Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah
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1As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, 2he tore his clothes and 3covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.
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And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, 4covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.
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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.
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5It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent 6to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for 7the remnant that is left."
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When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
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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 8the servants of the king of Assyria have 9reviled me.
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Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that 10he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him 11fall by the sword in his own land.'"
Sennacherib Defies the Lord
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The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against 12Libnah, for he heard that the king had left 13Lachish.
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14Now 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,
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"Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God 15in whom you trust deceive you by promising that 16Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
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Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?
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17Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, 18Gozan, 19Haran, Rezeph, and the people of 20Eden who were in Telassar?
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21Where 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?'"
Hezekiah's Prayer
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Hezekiah received 22the 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.
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And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, 23enthroned above the cherubim, 24you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
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25Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; 26open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent 27to mock the living God.
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Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands
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and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, 28but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
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So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, 29that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that 30you, O LORD, are God alone."
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall
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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 31I have heard.
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This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "She despises you, she scorns you-- 32the virgin daughter of Zion; she 33wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.
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"Whom have you 34mocked and 35reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against 36the Holy One of Israel!
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37By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 38'With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of 39Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest lodging place, its most 40fruitful forest.
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I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams 41of Egypt.'
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"Have you not heard that 42I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what 43now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins,
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while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become 44like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.
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"But I know your sitting down 45and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
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Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come into my ears, I will 46put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and 47I will turn you back on the way by which you came.
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"And this shall be 48the 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.
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49And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
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For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion 50a band of survivors. 51The zeal of the LORD will do this.
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"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 52cast up a siege mound against it.
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53By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.
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54For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake 55and for the sake of my servant David."
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And that night 56the 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.
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Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at 57Nineveh.
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And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, 58Adrammelech 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.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)