2Kings:18-19

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* In the third year of Hoshe 'a son of Elah , king of Israel , Hezeki 'ah the son of Ahaz , king of Judah , began to reign . * He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign , and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem . His mother 's name was Abi the daughter of Zechari 'ah . * And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD , according to all that David his father had done . * He removed the high places , and broke the pillars , and cut down the Ashe 'rah . And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made , for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it ; it was called Nehush 'tan . * He trusted in the LORD the God of Israel ; so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him , nor among those who were before him . * For he held fast to the LORD ; he did not depart from following him , but kept the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses . * And the LORD was with him ; wherever he went forth , he prospered . He rebelled against the king of Assyria , and would not serve him . * He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory , from watchtower to fortified city . * In the fourth year of King Hezeki 'ah , which was the seventh year of Hoshe 'a son of Elah , king of Israel , Shalmane 'ser king of Assyria came up against Sama 'ria and besieged it * and at the end of three years he took it . In the sixth year of Hezeki 'ah , which was the ninth year of Hoshe 'a king of Israel , Sama 'ria was taken . * The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria , and put them in Halah , and on the Habor , the river of Gozan , and in the cities of the Medes , * because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant , even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded ; they neither listened nor obeyed . * In the fourteenth year of King Hezeki 'ah Sennach 'erib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them . * And Hezeki 'ah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish , saying , "I have done wrong ; withdraw from me ; whatever you impose on me I will bear ." And the king of Assyria required of Hezeki 'ah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold . * And Hezeki 'ah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD , and in the treasuries of the king 's house . * At that time Hezeki 'ah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD , and from the doorposts which Hezeki 'ah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria . * And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan , the Rab 'saris , and the Rab 'shakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezeki 'ah at Jerusalem . And they went up and came to Jerusalem . When they arrived , they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool , which is on the highway to the Fuller 's Field . * And when they called for the king , there came out to them Eli 'akim the son of Hilki 'ah , who was over the household , and Shebnah the secretary , and Jo 'ah the son of Asaph , the recorder . * And the Rab 'shakeh said to them , "Say to Hezeki 'ah , `Thus says the great king , the king of Assyria : On what do you rest this confidence of yours ? * Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war ? On whom do you now rely , that you have rebelled against me ? * Behold , you are relying now on Egypt , that broken reed of a staff , which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it . Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him . * But if you say to me , "We rely on the LORD our God ," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezeki 'ah has removed , saying to Judah and to Jerusalem , "You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem "? * Come now , make a wager with my master the king of Assyria : I will give you two thousand horses , if you are able on your part to set riders upon them . * How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master 's servants , when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen ? * Moreover , is it without the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it ? The LORD said to me , Go up against this land , and destroy it .'" * Then Eli 'akim the son of Hilki 'ah , and Shebnah , and Jo 'ah , said to the Rab 'shakeh , "Pray , speak to your servants in the Aramaic language , for we understand it ; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall ." * But the Rab 'shakeh said to them , "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you , and not to the men sitting on the wall , who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine ?" * Then the Rab 'shakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah : "Hear the word of the great king , the king of Assyria ! * Thus says the king : `Do not let Hezeki 'ah deceive you , for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand . * Do not let Hezeki 'ah make you to rely on the LORD by saying , The LORD will surely deliver us , and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria .' * Do not listen to Hezeki 'ah ; for thus says the king of Assyria : `Make your peace with me and come out to me ; then every one of you will eat of his own vine , and every one of his own fig tree , and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern ; * until I come and take you away to a land like your own land , a land of grain and wine , a land of bread and vineyards , a land of olive trees and honey , that you may live , and not die . And do not listen to Hezeki 'ah when he misleads you by saying , The LORD will deliver us . * Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria ? * Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad ? Where are the gods of Sepharva 'im , Hena , and Ivvah ? Have they delivered Sama 'ria out of my hand ? * Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand , that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand ?'" * But the people were silent and answered him not a word , for the king 's command was , "Do not answer him ." * Then Eli 'akim the son of Hilki 'ah , who was