2 Kings 19

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 On hearing this, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went to the Temple of Yahweh.	1 And when king Hezekiah had heard this, he tore his garments, and he covered himself with sackcloth, and he entered the house of the Lord.
2 He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebnah the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearingsackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.	2 And he sent Eliakim, the first ruler of the house, and Shebnah, the scribe, and the elders from the priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz.
3 They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, "Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace.Children come to birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.	3 And they said to him: “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. The sons are ready to be born, but the woman in labor does not have the strength.
4 May Yahweh your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria,has sent to insult the living God, and may Yahweh your God punish the words he has heard. Offer your prayerfor the remnant stil remaining." '	4 Perhaps the Lord, your God, may hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians, his lord, sent so that he would reproach the living God, and rebuke with words, which the Lord, your God, has heard. And so, offer a prayer on behalf of the remnant that has been found.”
5 King Hezekiah's ministers went to Isaiah,	5 And the servants of king Hezekiah went to Isaiah.
6 and Isaiah said to them, 'Say to your master, "Yahweh says this: Do not be afraid of the words whichyou have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me.	6 And Isaiah said to them: “So shall you say to your lord. Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid before the face of the words that you have heard, by which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
7 Look, I am going to put a spirit in him and, on the strength of a rumour, he wil go back to his owncountry, and in that country I shall make him fal by the sword." '	7 Behold, I will send a spirit to him, and he will hear a report, and he will return to his own land. And I will bring him down by the sword in his own land.”
8 The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, as thecupbearer had learnt that the king had already left Lachish	8 Then Rabshakeh returned, and he found the king of the Assyrians fighting against Libnah. For he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish.
9 on hearing that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to attack him.	9 And when he had heard from Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, saying, “Behold, he has gone out so that he may fight against you,” and when he went forth against him, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying:
10 Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 'Tel Hezekiah king of Judah this, "Do notlet your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem wil not fal into the king ofAssyria's clutches.	10 “So shall you say to Hezekiah, the king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom you trust, lead you astray. And you should not say, ‘Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.’
11 You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to al the other countries, devoting themto destruction. Are you likely to be saved?	11 For you yourself have heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done to all the lands, the manner in which they have laid waste to them. Therefore, how would you alone be able to be freed?
12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors devastated save them-Gozan, Haran, Rezeph andthe Edenites who were in Tel Basar?	12 Have the gods of the nations freed any of those whom my fathers have destroyed, such as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who were at Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?" '	13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena, and of Avva?”
14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it; he then went up to the Temple ofYahweh and spread it out before Yahweh.	14 And so, when Hezekiah had received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and had read it, he ascended to the house of the Lord, and he spread it out before the Lord.
15 Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of Yahweh, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned onthe winged creatures, you alone are God of al the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth.	15 And he prayed in his sight, saying: “O Lord, God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, you alone are God, over all the kings of the earth. You made heaven and earth.
16 Give ear, Yahweh, and listen; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib,who has sent to insult the living God.	16 Incline your ear, and listen. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. And hear all the words of Sennacherib, who sent so that he might reproach the living God before us.
17 It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations,	17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have devastated all peoples and lands.
18 they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but human artefacts -- wood andstone -- and hence they have destroyed them.	18 And they have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but instead were the works of men’s hands, out of wood and stone. And so they destroyed them.
19 But now, Yahweh our God, save us from his clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the worldknow that you alone are God, Yahweh.'	19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, bring us salvation from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord God.”
20 Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the fol owing message to Hezekiah, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this, "Ihave heard the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria."	20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard what you beseeched from me, concerning Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians.
21 Here is the pronouncement which Yahweh has made about him: "She despises you, she scorns you,the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!	21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken about him: The virgin daughter of Zion has spurned and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back.
22 Whom have you insulted, whom have you blasphemed? Against whom raised your voice and liftedyour haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!	22 Whom have you reproached, and whom have you blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 Through your envoys you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed themountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have fel ed its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reachedits furthest recesses, its forest garden.	23 By the hand of your servants, you have reproach the Lord, and you have said: ‘By the multitude of my chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the summit of Lebanon. And I have cut down its sublime cedars, and its elect spruce trees. And I have entered even to its limits. And its forest of Carmel,
24 Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up al Egypt'srivers.	24 I have cut down. And I drank foreign waters, and I dried up all the enclosed waters with the steps of my feet.’
25 "Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actual y planned it, now I carry it out. Youwere to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins;	25 But have you not heard what I have done from the beginning? From the days of antiquity, I have formed it, and now I have brought it to be. And fortified cities of fighting men will become piles of ruins.
26 that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass,were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind.	26 And whoever may settle in these, they have trembled, with a weak hand, and they have been confounded. They have become like the hay of the field, and like weeds sprouting on the rooftops, which dry up before they reached maturity.
27 But whether you stand up or you sit down, whether you go out or you come in, I know it.	27 Your habitation, and your exit, and your entrance, and your way, I knew beforehand, along with your fury against me.
28 Because you have raved against me, and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shal put a hookthrough your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.	28 You have been maddened against me, and your arrogance has ascended to my ears. And so, I will place a ring in your nose, and a bit between your lips. And I will lead you back along the way by which you came.
29 "And this wil be the sign for you: this year wil be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts inthe fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.	29 But as for you, Hezekiah, this shall be a sign: Eat this year whatever you will find, and in the second year, whatever may spring up of itself. But in the third year, sow and reap; plant vineyards, and eat from their fruit.
30 The surviving remnant of the House of Judah wil bring forth new roots below and fruits above;	30 And whatever will have been left behind, from the house of Judah, shall send a root downward, and shall bear fruit upward.
31 for a remnant wil issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yahweh Sabaoth's jealouslove wil accomplish this.	31 Indeed, a remnant shall go forth from Jerusalem, and what may be saved shall go forth from mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall accomplish this.
32 "This, then, is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria: "He wil not enter this city, wil shoot noarrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it.	32 For this reason, thus says the Lord about the king of the Assyrians: He shall not enter into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor overtake it with the shield, nor encircle it with fortifications.
33 By the road by which he came, by that he wil return; he wil not enter this city, declares Yahweh.	33 By the way that he came, so shall he return. And he shall not enter this city, says the Lord.
34 I shal protect this city and save it for my sake and my servant David's sake." '	34 And I will protect this city, and I will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.”
35 That same night the angel of Yahweh went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousandmen in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses.	35 And so it happened that, in the same night, an Angel of the Lord went and struck down, in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when he had risen up, at first light, he saw all the bodies of the dead. And withdrawing, he went away.
36 Sennacherib struck camp and left; he returned home and stayed in Nineveh.	36 And Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, returned and dwelled in Nineveh.
37 One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech andSharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the territory of Ararat. His son Esarhaddonsucceeded him.	37 And while he was worshipping in the temple of his god, Nisroch, his sons, Adram-melech and Sharezer, struck him with the sword. And they fled into the land of the Armenians. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.