1 Then king Hezekiah heard that, he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 Furthermore he sent Eliakim, steward of the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, "Thus sayeth Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of tribulation, rebuking and railing. Even as when the children are ready to be born, and the mothers have no power to be delivered.
4 O that the LORD thy God would hear all the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to rail on the living God, and to rebuke him with words which the LORD thy God hath heard. Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left."
5 When the servants of king Hezekiah were come to Isaiah,
6 Isaiah said to them, "So shall you say to your master: 'Thus sayeth the LORD: be not afraid of the words thou heardest, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have railed on me.
7 For I will send him a blast that he shall hear tidings, and so return to his own land: And I will overthrow him with the sword even in his own land.'"
8 And Rabshakeh went back again and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah: for he had heard how that he was departed from Lachish.
9 And he heard tidings of Tirhakah king of the black Moors, how that he was come out to fight against him. And thereupon he departed and sent messengers unto Hezekiah, saying,
10 "Thus say to Hezekiah king of Juda, 'Let not thy God carry thee out of the way, in whom thou so trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, how they have utterly destroyed them. And how then shouldest thou escape?
12 Hath the gods of the heathen delivered them which mine ancestors have destroyed: as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and the king of Hena and the king of Ivvah?'"
14 When Hezekiah had received the letter of the hand of the messenger and had read it, he went into the house of the LORD and laid it abroad before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, "LORD God of Israel which dwellest between the Cherubs, thou art God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth, and thou hast made both heaven and earth.
16 LORD, bow thine ears and hear; Open LORD thine eyes and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to rail on the living God.
17 But of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed nations and their lands,
18 and have set fire on their gods. For they were no gods - but the work of the hands of man; even wood and stone. And therefore they destroyed them.
19 Now therefore LORD our God, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know, that thou LORD art God alone."
20 And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel, that thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria: I have heard it.
21 This is the thing that the LORD sayeth of him: He hath despised thee, O virgin daughter of Zion; he hath shaken his head at thee, thou daughter of Jerusalem.
22 Whom hast thou railed on, and whom hast thou reviled? Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and hast lift up thine eyes so high? Even against the holy one of Israel!
23 By the hand of thy messengers thou hast railed on the Lord and said, 'With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, even along by the sides of Lebanon, and have cut off the high Cedar trees, and the lusty fir trees thereof, even to the wood of Carmel that belongeth thereto!
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the soles of my feet have I dried up the sea!'
25 But hast thou not heard how I have ordained such a thing a great while ago, and have prepared it from the beginning? And now I bring it forth and it shall be to destroy and to bring strong cities into rude heaps of stones.
26 And the inhabiters of them shall be of little power, and faint-hearted and confounded. They shall be like the grass of the field and green herbs, and as the hay on the tops of the houses which withereth afore it come to any height.
27 I know where thou dwellest, and thy coming out and going in know I too; and how thou settest up thy bristles against me.
28 And because thou settest up thy bristles against me, and that thy raging is come up to mine ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose and a bit in thy lips, and will bring thee back again the same way thou camest.
29 And this shall be a sign unto thee: In this year, eat that which is fallen. In the second year, such as groweth of itself. In the third year, sow and reap and plant vineyards; and eat the fruit thereof.
30 For the daughter of Judah that is escaped and left, shall yet again take rooting downward and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and a number that shall escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of Hosts shall bring this thing to pass.
32 Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD, of the king of Assyria: He shall not come to this city, nor shoot arrow into it, nor come before with shield nor cast any bank against it -
33 but shall go back again the way he came, and shall not come at this city, sayeth the LORD.
34 For I will defend this city and save it, for mine own sake and for David my servant's sake."
35 And the selfsame night the Angel of the LORD went out and smote, in the host of the Assyrians, a hundred and four score and five thousand. And when they were up early in the morning: behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 And so Sennacherib king of Assyria avoided and departed and went again, and dwelt at Nineveh.