2 Kings 19 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Hezekiah Seeks the LORD’s Help

(Isa 37:1–7 )

2Ki 19:1When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the LORD.

2Ki 19:2

2Ki 19:2And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests, all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

2Ki 19:3

2Ki 19:3They told him, “This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no strength to deliver the baby.

2Ki 19:4

2Ki 19:4But perhaps the LORD your God has heard the Assyrian chief of staff,[fn] sent by the king to defy the living God, and will punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”

2Ki 19:5

2Ki 19:5After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah,

2Ki 19:6

2Ki 19:6the prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian king’s messengers.

2Ki 19:7

2Ki 19:7Listen! I myself will move against him,[fn] and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’”

(Isa 37:8–20 )

2Ki 19:8

2Ki 19:8Meanwhile, the Assyrian chief of staff left Jerusalem and went to consult the king of Assyria, who had left Lachish and was attacking Libnah.

2Ki 19:9

2Ki 19:9Soon afterward King Sennacherib received word that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia[fn] was leading an army to fight against him. Before leaving to meet the attack, he sent messengers back to Hezekiah in Jerusalem with this message:

2Ki 19:10

2Ki 19:10“This message is for King Hezekiah of Judah. Don’t let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you with promises that Jerusalem will not be captured by the king of Assyria.

2Ki 19:11

2Ki 19:11You know perfectly well what the kings of Assyria have done wherever they have gone. They have completely destroyed everyone who stood in their way! Why should you be any different?

2Ki 19:12

2Ki 19:12Have the gods of other nations rescued them—such nations as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-assar? My predecessors destroyed them all!

2Ki 19:13

2Ki 19:13What happened to the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad? What happened to the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

2Ki 19:14

2Ki 19:14After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD.

2Ki 19:15

2Ki 19:15And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth.

2Ki 19:16

2Ki 19:16Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.

2Ki 19:17

2Ki 19:17“It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations.

2Ki 19:18

2Ki 19:18And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands.

2Ki 19:19

2Ki 19:19Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”

Isaiah Predicts Judah’s Deliverance

(Isa 37:21–35 )

2Ki 19:20

2Ki 19:20Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer about King Sennacherib of Assyria.

2Ki 19:21

2Ki 19:21And the LORD has spoken this word against him:
“The virgin daughter of Zion
despises you and laughs at you.
The daughter of Jerusalem
shakes her head in derision as you flee.

2Ki 19:22

2Ki 19:22“Whom have you been defying and ridiculing?
Against whom did you raise your voice?
At whom did you look with such haughty eyes?
It was the Holy One of Israel!

2Ki 19:23

2Ki 19:23By your messengers you have defied the Lord.
You have said, ‘With my many chariots
I have conquered the highest mountains—
yes, the remotest peaks of Lebanon.
I have cut down its tallest cedars
and its finest cypress trees.
I have reached its farthest corners
and explored its deepest forests.

2Ki 19:24

2Ki 19:24I have dug wells in many foreign lands
and refreshed myself with their water.
With the sole of my foot
I stopped up all the rivers of Egypt!’

2Ki 19:25

2Ki 19:25“But have you not heard?
I decided this long ago.
Long ago I planned it,
and now I am making it happen.
I planned for you to crush fortified cities
into heaps of rubble.

2Ki 19:26

2Ki 19:26That is why their people have so little power
and are so frightened and confused.
They are as weak as grass,
as easily trampled as tender green shoots.
They are like grass sprouting on a housetop,
scorched before it can grow lush and tall.

2Ki 19:27

2Ki 19:27“But I know you well—
where you stay
and when you come and go.
I know the way you have raged against me.

2Ki 19:28

2Ki 19:28And because of your raging against me
and your arrogance, which I have heard for myself,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth.
I will make you return
by the same road on which you came.”

2Ki 19:29

2Ki 19:29Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Here is the proof that what I say is true:
“This year you will eat only what grows up by itself,
and next year you will eat what springs up from that.
But in the third year you will plant crops and harvest them;
you will tend vineyards and eat their fruit.

2Ki 19:30

2Ki 19:30And you who are left in Judah,
who have escaped the ravages of the siege,
will put roots down in your own soil
and will grow up and flourish.

2Ki 19:31

2Ki 19:31For a remnant of my people will spread out from Jerusalem,
a group of survivors from Mount Zion.
The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies[fn]
will make this happen!

2Ki 19:32

2Ki 19:32“And this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria:
“His armies will not enter Jerusalem.
They will not even shoot an arrow at it.
They will not march outside its gates with their shields
nor build banks of earth against its walls.

2Ki 19:33

2Ki 19:33The king will return to his own country
by the same road on which he came.
He will not enter this city,
says the LORD.

2Ki 19:34

2Ki 19:34For my own honor and for the sake of my servant David,
I will defend this city and protect it.”

(Isa 37:36–38; 2Ch 32:20–23 )

2Ki 19:35

2Ki 19:35That night the angel of the LORD went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians[fn] woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere.

2Ki 19:36

2Ki 19:36Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.

2Ki 19:37

2Ki 19:37One day while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons[fn] Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with their swords. They then escaped to the land of Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became the next king of Assyria.

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

NLT Footnotes

(19:4)

Or the rabshakeh; also in 19:8.

(19:7)

Hebrew I will put a spirit in him.

(19:9)

Hebrew of Cush.

(19:31)

As in Greek and Syriac versions, Latin Vulgate, and an alternate reading of the Masoretic Text (see also Isa 37:32); the other alternate reads the LORD.

(19:35)

Hebrew When they.

(19:37)

As in Greek version and an alternate reading of the Masoretic Text (see also Isa 37:38); the other alternate reading lacks his sons.

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For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

2 Kings Chapter 19 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

2 Kings 19 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

NLT Footnotes

2 Kings Chapter 19 — Additional Translations:

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