1 And it came to pass when king Hezekiah heard [it], that he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Jehovah. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 4 It may be Jehovah thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God; and will rebuke the words which Jehovah thy God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left. 5 And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master: Thus saith Jehovah: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit into him, and he shall hear tidings, and shall return to his own land; and I will make him to fall by the sword in his own land. 8 And Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he has come forth to make war with thee. And he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah saying: Let not thy God, upon whom thou reliest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all countries, destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations which my fathers have destroyed delivered them: Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Thelassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah and said, Jehovah, God of Israel, who sittest [between] the cherubim, thou, the Same, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made the heavens and the earth. 16 Incline thine ear, Jehovah, and hear; open, Jehovah, thine eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent him to reproach the living God. 17 Of a truth, Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 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 have they destroyed them. 19 And now, Jehovah our God, I beseech thee, save us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, Jehovah, art God, thou only. 20 And Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: That which thou hast prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. 21 This is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him: The virgin-daughter of Zion despiseth thee, laugheth thee to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at thee. 22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted the voice? Against the Holy one of Israel hast thou lifted up thine eyes on high. 23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots have I come up To the height of the mountain, to the recesses of Lebanon, And I will cut down its tall cedars, the choice of its cypresses; And I will enter into its furthest lodging-place, [into] the forest of its fruitful field. 24 I have digged, and have drunk strange waters, And with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the streams of Matsor. 25 Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it? And that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities [into] ruinous heaps. 26 And their inhabitants were powerless, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were [as] the growing grass, and [as] the green herb, [As] the grass on the housetops, and grain blighted before it be grown up. 27 But I know thine abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, And thy raging against me. 28 Because thy raging against me and thine arrogance is come up into mine ears, I will put my ring in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, And I will make thee go back by the way by which thou camest. 29 And this [shall be] the sign unto thee: They shall eat this year such as groweth of itself, And in the second year that which springeth of the same; But in the third year sow ye and reap, And plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof. 30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And out of mount Zion they that escape: The zeal of Jehovah [of hosts] shall do this. 32 Therefore thus saith Jehovah 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. 33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, And shall not come into this city, saith Jehovah. 34 And I will defend this city, to save it, For mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. 35 And it came to pass that night, that an angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead bodies. 36 And Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and abode at Nineveh. 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 Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings 19 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Adrammelech
A son of Sennacherib who with his brother Sharezer put their father to the sword in the temple of Nisroch and escaped to the land of Ararat.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38
Amoz
Named as the father of the prophet Isaiah.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:2; 2 Kings 19:20; 2 Kings 20:1
Esar-haddon
Sennacherib's son, who reigned in his father's place after Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:37; Ezra 4:2; Isaiah 37:38
Hezekiah
A great reformer who trusted God and saw Jerusalem delivered from Assyria.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chron. 29-32; Isa. 36-39; Matt. 1:9-10
Isaiah
The prophet, son of Amoz, who told Hezekiah that Sennacherib would not enter Jerusalem, foretold his illness and recovery, brought back the shadow ten steps, and warned of the…
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:2; 2 Kings 19:20; 2 Kings 20:1
Sennacherib
King of Assyria who captured Judah's fortified cities in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, sent the Rabshakeh against Jerusalem, lost 185,000 men to the angel of the LORD, and was…
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 18:13; 2 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 19:20
Shebnah
The scribe who with Eliakim and Joah met the Rabshakeh and was sent with the leading priests to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 22:15 rebukes Shebna as steward over the palace.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 18:18; 2 Kings 18:37; 2 Kings 19:2
Tirhakah
King of Cush about whom Sennacherib was warned that he had set out to fight him.
Cited in the guide: 2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9
Places
Nineveh
Capital of the brutal Assyrian Empire. Jonah's reluctant mission brought it to repentance; Nahum later prophesied its fall, which came in 612 BC.
