2 Kings 19 - New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

19 ^(A)Now when King Hezekiah heard the report, he ^(B)tore his clothes, ^(C)covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, ^(D)covered with sackcloth, to ^(E)Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ And they said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and humiliation; for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. ^{4 (F)}Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(G)to taunt the living God, and will avenge the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for ^(H)the remnant that is ^[a]left.’” ⁵ So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. ⁶ And Isaiah said to them, “This is what you shall say to your master: ‘The Lord says this: “Do not be fearful because of the words that you have heard, with which the ^(I)servants of the king of Assyria ^(J)have blasphemed Me. ⁷ Behold, I am going to put a spirit in him so that ^(K)he will hear news and return to his own land. And ^(L)I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Defies God

⁸ Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(M)Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left ^(N)Lachish. ⁹ When he heard them say about Tirhakah king of ^[b]Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “This is what you shall say to Hezekiah king of ^[c]Judah: ‘Do not ^(O)let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “^(P)Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ¹¹ Behold, you yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be saved? ^{12 (Q)}Did the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed save them: ^(R)Gozan, ^(S)Haran, Rezeph, and ^(T)the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? ^{13 (U)}Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

¹⁴ Then ^(V)Hezekiah took the ^[d]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and ^[e]spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “Lord, God of Israel, ^[f](W)enthroned above the cherubim, ^(X)You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ^{16 (Y)}Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; ^(Z)open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^(AA)to taunt the living God. ¹⁷ It is true, Lord; the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ and have ^[g]hurled their gods into the fire; ^(AB)for they were not gods, but only the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. ¹⁹ But now, Lord our God, please, save us from his hand, ^(AC)so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, ^(AD)Lord, are God.”

God’s Answer through Isaiah

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ^(AE)I have heard you.’ ²¹ This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

‘She, ^(AF)the virgin daughter of Zion, has shown contempt for you and mocked you;
She, the daughter of Jerusalem, ^(AG)has shaken her head behind you!
²² Whom have you ^(AH)taunted and ^(AI)blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice,
And ^[h]haughtily raised your eyes?
Against the ^(AJ)Holy One of Israel!
^{23 (AK)}Through your messengers you have taunted the Lord,
And you have said, “With my many chariots
I went up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I cut down its tall cedars and its choicest junipers.
And I entered its farthest resting place, its ^(AL)thickest forest.
²⁴ I dug wells and drank foreign waters,
And with the soles of my feet I ^(AM)dried up
All the streams of Egypt.”

²⁵ ‘^(AN)Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From ancient times I planned it.
^(AO)Now I have brought it about,
That you would turn fortified cities into ruined heaps.
²⁶ Therefore their inhabitants were ^[i]powerless,
They were shattered and put to shame.
They were ^(AP)like the vegetation of the field and the green grass,
Like grass on the housetops that is scorched before it has grown.
²⁷ But ^(AQ)I know your sitting down,
Your going out, your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
²⁸ Because of your raging against Me,
And because your complacency has come up to My ears,
I ^(AR)will put My hook in your nose,
And My bridle in your lips,
And ^(AS)I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

²⁹ ‘Then this shall be ^(AT)the sign for you: ^[j]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what grows by itself, and in the third year sow, harvest, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ^{30 (AU)}The survivors that are left of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹ For out of Jerusalem will go a remnant, and survivors ^(AV)out of Mount Zion. ^(AW)The zeal of ^[k]the Lord will perform this.

³² ‘Therefore this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: “^(AX)He will not come to this city nor shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield nor heap up an assault ramp against it. ^{33 (AY)}By the way that he came, by ^[l]the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. ³⁴ ‘^(AZ)For I will protect this city to save it for My own sake, and ^(BA)for My servant David’s sake.’”

^{35 (BB)}Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of ^[m]the 185,000 were ^[n]dead. ³⁶ So ^(BC)Sennacherib the king of Assyria departed and ^[o]returned home, and lived at ^(BD)Nineveh. ³⁷ Then it came about, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that ^[p](BE)Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped to ^(BF)the land of Ararat. And his son ^(BG)Esarhaddon became king in his place.

