2 Reis 19

ARC · Chapter 19/25

¹E aconteceu que Ezequias, tendo-o ouvido, rasgou os seus vestidos, e se cubriu de sacco, e entrou na casa do Senhor.

²Então enviou a Eliakim, o mordomo, e a Sebna, o escrivão, e os anciãos dos sacerdotes, cobertos de saccos, ao propheta Isaias, filho de Amós.

³E disseram-lhe: Assim diz Ezequias: Este dia é dia de angustia, e de vituperação, e de blasphemia; porque os filhos chegaram ao parto, e não ha força para parir.

⁴Bem pode ser que o Senhor teu Deus ouça todas as palavras de Rabsaké, a quem enviou o seu senhor, o rei da Assyria, para affrontar o Deus vivo, e para vituperal-o com as palavras que o Senhor teu Deus tem ouvido: faze pois oração pelo resto que se acha.

⁵E os servos do rei Ezequias vieram a Isaias.

⁶E Isaias lhes disse: Assim direis a vosso senhor: Assim diz o Senhor: Não temas as palavras que ouviste, com as quaes os servos do rei da Assyria me blasphemaram.

⁷Eis que metterei n'elle um espirito, e elle ouvirá um arroido, e vol-* *tará para a sua terra: á espada o farei cair na sua terra.

⁸Voltou pois Rabsaké, e achou o rei da Assyria pelejando contra Libna, porque tinha ouvido que se havia partido de Lachis.

⁹E, ouvindo elle dizer de Tirhaká, rei de Cus: Eis que ha saido para te fazer guerra; tornou a enviar mensageiros a Ezequias, dizendo:

¹⁰Assim fallareis a Ezequias, rei de Judah, dizendo: Não te engane o teu Deus, em quem confias, dizendo: Jerusalem não será entregue na mão do rei d'Assyria.

¹¹Eis que já tens ouvido o que fizeram os reis da Assyria a todas as terras, destruindo-as totalmente, e tu te livrarás?

¹²Porventura as livraram os deuses das nações, a quem destruiram, como a Gozan e a Haran? e a Reseph, e aos filhos de Eden, que estavam em Telassar?

¹³Que é feito do rei de Hamath, e do rei de Arpad, e do rei da cidade de Sepharvaim, Hena e Iva?

¹⁴Recebendo pois Ezequias as cartas das mãos dos mensageiros, e lendo-as, subiu á casa do Senhor, e Ezequias as estendeu perante o Senhor.

¹⁵E orou Ezequias perante o Senhor, e disse: Ó Senhor Deus de Israel, que habitas entre os cherubins, tu mesmo, só tu és Deus de todos os reinos da terra: tu fizeste os céus e a terra.

¹⁶Inclina, Senhor, o teu ouvido, e ouve; abre, Senhor, os teus olhos, e olha: e ouve as palavras de Sanherib, que enviou a este, para affrontar o Deus vivo.

¹⁷Verdade é, ó Senhor, que os reis da Assyria assolaram as nações e as suas terras,

¹⁸E lançaram os seus deuses no fogo; porquanto deuses não eram, mas obra de mãos de homens, madeira e pedra; por isso os destruiram.

¹⁹Agora pois, ó Senhor nosso Deus, sê servido de nos livrar da sua mão: e assim saberão todos os reinos da terra que só tu és o Senhor Deus.

²⁰Então Isaias, filho de Amós, mandou dizer a Ezequias: Assim diz o Senhor Deus de Israel: O que me pediste ácerca de Sanherib, rei da Assyria, ouvi.

²¹Esta é a palavra que o Senhor fallou d'elle: A virgem, a filha de Sião, te despreza, de ti zomba; a filha de Jerusalem menea a cabeça por detraz de ti

²²A quem affrontaste e blasphemaste? E contra quem alçaste a voz, e ergueste os teus olhos ao alto? Contra o Sancto de Israel?

²³Por meio de teus mensageiros affrontaste o Senhor, e disseste: Com a multidão de meus carros subo eu ao alto dos montes, aos lados do Libano, e cortarei os seus altos cedros, e as suas mais formosas faias, e entrarei nas suas pousadas extremas, até no bosque do seu campo fertil.

²⁴Eu cavei, e bebi aguas estranhas; e com as plantas de meus pés sequei todos os rios dos logares fortes.

²⁵Porventura não ouviste que já d'antes fiz isto, e já desde os dias antigos o formei? agora porém o fiz vir, para que fosses tu que reduzisses as cidades fortes a montões desertos.