Cited in the guide: Jonah 3:3; Nahum 1:1; 2 Kings 19:36
Cross references (36)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Kings 18:37; 1 Kings 21:27; 2 Chronicles 32:20–22; Isaiah 37:1–7; Genesis 37:34
- 2 Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 2:1; Matthew 4:14; Isaiah 37:2–5; 2 Chronicles 26:22
- 3 Jeremiah 30:5–7; Isaiah 66:9; Hebrews 3:15–16; Isaiah 26:17–18; Hosea 13:13
- 4 2 Samuel 16:12; James 5:16–17; Romans 9:27; Ezekiel 36:37; Joshua 14:12
- 6 2 Kings 18:35; 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 37:6–38; 2 Chronicles 20:15; Deuteronomy 20:1
- 7 2 Kings 7:6; Isaiah 10:16–18; Isaiah 11:4; Obadiah 1; 2 Chronicles 32:21
- 8 2 Kings 18:14; Joshua 10:29; Isaiah 37:8–9; Joshua 12:15; Joshua 12:11
- 9 1 Samuel 23:27; 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 37:9
- 10 2 Kings 18:5; 2 Kings 18:29–30; Isaiah 37:10–14; 2 Chronicles 32:15–19
- 11 Isaiah 10:8–11; 2 Chronicles 32:13–14; 2 Kings 19:17–18; 2 Kings 17:5–11
- 12 2 Kings 17:6; Ezekiel 27:23; Genesis 11:31; Isaiah 37:12; 1 Chronicles 5:26
- 13 2 Kings 18:34; 2 Kings 17:24; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 37:13–20; Numbers 13:21
- 14 Isaiah 37:14; Psalm 123:1–4; Psalm 91:1–2; Ezra 9:5; 1 Kings 8:28–30
- 15 Jeremiah 10:10–12; Isaiah 44:8; 2 Kings 5:15; Exodus 25:22; Daniel 4:34–35
- 16 Isaiah 37:17; Psalm 31:2; 2 Chronicles 6:40; 2 Kings 19:4; 1 Kings 8:29
- 17 Acts 4:27; 2 Kings 17:24; Isaiah 7:17–18; Jeremiah 26:15; Luke 22:59
- 18 Acts 17:29; Jeremiah 10:3–9; Isaiah 44:9–20; Jeremiah 10:14–16; 2 Samuel 5:21
- 19 Psalm 83:18; 1 Kings 8:43; Psalm 67:1–2; Exodus 9:15–16; Daniel 4:34–37
- 20 2 Kings 20:5; 2 Chronicles 32:20–21; Acts 10:31; Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3
- 21 Lamentations 2:13; Job 16:4; Matthew 27:39; Jeremiah 14:17; Psalm 109:25
- 22 Isaiah 5:24; Psalm 71:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Jeremiah 51:5; Isaiah 30:15
- 23 2 Kings 18:17; Psalm 20:7; Isaiah 10:18; 2 Chronicles 32:17; Isaiah 10:14
- 24 1 Kings 20:10; Exodus 15:9; Isaiah 19:6; 2 Samuel 17:13; Daniel 4:30
- 25 Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 37:26–27; Isaiah 10:5–6; Isaiah 46:10–11; Psalm 76:10
- 26 Jeremiah 50:36–37; 1 Peter 1:24; Jeremiah 51:30; Psalm 48:4–7; Psalm 129:6–8
- 27 Jeremiah 23:23–24; Isaiah 37:28–29; Psalm 121:8; Deuteronomy 28:6; Psalm 139:1–11
- 28 Ezekiel 29:4; 2 Kings 19:33; Ezekiel 38:4; Amos 4:2; Isaiah 30:28
- 29 Leviticus 25:20–22; 2 Kings 20:8–9; Exodus 3:12; Isaiah 37:30; Luke 2:12
- 30 Isaiah 27:6; 2 Kings 19:4; Isaiah 10:20–22; 2 Chronicles 32:22–23; Isaiah 1:9
- 31 Isaiah 9:7; Romans 11:5; John 2:17; Isaiah 10:20; Romans 9:27
- 32 Isaiah 8:7–10; 2 Samuel 20:15; Luke 19:43–44; Isaiah 10:24–25; Ezekiel 21:22
- 33 2 Kings 19:28; 2 Kings 19:36
- 34 1 Kings 11:12–13; 2 Kings 20:6; 1 Kings 15:4; Isaiah 31:5; Jeremiah 33:26
- 35 2 Chronicles 32:21–22; 2 Samuel 24:16; Exodus 12:29–30; Isaiah 37:36; 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3
- 36 Jonah 1:2; 2 Kings 19:7; 2 Kings 19:33; 2 Kings 19:28; Matthew 12:41
- 37 Genesis 8:4; Ezra 4:2; Jeremiah 51:27; 2 Kings 19:7; 2 Chronicles 32:21
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And to Hezekiah He saith, "I will defend this city, for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake." And to Solomon too He said, that for David's sake He rent not the kingdom during his lifetime.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… I cannot destroy them." Therefore He saith, "What, think ye that I cannot pray to my Father?" And again He speaks it humbly, in saying, "He will presently give me twelve legions of angels." For if one angel slew one hundred and eighty-five armed thousands, what need of twelve legions against a thousand men?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)