2 Kings 19:3 | New International Reader’s Version

New International Reader’s Version

Isaiah prophesies that Jerusalem will be saved

1 When King Hezekiah heard what the field commander had said, he tore his clothes. He put on the rough clothing people wear when they’re sad. Then he went into the LORD’s temple. 2 Hezekiah sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah was the son of Amoz. Hezekiah also sent to Isaiah the leading priests and Shebna the secretary. All of them were wearing the same rough clothing. 3 They told Isaiah, ‘Hezekiah says, “Today we’re in great trouble. The LORD is warning us. He’s bringing shame on us. Sometimes babies come to the moment when they should be born. But their mothers aren’t strong enough to allow them to be born. Today we are like those mothers. We aren’t strong enough to save ourselves. 4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear everything the field commander has said. His master, the king of Assyria, has sent him to make fun of the living God. Maybe the LORD your God will punish him for what he has heard him say. So pray for the remaining people who are still alive here.” ’ 5 King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah. 6 Then Isaiah said to them, ‘Tell your master, “The LORD says, ‘Do not be afraid of what you have heard. The officers of the king of Assyria have spoken evil things against me. 7 Listen! I will send him news from his own country. It will make him want to return home. There I will let him be killed by a sword.’ ” ’ 8 The field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish. So the commander pulled his troops back from Jerusalem. He went to join the king. He found out that the king was fighting against Libnah. 9 During that time Sennacherib received a report. He was told that Tirhakah was marching out to fight against him. Tirhakah was the king of Cush. Sennacherib sent messengers again to Hezekiah with a letter. Sennacherib said, 10 ‘Tell Hezekiah, the king of Judah, “Don’t let the god you depend on trick you. He says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ But don’t believe him. 11 I’m sure you have heard about what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries. They have destroyed them completely. So do you think you will be saved? 12 The kings who ruled before me destroyed many nations. Did the gods of those nations save them? Did the gods of Gozan, Harran or Rezeph save them? What about the gods of the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath? Where is the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?” ’

Hezekiah’s prayer

14 When Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, he read it. Then he went up to the LORD’s temple. There he spread the letter out in front of the LORD. 15 Hezekiah prayed to the LORD. He said, ‘LORD, you are the God of Israel. You sit on your throne between the cherubim. You alone are God over all the kingdoms on earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Listen, LORD. Hear us. Open your eyes, LORD. Look at the trouble we’re in. Listen to what Sennacherib is saying. You are the living God. And he dares to make fun of you! 17 ‘LORD, it’s true that the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown the statues of the gods of those nations into the fire. And they have destroyed them. That’s because they weren’t really gods at all. They were nothing but statues made out of wood and stone. They were made by human hands. 19 LORD our God, save us from the power of Sennacherib. Then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone are the LORD. You alone are God.’

