1   And it came to passe, when king Ezechias had heard it, he ^note rent his garments, and was wrapped in ^note sackcloth, & entred into the house of our Lord.

2   And he sent Eliacim which was ouer the house, and Sobna the scribe, and the ancients of the priestes couered with sackclothes to Isaie, the sonne of Amos the prophete,

3   and they sayd to him: Thus sayth Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemie: because the children are come euen to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4   If by any meanes our Lord thy God wil heare the wordes of Rabsaces, whom the king of Assyrians his Lord hath sent to blaspheme the liuing God, & to vpbraide with words which our Lord thy God hath heard: lift vp prayer therfore for the remnant that are left.

5   And the seru&abar;ts of Ezechias came to Isaie.

6   And Isaie sayd to them: Thus shal you say to your master: Thus saith our Lord: Feare not at the face of the wordes, which thou hast heard, wherewith the seruants of the king of the Assyrians haue blasphemed me.

7   Behold, I wil geue him a spirit, and he shal heare a message, and shal returne to his countrie, and I wil make him fal by the sword in his owne countrie.

8   And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of Assyrians fighting agaynst Lobna. For he heard that he was departed from Lachis,

9   and he heard of Tharaca the king of Æthiopia, them that sayd: He is come forth to fight agaynst thee. Which when he had heard, he sent messengers to

Ezechias, saying:

10   Thus shal you say to Ezechaias the king of Iuda, speaking: Let not thy God deceiue thee, in whom thou hast confidence, saying: Ierusalen shal not be geuen into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.

11   Loe thou hast heard al thinges the kinges of the Assyrians haue done to al countries, which they haue subuerted, and canst thou be deliuered?

12   Why, haue the goddes of the nations deliuered them, whom my fathers haue subuerted, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar?

13    ^noteWhere is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the citie of Sepharuaim, of Ana, & Aua?

14   And Ezechias tooke the letters of the hand of the messengers, and read them, and went vp into the house of our Lord, and Ezchias layd them open before our Lord.

15   And Ezchias prayed to our Lord, saying:

16   O Lord of hostes God of Israel, which sittest vpon the Cherubs, thou art the onlie God of al the kingdomes of the earth, thou hast made heauen and earth.

17   Incline ô Lord thine eare, and heare: open ô Lord thine eies, and see, and heare al the wordes of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the liuing God.

18   For in verie deede, ô Lord, the kinges of the Assyrians haue made landes desolate, and the countries of the same.

19   And they haue geuen their goddes to fyre: for they were not goddes, but the workes of mens handes, wood & stone: & they brake them in peeces.

20   And now ô Lord our God saue vs out of his hand: and let al the kingdomes of the earth knowe, that thou onlie art the Lord.

21   And I saie the sonne of Amos sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus sayth our Lord the God of Israel: For the thinges that thou praied me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyrians:

22   this is the word which our Lord hath spoken vpon him: The virgin daughter of Sion hath despised thee, and scorned thee: the daughter of Ierusalem hath wagged the head after thee.

23   Whom hast thou vpbrayded, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and vpon whom hast thou exalted voice, and lifted vp the height of thine eies? To the holie one of Israel.

24   By the hand of thy seruants thou hast vpbrayded our Lord: and hast sayd: In the multitude of my chariotes haue I climed the height of mountaynes, the toppes of Libanus: and I wil cut downe the high cedres therof, & the chosen firre trees therof, and wil enter to the toppe of the height therof, to the forest of his Carmel.

25   I haue digged, and drunken the water, and

haue dried vp with the steppe of my foote al the riuers of the rampiers.

26   Why, hast thou not heard, what I haue done to him of old? from ancient daies haue I formed it: and now I haue brought it to effect: and it is made to the rooting out of litle hilles bickering together, and of fensed cities.

27   The inhabitants of them with shortened hand haue trembled, and are confounded: they are become as hay of the field, and grasse of the pasture ground, and herbe of the house toppes, which hath withered before it was ripe.

28   I haue knowen thy habitation, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy madnes agaynst me.

29   When thou didst rage agaynst me, thy pride ascended into mine eares: therfore I wil put a ring in thy nosthrels, and a bitte in thy lippes, & wil bring thee backe into the way, by which thou camest.

30    ^noteBut to thee this shalbe a signe: eate this yeare the thinges that grow of themselues, and in the second yeare eate fruites: but in the third yeare sow and reape, & plant vineyards, and eate the fruite of them.

31   And that which shal be saued of the house of Iuda, and which is leaft, shal take roote downeward, and shal beare fruite vpward:

32   because out of Ierusalem there shal a remnant goe forth, and saluation from mount Sion: the zele of the Lord of hostes shal doe this.

33   Therfore thus sayth our Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shal not enter this citie, and he shal not shoote arrow there, and shilde shal not occupie it, and he shal not cast rampier about it:

34   In the way that he came, by the same he shal returne, and into this citie he shal not enter, sayth our Lord.

35   And I wil protect this citie, that I may saue it for myne owne sake, and09Q0303 for Dauids sake my seruant.

36   And the Angel of our Lord came forth, and stroke in the campe of the Assyrians an hundred eightie fiue thousand. And they arose in the morning, and behold, al were carcasses of dead men.

37   And he went out, and departed, and Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians returned, and dwelt in Niniue.

38   And it came to passe, when he adored in the temple of Nesroch his god, Adramelech and Sarasar his sonnes stroke him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, & Asarhaddon his sonne reigned for him.

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