II Kings 19 · מלכים ב

And it came to pass, when king Ḥizqiyyahu heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

And he sent Elyaqim who was over the household, and Shevna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha῾yahu the prophet, the son of Amoż.

And they said to him, Thus says Ḥizqiyyahu, This day is a day of trouble, and of reviling, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Ravshaqe, whom the king of Ashshur his master has sent to taunt the living God; and to revile with words as the Lord thy God has heard: wherefore send up a prayer for the remnant that are left.

So the servants of king Ḥizqiyyahu came to Yesha῾yahu.

And Yesha῾yahu said to them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard with which the servants of the king of Ashshur have blasphemed me.

Behold, I will send another spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

So Ravshaqe returned, and found the king of Ashshur warring against Livna: for he had heard that he was departed from Lakhish.

And when he heard say of Tirhaqa king of Kush, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again to Ḥizqiyyahu, saying,

Thus shall you speak to Ḥizqiyyahu king of Yehuda, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Yerushalayim shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Ashshur.

Behold, Thou hast heard what the kings of Ashshur have done to all the lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?

Have their gods delivered those nations which my fathers have destroyed; Gozan, and Ḥaran, and Reżef and the children of ῾Eden who were in Telassar?

Where is the king of Ḥamat, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sefarvayim, of Hena, and ῾Ivva?

And Ḥizqiyyahu took the letters from the hand of the messengers, and read them: and Ḥizqiyyahu went up into the house of the Lord, and spread them before the Lord.

And Ḥizqiyyahu prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Yisra᾽el who sittest upon the keruvim, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth.

Lord, bend Thy ear, and hear: open, Lord, Thy eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sanĥeriv, and him he has sent to taunt the living God.

Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Ashshur have destroyed the nations and their lands,

and 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.

Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord God, even Thou only.

Then Yesha῾yahu the son of Amoż sent to Ḥizqiyyahu, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sanĥeriv king of Ashshur I have heard.

This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Żiyyon despises thee, and laughs thee to scorn; the daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at thee.

Whom hast thou taunted and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou raised thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high? against the Holy One of Yisra᾽el!

By thy messengers thou hast taunted the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Levanon, and have cut down its tall cedar trees, and the choice cypresses: and I have entered into its farthest lodge, and into its deepest forest.

I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the canals of Mażor.

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass that fortified cities should be laid waste into ruinous heaps.

Therefore 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 house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

Because thy rage against me and thy confidence is come up to 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 camest.

And this shall be a sign to thee, You shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruits.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Yehuda shall yet again take root downwards, and bear fruit upwards.

For out of Yerushalayim shall go a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Żiyyon: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Ashshur, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor throw a mound against it.

By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come into this city, says the Lord.

For I will defend this city, to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of Ashshur a hundred and eighty five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

So Sanĥeriv king of Ashshur departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineve.

And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisrokh his god, that Adrammelekh and Shar᾽eżer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esar-ĥaddon his son reigned in his stead.