Footnotes

1. 2 Kings 19:4 Lit found
2. 2 Kings 19:9 Or Ethiopia
3. 2 Kings 19:10 Lit Judah, saying,
4. 2 Kings 19:14 Lit letters...read them
5. 2 Kings 19:14 Lit Hezekiah spread
6. 2 Kings 19:15 Lit sitting
7. 2 Kings 19:18 Lit given
8. 2 Kings 19:22 Lit on high
9. 2 Kings 19:26 Lit short of hand
10. 2 Kings 19:29 Lit to eat
11. 2 Kings 19:31 Some ancient mss the Lord of armies
12. 2 Kings 19:33 Lit it
13. 2 Kings 19:35 Lit them
14. 2 Kings 19:35 Lit dead bodies
15. 2 Kings 19:36 Lit went and returned
16. 2 Kings 19:37 Some ancient mss his sons Adrammelech

Cross references

1. 2 Kings 19:1 : 2 Chr 32:20-22; Is 37:1
2. 2 Kings 19:1 : 2 Kin 18:37
3. 2 Kings 19:1 : 1 Kin 21:27
4. 2 Kings 19:2 : 2 Sam 3:31
5. 2 Kings 19:2 : Is 1:1; 2:1
6. 2 Kings 19:4 : Josh 14:12; 2 Sam 16:12
7. 2 Kings 19:4 : 2 Kin 18:35
8. 2 Kings 19:4 : Is 1:9
9. 2 Kings 19:6 : 2 Kin 18:17
10. 2 Kings 19:6 : 2 Kin 18:22-25, 30, 35
11. 2 Kings 19:7 : 2 Kin 7:6
12. 2 Kings 19:7 : 2 Kin 19:37
13. 2 Kings 19:8 : Josh 10:29
14. 2 Kings 19:8 : 2 Kin 18:14
15. 2 Kings 19:10 : 2 Kin 18:5
16. 2 Kings 19:10 : 2 Kin 18:30
17. 2 Kings 19:12 : 2 Kin 18:33
18. 2 Kings 19:12 : 2 Kin 17:6
19. 2 Kings 19:12 : Gen 11:31
20. 2 Kings 19:12 : Is 37:12
21. 2 Kings 19:13 : 2 Kin 18:34
22. 2 Kings 19:14 : Is 37:14
23. 2 Kings 19:15 : Ex 25:22; Is 37:14
24. 2 Kings 19:15 : 2 Kin 5:15
25. 2 Kings 19:16 : Ps 31:2; Is 37:17
26. 2 Kings 19:16 : 1 Kin 8:29; 2 Chr 6:40
27. 2 Kings 19:16 : 2 Kin 19:4
28. 2 Kings 19:18 : Is 44:9-20; Acts 17:29
29. 2 Kings 19:19 : 1 Kin 8:42, 43
30. 2 Kings 19:19 : 2 Kin 19:15
31. 2 Kings 19:20 : 2 Kin 20:5
32. 2 Kings 19:21 : Jer 14:17; Lam 2:13
33. 2 Kings 19:21 : Ps 109:25; Matt 27:39
34. 2 Kings 19:22 : 2 Kin 19:4
35. 2 Kings 19:22 : 2 Kin 19:6
36. 2 Kings 19:22 : Is 5:24; 30:11-15
37. 2 Kings 19:23 : 2 Kin 18:17
38. 2 Kings 19:23 : 2 Chr 26:10; Is 10:18
39. 2 Kings 19:24 : Is 19:6
40. 2 Kings 19:25 : Is 45:7
41. 2 Kings 19:25 : Is 10:5
42. 2 Kings 19:26 : Ps 129:6
43. 2 Kings 19:27 : Ps 139:1
44. 2 Kings 19:28 : Ezek 19:9; 29:4
45. 2 Kings 19:28 : 2 Kin 19:33, 36
46. 2 Kings 19:29 : Ex 3:12; 2 Kin 20:8, 9
47. 2 Kings 19:30 : 2 Kin 19:4; 2 Chr 32:22, 23
48. 2 Kings 19:31 : Is 10:20
49. 2 Kings 19:31 : Is 9:7
50. 2 Kings 19:32 : Is 8:7-10
51. 2 Kings 19:33 : 2 Kin 19:28
52. 2 Kings 19:34 : 2 Kin 20:6; Is 31:5
53. 2 Kings 19:34 : 1 Kin 11:12, 13
54. 2 Kings 19:35 : 2 Sam 24:16; 2 Chr 32:21
55. 2 Kings 19:36 : 2 Kin 19:7, 28, 33
56. 2 Kings 19:36 : Jon 1:2
57. 2 Kings 19:37 : 2 Kin 17:31
58. 2 Kings 19:37 : Gen 8:4; Jer 51:27
59. 2 Kings 19:37 : Ezra 4:2