The Koine Bible

And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his garments and wrapped himself in sackcloth and went up to the house of the Lord

And Eliakim the steward and Shebna the secretary and the elders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, he sent to Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet

And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: Today is a day of affliction and reproach and rebuke and anger, for the birth pangs have come to the woman giving birth, but she has no strength to bear.

May the Lord your God hear the words of Rabsaces, which the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God and to reproach the words which the Lord your God heard, and you shall pray to the Lord your God concerning these who are left behind.

And the servants of the king came to Isaiah

And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your lord: Thus says the Lord: Do not fear because of the words which you heard, with which the envoys of the king of the Assyrians reviled me.

Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and hearing a report he will return to his land, and he will fall by the sword in his land.

And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria besieging Libnah, and the king of the Assyrians heard that

Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians went out to besiege him, and when he heard, he turned back and sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying

Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judea: Let not your God, in whom you have trusted, deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall surely not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

Or have you not heard what the kings of the Assyrians did to all the land, how they destroyed it?

Did the gods of the nations, whom my fathers destroyed, rescue them, both Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, which are in the land of Themad?

Where are the kings of Hamath and of Arphad and of the city of Seppharim, Ana and Ivvah?

And Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and opened it before the Lord

And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying

Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who sits upon the cherubim, you are God alone of all the kingdoms of the inhabited world; you made the heaven and the earth.

Hear, Lord; look, Lord, and see the words which Sennacherib has sent to reproach the living God.

For truly the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste the whole inhabited world and their country

And they threw their idols into the fire, for they were not gods, but the works of human hands, wood and stones, and they destroyed them.

But you, Lord our God, save us from their hand, so that every kingdom of the earth may know that you are God alone.

And Isaiah son of Amoz was sent to Hezekiah and said to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard what you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.

This is the word which God spoke concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

Whom have you reproached and provoked? Or against whom have you lifted up your voice and have not lifted your eyes to the height, to the Holy One of Israel?

Because by messengers you have reproached the Lord, for you said, with the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon, and I cut down the height of its cedar and the beauty of the cypress, and I entered into the height of its forest region

And I made a bridge and I laid waste waters and every gathering of water

Have you not heard these things long ago, what I did from ancient days I planned now, but I displayed to lay waste nations in fortified places and those dwelling in fortified cities

I sent up the hands, and they dried up, and they became like dry grass on roofs and like grass of the field

But now I know your resting place and your going out and your coming in.

But your wrath with which you were enraged and your bitterness has come up to me, and I will put a bit in your nose and a bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came in it.

And this shall be the sign to you: eat this year what you have sown, and in the second year the remainder; and in the third, sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

And the ones left behind in Judea shall take root below and shall make seed above

For from Jerusalem those who remain and those who are saved shall go out, from Mount Sion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do these things.

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall by no means enter into this city, nor shall he by any means shoot an arrow at it, nor shall he by any means throw a shield against it, nor shall he by any means cast a mound against it.

But by the way by which he came, by it he shall return, thus says the Lord

I will defend this city to save it for my sake and for David my servant’s sake

And an angel of the Lord went out and struck down from the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty-five thousand; and when they rose up in the morning, they found all the bodies dead.

And the king of the Assyrians turned back and went away and dwelt in Nineveh.

And when he was worshiping in the house of Nasarach, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons struck him with swords, but they escaped into Armenia, and Asordan his son reigned in his place.