2 Kings 19, Additional Reading Jeremiah 17

Monday, May 26, 2025
 

Isaiah Encourages Hezekiah

19 And when King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and rejection; for children have come to birth and there is no strength to deliver. 4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because 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 in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”’”

Sennacherib Defies God

8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that [a]the king had left Lachish. 9 When he heard them say concerning Tirhakah king of [b]Cush, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezekiah saying, 10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of [c]Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you saying, “Jerusalem will 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 completely. So will you be [d]spared? 12 Did the gods of [e]those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer

14 Then Hezekiah took the [f]letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and [g]spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, who are [h]enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

God’s Answer through Isaiah

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ 21 This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:

‘She has despised you and mocked you,
The virgin daughter of Zion;
She has shaken her head behind you,
The daughter of Jerusalem!
22 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
And against whom have you raised your voice,
And [i]haughtily lifted up your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
23 ‘Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
And you have said, “With my many chariots
I came up to the heights of the mountains,
To the remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I [j]cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses.
And I [k]entered its farthest lodging place, its thickest forest.
24 “I dug wells and drank foreign waters,
And with the sole of my feet I [l]dried up
All the rivers of [m]Egypt.”

25 ‘Have you not heard?
Long ago I did it;
From ancient times I planned it.
Now I have brought it to pass,
That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
26 ‘Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,
They were dismayed and put to shame;
They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,
As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.
27 ‘But I know your sitting down,
And your going out and your coming in,
And your raging against Me.
28 ‘Because of your raging against Me,
And because your [n]arrogance has come up to My ears,
Therefore I will put My hook in your nose,
And My bridle in your lips,
And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

29 ‘Then this shall be the sign for you: [o]you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 30 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion [p]survivors. The zeal of [q]the Lord will perform this.

32 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the Lord. 34 ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

35 Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when [r]men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were [s]dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. 37 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that [t]Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 19:8 Lit he
  2. 2 Kings 19:9 Or Ethiopia
  3. 2 Kings 19:10 Lit Judah, saying,
  4. 2 Kings 19:11 Lit delivered
  5. 2 Kings 19:12 Lit the
  6. 2 Kings 19:14 Lit letters...read them
  7. 2 Kings 19:14 Lit Hezekiah spread
  8. 2 Kings 19:15 Lit seated
  9. 2 Kings 19:22 Lit on high
  10. 2 Kings 19:23 So with some ancient versions; M.T. will cut...will enter
  11. 2 Kings 19:23 So with some ancient versions; M.T. will cut...will enter
  12. 2 Kings 19:24 So with some ancient versions; M.T. will dry up
  13. 2 Kings 19:24 Lit the besieged place
  14. 2 Kings 19:28 Lit complacency
  15. 2 Kings 19:29 Lit eating
  16. 2 Kings 19:31 Lit those who escape
  17. 2 Kings 19:31 Some ancient mss read the Lord of hosts
  18. 2 Kings 19:35 Lit they
  19. 2 Kings 19:35 Lit dead bodies
  20. 2 Kings 19:37 Some ancient mss read Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him
 
 

The Deceitful Heart

17 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus;
With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart
And on the horns of [a]their altars,
2 As they remember their children,
So they remember their altars and their [b]Asherim
By green trees on the high hills.
3 O mountain of Mine in the countryside,
I will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty,
Your high places for sin throughout your borders.
4 And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.

5 Thus says the Lord,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his [c]strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt [d]without inhabitant.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
8 “For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
10 “I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the [e]mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the [f]results of his deeds.
11 “As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
So is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in [g]the end he will be a fool.”

12 A glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You will be put to shame.
Those who turn [h]away on earth will be written down,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved,
For You are my praise.
15 Look, they keep saying to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!”
16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You,
Nor have I longed for the woeful day;
You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips
Was in Your presence.
17 Do not be a terror to me;
You are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them a day of disaster,
And crush them with twofold destruction!

The Sabbath Must Be Kept

19 Thus the Lord said to me, “Go and stand in the [i]public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 Thus says the Lord, “Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your [j]forefathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction.

24 “But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me,” declares the Lord, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.”’”

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 17:1 So ancient versions; M.T. your
  2. Jeremiah 17:2 I.e. wooden symbols of a female deity
  3. Jeremiah 17:5 Lit arm
  4. Jeremiah 17:6 Lit and is not inhabited
  5. Jeremiah 17:10 Lit kidneys
  6. Jeremiah 17:10 Lit fruit
  7. Jeremiah 17:11 Lit his
  8. Jeremiah 17:13 Lit away from Me
  9. Jeremiah 17:19 Lit gate of the sons of the people
  10. Jeremiah 17:22 Lit fathers

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