2 Kings, Chapter 19:

Verses from 2 Kings, Chapter 19 of the book of 1 Samuel in the Bible.

Isaiah predicts the withdrawal of the Assyrians

• 1. Upon hearing the report, King Hezekiah was distressed and tore his clothes. He dressed in mourning and went to the temple of the Lord.
• 2. Then he sent Eliakim the administrator of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the chief priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
• 3. And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This is a day of trouble, of rebuke and of humiliation. It's like when a woman is about to give birth but doesn't have the strength to give birth.
• 4. Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Assyrian commander, whom the king of Assyria, your lord, sent to insult the living God. May the Lord your God rebuke you for the words you heard. Therefore, pray for the remnant that still survives.”
• 5. When King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah,
• 6. He said to them: “Say to your lord: This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of the words you heard, with which the officials of the king of Assyria insulted me.
• 7. I will make him go back the same way he came. I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”
• 8. When the Assyrian commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he returned and found the king fighting against Libnah.
• 9. At that time Sennacherib received news that Tiraca, king of Cush, was marching to fight against him. Then he sent messengers again to Hezekiah with this message:
• 10. “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the God in whom you trust deceive you, saying: Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
• 11. You have heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands, how they completely destroyed them. And will you be spared?
• 12. The gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed were unable to free their lands from my power. Has the God of any of these nations been able to deliver their land from my hands?
• 13. Where are the gods of Hamath and Harpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Iva?”

Hezekiah's prayer

• 14. Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread the letters before the Lord.
• 15. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, who is enthroned between the cherubim! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
• 16. Incline your ears, Lord, and listen; open your eyes, Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, whom he sent to insult the living God.
• 17. It was true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria destroyed all these nations and their lands.
• 18. And they threw their gods into the fire, because they were not gods, but only objects made with human hands, of wood and stone. That's why they destroyed them.
• 19. Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah prophesies the fall of Sennacherib

• 20. Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hear the prayer you prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.
• 21. This is the word that the Lord spoke against him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, despises you and mocks you; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind his back!
• 22. Who did you insult and blaspheme? Against whom have you raised your voice and raised your arrogant eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
• 23. Through your messengers you insulted the Lord, and said: With the multitude of my chariots I went up to the heights of the mountains, on the sides of Lebanon; I will cut down your tallest cedars and your most beautiful cypresses; I will reach its highest peaks and its densest forests.
• 24. I dug and drank foreign water, and with the soles of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt.
• 25. “Don't you realize that I had planned it a long time ago, that I had formed it from ancient times? Now, I made it happen; I made him lay waste fortified cities in heaps of ruins.
• 26. Its inhabitants, deprived of strength, were discouraged and ashamed. They were like the grass of the field and the young greenery, like the grass on the roofs, which withers before it ripens.
• 27. “But I know where you walk and where you lie down and get up. I know how you rage against me.
• 28. Because of his fury against me and because his insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in his nose and my bridle in his mouth, and I will turn him back the way he came.
• 29. “This will be a sign for you, Hezekiah, that I will fulfill my promise: This year you will eat what grows of its own accord, and next year you will eat what grows out of the abandoned fields. But in the third year you will sow and reap; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
• 30. Once again, a remnant of the tribe of Judah will take root downward and produce fruit upward.
• 31. For survivors will come out of Jerusalem; of Mount Zion, remnants. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
• 32. “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, nor shoot arrows against it; He will not surround it with trenches or build siege ramps against it.
• 33. By the way he came, he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord.
• 34. “I will protect this city and save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”
• 35. That night the angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up in the morning, there were only dead bodies.
• 36. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria withdrew and returned to Nineveh, where he stayed.
• 37. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adramelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esarhaddon was his successor.

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