1 And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy, for the sons are come to the breaking of the water, and there is no strength in her who is to bring them forth. 4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to blaspheme the living God and to reprove with the words which the LORD thy God has heard; therefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is still left.
5 So the slaves of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Do not be afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Behold, that I am sending a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9 And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let thy God, in whom thou dost trust, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the Gentiles delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden which were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arphad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim Hena, and Ivah?
14 And Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying, 16 O LORD of the hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made the heavens and earth. 17 Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent his messengers to blaspheme the living God. 18 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries 19 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. 20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
22 This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him, Has he despised thee? Has he laughed thee to scorn O virgin daughter of Zion? Has he shaken his head behind thy back O daughter of Jerusalem?
23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. 24 By the hand of thy slaves thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots I shall come up to the height of the mountains to the sides of Lebanon, and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the height of his border and the forest of his Carmel. 25 I have dug and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet shall I dry up all the rivers of sustenance.
26 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, that thou should be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. 27 And their inhabitants, of little strength, dismayed and confounded shall be as the grass of the field and as the green shrub as the grass on the housetops, that before it comes to maturity it is dried up.
28 I have understood thy state, thy going out and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. 29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou didst come.
30 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same: and in the third year ye shall sow and shall reap and shall plant vineyards and shall eat the fruit thereof. 31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward: 32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and from Mount Zion shall come an escape; the zeal of the LORD of the hosts shall do this.
33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for my slave David’s sake.
36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh. 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.