Jerusalem's Deliverance Foretold
19:1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that
he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and
went into the house of the LORD.
19:2 And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered
with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
19:3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day
is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy; for the
children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to
bring forth.
19:4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of
Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to
reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which
the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer
for the remnant that are left.
19:5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
19:6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your
master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words
which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king
of Assyria have blasphemed me.
19:7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall
hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land; and I will
cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
19:8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria
warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was
departed from Lachish.
19:9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia,
Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent
messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
19:10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah,
saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee,
saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of
the king of Assyria.
19:11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria
have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and
shalt thou be delivered?
19:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my
fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and
the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?
19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad,
and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?
Hezekiah's Prayer
19:14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the
messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house
of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
19:15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD
God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou art
the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth;
thou hast made heaven and earth.
19:16 LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine
eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath
sent him to reproach the living God.
19:17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed
the nations and their lands,
19:18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were
no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone:
therefore they have destroyed them.
19:19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save
thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall
19:20 Then Isaiah the son of
Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of
Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against
Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
19:21 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning
him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and
laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken
her head at thee.
19:22 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.
19:23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the LORD, and
hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to
the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and
will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice
fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his
borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
19:24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the
sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged
places.
19:25 Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and
of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought
it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced
cities into ruinous heaps.
19:26 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 house
tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
19:27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy
coming in, and thy rage against me.
19:28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up
into mine 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 camest.
19:29 And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this
year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second
year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year
sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits
thereof.
19:30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah
shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
19:31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and
they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of
hosts shall do this.
19:32 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 shield, nor cast a bank
against it.
19:33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return,
and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
19:34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own
sake, and for my servant David's sake.
19:35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the
LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an
hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose
early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
19:37 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 Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his
stead.
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