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2 Kings 18-20
English Standard Version
2 Kings 18-20
English Standard Version
Hezekiah Reigns in Judah
18 (A)In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, (B)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was (C)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was (D)Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 (E)And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 (F)He removed the high places and broke the (G)pillars and cut down (H)the Asherah. And he broke in pieces (I)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).[a] 5 (J)He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, (K)so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. 6 (L)For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 (M)And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, (N)he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 (O)He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, (P)from watchtower to fortified city.
9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, (Q)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in (R)Halah, and on the (S)Habor, (T)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.
Sennacherib Attacks Judah
13 (U)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” (V)And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[b] of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 And Hezekiah (W)gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. 17 And the king of Assyria sent the (X)Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by (Y)the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field. 18 And when they called for the king, there came out to them (Z)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and (AA)Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
19 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 20 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of (AB)a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he (AC)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? 23 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 24 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”
26 Then (AD)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and (AE)Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in (AF)Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”
28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my[c] hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me[d] and come out to me. Then (AG)each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, (AH)a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and (AI)honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” 33 (AJ)Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 (AK)Where are the gods of (AL)Hamath and (AM)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and (AN)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, (AO)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
36 But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then (AP)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah (AQ)with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah
19 (AR)As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, (AS)he tore his clothes and (AT)covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, (AU)covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 (AV)It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent (AW)to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for (AX)the remnant that is left.” 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which (AY)the servants of the king of Assyria have (AZ)reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that (BA)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him (BB)fall by the sword in his own land.’”
Sennacherib Defies the Lord
8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against (BC)Libnah, for he heard that the king had left (BD)Lachish. 9 (BE)Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God (BF)in whom you trust deceive you by promising that (BG)Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 (BH)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, (BI)Gozan, (BJ)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of (BK)Eden who were in Telassar? 13 (BL)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
Hezekiah's Prayer
14 Hezekiah received (BM)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. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, (BN)enthroned above the cherubim, (BO)you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 (BP)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; (BQ)open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent (BR)to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, (BS)but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, (BT)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that (BU)you, O Lord, are God alone.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria (BV)I have heard. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
“She despises you, she scorns you—
(BW)the virgin daughter of Zion;
she (BX)wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
22 “Whom have you (BY)mocked and (BZ)reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against (CA)the Holy One of Israel!
23 (CB)By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, (CC)‘With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of (CD)Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest lodging place,
its most (CE)fruitful forest.
24 I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
and I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams (CF)of Egypt.’
25 “Have you not heard
that (CG)I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what (CH)now I bring to pass,
that you should turn fortified cities
into heaps of ruins,
26 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become (CI)like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
27 “But I know your sitting down
(CJ)and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
28 Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come into my ears,
I will (CK)put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and (CL)I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
29 “And this shall be (CM)the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 (CN)And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion (CO)a band of survivors. (CP)The zeal of the Lord will do this.
32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or (CQ)cast up a siege mound against it. 33 (CR)By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. 34 (CS)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake (CT)and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 And that night (CU)the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at (CV)Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, (CW)Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery
20 (CX)In those days (CY)Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, (CZ)‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” 2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Now, O Lord, (DA)please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and (DB)with a whole heart, (DC)and have done what is good in your sight.” (DD)And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah (DE)the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: (DF)I have heard your prayer; (DG)I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, 6 and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, (DH)and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” 7 And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”
8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” 9 And Isaiah said, “This shall be (DI)the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” 10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow (DJ)to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” 11 And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, (DK)and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.
Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys
12 (DL)At that time (DM)Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, (DN)sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them (DO)all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” 15 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when (DP)all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 18 (DQ)And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, (DR)and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, (DS)“The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”
20 (DT)The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made (DU)the pool and the conduit (DV)and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 21 (DW)And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and serpent
- 2 Kings 18:14 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms
- 2 Kings 18:29 Hebrew his
- 2 Kings 18:31 Hebrew Make a blessing with me
2 Kings 18-20
New International Version
2 Kings 18-20
New International Version
Hezekiah King of Judah(A)(B)(C)
18 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah(D) son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years.(E) His mother’s name was Abijah[a] daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right(F) in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David(G) had done. 4 He removed(H) the high places,(I) smashed the sacred stones(J) and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake(K) Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.[b])
5 Hezekiah trusted(L) in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast(M) to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful(N) in whatever he undertook. He rebelled(O) against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city,(P) he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory.
9 In King Hezekiah’s fourth year,(Q) which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. 10 At the end of three years the Assyrians took it. So Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11 The king(R) of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in towns of the Medes.(S) 12 This happened because they had not obeyed the Lord their God, but had violated his covenant(T)—all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.(U) They neither listened to the commands(V) nor carried them out.
13 In the fourteenth year(W) of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah(X) and captured them. 14 So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish:(Y) “I have done wrong.(Z) Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents[c] of silver and thirty talents[d] of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave(AA) him all the silver that was found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
16 At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors(AB) and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem(AC)(AD)
17 The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander,(AE) his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came up to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool,(AF) on the road to the Washerman’s Field. 18 They called for the king; and Eliakim(AG) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna(AH) the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.
