II Kings 19 Hezekiah Prays in the House of the Lord

 II Kings 19

Hezekiah Prays in the House of the Lord

1 When Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord.

2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble and of reproach and blasphemy, because the children have come to term, and there is no strength to bear them.

4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the Lord, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God and to reproach him with the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that is left.

5 Then the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

 6 And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your Lord; thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

 7 Behold, I will put a spirit within him, and he shall hear a noise, and he shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall with the sword in his own land." 

8 So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.

 9 And when he heard from Tirhakah king of Cush, saying, "Behold, he is come out to fight against you," he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, 

10 Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, "Let not your God, in whom you trust, deceive you, saying, 'Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' 

11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them utterly; will you deliver yourself?

12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, whom they have destroyed, like Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, who were in Telassar?

13 What has become of the king of Hamath, and of the king of Arpad, and of the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivvah?

14 So Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers and read them, and went up to the house of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread them out before the Lord.

15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubim, thou, thou alone, hast made heaven and earth.

16 Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear: Open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, whom he sent to defy the living God.

17 It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria are destroying the nations and the lands.

18 They have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, be pleased to deliver us out of their hand; and all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord God.