2 Kings 19

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 palace manager Eliakim, the scribe Shebna, and the senior priests, all in mourning clothes, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ³ They told him, "Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; children have reached the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them." ⁴ Perhaps your Father will hear all the field commander's words, sent by his master the king of Assyria to mock the living Father, and will condemn the words he heard. So pray for the remnant that survives.

⁵ When King Hezekiah's servants came to Isaiah,

⁶ Isaiah told them, "Tell your master our Father says: Don't fear the words you heard, with which the king of Assyria's servants have insulted me." ⁷ I am putting a spirit in him: he will hear a report, return to his own land, and there I will make him fall by the sword.

⁸ When the field commander heard the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found him fighting Libnah. ⁹ Now the king heard that Tirhakah king of Cush had set out to fight him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah: ¹⁰ "Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Don't let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by promising Jerusalem won't fall to Assyria's king. ¹¹ Look, you've heard what Assyria's kings did to every land, destroying them completely. Will you be rescued? ¹² Did the nations' gods my predecessors destroyed rescue them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, of Arpad, of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivvah?

Hezekiah Spreads It Before the Father

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the house of our Father and spread it out before him. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed before our Father: "God of Israel, seated above the cherubim, you alone are God over all earth's kingdoms; you made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶ Turn your ear, our Father, and hear; open your eyes and see. Hear Sennacherib's words sent to mock the living Father. ¹⁷ Truly, our Father, the kings of Assyria destroyed the nations and their lands, ¹⁸ and threw their gods into the fire; for they were not gods but human handiwork, wood and stone. So they destroyed them. ¹⁹ Now, our Father, save us from his hand, so every kingdom of the earth may know you alone are God.

The Father Humbles Sennacherib's Pride

²⁰ Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah: "This is what our Father, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria. ²¹ This is what our Father says against him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you. 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 is your sign, Hezekiah: this year eat what grows on its own, next year what springs from that; 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 "So this is what our Father says about Assyria's king: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here, confront it with a shield, or raise 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.

³⁵ That night the angel of our Father went out and struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. At dawn, when they rose—there lay all the dead bodies. ³⁶ So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. ³⁷ As he worshiped in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword and escaped to Ararat. His son Esarhaddon reigned in his place.