²⁶Por isso os moradores d'ellas, com as mãos encolhidas, ficaram pasmados e confundidos: eram como a herva do campo, e a hortaliça verde, e o feno dos telhados, e o trigo queimado, antes que se levante.

²⁷Porém o teu assentar, e o teu sair, e o teu entrar, eu o sei, e o teu furor contra mim.

²⁸Por causa do teu furor contra mim, e porque a tua revolta subiu aos meus ouvidos; portanto porei o meu anzol no teu nariz, e o meu freio nos teus beiços, e te farei voltar pelo caminho por onde vieste.

²⁹E isto te será por signal: este anno se comerá o que nascer por si mesmo, e no anno seguinte o que d'ahi proceder; porém o terceiro anno semeae e segae, e plantae vinhas, e comei os seus fructos.

³⁰Porque o que escapou da casa de Judah, e ficou de resto, tornará a lançar raizes para baixo, e dará fructo para cima.

³¹Porque de Jerusalem sairá o restante, e do monte de Sião o que escapou: o zelo do Senhor fará isto.

³²Portanto, assim diz o Senhor ácerca do rei d'Assyria: Não entrará n'esta cidade, nem lançará n'ella frecha alguma: tão pouco virá perante ella com escudo, nem levantará contra ella tranqueira alguma.

³³Pelo caminho por onde vier por elle voltará; porém n'esta cidade não entrará, diz o Senhor.

³⁴Porque eu ampararei a esta cidade, para a livrar, por amor de mim e por amor do meu servo David.

³⁵Succedeu pois que n'aquella mesma noite saiu o anjo do Senhor, e feriu no arraial dos assyrios a cento e oitenta e cinco mil d'elles; e, levantando-se pela manhã cedo, eis que todos eram corpos mortos.

³⁶Então Sanherib, rei d'Assyria, partiu, e se foi, e voltou: e ficou em Ninive.

³⁷E succedeu que, estando elle prostrado na casa de Nisroch, seu deus, Adram-melech e Sarezer, seus filhos, o feriram á espada; porém elles escaparam para a terra d'Ararat: e Esar-*haddon, seu filho, reinou em seu logar.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Hezekiah seeks out the prophet Isaiah and prays fervently in the temple in the face of Sennacherib's threatening letters. Isaiah prophesies that the Assyrian king will not conquer Jerusalem. That very night, an angel of the Lord kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, forcing Sennacherib to retreat, and he is later assassinated by his own sons when he returns home.

Explanation

This chapter presents one of the most dramatic divine interventions in the Old Testament, answering Hezekiah's sincere and humble prayer in the face of a threat seemingly impossible to overcome by human means. Hezekiah's prayer in the temple, acknowledging both God's power and the weakness of idols of wood and stone, is a model of balanced faith: total trust in God without denying the seriousness of the situation. Sennacherib's later assassination by his own sons, decades afterward, fulfills Isaiah's prophecy and is independently recorded (though with different details) in ancient Babylonian sources.

Fun facts

Sennacherib's death, assassinated in the temple of his god Nisroch by his own sons, is independently confirmed in later Babylonian records, although they attribute the assassination mainly to a single son, showing a remarkable historical convergence with the biblical account.
The number of 185,000 soldiers killed in a single night, though extraordinary, is interpreted by various scholars as a reference to a sudden and devastating plague (possibly disease) that struck the Assyrian camp, consistent with accounts from Herodotus about a disaster among Egyptian-Assyrian forces around the same general period.

