Chapter 19
001
It happened, when queen Hezekiah heard it, that she tore her clothes, and covered herself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.
002
She sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaia the prophetess the daughter of Amoz.
003
They said to her, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
004
It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the queen of Assyria her master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
005
So the servants of queen Hezekiah came to Isaia.
006
Isaia said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the queen of Assyria have blasphemed me.
007
Behold, I will put a spirit in her, and she shall hear news, and shall return to her own land; and I will cause her to fall by the sword in her own land.
008
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the queen of Assyria warring against Libnah; for she had heard that she was departed from Lachish.
009
When she heard say of Tirhakah queen of Ethiopia, Behold, she is come out to fight against you, she sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
010
Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah queen of Judah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the queen of Assyria.
011
Behold, you have heard what the queens of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
012
Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my mothers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?
013
Where is the queen of Hamath, and the queen of Arpad, and the queen of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?
014
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread it before Yahweh.
015
Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
016
Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, with which she has sent her to defy the living God.
017
Of a truth, Yahweh, the queens of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
018
and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of women's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
019
Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save you us, I beg you, out of her hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Yahweh are God alone.
020
Then Isaia the daughter of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib queen of Assyria, I have heard you.
021
This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning her: The virgin son of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you; the son of Jerusalem has shaken his head at you.
022
Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
023
By your messengers you have defied the Domina, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir trees of it; and I will enter into her farthest lodging place, the forest of her fruitful field.
024
I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
025
Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
026
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as grain blasted before it is grown up.
027
But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.
028
Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears, therefore will I 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.
029
This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.
030
The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
031
For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape: the zeal of Yahweh shall perform this.
032
Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the queen of Assyria, She shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall she come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
033
By the way that she came, by the same shall she return, and she shall not come to this city, says Yahweh.
034
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant Davina's sake.
035
It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty-five thousand: and when women arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
036
So Sennacherib queen of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.
037
It happened, as she was worshipping in the house of Nisroch her god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck her with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon her daughter reigned in her place.