22And so Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and they reported to him what the Rabshakeh had said.
37 When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the House of the LORD. 2He also sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna, the scribe, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress, of chastisement, and of disgrace. a-The babes have reached the birthstool, but the strength to give birth is lacking.-a 4Perhaps the LORD your God will take note of the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will mete out judgment for the words that the LORD your God has heard—if you will offer up prayer for the surviving remnant.”
5When King Hezekiah’s ministers came to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows: Thus said the LORD: Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria. 7I will deludeb him: He will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”
8The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the King] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah. 9But [the king of Assyria] learned that King Tirhakah of Nubia had come out to fight him; and when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Tell this to King Hezekiah of Judah: Do not let your God, on whom you are relying, mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria. 11You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have annihilated them; and can you escape? 12Were the nations that my predecessorsc destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Bethedenites in Telassar—saved by their gods? 13Where is the king of Hamath? and the king of Arpad? and the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: 16“O LORD of Hosts, enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 17O LORD, incline Your ear and hear, open Your eye and see. Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God! 18True, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have annihilated all the nationsd and their lands 19and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but man’s handwork of wood and stone. 20But now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You, O LORD, alone [are God].”e
21Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you have prayed, concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria—22this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:
Fair Maiden Zion despises you,
She mocks at you;
Fair Jerusalem shakes
Her head at you.
23Whom have you blasphemed and reviled?
Against whom made loud your voice
And haughtily raised your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
24Through your servants you have blasphemed my Lord.
Because you thought.
‘Thanks to my vast chariotry,
It is I who have climbed the highest mountains,
To the remotest parts of the Lebanon,
And have cut down its loftiest cedars,
Its choicest cypresses,
And have reached its highest peak,
f-Its densest forest.-f
25It is I who have drawng
And drunk water.
I have dried up with the soles of my feet
All the streams of Egypt.’
26Have you not heard? Of old
I planned that very thing,
I designed it long ago,
And now have fulfilled it.
And it has come to pass,
Laying fortified towns waste in desolate heaps.
27Their inhabitants are helpless,
Dismayed and shamed.
They were but grass of the field
And green herbage,
Grass of the roofs h-that is blasted
Before the east wind.-h
28I know your stayings
And your goings and comings,
And how you have raged against Me,
29Because you have raged against Me,
And your tumult has reached My ears,
I will place My hook in your nose
And My bit between your jaws;
And I will make you go back by the road
By which you came.
30“And this is the sign for you:i This year you eat what grows of itself, and the next year what springs from that, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 31And the survivors of the House of Judah that have escaped shall renew its trunk below and produce boughs above.
32For a remnant shall come forth from Jerusalem,
Survivors from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of Hosts
Shall bring this to pass.
33“Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
He shall not enter this city;
He shall not shoot an arrow at it,
Or advance upon it with a shield,
Or pile up a siegemound against it.
34He shall go back
By the way he came,
He shall not enter this city
—declares the LORD;
35I will protect and save this city for My sake
And for the sake of My servant David.”
36[That night]j an angel of the LORD went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses.
37So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and retreated, and stayed in Nineveh. 38While he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, he was struck down with the sword by his sons Adrammelech and Sarezer. They fled to the land of Ararat, and his son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.
38 In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.” 2Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. 3“Please, O LORD,” he said, “remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely.
4Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: 5“Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I hereby add fifteen years to your life. 6I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city. 7And this is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that He has promised: 8I am going to make the shadow on the steps, which has descended on the diala of Ahaz because of the sun, recede ten steps.” And the sun[’s shadow] receded ten steps, the same steps as it had descended.
9A poem by King Hezekiah of Judah when he recovered from the illness he had suffered:
10bI had thought:
I must depart in the middle of my days;
I have been consigned to the gates of Sheol
For the rest of my years.
11I thought, I shall never see Yah,c
Yah in the land of the living,
Or ever behold men again
Among those who inhabit the earth.
12My dwelling is pulled up and removed from me
Like a tent of shepherds;
My life is rolled up like a web
And cut from the thrum.
d-Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole,
13Then it was as though a lion
Were breaking all my bones;
I cried out until morning.
(Only from daybreak to nightfall
Was I kept whole.)-d
14I piped like a swift or a swallow,
I moaned like a dove,
As my eyes, all worn, looked to heaven:
“My Lord, I am in straits;
Be my surety!”
15What can I say? d-He promised me,-d
And He it is who has wrought it.
d-All my sleep had fled
Because of the bitterness of my soul.
16My Lord, for all that and despite it
My life-breath is revived;-d
You have restored me to health and revived me.
17Truly, it was for my own good
That I had such great bitterness:
You saved my life
From the pit of destruction,
For You have cast behind Your back
All my offenses.
18For it is not Sheol that praises You,
Not [the Land of] Death that extols You;
Nor do they who descend into the Pit
Hope for Your grace.
19The living, only the living
Can give thanks to You
As I do this day;
Fatherse relate to children
Your acts of grace:
20“[It has pleased] the LORD to deliver us,e
That is why we offer up musicf
All the days of our lives
At the House of the LORD.”
21When Isaiah said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the rash, and he will recover,” 22Hezekiah asked, “What will be the sign that I shall go up to the House of the LORD?”
39 At that time, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent [envoys with] a letter and a gift to Hezekiah, for