over the household , and Shebna the secretary , and Jo 'ah the son of Asaph , the recorder , came to Hezeki 'ah with their clothes rent , and told him the words of the Rab 'shakeh . * When King Hezeki 'ah heard it , he rent his clothes , and covered himself with sackcloth , and went into the house of the LORD . * And he sent Eli 'akim , who was over the household , and Shebna the secretary , and the senior priests , covered with sackcloth , to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz . * They said to him , "Thus says Hezeki 'ah , This day is a day of distress , of rebuke , and of disgrace ; children have come to the birth , and there is no strength to bring them forth . * It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rab 'shakeh , whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God , and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard ; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left ." * When the servants of King Hezeki 'ah came to Isaiah , * Isaiah said to them , "Say to your master , `Thus says the LORD : Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard , with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me . * Behold , I will put a spirit in him , so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land ; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land .'" * The Rab 'shakeh returned , and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah ; for he heard that the king had left Lachish . * And when the king heard concerning Tirha 'kah king of Ethiopia , "Behold , he has set out to fight against you ," he sent messengers again to Hezeki 'ah , saying , * "Thus shall you speak to Hezeki 'ah king of Judah : `Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria . * Behold , you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands , destroying them utterly . And shall you be delivered ? * Have the gods of the nations delivered them , the nations which my fathers destroyed , Gozan , Haran , Rezeph , and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar ? * Where is the king of Hamath , the king of Arpad , the king of the city of Sepharva 'im , the king of Hena , or the king of Ivvah ?'" * Hezeki 'ah received the letter from the hand of the messengers , and read it ; and Hezeki 'ah went up to the house of the LORD , and spread it before the LORD . * And Hezeki 'ah prayed before the LORD , and said : "O LORD the God of Israel , who art enthroned above the cherubim , thou art the God , thou alone , of all the kingdoms of the earth ; thou hast made heaven and earth . * Incline thy ear , O LORD , and hear ; open thy eyes , O LORD , and see ; and hear the words of Sennach 'erib , which he has sent to mock the living God . * Of a truth , O LORD , the kings of Assyria have laid waste 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 were destroyed . * So now , O LORD our God , save us , I beseech thee , from his hand , that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou , O LORD , art God alone ." * Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezeki 'ah , saying , "Thus says the LORD , the God of Israel : Your prayer to me about Sennach 'erib king of Assyria I have heard . * This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him : "She despises you , she scorns you--the virgin daughter of Zion ; she wags her head behind you--the daughter of Jerusalem . * "Whom have you mocked and reviled ? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes ? Against the Holy One of Israel ! * By your messengers you have mocked the LORD , and you have said , `With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains , to the far recesses of Lebanon ; I felled its tallest cedars , its choicest cypresses ; I entered its farthest retreat , its densest forest . * I dug wells and drank foreign waters , and I dried up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt .' * "Have you not heard that I determined it long ago ? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass , that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins , * while their inhabitants , shorn of strength , are dismayed and confounded , and have become like plants of the field , and like tender grass , like grass on the housetops ; blighted before it is grown ? * "But I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in , and your raging against me . * Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has come into my ears , I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth , and I will turn you back on the way by which you came . * "And this shall be the sign for you : this year you shall eat what grows of itself , and in the second year what springs of the same ; then in the third year sow , and reap , and plant vineyards , and eat their fruit . * And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward , and bear fruit upward ; * for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant , and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors . The zeal of the LORD will do this . * "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria , He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there , or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it . * By the way that he came , by the same he shall 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 the sake of my servant David ." * And that night the angel of the LORD went forth , and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians ; and when men arose early in the morning , behold , these were all dead bodies . * Then Sennach 'erib king of Assyria departed , and went home , and dwelt at Nin 'eveh . * And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god , Adram 'melech and Share 'zer , his sons , slew him with the sword , and escaped into the land of Ar 'arat . And Esarhad 'don his son reigned in his stead . * In those days Hezeki 'ah became sick and was at the point of death . And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him , and said to him , "Thus says the LORD , `Set your house in order ; for you shall die , you shall not recover .'"

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