God Saves Judah from the Assyrians^(A)

32 After everything Hezekiah had done so faithfully, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to invade Judah. He set up camp to attack the fortified cities. He intended to conquer them himself.

² When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come to wage war against Jerusalem, ³ he, his officers, and his military staff made plans to stop the water from flowing out of the springs outside the city. They helped him do it. ⁴ A large crowd gathered as they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land. They said, “Why should the kings of Assyria find plenty of water?”

⁵ Hezekiah worked hard. He rebuilt all the broken sections of the wall, made the towers taller, built another wall outside the city wall, strengthened the Millo^[a] in the City of David, and made plenty of weapons and shields. ⁶ He appointed military commanders over the troops and gathered the commanders in the square by the city gate. He spoke these words of encouragement: ⁷ “Be strong and courageous. Don’t be frightened or terrified by the king of Assyria or the crowd with him. Someone greater is on our side. ⁸ The king of Assyria has human power on his side, but Yahweh our Elohim is on our side to help us and fight our battles.” So the people were encouraged by what King Hezekiah of Judah said.

⁹ After this, while King Sennacherib of Assyria and all his royal forces were attacking Lachish, he sent his officers to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all of the people in Judah who were in Jerusalem to say: ¹⁰ “This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: Why are you so confident as you live in Jerusalem while it is blockaded? ¹¹ Isn’t Hezekiah misleading you and abandoning you to die from hunger and thirst when he says, ‘Yahweh our Elohim will rescue us from the king of Assyria?’ ¹² Isn’t this the same Hezekiah who got rid of Yahweh’s places of worship and altars and told Judah and Jerusalem, ‘Worship and sacrifice at one altar?’ ¹³ Don’t you know what I and my predecessors have done to the people of all other countries? Were any of the gods of these other nations ever able to rescue their countries from me? ¹⁴ Were the gods of these nations able to rescue their people from my control? My predecessors claimed and destroyed those nations. Is your Elohim able to rescue you from my control? ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you like this. Don’t believe him. No god of any nation or kingdom could save his people from me or my ancestors. Certainly, your Elohim will not rescue you from me!”

¹⁶ Sennacherib’s officers said more against Yahweh Elohim and his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ Sennacherib wrote letters cursing Yahweh Elohim of Israel. These letters said, “As the gods of the nations in other countries couldn’t rescue their people from me, Hezekiah’s Elohim cannot rescue his people from me.” ¹⁸ Sennacherib’s officers shouted loudly in the Judean language to the troops who were on the wall of Jerusalem. They tried to frighten and terrify the troops so that they could capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the Elohim of Jerusalem as if he were one of the gods made by human hands and worshiped by the people in other countries.

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, prayed about this and called to heaven. ²¹ Yahweh sent an angel who exterminated all the soldiers, officials, and commanders in the Assyrian king’s camp. Humiliated, Sennacherib returned to his own country. When he went into the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him with a sword. ²² So Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the people living in Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria and from everyone else. Yahweh gave them peace with all their neighbors.

²³ Many people still went to Jerusalem to bring gifts to Yahweh and expensive presents to King Hezekiah of Judah. From then on, he was considered important by all the nations.

The Lord Rescues Judah from the Assyrians^(A)

36 In Hezekiah’s fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ² Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman’s Field.

³ Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander. ⁴ The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident? ⁵ You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me? ⁶ Look! When you trust Egypt, you’re trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him. ⁷ Suppose you tell me, “We’re trusting Yahweh our Elohim.” He’s the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, “Worship at this altar.”’

⁸ “Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. ⁹ How can you defeat my master’s lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?

¹⁰ “Have I come to destroy this country without Yahweh on my side? Yahweh said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’”

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”

¹² But the field commander asked, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”

¹³ Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria. ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you. ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust Yahweh by saying, ‘Yahweh will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’ ¹⁶ Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. ¹⁷ Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It’s a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, ‘Yahweh will rescue us.’ Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control? ²⁰ Did the gods of these countries rescue them from my control? Could Yahweh then rescue Jerusalem from my control?”

²¹ They were silent and didn’t say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.

²² Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.

37 When King Hezekiah heard the message, he tore his clothes in grief, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s temple. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the leaders of the priests, clothed in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.

³ They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day filled with misery, punishment, and disgrace. We are like a woman who is about to give birth but doesn’t have the strength to do it. ⁴ Yahweh your Elohim may have heard the words of the field commander. His master, the king of Assyria, sent him to defy Elohim Chay. Yahweh your Elohim may punish him because of the message that Yahweh your Elohim heard. Pray for the few people who are left.”

⁵ So King Hezekiah’s men went to Isaiah. ⁶ Isaiah answered them, “Say this to your master, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Don’t be afraid of the message that you heard when the Assyrian king’s assistants slandered me. ⁷ I’m going to put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own country. I’ll have him assassinated in his own country.’”

⁸ The field commander returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah. He had heard that the king left Lachish. ⁹ Now, Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Sudan was coming to fight him.

When he heard this, he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Tell King Hezekiah of Judah, ‘Don’t let the god whom you trust deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ You heard what the kings of Assyria did to all countries, how they totally destroyed them. Will you be rescued? ¹² Did the gods of the nations which my ancestors destroyed rescue Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers, read it, and went to Yahweh’s temple. He spread it out in front of Yahweh ¹⁵ and prayed to Yahweh, ¹⁶ “Yahweh Tsebaoth, Elohim of Israel, you are enthroned over the angels.^[a] You alone are Elohim of the kingdoms of the world. You made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Turn your ear toward me, Yahweh, and listen. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and see. Listen to the entire message that Sennacherib sent to defy Elohim Chay. ¹⁸ It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have leveled every country.^{[b] 19} They have thrown the gods from these countries into fires because these gods aren’t real gods. They’re only wooden and stone statues made by human hands. So the Assyrians have destroyed them. ²⁰ Now, Yahweh our Elohim, rescue us from Assyria’s control so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you alone are Yahweh.”