1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went into the LORD's house.
2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe and the senior priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
3 They told him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke and of disgrace. Children have come to the moment of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will punish him for the words the LORD your God has heard. So offer a prayer for the remnant that still survives.'"
5 When King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah,
6 Isaiah told them, "Tell your master this: 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid because of what you have heard, the words with which the king of Assyria's underlings have reviled me.
7 See, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and go back to his own country, and there in his own country I will cut him down with the sword.'"
8 The Rabshakeh went back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah, having heard that the king had moved on from Lachish.
9 Then the king received word about Tirhakah king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah with this message:
10 "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God, in whom you trust, mislead you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.
11 See, you have heard for yourself what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, devoting them to destruction. And will you be rescued?
12 Did the gods of the nations my fathers destroyed rescue them, the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden in Telassar?
13 Where now is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?'"
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the LORD's house and spread it out in the LORD's presence.
15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:
16 "LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
17 Turn your ear, LORD, and listen; open your eyes, LORD, and look. Hear all the words Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God.
18 It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands.
19 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were no gods at all, only the work of men's hands, wood and stone; and so they destroyed them.
20 Now, LORD our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD."
21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22 this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: 'The virgin daughter of Zion looks down on you and laughs you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head behind your back.
23 Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes so high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24 Through your servants you have mocked the Lord. You have said, "With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain heights, the remotest parts of Lebanon. I will fell its tallest cedars and its finest cypresses. I will reach its most distant height, its richest forest.
25 I have dug wells and drunk water, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt."
26 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it, and now I have brought it about, that you should turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
27 Their people, drained of power, were dismayed and ashamed. They were like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass on the rooftops, like a field scorched before the grain grows up.
28 I know when you sit and when you go out and come in, and how you rage against me.
29 Because you rage against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you go back by the road you came.'
30 This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and next year what springs up from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31 Once more the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.
32 For from Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.
33 So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with a shield or build a siege ramp against it.
34 He will go back by the road he came, and he will not enter this city, declares the LORD.
35 I will shield this city and save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."
36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He went home and stayed in Nineveh.
38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became king in his place.