1    ^noteWhen King Hezekiah heard their report, he rent his clothes and wrapped himself in sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2   He sent Eliakim comptroller of the household, Shebna the adjutant-general, and the senior priests, all covered in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, to give him this message from the king: 3   ‘This day is a day of trouble for us, a day of reproof and contempt. We are like a woman who has no strength to bear the child that is coming to the birth. 4   It may be that the Lord your God heard the words of the chief officer whom his master the king of Assyria sent to taunt the living God, and will confute what he, the Lord your God, heard. Offer a prayer for those who still survive.’ 5    6   King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah, and he told them to say this to their master: ‘This is the word of the Lord: “Do not be alarmed at what you heard when the lackeys of the king of Assyria blasphemed me. 7   I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour and withdraw to his own country; and there I will make him fall by the sword.”’

8   So the chief officer withdrew. He heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, and he found him attacking Libnah. 9   But when the king learnt that Tirhakah king of Cush was on the way to make war on him, he sent messengers again ^note to Hezekiah king of Judah, 10   to say to him, ‘How can you be deluded by your god on whom you rely when he promises that Jerusalem shall not fall into the hands of the king of Assyria? 11   Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, exterminating their people; can you then hope to escape? 12   Did their gods save the nations which my forefathers destroyed, Gozan, Harran, Rezeph, and the people of Beth-eden living in Telassar?

Jerusalem delivered from Sennacherib 13   Where are the kings of Hamath, of Arpad, and of Lahir, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’

14   Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it; then he went up into the house of the Lord, spread it out before the Lord and offered this prayer: 15    16   ‘O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubim, thou alone art God of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 17   Turn thy ear to me, O Lord, and listen; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the message that Sennacherib has sent to taunt the living God. 18   It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste every country, ^note 19   that they have consigned their gods to the fire and destroyed them; for they were no gods but the work of men's hands, mere wood and stone. 20   But now, O Lord our God, save us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, O Lord, alone art God.’ ^note

21   Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah and said, ‘This is the word of the Lord the God of Israel: I have heard ^note your prayer to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 22   This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him:

  The virgin daughter of Zion disdains you,
      she laughs you to scorn;
  the daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head
      as you retreat.
     23   Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?
      Against whom have you clamoured,
  casting haughty glances at the Holy One of Israel?
     24   You have sent your servants to taunt the Lord,
      and said:
    With my countless chariots I have gone up
    high in the mountains, into the recesses of Lebanon.
    I have cut down its tallest cedars,
      the best of its pines,
  I have reached its highest limit of forest and meadow. ^note
       25   I have dug wells
    and drunk the waters of a foreign land, ^note
  and with the soles of my feet I have dried up
      all the streams of Egypt.


     26   Have you not heard long ago?
      I did it all.
    In days gone by I planned it

Jerusalem delivered from Sennacherib
    and now I have brought it about,
    making fortified cities tumble down
      into heaps of rubble. ^note
   27   Their citizens, shorn of strength,
      disheartened and ashamed,
    were but as plants in the field, as green herbs,
    as grass on the roof-tops blasted before the east wind. ^note
     28   I know your rising up ^note and your sitting down,
      your going out and your coming in.
   29   The frenzy of your rage against me ^note and your arrogance
      have come to my ears.
    I will put a ring in your nose
      and a hook in your lips,
    and I will take you back by the road
      on which you have come.

30   This shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat shed grain and in the second year what is self-sown; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31   The survivors left in Judah shall strike fresh root under ground and yield fruit above ground, 32   for a remnant shall come out of Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.

33   ‘Therefore, this is the word of the Lord concerning the king of Assyria:

    He shall not enter this city
      nor shoot an arrow there,
    he shall not advance against it with shield
    nor cast up a siege-ramp against it.
   34   By the way on which he came he shall go back;
      this city he shall not enter.
      This is the very word of the Lord.
     35   I will shield this city to deliver it,
  for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.’

36   The angel of the Lord went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp; when morning dawned, they all lay dead. 37   So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp, went back to Nineveh and stayed there. 38   One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons murdered him and escaped to the land of Ararat. He was succeeded by his son Esarhaddon.

Jerusalem delivered from Sennacherib

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