19 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:
“‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence(AI) of yours? 20 You say you have the counsel and the might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me? 21 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt,(AJ) that splintered reed of a staff,(AK) which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. 22 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 24 How can you repulse one officer(AL) of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen[e]? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this place without word from the Lord?(AM) The Lord himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,(AN) since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive(AO) you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree(AP) and drink water from your own cistern,(AQ) 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life(AR) and not death!
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god(AS) of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath(AT) and Arpad?(AU) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”(AV)
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim(AW) son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn,(AX) and told him what the field commander had said.
Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold(AY)
19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore(AZ) his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. 2 He sent Eliakim(BA) the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests,(BB) all wearing sackcloth,(BC) to the prophet Isaiah(BD) son of Amoz. 3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment(BE) of birth and there is no strength to deliver them. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule(BF) the living God, and that he will rebuke(BG) him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant(BH) that still survives.”
5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid(BI) of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed(BJ) me. 7 Listen! When he hears a certain report,(BK) I will make him want to return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.(BL)’”
8 When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish,(BM) he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.(BN)
9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the king of Cush,[f] was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend(BO) on deceive(BP) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver(BQ) them—the gods of Gozan,(BR) Harran,(BS) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”(BT)
Hezekiah’s Prayer(BU)
14 Hezekiah received the letter(BV) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,(BW) you alone(BX) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear,(BY) Lord, and hear;(BZ) open your eyes,(CA) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods(CB) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.(CC) 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver(CD) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms(CE) of the earth may know(CF) that you alone, Lord, are God.”
Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib’s Fall(CG)(CH)
20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard(CI) your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against(CJ) him:
“‘Virgin Daughter(CK) Zion
despises(CL) you and mocks(CM) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
tosses her head(CN) as you flee.
22 Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?(CO)
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
Against the Holy One(CP) of Israel!
23 By your messengers
you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,(CQ)
“With my many chariots(CR)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down(CS) its tallest cedars,
the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
the finest of its forests.
24 I have dug wells in foreign lands
and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
25 “‘Have you not heard?(CT)
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned(CU) it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.(CV)
26 Their people, drained of power,(CW)
are dismayed(CX) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
like tender green shoots,(CY)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
scorched(CZ) before it grows up.
27 “‘But I know(DA) where you are
and when you come and go
and how you rage against me.
28 Because you rage against me
and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook(DB) in your nose
and my bit(DC) in your mouth,
and I will make you return(DD)
by the way you came.’
29 “This will be the sign(DE) for you, Hezekiah:
“This year you will eat what grows by itself,(DF)
and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
plant vineyards(DG) and eat their fruit.
30 Once more a remnant(DH) of the kingdom of Judah
will take root(DI) below and bear fruit above.
31 For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,(DJ)
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.(DK)
“The zeal(DL) of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
32 “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria:
“‘He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
or build a siege ramp against it.
33 By the way that he came he will return;(DM)
he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
34 I will defend(DN) this city and save it,
for my sake and for the sake of David(DO) my servant.’”
35 That night the angel of the Lord(DP) went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!(DQ) 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.(DR) He returned to Nineveh(DS) and stayed there.
37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek(DT) and Sharezer killed him with the sword,(DU) and they escaped to the land of Ararat.(DV) And Esarhaddon(DW) his son succeeded him as king.
Hezekiah’s Illness(DX)
20 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 3 “Remember,(DY) Lord, how I have walked(DZ) before you faithfully(EA) and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard(EB) your prayer and seen your tears;(EC) I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend(ED) this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”
7 Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil,(EE) and he recovered.
8 Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now?”
9 Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign(EF) to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?”
10 “It is a simple(EG) matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps.”
11 Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back(EH) the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
Envoys From Babylon(EI)(EJ)
12 At that time Marduk-Baladan son of Baladan king of Babylon sent Hezekiah letters and a gift, because he had heard of Hezekiah’s illness. 13 Hezekiah received the envoys and showed them all that was in his storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices and the fine olive oil—his armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.
14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did those men say, and where did they come from?”
“From a distant land,” Hezekiah replied. “They came from Babylon.”
15 The prophet asked, “What did they see in your palace?”
“They saw everything in my palace,” Hezekiah said. “There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.”
16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon.(EK) Nothing will be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your descendants,(EL) your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”(EM)
19 “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”
20 As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool(EN) and the tunnel(EO) by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 21 Hezekiah rested with his ancestors. And Manasseh his son succeeded him as king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 18:2 Hebrew Abi, a variant of Abijah
- 2 Kings 18:4 Nehushtan sounds like the Hebrew for both bronze and snake.
- 2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 11 tons or about 10 metric tons
- 2 Kings 18:14 That is, about 1 ton or about 1 metric ton
- 2 Kings 18:24 Or charioteers
- 2 Kings 19:9 That is, the upper Nile region
English Standard Version (ESV) 
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.