1 And it happened, when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth {sak: coarse mourning fabric}, and he entered the house of the LORD {YHWH, Prayer Receiver}.
2 And he sent Elyakim {Elyaqim: chief steward}, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe {sofer: royal secretary}, and the elders of the priests, who were covering themselves with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke {tokhechah: stern correction}, and contempt; for children have come up to the birthstool {mashber: delivery seat}, but there is no strength to give birth.’”
4 Perhaps the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheca, Hope of Israel} will hear all the words of the chief cupbearer {rav-shakeh: royal envoy} whom the king of Assyria, his lord, has sent to reproach the living God, and He will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. So you will lift up a prayer for the remnant that is found.
5 So the servants {avdei: royal staff} of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah {yeshayahu: prophet adviser}.
6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master: ‘Thus says the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Defender}, Do not fear the words that you have heard which the young men of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me {gidfu: treated with contempt}.’”
7 Behold, I {YHWH, Instigator of Return} am placing a spirit in him, and he will hear a report {shemuah: unsettling news}; he will return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.
8 And the chief cupbearer {rav-shaqeh: Assyrian spokesman} returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed {nasa: broken camp} from Lachish.
9 And the king of Assyria heard concerning Tirhakah {tirhaqah: Cushite monarch}, king of Cush, “Behold, he has gone out to fight against you”; he returned and sent messengers again to Hezekiah {chizqiyahu: fortified one} to say.
10 Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, “Do not let your God {Elohekha, Faithful Protector} whom you are trusting {boteach: personal reliance} deceive you by saying, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’”
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria {ashur: northern Mesopotamian empire} have done to all the lands—to destroy them completely—and will you be delivered {tinatzel: rescued, preserved from harm}?
12 Have the gods of the nations which my fathers destroyed {shikhatu: utterly ruined} delivered {hitzilu: demonstrated impotence} them—Gozan, Harran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath {khamat: northern city-state} and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim {sefarvayim: twin fortress}, Hena, and Ivvah?
14 And Hezekiah took the letters {sefarim: royal correspondence} from the hand of the messengers and read them. Then he went up to the house of the LORD {YHWH, Prayer Sustainer} and spread them before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed in the presence of the LORD {YHWH, Prayer-Hearing King} and said, “O LORD, God of Israel {elohei yisrael: Faithful Deliverer}, who dwells with the cherubim, You alone are God for all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made the heavens and the earth.”
16 Bend Your ear, O LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God {Elohim, Ever-Active}.
17 Truly, LORD {YHWH, All-Seeing Judge}, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations {goyim: foreign peoples} and their lands.
18 And they placed their gods in the fire, for they were not gods, but the work {maaseh: crafted object} of human hands—wood and stone—and they destroyed {avad: total ruin} them.
19 And now, LORD {YHWH, Hearer of Pleas} our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You, LORD, are God {Elohim, Only Sovereign} alone.
20 And Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel {YHWH Elohei Yisrael, National Deliverer}: I have heard {shamati: fully attended} the prayer you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.”
21 This is the word that the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} has spoken against him: “The virgin daughter of Zion despises {bazah: Complete Rejection} you and mocks you; the daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head at you.”
22 Whom have you reproached {cheraphta: scornful taunt} and blasphemed, and against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel {Kedosh Yisrael, Mocked Sovereign}.
23 By the hand of your messengers you have reproached the Lord {Adonai, Sovereign Judge}, and you have said, “With the abundance of my chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains and the farthest parts of Lebanon. I will cut down the height of its cedars, the choicest of its cypresses; and I will enter the lodge at its outermost border, the forest of its fruitful place {karmilo: luxuriant woodland}.”
24 I have dug wells {karti: excavations} and drunk foreign {zarim: distant} waters, and with the sole of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.
25 Have you not heard that from days of old I {YHWH, Sovereign Architect} made it? In ancient times I formed it. Now I have brought it to pass that it has come to devastate cities {arim: urban strongholds} into mounds of ruins.
26 And their inhabitants, powerless {kitzrei-yad: lacking strength}, were dismayed and put to shame; they were like grass of the field, like green herb, like blades of grass on roofs, and like grain scorched before it grows {kamah: stands fully erect}.
27 I have known your sitting {shivta: settled presence}, and your going out and your coming in, and your raging against Me {YHWH, Omniscient Judge}.
28 Because you have raged against Me {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} and your arrogance has come up into My ears {ozenai: organ of hearing}, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your lips, and I will cause you to return by the way that you came.
29 And this will be the sign for you: you shall eat what grows by itself {saphiach: volunteer growth} in this year, and in the second year what springs up thereafter {sakhish: aftergrowth}, but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30 And the remnant {peletat: survivors} of the house of Judah {beit-yehudah: southern kingdom} that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal {qinat: resolute passion} of the LORD of hosts {YHWH Tsevaot, Victorious Commander} will accomplish this.
32 Therefore, thus says the LORD {YHWH, Supreme Defender} to the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor approach it with a shield, nor pour out a siege mound {solelah: earthen rampart} against her.
33 By the way which he came, in it he will return; and to this city {ir: urban center} he will not come, declares the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Oracle}.
34 And I {YHWH, Covenant Protector} will defend this city to save it, for My sake and for the sake of David My servant {eved: devoted vassal}.
35 And it happened that night, the angel of the LORD {YHWH, Divine Judge} went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and when they arose early in the morning, behold, all of them were corpses {p’garim: lifeless bodies}.
36 Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, set out {yissa: departed from position}, went, and returned, and he dwelt {yeshev: took up residence} in Nineveh.
37 And it happened, as he was bowing down in the house of Nisrokh {nisrokh: Assyrian idol} his god, that Adrammelek and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword {bakherev: edged weapon}, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.