1 ¶ When king Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

2 And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, Today is a day of trouble, rebuke, and disgrace: as when children come to the time of birth, and there is not enough strength to deliver them.

4 Perhaps the LORD your God having heard the words of the field marshal, who was sent by his master the king of Assyria to defy the living God, will punish him for the words which the LORD your God has heard: therefore lift up your prayer for the rest of the people who are left.

5 So when the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 Isaiah said to them, This is what you shall say to your master, The LORD says, Do not be frightened by the words that you have heard, by which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

8 ¶ So the field marshal returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah: for he had heard that the king had departed from Lachish.

9 Now the king was told that Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia, was coming out to fight against him. And upon hearing it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 Say this to Hezekiah the king of Judah, Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, by saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands destroying them utterly; so how will you be delivered?

12 Did the gods of the nations that my fathers destroyed deliver them, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arphad, and the king of Lahir, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,

16 O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim, you alone are the God, over all the kingdoms of the earth: you have made heaven and earth.

17 Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent in mockery of the living God.

18 Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the nations, and their lands,

19 And have thrown their gods into the fire: and were able to destroy them, because they were not gods, but wood and stone, the work of men’s hands.

20 Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you and you alone are the LORD.

21 ¶ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, The LORD God of Israel says this, Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:

22 This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

23 Whom are you defying and mocking? against whom are you shouting, and looking so proud? against the Holy One of Israel.

24 By your servants you have defied the Lord, and say, With my many chariots I will ride up the high mountains, up the slopes of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tallest cedars, and its best fir trees: and I will reach its most distant heights, and its most luxurious forest.

25 I will dig wells, and drink water; and with the tramping of my feet I will dry up all the streams of Egypt.

26 Have you not heard that I determined this long ago; and have planned it in ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that you should be my instrument in reducing fortified cities to piles of rubble.

27 For that reason their inhabitants were shorn of strength, they were dismayed and confounded: they were like the grass of the field, and like green plants, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain withered before it is grown.

28 But I know when you sit down, when you go out, when you come in, and how you rage against me.

29 Because you rage against me, and I have heard your cocky talk, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle between your lips, and I will turn you back the way you came.

30 And this will be a sign to you, This year you will eat what grows by itself; and the second year that which comes up by itself: but in the third year sow, and reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

31 Then the remnant that is left of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

32 For a remnant will come out of Jerusalem, and those who escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

33 Therefore the LORD says this concerning the king of Assyria, He will never get into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or march against it with shields, or cast up a bank against it.

34 He will return by the same route that he came, and will not enter this city, says the LORD.

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

36 Then the angel of the LORD went out, and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians: and those who got up early in the morning, saw all the dead bodies.

37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and went home, and lived in Nineveh.

38 And it came to pass, while he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords; and escaped into the land of Ararat: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.