Isaiah 36:1-37:38 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against the strong cities of Judah, and took them.

CAB⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against the strong cities of Judah, and took them. ² And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh out of Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah with a large force; and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller's field. ³ And there went forth to him Eliakim the steward, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder. ⁴ And Rabshakeh said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians, Why are you secure? ⁵ Is war carried on with counsel and mere words of the lips? And now on whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? ⁶ Behold, you trust on this bruised staff of reed, on Egypt; as soon as a man leans upon it, it shall go into his hand, and pierce it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt and all that trust in him. ⁷ But if you say, We trust in the Lord our God; ⁸ yet now make an agreement with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you shall be able to set riders upon them. ⁹ And how can you then turn to the face of the satraps? They that trust on the Egyptians for horse and rider are our servants. ¹⁰ And now, Have we come up against this land to fight against it without the Lord? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. ¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to him, Speak to your servants in the Syrian tongue; for we understand it; and speak not to us in the Jewish tongue; and why do you speak in the ears of the men on the wall? ¹² And Rabshakeh said to them, Has my lord sent me to your master or to you, to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall, that they may eat dung, and drink their water together with you? ¹³ And Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians: ¹⁴ Thus says the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you with words; he will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵ And let not Hezekiah say to you, That God will deliver you, and this city will not at all be delivered into the hand of the king of the Assyrians. ¹⁶ Hearken not to Hezekiah; thus says the king of the Assyrians: If you wish to be blessed, come out to me; and you shall all eat of his own vine and his own fig trees, and you shall drink water out of your own cisterns; ¹⁷ until I come and take you to a land, like your own land, a land of grain and wine, and bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, God will deliver you. Have the gods of the nations delivered each one his own land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians? ¹⁹ Where is the god of Hamath, and Arpad? And where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they been able to deliver Samaria out of my hand? ²⁰ Which is the god of all these nations that has delivered his land out of my hand, that God should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? ²¹ And they were silent, and none answered him a word; because the king had commanded that none should answer. ²² And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came in to Hezekiah, having torn their clothes, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh. ³⁷ ¹ And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth, and went up to the house of the Lord. ² And he sent Eliakim the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests clothed with sackcloth, to Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet. And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, ³ Today is a day of affliction, and reproach, and rebuke, and anger; for the pangs have come upon the travailing woman, but she has not the strength to bring forth. ⁴ May the Lord your God hear the words of Rabshakeh, which the king of the Assyrians has sent, to reproach the living God, even to reproach with the words which the Lord your God has heard; therefore you shall pray to your Lord for these that are left. ⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Be not afraid at the words which you have heard, in which the ambassadors of the king of the Assyrians have reproached Me, ⁷ Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a report, and return to his own country, and he shall fall by the sword in his own land. ⁸ So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. ⁹ And Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians went forth to attack him. And when he heard it, he turned aside, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ Thus shall you say to Hezekiah king of Judah, Let not your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of the Assyrians. ¹¹ Have you not heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done, how they have destroyed the whole earth? And shall you be delivered? ¹² Have the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed delivered them, be it Gozan, Haran, or Rezeph, which are in the land of Telassar? ¹³ Where are the kings of Hamath? And where is the king of Arpad? And where is the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Ivah? ¹⁴ And Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord, and opened it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, ¹⁶ O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, You alone are the God of every kingdom of the world; You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Incline Your ear, O Lord, hearken, O Lord; open Your eyes, O Lord, look, O Lord; and behold the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. ¹⁸ For truly, Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste the whole world, and the countries thereof, ¹⁹ and have cast their idols into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; and they have cast them away. ²⁰ But now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hands, that every kingdom of the earth may know that You alone are God. ²¹ And Isaiah the son of Amoz was sent to Hezekiah, and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I have heard your prayer to Me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians. ²² This is the word which God has spoken concerning him; The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. ²³ Whom have you reproached and provoked? And against whom have you lifted up your voice? And have you not lifted up your eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel? ²⁴ For you have reproached the Lord by messengers; for you have said, With the multitude of chariots have I ascended to the height of mountains, and to the sides of Lebanon, and I have cropped the height of his cedars and the beauty of his cypresses, and I entered into the height of the forest region; ²⁵ and I have made a bridge, and dried up the waters, and every pool of water. ²⁶ Have you not heard of these things which I did of old? I appointed them from ancient times; but now have I manifested My purpose of desolating nations in their strongholds, and them that dwell in strong cities. ²⁷ I weakened their hands, and they withered; and they became as dry grass on the housetops, and as grass. ²⁸ But now I know your dwelling place, and your going out, and your coming in. ²⁹ And your wrath in which you have been enraged, and your rage has come up before Me; therefore I will put a hook in your nose, and a bit in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came. ³⁰ And this shall be a sign to you, Eat this year what you have sown; and the second year that which is left; and the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. ³¹ And they that are left in Judah shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward; ³² for out of Jerusalem there shall be a remnant, and the saved ones out of Mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. ³³ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not enter into this city, nor cast a weapon against it, nor bring a shield against it, nor make a rampart around it. ³⁴ But by the way in which he came, by it shall he return, and shall not enter into this city; thus says the Lord. ³⁵ I will protect this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David's sake. ³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went forth, and killed out of the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and they arose in the morning and found all these bodies dead. ³⁷ And Sennacherib king of the Assyrians turned and departed, and dwelt in Nineveh. ³⁸ And while he was worshipping Nisroch his country's god in the house, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with swords; and they escaped into Armenia; and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.