1   VVhich thinges when Ezechias the king had heard, he rent his garmentes, and was couered with sackcloth, and entered into the house of our Lord.

2   And he sent Eliacim the gouernour of the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancientes of the priestes couered with sackclothes, to Isaias the prophete the sonne of Amos.

3   Who sayd to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and rebuke, and of blasphemie: the children are come to the birth, and the woman in trauel hath not strength.

4   If perhaps our Lord thy God wil heare al the wordes of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians his maister hath sent to vpbrayd the liuing God, and reproue with wordes, which our Lord thy God hath heard: and make thou prayer for the remnantes that are found.

5   The seruantes therfore of king Ezechias came to Isaie.

6   And Isaie sayd to them: Thus shal you say to your maister: Thus sayth our Lord: Feare not for the wordes, which thou hast heard, with which the seruantes of the king of the Assyrians haue blasphemed me.

7   Behold I wil send into him a spirit, and he shal here a message, and shal returne into his country, and I wil ouerthrow him with the sword in his country.

8   Rabsaces therfore returned, and found the king of Assyrians expugning Lobna: for he heard that he was departed from Lachis.

9   And when he had heard of Tharaca the king of Æthiopia, saying:

Ezechias. Behold, he is come forth to fight agaynst thee: and went agaynst him, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:

10   Say this to Ezechias the king of Iuda: Let not thy God seduce thee, in whom thou hast confidence: neither say thou: Ierusalem shal not be deliuered into the handes of the king of the Assyrians.

11   For thou thy self hast heard what the kinges of the Assyrians haue done to al the countries, how they haue spoyled them: canst thou therfore onlie be deliuered?

12   Why haue the goddes of the Nations deliuered al those, whom my fathers haue destroyed, to witte, Gozan, & Haran, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, which were in Thelassar?

13   Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the citie of Sepharuaim, of Ana and Aua?

14   Therfore when Ezechias had receiued the letters of the hand of messengers, & had read them, he went vp into the house of our Lord, & layd them open ^note before our Lord,

15   & prayd in his sight, saying: Lord God of Israel, which sittest vpon the cherubins, thou art the only God of al the kinges of the earth: thou madest heauen and earth:

16   Incline thine eare, and heare: open Lord thine eies, and see: and heare al the wordes of Sennacherib, who hath sent to vpbrayd vnto vs the liuing God.

17   In verie deede Lord, the kinges of the Assyrians haue destroyed Nations, and the countries of al.

18   And they haue cast their goddes into fire: for they were not goddes, but the workes of mens handes of wood and stone, and they destroyed them.

19   Now therfore O Lord our God, saue vs from his hand, that al the kingdomes of the earth may know, that thou art the Lord the onlie God.

20   And Isaie the sonne of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith our Lord the God of Israel: That which thou hast besought me concerning Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians, I haue heard.

21   This is the word, that our Lord hath spoken of him: The ^note virgine daughter of Sion hath dispised thee, and scorned thee: Behinde thy backe hath the daughter of Ierusalem wagged her head.

22   Whom hast thou vpbrayded, and whom hast thou blasphemed? against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted vp thine eies in high? against the holie one of Israel.

23   By the hand of thy seruantes thou hast vpbrayded our Lord, and hast sayd: In the multitude of my chariotes haue I climed the height of mouutaynes, in the toppe of Libanus, and haue cut downe high cedars therof, and the chosen firretrees of it. And I haue

Ezechias. entered into the borders therof, & the forrest of the ^note carmel therof

24   haue I cut downe. And I haue drunke strange waters, and haue dried vp with the steppes of my feete al the waters inclosed.

25   Why, hast thou not heard what I haue done from the begining? From ancient daies I haue made that thing, and now I haue brought it to effect: and fensed cities shal be into ruine of litle hilles bickering together.

26   And they that sitte in them, weake of hand, they haue trembled and are confounded, they became as the grasse of the field, and the greene herbe of the roofes of houses, which withered before it came to ripenesse.

27   Thy habitation, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy waye I haue knowen before, & thy furie against me.

28   Thou hast bene madde against me, & thy pride hath ascended into myn eares: I therfore wil put a ring in thy nostrels, and a bitte in thy lippes, and wil bring thee back into the way, by the which thou camest.

29   And to thee Ezechias this shal be a signe: Eate this yeare what thou shalt finde: & in the second yeare, the things that growe of themselues: moreouer in the third yeare sawe ye and reape: plant ye vineyardes, and eate the fruite of them.

30   And whatsoeuer shal be leaft of the house of Iuda, shal take roote downeward, and beare fruit vpward.

31   For out of Ierusalem there shal remmantes goe forth, and that which is to be saued from the mounte of Sion: the zeale of the Lord of hostes shal doe this.

32   Wherfore thus sayth our Lord of the king of the Assyrians: He shal not enter into this citie, nor shoote arrowe into it, neither shal shield occupie it, nor munition compasse it.

33   By the way, that he came, he shal returne: and into this citie he shal nos enter, sayth our Lord.

34   And I wil protect this citie. and wil saue it for my self, and for Dauid my seruant.

35   It came to passe therfore in that night, an Angel of our Lord came, and stroke in the campe of the Assyrians an hundred eightie fiue thousand. And when he was risen early, he sawe al the bodies of the dead,

36   and Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians departing went away, and taried in Niniue.

37   And when he adored in the temple of Nesroch his god, Adramelech and Sarafar his sonnes stroke him with the sword, and they fled into the land of the Armenians, and Asarhaddon his sonne reigned for him.

Ezechias.

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