Isaiah prophesies that Sennacherib will fall from power

20 Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah. Isaiah was the son of Amoz. Isaiah said, ‘The LORD is the God of Israel. The LORD says, “I have heard your prayer about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.” 21 Here is the message the LORD has spoken against him. The LORD says, ‘ “You will not win the battle over Zion. Its people hate you and make fun of you. The people of Jerusalem lift up their heads proudly as you run away. 22 Who have you laughed at? Who have you spoken evil things against? Who have you raised your voice against? Who have you looked at so proudly? You have done it against me. I am the Holy One of Israel! 23 Through your messengers you have dared to make fun of the Lord. And you have said, ‘I have many chariots. With them I have gone to the tops of the mountains. I’ve climbed the highest mountains in Lebanon. I’ve cut down its tallest cedar trees. I’ve cut down the best of its juniper trees. I’ve reached its farthest parts. I’ve reached its finest forests. 24 I’ve dug wells in strange lands. I’ve drunk the water from them. I’ve walked through all of Egypt’s streams. I’ve dried up every one of them.’ 25 ‘ “But I, the LORD, say, ‘Haven’t you heard what I have done? Long ago I arranged for you to do all of that. In days of old I planned it. Now I have made it happen. You have turned cities with high walls into piles of stone. 26 Their people do not have any power left. They are troubled and put to shame. They are like plants in the field. They are like new green plants. They are like grass that grows on a roof. It dries up before it is completely grown. 27 ‘ “ ‘But I know where you are. I know when you come and go. I know how very angry you are with me. 28 You roar against me and boast. And I have heard your boasting. So I will put my hook in your nose. I will put my bit in your mouth. And I will make you go home by the same way you came.’ ” ’ 29 The LORD said, ‘Hezekiah, here is a miraculous sign for you. ‘This year you will eat what grows by itself. In the second year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year you will plant your crops and gather them in. You will plant your grapevines and eat their fruit. 30 Those who remain from the kingdom of Judah will be like plants. Once more they will put down roots and produce fruit. 31 Out of Jerusalem will come those who remain. Out of Mount Zion will come those who survive. ‘The LORD’s great love will make sure that happens. He rules over all. 32 ‘Here is a message from me about the king of Assyria. The LORD says, ‘ “The king of Assyria will not enter this city. He will not even shoot an arrow at it. He will not come near it with a shield. He will not build a ramp in order to climb over its walls. 33 By the same way he came he will go home. He will not enter this city,” announces the LORD. 34 “I will guard this city and save it. I will do it for myself. And I will do it for my servant David.” ’ 35 That night the angel of the LORD went into the camp of the Assyrians. He put to death 185,000 people there. The people of Jerusalem got up the next morning and looked out at the camp. There were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, took the army tents down. Then he left. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 37 One day Sennacherib was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisrok. His sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with their swords. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. Esarhaddon became the next king after his father Sennacherib.

English Standard Version

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. (2Sa 3:31; 2Ki 18:37; 2Ch 32:20; Isa 37:1)

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2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. (2Ki 19:1) 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.” (2Sa 16:12; 2Ki 19:16; Isa 1:9) 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. (2Ki 18:17; 2Ki 18:22; 2Ki 18:30) 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’” (2Ki 19:9; 2Ki 19:37)

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish. (Jos 10:29; Jos 10:31; 2Ki 18:14) 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, (1Sa 23:27) 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. (2Ki 18:5; 2Ki 18:30) 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? (Ge 11:31; 2Ki 17:6; 2Ki 18:33; Eze 27:23; Am 1:5)

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13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’” (2Ki 18:34)

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. (2Ch 32:17) 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. (Ex 25:22; 1Ki 18:39; Ne 9:6; Ps 86:10; Isa 37:16; Isa 37:20; Isa 44:6; Jer 10:10; Jer 10:12)

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16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. (2Ki 19:4; 2Ch 6:40; Ps 31:2; Ps 71:2; Da 9:18)

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17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. (2Ch 32:19; Ps 115:4) 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.” (Jos 4:24; 2Ki 19:15; Ps 83:18)

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. (2Ki 20:5) 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: “She despises you, she scorns you— the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you— the daughter of Jerusalem. (Job 16:4; Ps 22:7; Ps 109:25; La 2:13; La 2:15)

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22 “Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel! (2Ki 19:4; 2Ki 19:6; Ps 71:22; Isa 5:24; Isa 60:9; Jer 51:5)

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23 By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest lodging place, its most fruitful forest. (Jud 9:15; 2Ki 18:17; 2Ch 26:10; Ps 20:7; Isa 10:18)

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24 I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.’ (Isa 19:6) 25 “Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins, (Isa 10:5; Isa 45:7) 26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown. (Ps 129:6) 27 “But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me. (1Sa 29:6) 28 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. (2Ki 19:33; 2Ki 19:36; Job 41:2; Isa 30:28; Eze 29:4; Eze 38:4; Am 4:2)

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29 “And this shall be the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. (1Sa 2:34; 2Ki 20:8; Isa 7:11; Isa 7:14)

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30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. (2Ch 32:22) 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this. (Isa 9:7; Isa 10:20) 32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. (2Sa 20:15) 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. (2Ki 19:28) 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” (1Ki 11:13; 2Ki 20:6; Isa 31:5) 35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. (Ex 12:23; 2Sa 24:16) 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. (Ge 10:11; Jon 1:2) 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (2Ki 17:31)