A Prophet Who Saved A Great City
Once the
king of Assyria sent a high official with a great army
to Jerusalem. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they called for Hezekiah
the
ruler of Judah, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, the
scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, and they came out to them. And
the high official said to them, “Why are you so confident? To whom
do you look for
help that you have rebelled against me? You count
on
egypt to help you. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is as weak as a broken
reed. But if you say, ‘We
trust in the LORD our God,’ is not he
the one whose high places and
altars Hezekiah has destroyed? Now
therefore make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria, and
I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part
to set riders upon them. How then can you conquer one of the least
of my master’s servants? Have I now come up against this place
to destroy it without the LORD’s approval? the LORD it was who
said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.'”
Then Eliakim and Shebnah and Joah said to the high official,
“Speak, I pray you, to your servants in the Aramaic language, for
we understand it; but do not speak with us in the Jewish language
in the hearing of the
people who are on the wall.” But the high official
said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and
to you to speak these words? Is it not rather to the
men who sit
on the wall, who will suffer most from the siege?”
Then the high official stood and cried with a
loud voice, in the
Jewish language, saying, “Hear the message of the great king, the
king of Assyria. ‘Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive
you; for he will not be able to save you from my hand. Neither
let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, the LORD will
surely save us, and this
city shall not be given into the power of the
king of Assyria.'”
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria,
‘Make your
peace with me and come over to me; then each one of
you shall eat from his own
vine and his own fig-tree and drink the
waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land
like your own land, a land full of grain and new wine, a land full of
bread and vineyards, a land full of olive-trees and honey, that you
may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, when he deceives
you by saying, the LORD will save us. Has any of the gods
of the nations ever saved his land from the power of the king of
Assyria? Have the gods of the land of Samaria saved Samaria from
my power? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that
have saved their
country from my power, that the LORD should save
Jerusalem from my power?'”
Then the people were silent and made no answer; for the ruler’s
command was, “Do not
answer him.” But Eliakim, the steward of
the palace, and Shebnah, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, came
to Hezekiah with torn
clothes and told him the words of the high
official. And as soon as Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and
covered himself with
sackcloth and went into the
temple of the LORD.
And he sent Eliakim, who was in
charge of the palace, and Shebnah,
the scribe and the oldest of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to
Isaiah, the prophet. And they said to him, Hezekiah says, “This
is a day of trouble, of discipline and of shame. It may be the LORD
your God will hear all the words of the high official, whom his master,
the king of Assyria, has sent to defy the
living God, and will punish
him for them; therefore
lift up your prayer for the people.”
When the servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to
them, “Take back this answer to your master: the LORD says, ‘Do
not be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants
of the king of Assyria have insulted me. I will put a spirit
in him, so that he will hear bad news and return to his own land;
and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'”
So the high official returned and found the king of Assyria making
war against Libnah, for he had heard that he had gone from
Lachish. But the king of Assyria had heard that Tirkakah, king of
Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him. Now that very night
the angel of the LORD went out and struck down in the
camp of the
Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when men
arose early the next morning, these were all dead.
Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went away and returned to
Nineveh. While he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his
god, his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped
into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon, his son, became king in
his place.
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