2 Kingschapter 19

Sennacherib's Army Is Destroyed — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

A.Sackcloth in the house of Jehovah; Isaiah's answervv. 1-7

1 On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz 3 to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. 4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, 6 who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

B.A second letter: let not thy God deceive theevv. 8-13

8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. 9 Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared? 12 Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? 13 Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

C.Hezekiah spreads the letter out before Jehovahvv. 14-19

14 So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God. 17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands. 19 And now, O LORD our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

D.Isaiah's taunt-song: I will put my hook in thy nosevv. 20-34

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria. 21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you. 22 Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests. 24 I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.” 25 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble. 26 Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown. 27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me. 28 Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’ 29 And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 30 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above. 31 For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this. 32 So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it. 33 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ declares the LORD. 34 ‘I will defend this city and save it for My own sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”

E.A hundred fourscore and five thousand, and a sword in Nisroch's templevv. 35-37

35 And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 37 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

Commentary on this chapter: read the Exposition

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Chapter summary

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Hezekiah rends his clothes, covers himself with sackcloth, goes into the house of Jehovah, and sends to Isaiah: the day, he says, when the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth. Isaiah answers, be not afraid of the words wherewith Assyria's servants have blasphemed. When the threatening letter comes, Hezekiah spreads it before Jehovah and prays plainly: thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, and the gods Assyria burned were wood and stone. Isaiah's oracle mocks the boaster: 'I will put my hook in thy nose.' That night the angel of Jehovah smites a hundred and eighty-five thousand.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament.

Context

History · Jeremiah — 2 Kings overview

A. 1–7 Sackcloth in the house of Jehovah; Isaiah's answer
B. 8–13 A second letter: let not thy God deceive thee
C. 14–19 Hezekiah spreads the letter out before Jehovah
D. 20–34 Isaiah's taunt-song: I will put my hook in thy nose
E. 35–37 A hundred fourscore and five thousand, and a sword in Nisroch's temple

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

2 Kings 187 verses
- 2 Kings 18:5Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.
- 2 Kings 18:14So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
- 2 Kings 18:17Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.
- 2 Kings 18:29This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.
- 2 Kings 18:34Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
- 2 Kings 18:35Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
- Read 2 Kings 18: 1 more there →
Isaiah 376 verses
- Isaiah 37:6who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
- Isaiah 37:13Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”
- Isaiah 37:14So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
- Isaiah 37:17Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
- Isaiah 37:28But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
- Isaiah 37:36Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Read Isaiah 37 →
2 Kings 195 verses
- 2 Kings 19:4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
- 2 Kings 19:7Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”
- 2 Kings 19:28Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’
- 2 Kings 19:33He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city,’ declares the LORD.
- 2 Kings 19:36So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
- Read 2 Kings 19 →
Isaiah 104 verses
- Isaiah 10:5Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.
- Isaiah 10:16Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.
- Isaiah 10:18The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man.
- Isaiah 10:20On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Read Isaiah 10 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

2 Kings 203 verses
- 2 Kings 20:5“Go back and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people that this is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will surely heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the house of the LORD.
- 2 Kings 20:6I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.’”
- 2 Kings 20:8Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?”
- Read 2 Kings 20 →
Isaiah 442 verses
- Isaiah 44:8Do not tremble or fear. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are My witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I know not one.”
- Isaiah 44:9All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.
- Read Isaiah 44 →
Daniel 42 verses
- Daniel 4:30the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
- Daniel 4:34But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
- Read Daniel 4 →
2 Chronicles 322 verses
- 2 Chronicles 32:20In response, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out to heaven in prayer,
- 2 Chronicles 32:21and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated every mighty man of valor and every leader and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword.
- Read 2 Chronicles 32 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.