2 Kings 19 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Isaiah Assures Deliverance

Isaiah’s Prophecy and Judah’s Deliverance

(Is. 37:1–7 )

2Ki 19:1And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

2Ki 19:2

2Ki 19:2Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

2Ki 19:3

2Ki 19:3And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

2Ki 19:4

2Ki 19:4‘It may be that the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach 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.’ ”

2Ki 19:5

2Ki 19:5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

2Ki 19:6

2Ki 19:6And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

2Ki 19:7

2Ki 19:7“Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and 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.” ’ ”

Sennacherib’s Threat and Hezekiah’s Prayer

(Is. 37:8–20 )

2Ki 19:8

2Ki 19:8Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.

2Ki 19:9

2Ki 19:9And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

2Ki 19:10

2Ki 19:10“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

2Ki 19:11

2Ki 19:11‘Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?

2Ki 19:12

2Ki 19:12‘Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

2Ki 19:13

2Ki 19:13‘Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?’ ”

2Ki 19:14

2Ki 19:14And 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.

2Ki 19:15

2Ki 19:15Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: “O LORD God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

2Ki 19:16

2Ki 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 reproach the living God.

2Ki 19:17

2Ki 19:17“Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,

2Ki 19:18

2Ki 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 destroyed them.

2Ki 19:19

2Ki 19:19“Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, You alone.”

The Word of the LORD Concerning Sennacherib

(Is. 37:21–35 )

2Ki 19:20

2Ki 19:20Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.’

2Ki 19:21

2Ki 19:21“This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him:

‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
The daughter of Jerusalem
Has shaken her head behind your back!

2Ki 19:22

2Ki 19:22‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
Against whom have you raised your voice,
And lifted up your eyes on high?
Against the Holy One of Israel.

2Ki 19:23

2Ki 19:23By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And said: “By the multitude of my chariots
I have come up to the height of the mountains,
To the limits of Lebanon;
I will cut down its tall cedars
And its choice cypress trees;
I will enter the extremity of its borders,
To its fruitful forest.

2Ki 19:24

2Ki 19:24I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense.”

2Ki 19:25

2Ki 19:25‘Did you not hear long ago
How I made it,
From ancient times that I formed it?
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should be
For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

2Ki 19:26

2Ki 19:26Therefore their inhabitants had little power;
They were dismayed and confounded;
They were as the grass of the field
And the green herb,
As the grass on the housetops
And grain blighted before it is grown.

2Ki 19:27

2Ki 19:27‘But I know your dwelling place,
Your going out and your coming in,
And your rage against Me.

2Ki 19:28

2Ki 19:28Because your rage against Me and your tumult
Have come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back
By the way which you came.

2Ki 19:29

2Ki 19:29‘This shall be a sign to you:

You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
And in the second year what springs from the same;
Also in the third year sow and reap,
Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

2Ki 19:30

2Ki 19:30And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
Shall again take root downward,
And bear fruit upward.

2Ki 19:31

2Ki 19:31For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
And those who escape from Mount Zion.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts[fn] will do this.’

2Ki 19:32

2Ki 19:32“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:

‘He shall not come into this city,
Nor shoot an arrow there,
Nor come before it with shield,
Nor build a siege mound against it.

2Ki 19:33

2Ki 19:33By the way that he came,
By the same shall he return;
And he shall not come into this city,’
Says the LORD.

2Ki 19:34

2Ki 19:34‘For I will defend this city, to save it
For My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Sennacherib’s Defeat and Death

(Is. 37:36–38; 2 Chr. 32:20–23 )

2Ki 19:35

2Ki 19:35And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel[fn] of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.

2Ki 19:36

2Ki 19:36So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

2Ki 19:37

2Ki 19:37Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(19:31)

Following many Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions (compare Isaiah 37:32); Masoretic Text omits of hosts.

(19:35)

Or Angel

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