2 Kings 19:14-37

When Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Temple of the LORD. He spread the letter out before the LORD and prayed to the LORD: “LORD, God of Israel, whose throne is between the gold creatures with wings, only you are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Hear, LORD, and listen. Open your eyes, LORD, and see. Listen to the words Sennacherib has said to insult the living God. It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed these countries and their lands. They have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire, but they were only wood and rock statues that people made. So the kings have destroyed them. Now, LORD our God, save us from the king’s power so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, LORD, are the only God.” Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah that said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria. This is what the LORD has said against Sennacherib: ‘The people of Jerusalem hate you and make fun of you. The people of Jerusalem laugh at you as you run away. You have insulted me and spoken against me; you have raised your voice against me. You have a proud look on your face, which is against me, the Holy One of Israel. You have sent your messengers to insult the Lord. You have said, “With my many chariots I have gone to the tops of the mountains, to the highest mountains of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars and its best pine trees. I have gone to its farthest places and to its best forests. I have dug wells in foreign countries and drunk water there. By the soles of my feet, I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.” “ ‘King of Assyria, surely you have heard. Long ago I, the LORD, planned these things. Long ago I designed them, and now I have made them happen. I allowed you to turn those strong, walled cities into piles of rocks. The people in those cities were weak; they were frightened and put to shame. They were like grass in the field, like tender, young grass, like grass on the housetop that is burned by the wind before it can grow. “ ‘I know when you rest, when you come and go, and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me, and because I have heard your proud words, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth. Then I will force you to leave my country the same way you came.’ “Then the LORD said, ‘Hezekiah, I will give you this sign: This year you will eat the grain that grows wild, and the second year you will eat what grows wild from that. But in the third year, plant grain and harvest it. Plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Some of the people in the family of Judah will escape. Like plants that take root, they will grow strong and have many children. A few people will come out of Jerusalem alive; a few from Mount Zion will live. The strong love of the LORD All-Powerful will make this happen.’ “So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or even shoot an arrow here. He will not fight against it with shields or build a ramp to attack the city walls. He will return to his country the same way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ says the LORD. ‘I will defend and save this city for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’ ” That night the angel of the LORD went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria left and went back to Nineveh and stayed there. One day as Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. Then they escaped to the land of Ararat. So Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon became king of Assyria.