1And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of LORD. 2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy, for the sons have come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4It may be LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which LORD thy God has heard. Therefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that 5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus says LORD: Be not afraid of the words that thou have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. 8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 9And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He has come out to fight against thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trust deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11Behold, thou have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. And shall thou be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? 14And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of LORD, and spread it before LORD. 15And Hezekiah prayed to LORD, saying, 16O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who sit [above] the cherubim, thou are the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou have made heaven and earth. 17Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear. Open thine eyes, O LORD, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. 18Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries, and their land, 19and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. 20Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou are LORD, even thou only. 21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says LORD, the God of Israel, Whereas thou have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22this is the word which LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised thee and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee. 23Whom have thou defied and blasphemed? And against whom have thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? [Even] against the Holy One of Israel. 24By thy servants thou have defied LORD, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. And I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir 25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt. 26Have thou not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be thine to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 27Therefore their inhabitants were of small power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb. As the grass on the housetops, and as a field [of grain] before it is grown up. 28But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy raging against me. 29Because of thy raging against me, and because thine arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou came. 30And this shall be the sign to thee. Ye shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same, and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it. 31And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 32For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of LORD of hosts will perform this. 33Therefore thus says LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. Neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 34By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city, says LORD. 35For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake. 36And the agent of LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 38And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.