Sennacherib's Fall

Isaiah 37

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.

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