will be as though I will put a hook in your nose, and I will put an iron bit in your mouth, in order that I can take you where I want you to go. I will force you to return to your own country on the same road on which you came here, without conquering Jerusalem.’

Now I say this to Hezekiah: ’This is what will happen to prove that I am telling the truth: This year and next year you and your people will be able to harvest only wild grain. But the following year, you Israelites will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and to plant vineyards and eat the grapes.

The people in Judah who remain alive will prosper and have many children; they will be like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and which produce much fruit.

There will be many people in Jerusalem who will remain alive, because I, Yahweh, commander of the armies, have planned it to happen.

So this is what I, Yahweh, say about the king of Assyria: “His armies will not enter this city; they will not even shoot any arrows into it. His soldiers will not march outside the city gates carrying shields, and they will not even build high mounds of earth against the city walls to enable them to attack the city.

Their king will return to his own country on the same road on which he came here. He will not enter this city. That will happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!

I will defend this city and prevent it from being destroyed. I will do this for the sake of my own reputation and because of what I promised to King David, who served me well.’”

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

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

That night, an angel from Yahweh went out to where the army of Assyria had put up their tents, and killed 185,000 of their soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw that there were corpses everywhere.

Then King Sennacherib left and went home to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his two sons, Adrammelek and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped and went to the region of Ararat, northwest of Nineveh. And another of Sennacherib’s sons, Esarhaddon, became the king of Assyria.

(Isaiah 37:1–7)

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

He 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.

They 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.

It 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.’”

So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Isaiah 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.

Behold, 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.”’”

Sennacherib’s Blasphemous Letter

(Isaiah 37:8–13)

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

When 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,

“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.

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

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

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

Hezekiah’s Prayer

(Isaiah 37:14–20)

Hezekiah 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.

Hezekiah 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.

Incline 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.

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

and 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.

Now 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.”

Sennacherib’s Fall Prophesied

(Isaiah 37:21–35)

Then 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.

This 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.

Whom 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!

By 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.

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

Haven’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.

Therefore 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.

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

Because 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.’

“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.

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

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

“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.

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

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

Jerusalem Delivered from the Assyrians

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

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

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

As he was worshiping 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.