Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

King Hezekiah heard the news and tore his clothes, covering himself with sackcloth. He went to the Lord's house and sent Eliakim, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet.

Hezekiah asked them to tell Isaiah that maybe the Lord God would hear the words of Rabshakeh, who had come to defy the living God. Hezekiah wanted the prophet to lift up a prayer for the remnant left behind. The servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah and told him not to be afraid of the words he had heard from the Assyrian king's messengers.

The Lord said through Isaiah, "Don't be afraid of the words you've heard. I will send a blast upon the Assyrians, and they'll hear a report returning to their own land. They'll fall by the sword in their own land." However, Rabshakeh returned to the king of Assyria after hearing that Hezekiah was leaving Lachish.

The Assyrian king sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, "Don't let your God deceive you into thinking Jerusalem won't be given into my hand." The messenger told Hezekiah not to trust in his God, saying the Assyrians had conquered all lands by destroying them utterly. He asked if Hezekiah would escape the same fate.

The Assyrian king pointed out that other nations' gods couldn't save their people from destruction. He listed various cities and kingdoms that he had conquered, including Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and Eden's children in Telassar. He questioned where were the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the house of the Lord and spread it before Him. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, "You are the God of Israel, who sits enthroned above the cherubim. You made heaven and earth." Hezekiah asked the Lord to bow down His ear and hear, to open His eyes and see.

Hezekiah pointed out that the Assyrians had destroyed other nations' gods, casting them into the fire because they were mere idols made by human hands. The king prayed, "Now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand so all the kingdoms of the earth will know you are the only Lord God."

Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah saying, "The Lord God of Israel has heard your prayer against Sennacherib king of Assyria." The Lord said through Isaiah that the daughter of Zion had scorned and laughed at Sennacherib, while the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head in contempt.

Isaiah asked Sennacherib whom he had insulted and blasphemed. He reminded the king of his boasts about conquering even the highest mountains, cutting down cedar trees, and entering the strongholds of Israel's borders. The Assyrian king claimed to have dug and drunk from strange waters, drying up all the rivers flowing through besieged cities.

Isaiah told Sennacherib that he had not heard long ago how the Lord had done it or of ancient times when the Lord formed the land. Now the Lord was bringing it to pass. The inhabitants of those lands were of small power and dismayed, like grass that withers quickly or green shoots that never mature.

Isaiah said he knew Sennacherib's dwelling place, his comings and goings, and his fierce opposition against him. Hezekiah's rage against the Lord and the tumult of his defiance had reached God's ears. The Lord would put a hook in Sennacherib's nose and bridle in his lips, turning him back by the way he came.

This would be a sign to Sennacherib: he'd eat from what grows on its own in the first year, then in the second year from what sprouts from it. In the third year, he'd plant vineyards and reap their fruit. The remnant that escaped of the house of Judah would yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Out of Jerusalem would come a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion; it was the zeal of the Lord of hosts that would accomplish this. Therefore, the Lord said to Sennacherib, "He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor approach it with shield or siege ramp."

The Assyrian king would return by the way he came, and not enter the city, says the Lord. The Lord would defend Jerusalem to save it for His own sake and for David's covenant. That night, an angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their camp.

When they arose early the next morning, they found all the bodies dead. Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went back to Nineveh, and dwelt there. As he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Armenia; Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place.