Verse-by-verse explanation

2 Reis 19:1On hearing the report of the Assyrian threat, Hezekiah tears his clothes, covers himself in sackcloth as a sign of distress, and goes straight to the temple — his first reaction is to seek God, not to strike back with force.
2 Reis 19:2Hezekiah sends his top officials and the elder priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to consult the prophet Isaiah.
2 Reis 19:3The message describes the situation as labor with no strength left to deliver: the crisis has reached its critical point, but there is still no solution in sight.
2 Reis 19:4Hezekiah hopes the Lord has heard Rabshakeh’s blasphemy against the living God, and asks Isaiah to pray for the small remnant of the people still left.
2 Reis 19:5Hezekiah’s servants carry this request directly to the prophet Isaiah.
2 Reis 19:6Isaiah answers without hesitation: do not be afraid of the blasphemous words the servants of the Assyrian king have spoken against the Lord.
2 Reis 19:7The Lord promises to put a spirit in the Assyrian king, making him hear a rumor and return to his own land, where he will fall dead by the sword.
2 Reis 19:8Rabshakeh returns and finds the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had moved on from Lachish.
2 Reis 19:9On hearing that Tirhakah, king of Cush, is coming to make war against him, Sennacherib sends another threatening message to Hezekiah.
2 Reis 19:10The new message repeats the same warning: do not be deceived by your God’s promise that Jerusalem will not fall.
2 Reis 19:11Sennacherib points to Assyria’s track record: it has destroyed every land it has passed through — why would Judah be any different?
2 Reis 19:12He asks whether the gods of the nations already destroyed — Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the people of Eden in Telassar — managed to save them.
2 Reis 19:13He asks where the kings of Hamath and Arpad are now, and the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah — all defeated without any god stepping in.
2 Reis 19:14The physical act of spreading the threatening letter out before the altar was a concrete way of laying the problem before God, almost like evidence in a courtroom. It is a very tangible act of prayer, not just spoken words.
2 Reis 19:15Hezekiah prays before the Lord, calling Him the God enthroned between the cherubim, the only God over all the kingdoms of the earth, maker of heaven and earth.
2 Reis 19:16Hezekiah asks the Lord to bend down His ear and open His eyes to see, to hear the words of Sennacherib that insult the living God.
2 Reis 19:17Hezekiah admits it is true: Assyria really has destroyed nations and their lands — he does not deny the facts.
2 Reis 19:18But he points out that the gods of those nations were destroyed because they were never real gods to begin with, only wood and stone made by human hands.
2 Reis 19:19Hezekiah asks to be saved precisely so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that the Lord alone is God — the request itself becomes a matter of God’s own honor.
2 Reis 19:20Isaiah sends word to Hezekiah that the Lord has already heard his prayer concerning Sennacherib.
2 Reis 19:21The word of the Lord personifies Jerusalem as a young woman who despises and mocks Sennacherib, shaking her head behind him in pure contempt.
2 Reis 19:22The rhetorical question cuts straight to the point: against whom exactly has Sennacherib raised his voice with such pride? Against the Holy One of Israel.
2 Reis 19:23Through his messengers, Sennacherib boasted of climbing the highest mountains, cutting down Lebanon’s noblest cedars, and reaching the most remote places — an inflated pride in conquest.
2 Reis 19:24He also boasted of digging wells in foreign land and drying up the rivers of Egypt with the soles of his own feet — exaggerated claims of total dominance.
2 Reis 19:25The Lord reveals that Sennacherib’s conquests had already been planned by God long before; he was only an instrument used to reduce fortified cities to rubble.
2 Reis 19:26That is why the conquered peoples were left powerless, like grass of the field or rooftop plants that wither before they grow — the Assyrian victory was never his own achievement.
2 Reis 19:27The Lord declares that He knows Sennacherib’s every move — his sitting down, his going out, his coming in — and also his rage against God.
2 Reis 19:28Because this arrogance has reached God’s ears, the Lord promises to put a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth, turning him back the way he came — the image of an animal being led away by force.
2 Reis 19:29A sign is given to Hezekiah: this year eat what grows on its own, the next year what springs from that, but in the third year go back to planting and harvesting as usual.
2 Reis 19:30The remnant that survives in Judah (the south) will take root again and bear fruit — a promise of recovery after the crisis.
2 Reis 19:31Out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who escape — the very zeal of the Lord will guarantee it.
2 Reis 19:32Therefore the Lord declares concerning the king of Assyria: he will not enter this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor build any siege ramp against it.
2 Reis 19:33He will go back by the same way he came, without entering the city — this is the word of the Lord.
2 Reis 19:34The Lord promises to defend and save the city, not because Judah deserves it, but for His own honor and for the promise made to His servant David.
2 Reis 19:35Historians note that Assyrian records also mention this campaign against Jerusalem without claiming total victory over the city, though they do not confirm the exact death toll. The biblical account interprets this unexpected withdrawal as God’s direct intervention.
2 Reis 19:36After the disaster in the camp, Sennacherib withdraws, goes home, and settles in Nineveh, never having managed to take Jerusalem.
2 Reis 19:37The death of the great Assyrian king inside the temple of his own god, killed by his own sons, is also recorded in later Assyrian sources, decades after the fact. It is one of the rare cases in the book of Kings with solid external historical confirmation.