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Today's Bible Reading :: 2 Kings 18 - 19 (ESV)

2 Kings 18Listen to the passage

2 Kings 19Listen to the passage

2 Kings 18

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

(2Ch 29:1, 2; 31:1 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:1 - In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:2 - 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 Zechariah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:3 - And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:4 - He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:5 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:6 - For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:7 - And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:8 - He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:9 - In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:10 - and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:11 - 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,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:12 - 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.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:13 - In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:14 - And Hezekiah 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 Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[fn] of silver and thirty talents of gold.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:15 - And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:16 - At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
(Isa 36:2–22; 2Ch 32:9–15 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:17 - And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah 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 Washer’s Field.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:18 - And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:19 - And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:20 - Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:21 - Behold, you are trusting now in 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 trust in him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:22 - But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:23 - 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 on them.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:24 - How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:25 - 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.”’”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:26 - Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, 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.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:27 - But the Rabshakeh 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?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:28 - Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:29 - Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my[fn] hand.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:30 - Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in 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.’

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:31

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:31 - Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me[fn] and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:32

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:32 - 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 Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:33

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:33 - Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:34

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:34 - Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:35

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:35 - Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:36

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:36 - But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 18:37

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 18:37 - Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
ESV Footnotes
Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and serpent
A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
Hebrew his
Hebrew Make a blessing with me

2 Kings 19

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

(Isa 37:1–7 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:1 - As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:2 - And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:3 - They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:4 - It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:5 - When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:6 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:7 - Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

(Isa 37:8–20 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:8 - The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he heard that the king had left Lachish.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:9 - Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:10 - “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:11 - Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:12 - Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:13 - Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:14 - Hezekiah received 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:15 - And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made the heavens and the earth.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:16 - Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:17 - Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:18 - and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:19 - So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall

(Isa 37:21–35 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:20 - Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:21 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:22 - “Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:23

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:23 - 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 lodging place,
its most fruitful forest.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:24

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:24 - I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.’

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:25

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:25 - “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,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:26

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:26 - 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:27

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:27 - “But I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:28

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:28 - Because you have raged against me
and your complacency 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:29

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:29 - “And this shall be the sign for you: this year 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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:30

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:30 - And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:31

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:31 - For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:32

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:32 - “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.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:33

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:33 - By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:34

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:34 - For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
(Isa 37:36–38; 2Ch 32:20–23 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:35

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:35 - And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:36

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:36 - Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Ki 19:37

Unchecked Copy Box2Ki 19:37 - And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
See the ESV Preface
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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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