| 1: And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that
he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into
the house of the LORD. |
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| 2: And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna
the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. |
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| 3:
And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to
the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. |
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| 4: It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of
Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach
the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath
heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. |
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| 5: So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. |
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| 6: And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master,
Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard,
with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. |
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| 7: Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a
rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall
by the sword in his own land. |
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| 8: So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. |
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| 9: And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he
is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto
Hezekiah, saying, |
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| 10: Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let
not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall
not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. |
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| 11: Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done
to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?
|
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| 12: Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers
have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of
Eden which were in Thelasar? |
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| 13: Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the
king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah? |
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| 14: And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the
messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the
LORD, and spread it before the LORD. |
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| 15: And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of
Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even
thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and
earth. |
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| 16: LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes,
and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to
reproach the living God. |
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| 17: Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the
nations and their lands, |
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| 18: 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 have
destroyed them. |
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| 19: Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us
out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou
art the LORD God, even thou only. |
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| 20: Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus
saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against
Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. |
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| 21: This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him;
The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to
scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. |
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| 22: Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom
hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even
against the Holy One of Israel. |
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| 23: By the messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast
said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of
the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar
trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into
the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel. |
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| 24: I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of
my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. |
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| 25: Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of
ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that
thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. |
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| 26: Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were
dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the
green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it
be grown up. |
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| 27: But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in,
and thy rage against me. |
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| 28: Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into
mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in
thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
|
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| 29: And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year
such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which
springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant
vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. |
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| 30: And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall
yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. |
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| 31: For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that
escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
|
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| 32: Therefore thus saith 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 cast a bank against it. |
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| 33: By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and
shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. |
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| 34: For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine
own sake, and for my servant David's sake. |
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| 35: And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD
went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore
and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold,
they were all dead corpses. |
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| 36: So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and
returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. |
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| 37: And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of
Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with
the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esar-haddon
his son reigned in his stead. |
