The Father Answers Hezekiah's Distress
19 1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the house of our Father. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the senior priests, all covered in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them." 4 Perhaps your Father will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living Father, and will rebuke the words he has heard. So lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.
5 When King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah,
6 Isaiah said to them, "Tell your master this is what our Father says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me." 7 Look, I am going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a report and return to his own land, and there in his own land I will make him fall by the sword.
Assyria Mocks the Living Father
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. 9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "Look, he has set out to fight against you." So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying: 10 "Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, devoting them to destruction. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed deliver them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?"
Hezekiah Spreads It Before the Father
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the house of our Father and spread it out before him. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before our Father: "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. 16 Incline your ear, our Father, and hear; open your eyes and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to mock the living Father. 17 It is true, our Father, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have thrown their gods into the fire; for they were not gods but the work of human hands, wood and stone. So they destroyed them. 19 Now then, our Father, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are God.
The Father Humbles Sennacherib's Pride
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah: "This is what our Father, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word our Father has spoken against him: "The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. 22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By your messengers you have mocked the Sovereign Father, and you have said: With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the far recesses of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses. I have reached its remotest height, its densest forest. 24 I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters; with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt. 25 Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; from days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 26 Their inhabitants, shorn of strength, were dismayed and ashamed. They were like plants of the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown. 27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and your coming in, and your raging against me. 28 Because of your raging against me and your arrogance that has reached 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 you came.
29 "This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Father of heaven's armies will accomplish this.
32 "Therefore this is what our Father says concerning 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. 33 By the way he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares our Father. 34 I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.
The Father Delivers Jerusalem
35 That night the angel of our Father went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.