2 Kings 18:17-20:11 — Legacy Standard Bible

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent ^aTartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the ^bconduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the ¹fuller’s field. ¹⁸Then they called to the king, and ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^bShebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

¹⁹Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “^aWhat is this trust that you have? ²⁰“You say (but they are ¹only empty words), ‘I have counsel and might for the war.’ Now on whom do you trust, ^athat you have rebelled against me? ²¹“Now behold, you ¹^,^atrust in the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his ²hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²²“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ is it not He whose high places and ^awhose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? ²³“So now, ¹come, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them. ²⁴“How then can you ¹turn away one ²official of the least of my master’s servants, and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵“So now, have I come up ¹without the approval of Yahweh against this place to make it a ruin? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land and make it a ruin.’”’”

²⁶Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we ¹understand it; and do not speak with us in ²^,^aJudean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, ¹saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. ²⁹“Thus says the king, ‘^aDo not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from ¹his hand; ³⁰and do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ³¹‘Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “¹Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat ^aeach of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, ³²until I come and take you away ^ato a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” ³³‘^aHas any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴‘^aWhere are the gods of Hamath and ^bArpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ¹^,^cIvvah? When have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵‘Who among all the gods of the lands ¹have delivered their land from my hand, ^athat Yahweh would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

³⁶But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷Then ^aEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^bwith their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Tells Hezekiah Not to Be Afraid

19^aNow it happened that when King Hezekiah heard it, he ^btore his clothes, ^ccovered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of Yahweh. ²Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^acovered with sackcloth, to ^bIsaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. ³And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth. ⁴‘^aPerhaps Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^bto ¹reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for ^cthe remnant that is left.’” ⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the ^ayoung men of the king of Assyria ^bhave blasphemed Me. ⁷“Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that ^ahe will hear a report and return to his own land. And ^bI will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Deceives Hezekiah

⁸Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^aLibnah, for he had heard that ¹the king had set out from ^bLachish. ⁹Then he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of ¹Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, ¹⁰“Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of ¹Judah, ‘Do not ^alet your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “^bJerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹¹‘Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. So will you be delivered? ¹²‘^aDid the gods of ¹those nations which my fathers brought to ruin deliver them, even ^bGozan and ^cHaran and Rezeph and ^dthe sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³‘^aWhere is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴Then ^aHezekiah took the ¹letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of Yahweh and ²spread it out before Yahweh. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^awho is ¹enthroned above the cherubim, ^bYou are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶“^aIncline Your ear, O Yahweh, and hear; ^bopen Your eyes, O Yahweh, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who sent them ^cto ¹reproach the living God. ¹⁷“Truly, O Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸and have put their gods into the fire, ^afor they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹“But now, O Yahweh our God, I pray, save us from his hand ^athat all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ^bYahweh, are God.”

Isaiah Speaks of Sennacherib’s Fall

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^aI have heard you.’ ²¹“This is the word that Yahweh has spoken against him: ‘She has despised you and mocked you,^aThe virgin daughter of Zion;She ^bhas shaken her head behind you,The daughter of Jerusalem!

²²‘Whom have you ¹^,^areproached and ^bblasphemed?And against whom have you heightened your voice,And ²haughtily lifted up your eyes?Against the ^cHoly One of Israel!²³‘^aThrough your messengers you have ¹reproached the Lord,And you have said, “With my many chariotsI came up to the heights of the mountains,To the remotest parts of Lebanon;And I ²cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.And I ³entered its farthest lodging place, its ^bthickest forest.²⁴“I dug wells and drank foreign waters,And with the sole of my feet I ¹^,^adried upAll the rivers of ²Egypt.”²⁵‘^aHave you not heard?Long ago I did it;From days of old I formed it.^bNow I have brought it to pass,That you should devastate fortified cities into ruinous heaps.²⁶‘So their inhabitants were short of power,They were dismayed and put to shame;They were ^aas the plant of the field and as the green herb,As grass on the rooftops is scorched before it rises.²⁷‘But ^aI know your sitting down,And your going out and your coming in,And your raging against Me.²⁸‘Because of your raging against Me,And because your ¹presumptuousness has come up to My ears,Therefore I ^awill put My hook in your nose,And My bridle in your lips,And ^bI will turn you back by the way which you came.

²⁹‘Then this shall be ^athe sign for you: ¹you will eat this year what grows of its own accord, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³⁰‘^aAnd the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹‘For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and ^aout of Mount Zion ¹survivors. ^bThe zeal of ²Yahweh will do this.

³²‘Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, “^aHe will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. ³³“^aBy the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares Yahweh. ³⁴‘^aIndeed I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and ^bfor My servant David’s sake.’”

³⁵^aNow it happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And the ¹men arose early in the morning, and behold, all of ²them were dead bodies. ³⁶So ^aSennacherib king of Assyria set out and went away and returned home and lived at ^bNineveh. ³⁷Now it happened that as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, ¹^,^aAdrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into ^bthe land of Ararat. And ^cEsarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Restoration

20^aIn those days Hezekiah became ill to the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘^bSet your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” ²Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, saying, ³“^aRemember now, O Yahweh, I beseech You, ^bhow I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And ^cHezekiah wept ¹greatly. ⁴Now it happened that Isaiah had not gone out of the middle court, and the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁵“Return and say to ^aHezekiah the ruler of My people, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, “^bI have heard your prayer, ^cI have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of Yahweh. ⁶“And I will add fifteen years to your ¹life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and ^aI will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”’” ⁷Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he was restored to life.

⁸Now Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What will be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third day?” ⁹And Isaiah said, “^aThis shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or turn back ten steps?” ¹⁰So ¹Hezekiah ²answered, “It is easy for the shadow to stretch forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.” ¹¹Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh, and ^aHe turned the shadow on the ¹stairway back ten steps by which it had gone down on the ²stairway of Ahaz.