1 And it cometh to pass, at king Hezekiah's hearing, that he rendeth his garments, and covereth himself with sackcloth, and entereth the house of Jehovah, 2 and sendeth Eliakim, who [is] over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covering themselves with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, 3 and they say unto him, 'Thus said Hezekiah — A day of distress, and rebuke, and despising [is] this day; for come have sons unto the birth, and power there is not to bring forth. 4 'It may be Jehovah thy God doth hear all the words of the chief of the butlers with which the king of Asshur his lord hath sent him to reproach the living God, and hath decided concerning the words that Jehovah thy God hath heard, and thou hast lifted up prayer for the remnant that is found.' 5 And the servants of king Hezekiah come in unto Isaiah, 6 and Isaiah saith to them, 'Thus do ye say unto your lord: Thus said Jehovah, Be not afraid because of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Asshur have reviled Me. 7 Lo, I am giving in him a spirit, and he hath heard a report, and hath turned back to his land, and I have caused him to fall by the sword in his land.' 8 And the chief of the butlers turneth back and findeth the king of Asshur fighting against Libnah, for he hath heard that he hath journeyed from Lachish. 9 And he heareth concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, 'Lo, he hath come out to fight with thee;' and he turneth and sendeth messengers unto Hezekiah, saying, 10 'Thus do ye speak unto Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God lift thee up in whom thou art trusting, saying, Jerusalem is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur. 11 Lo, thou hast heard that which the kings of Asshur have done to all the lands — to devote them; and thou art delivered! 12 did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed — Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who [are] in Thelassar? 13 Where [is] the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?' 14 And Hezekiah taketh the letters out of the hand of the messengers, and readeth them, and goeth up to the house of Jehovah, and Hezekiah spreadeth it before Jehovah. 15 And Hezekiah prayeth before Jehovah, and saith, 'O Jehovah, God of Israel, inhabiting the cherubs, Thou [art] God Himself — Thyself alone — to all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made the heavens and the earth. 16 Incline, O Jehovah, Thine ear, and hear; open, O Jehovah, Thine eyes, and see; and hear Thou the words of Sennacherib with which he hath sent him to reproach the living God. 17 'Truly, O Jehovah, kings of Asshur have laid waste the nations, and their land, 18 and have put their gods into fire, for they [are] no gods, but work of the hands of man, wood and stone, and destroy them. 19 And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, we pray Thee, out of his hand, and know do all kingdoms of the earth that Thou [art] Jehovah God — Thyself alone.' 20 And Isaiah son of Amoz sendeth unto Hezekiah, saying, 'Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed unto Me concerning Sennacherib king of Asshur I have heard: 21 this [is] the word that Jehovah spake concerning him: 'Trampled on thee — laughed at thee, Hath the virgin daughter of Zion Behind thee shaken the head — Hath the daughter of Jerusalem? 22 Whom hast thou reproached and reviled? And against whom lifted up a voice? Yea, thou dost lift up on high thine eyes — Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By the hand of thy messengers Thou hast reproached the Lord, and sayest: In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to a high place of mountains — The sides of Lebanon, And I cut down the height of its cedars, The choice of its firs, And I enter the lodging of its extremity, The forest of its Carmel. 24 I have digged, and drunk strange waters, And I dry up with the sole of my steps All floods of a bulwark. 25 Hast thou not heard from afar, it I made, From days of old that I formed it? Now I have brought it in, And it becometh a desolation, Ruinous heaps [are] fenced cities, 26 And their inhabitants [are] feeble-handed, They were broken down, and are dried up, They have been the herb of the field, And the greenness of the tender grass, Grass of the roofs, And blasted corn — before it hath risen up! 27 And thy sitting down, and thy going out, And thy coming in, I have known, And thine anger towards Me; 28 Because of thine anger towards Me, And thy noise — it came up into Mine ears, I have put My hook in thy nose, And My bridle in thy lips, And have caused thee to turn back, In the way in which thou camest. 29 And this to thee [is] the sign, Food of the year [is] the spontaneous growth, And in the second year the self-produced, And in the third year sow ye, and reap, And plant vineyards, and eat their fruits. 30 And it hath continued — The escaped of the house of Judah That hath been left — to take root beneath, And hath made fruit upward. 31 For from Jerusalem goeth out a remnant, And an escape from mount Zion; The zeal of Jehovah [of Hosts] doth this. 32 Therefore, thus said Jehovah, Concerning the king of Asshur: He doth not come in unto this city, Nor doth he shoot there an arrow, Nor doth he come before it with shield. Nor doth he pour out against it a mount. 33 In the way that he cometh in — In it he turneth back, And unto this city he doth not come in, The affirmation of Jehovah — 34 And I have covered over this city, To save it, for Mine own sake, And for the sake of David My servant.' 35 And it cometh to pass, in that night, that a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred eighty and five thousand, and they rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them [are] dead corpses. 36 And Sennacherib king of Asshur journeyeth, and goeth, and turneth back, and dwelleth in Nineveh; 37 and it cometh to pass, he is bowing himself in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adramelech and Sharezar [his sons] have smitten him with the sword, and they have escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-Haddon his son reigneth in his stead.
2 Kings · Young's Literal Translation
2 Kings 19 Young's Literal 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
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
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)