UST 2 KI Chapter 19

◄ 2 KI 19 ► ║ ═ ©

19 When King Hezekiah heard what the Rabshakeh had said, to show how distressed he was, he tore his regular clothes and wore rough cloth instead. Then he went into the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple to pray. 2 Then Hezekiah sent Eliakim, Shebna, and some of the older priests to go and speak with the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. All those men were also wearing rough cloth to show their distress. 3 The men told Isaiah, “King Hezekiah says that we are now in great trouble. Yahweh seems to be punishing us for our sins. Foreigners are insulting us because we do not seem to have a God who can help us. Our lives are in danger, like the lives of the mother and child when it is time for a woman to give birth but she does not have the strength to push her baby out. 4 The Rabshakeh insulted the only true God. That was what his master, the king of Assyria, sent him to do. Perhaps Yahweh your God heard everything that he said. Perhaps he will punish him for saying those things. King Hezekiah asks you to pray for those of us who are still alive here in Jerusalem.” 5 After the messengers from Hezekiah told Isaiah these things, 6 Isaiah told them to go back to the king and tell him that Yahweh said to him, “Those soldiers of the king of Assyria insulted me by saying that I was no better than the false gods that other nations worship. But you should not let what they said make you afraid. 7 I am going to send a spirit to Sennacherib that will make him anxious. Then he will hear a rumor that will worry him so much that he will return to his own country. There some men will assassinate him.” 8 To report what had happened in Jerusalem, the Rabshakeh went to Libnah. He went there because he learned that the Assyrian army had left Lachish. The king of Assyria was then leading an attack against Libnah. 9 Soon after that, King Sennacherib received a report that King Tirhakah of Cush was leading his army to attack them. So he did not attack Jerusalem right away, but instead he sent more messengers to King Hezekiah. 10 The king told his messengers to tell Hezekiah, “Yahweh your God is promising you that my army will never capture Jerusalem. You trust Yahweh, but he is not telling the truth, so do not believe him. 11 You have certainly heard what the armies of the kings of Assyria have done to all the other lands they invaded. They have completely destroyed them. So do not think that you will escape! 12 The gods of other nations did not rescue them. Instead, the armies of previous kings of Assyria destroyed them. That is what happened to the people of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph and the Edenites who lived in Tel Assar. 13 The Assyrians defeated and killed the kings of Hamath and Arpad and the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah.”

14 The messengers gave Hezekiah a letter from the Assyrian king that said the same thing they had told him. Hezekiah read the letter. Then he went to the temple. The Assyrian king had written the letter on a scroll, and Hezekiah unrolled the scroll so that the writing would be visible as he prayed to Yahweh. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed, “Yahweh, you are the God to whom we Israelites belong. You are present in a special way above the statues of the winged creatures that are above the sacred chest in your temple. You are the only true God. You rule all the kingdoms on this earth. You are the one who created everything on the earth and in the heavens. 16 So, Yahweh, please pay attention to me as I speak, and look at what the king of Assyria has written. Listen as I read it aloud to what King Sennacherib has said to insult you, the only true God. 17 Yahweh, it is true that the armies of the kings of Assyria have completely destroyed many people groups and the lands in which they were living. 18 It is also true that they have burned up the idols of those nations. But those were not really gods. They were only wooden or stone statues. Humans made them, and that is why the Assyrians were able to destroy them so easily. 19 So now, Yahweh our God, please prevent the king of Assyria from conquering us. That way the people in all the kingdoms of the world will know that you, Yahweh, are the only true God.”

20 Then Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah. He told him, “Yahweh, the God to whom we Israelites belong, says that he will do what you asked him to do when you prayed to him about Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. 21 Yahweh says that the people of Jerusalem will belittle him and make fun of him. They will shake their heads to ridicule him as he runs away from the city with his army. 22 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should not have insulted and made fun of him, the holy God whom the Israelites worship. He should not have shouted at him or proudly looked up at the sky. 23 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king sent messengers to make fun of him. Through those messengers, boasting about his military conquests, he said that it was as if he had led his many chariots to the highest and most distant mountains in Lebanon. He said it was as if he and his soldiers had cut down the tallest cedar trees and best cypress trees in Lebanon. Boasting that he would now conquer Jerusalem, he said that it was as if he and his army would now go to the place where people most want to go in Lebanon. That is a place where workers have made a beautiful park in the midst of the forest. 24 Yahweh says that the Assyrian king is boasting that in order to march through desolate regions, he and his soldiers have dug wells in other countries to get water. He is also boasting that he will conquer Matsor, which people also call Egypt, as easily as a person can stamp out a small puddle of water.

25 But Yahweh says that the Assyrian king should realize that he planned long ago for those things to happen. Now he is causing them to occur. That is why the king’s army has been capturing and destroying many cities that were surrounded by high walls. 26 The people who lived in those cities were not able to resist the Assyrians. This discouraged them and shamed them. The Assyrians destroyed them as easily as someone can cut down green plants that are growing in a field. The Assyrians destroyed them just as the heat of the sun destroys grass on the roof of a house before it can grow. 27 But, Yahweh says, he knows where the king of Assyria lives. He knows when he leaves home and when he returns. He knows when the king yells at him angrily. 28 Yahweh says that he has heard the king yelling at him angrily. As a result, he is going to force him to return to his own country without conquering Jerusalem by the same route that he took to get here. It will be as if Yahweh puts a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth in order to make him go where he wants him to go.

29 Here is a sign for you, Hezekiah, to show that this message is truly from Yahweh. This year, you and your people will eat wild grain. Next year, you will eat the grain that grows from the seeds of those wild plants. But the following year, you Israelites will be able to plant grain and harvest it. You will be able to plant vineyards and eat the grapes. 30 The people in Judah who remain alive will once again prosper and have many sons and daughters, like plants whose roots go deep down into the ground and that produce much fruit. 31 People will survive the Assyrian invasion. Afterwards, many of them will move from Jerusalem on Mount Zion to resettle other parts of Judah. Yahweh will eagerly make this happen. 32 Yahweh declares that the king of Assyria will not bring his army to this city. His soldiers will not shoot a single arrow at it. His soldiers will not appear outside of it carrying shields. They will not build a high mound of dirt against the city wall to try to get over it. 33 Yahweh says that the king of Assyria will not lead his army to this city. Instead, they will return to their own country by the same route that they took to get here. 34 Yahweh says that he will defend this city and prevent the Assyrians from destroying it. He will do that to show that he is the one true God and because of what he promised to his servant David, that his descendants would always rule in Jerusalem.”

35 That night, an angel representing Yahweh went to the place where the Assyrian soldiers had set up their tents. He killed 185,000 of the soldiers. When the rest of the soldiers woke up the next morning, they saw the dead bodies of all those soldiers. 36 Then King Sennacherib had his soldiers take down their tents, and he led them away from Israel. They returned to Assyria, and Sennacherib remained in the city of Nineveh. 37 One day King Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch. Two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords. Then they escaped to the region of Ararat. Sennacherib’s other son Esarhaddon became the next king of Assyria.

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UST 2 KI Chapter 19

UST 2 KI Chapter 19