1And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard, that he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of YHWH.
2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet.
3And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of distress and of rebuke and of contempt, for children have come to the breaking-point, and there is no strength to bring forth.
4Perhaps YHWH your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord has sent to reproach the living God (chai), and will rebuke the words which YHWH your God has heard; and you shall lift up a prayer for the remnant that is found."
5And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your lord: Thus says YHWH: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
7Behold, I am putting in him a spirit (ruach), and he shall hear a report and return to his land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land."
8And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9And he heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, "He has come out to fight against you." And he heard, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:
10"Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Let not your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, 'Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'
11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction; and shall you be delivered?
12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers 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, Hena and Ivvah?"
14And Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers and read them; and Hezekiah went up to the house of YHWH and spread them before YHWH.
15And Hezekiah prayed to YHWH, saying:
16"YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, You are He, the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
17Incline, YHWH, Your ear and hear; open, YHWH, Your eyes and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he sent to reproach the living God (chai).
18Truly, YHWH, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands and their land,
19and have given their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of the hands of man (adam), wood and stone, and they destroyed them.
20And now, YHWH our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are YHWH, You alone."
21And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says YHWH, God of Israel: Whereas you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria—
22this is the word that YHWH has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion despises you, she laughs you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head after you.
23Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you raised a voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
24By the hand of your servants you have reproached my Lord (Adonai), and you 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 height of its cedars, the choice of its cypresses; and I will enter its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.
25I have dug and drunk waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.'
26Have you not heard? Long ago I made it; from days of antiquity I formed it. Now I have brought it about, that you should be for laying fortified cities waste into ruinous heaps.
27And their inhabitants, short of hand, were dismayed and ashamed; they became the grass of the field and the green of the herb, grass of the housetops, and a field blasted before the standing grain.
28And your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in I know, and your raging against Me.
29Because of your raging against Me, and your complacency that has come up into My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
30And this is the sign (ot) for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
31And the escaped remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
32For from Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and an escaped band from Mount Zion; the zeal of YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) shall do this.
33Therefore thus says YHWH concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot there an arrow, nor come before it with a shield, nor pour up against it a siege-mound.
34By the way that he came, by it he shall return, and into this city he shall not come, the utterance of YHWH.
35And I will defend over this city, to save it, for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant.
36And the angel of YHWH went forth and struck in the camp of Assyria a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and they rose early in the morning, and behold, all of them were dead corpses.
37And Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went and returned, and dwelt in Nineveh.
38And it came to pass, as he was bowing down in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sarezer his sons struck him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat; and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.