2 Kings Chapter 19

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

            ¹ When Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with burlap, and went into Yahveh’s Temple. ² He sent Eliakim with Shebna and the elders of the people, covered with burlap, to the prophet Isaiah Ben-Amoz. ³ They told him,

“Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a time of distress, rebuke, and rejection. Babies have come to term, but there’s no strength to deliver them. ⁴ Maybe Yahveh your God will hear the message from the Rabshakeh that the king of Assyria has sent to disparage the living God. Maybe he’ll rebuke what he’s heard. Pray for the remnant that’s left.’” [⁵]

⁶ Isaiah said,

“Tell your master, ‘Yahveh says, “You don’t have to be afraid of what the Assyrian king’s messengers have blasphemed. ⁷I’ll put a spirit in him that makes him hear a rumor and go back to his country. He’ll fall by the sword in his own land.”’”  2 Kg 19:1-7

⁸ The Rabshakeh went back and found the king of Assyria fighting Libnah, because he’d heard that the king had left Lachish. ⁹ When he heard them say that Tirhakah [Taharqa], king of Nubia, had set out to fight him, he sent messengers back again to Hezekiah,

¹⁰ “Tell Hezekiah, ‘Don’t let the god you trust in deceive you by saying Jerusalem won’t be delivered to the king of Assyria. ¹¹ You’ve heard that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries. Are you going to be spared? ¹² Did their gods deliver Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the sons of Eden in Telassar? ¹³ Where’s the king of Hamath, Arpad, or the towns Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴ Hezekiah read the letter, went up to Yahveh’s Temple, and spread it out to him. ¹⁵ He prayed,

“Yahveh God of Israel Enthroned Above the Cherubs, you alone are God over the kingdoms. You made earth and sky. ¹⁶ Incline your ear and hear; open your eyes and see. Listen to what Sennacherib has sent to disparage the living God. ¹⁷ Assyria’s kings have devastated the nations and their lands. ¹⁸ They’ve burned their gods because they weren’t gods, just man-made pieces of wood and stone. ¹⁹ But now, Yahveh our God, deliver us from him so the kingdoms can know that you alone are God.”       2 Kg 19:8-19

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

²⁰ Isaiah sent to Hezekiah, “Yahveh says, ‘Because you’ve prayed about Sennacherib, I’ve listened.’ ²¹ This is what Yahveh says against him:

                  ‘The young virgin of Zion

                        despises you and mocks you;

                  the young woman of Jerusalem

                        shakes her head at you!

                  ²² Who have you disparaged and blasphemed?

                  Who have you raised your voice at,

                        proudly lifted up your eyes against?

The Holy One of Israel!

                  ²³ By your ambassadors you’ve disparaged Yahveh.

                  You’ve said, “With my many chariots

                              I went up to the highest mountains,

                                    to the most remote parts of Lebanon.

                              I cut down its tallest cedars and best cypress.

                              I entered its most distant lodging place, its thickest forest.

                              ²⁴ I dug wells and drank foreign water;

                              with the soles of my feet, I dried up

                                    the streams in Egypt.” 2 Kg 19:20-24

                  ²⁵ ‘But haven’t you heard?

                        I’m the one that decided that long ago;

                        I planned it from ancient times.

                  Now I’ve made it happen:

                        that you should turn fortified towns into piles of rubble,

                        ²⁶ while their people are short of strength,

                               scared, and confounded.

                        They’ve become like plants in a field and green herbs,

                              like grass on housetops, scorched before it’s grown.

                  ²⁷ From ancient times I’ve known

                        when you sit down,

                        when you come and go, 

                        when you rage against me.

                  ²⁸ Because you’ve raged against me,

                        because of your arrogance that I’ve heard,

                        I’ll put my hook in your nose,

                              my bridle in your jaws,

                              and turn you back the way you came.                  2 Kg 19:25-28

²⁹ ‘This will show you what I mean: this year you’ll eat what volunteers, next year what sprouts from that, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat what they produce. ³⁰ The surviving remnant of Judah will take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹ A remnant will go out of Jerusalem, survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahveh will make that happen.

³² ‘Yahveh says the king of Assyria won’t come to this city or shoot an arrow here. He won’t approach it with a shield or build a mound against it. ³³ He’ll go back the way he came. ³⁴ I’ll save this city for my own sake and for David’s sake.”

³⁵ That night the angel of Yahveh struck 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When people got up early, the Assyrians were all dead. ³⁶ Sennacherib went home to live in Nineveh. ³⁷ As he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword and escaped to Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became king.                                                    2 Kg 19:29-37