2 Kings 19

KJV · Chapter 19/25

¹And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

²And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

³And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

⁴It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab–shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.

⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸So Rab–shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?

¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.

¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

¹⁶Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.

¹⁷Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,

¹⁸And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.

¹⁹Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

²¹This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

²²Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

²³By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.

²⁴I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

²⁵Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁶Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

²⁷But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

²⁸Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

²⁹And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

³⁰And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³¹For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

³²Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

³³By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

³⁴For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

³⁵And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

³⁷And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

📖 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:2Hezekiah sends his top officials and the elder priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to consult the prophet Isaiah.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:5Hezekiah’s servants carry this request directly to the prophet Isaiah.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:8Rabshakeh returns and finds the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, since he had moved on from Lachish.
2 Kings 19:9On hearing that Tirhakah, king of Cush, is coming to make war against him, Sennacherib sends another threatening message to Hezekiah.
2 Kings 19:10The new message repeats the same warning: do not be deceived by your God’s promise that Jerusalem will not fall.
2 Kings 19:11Sennacherib points to Assyria’s track record: it has destroyed every land it has passed through — why would Judah be any different?
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:17Hezekiah admits it is true: Assyria really has destroyed nations and their lands — he does not deny the facts.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:20Isaiah sends word to Hezekiah that the Lord has already heard his prayer concerning Sennacherib.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:30The remnant that survives in Judah (the south) will take root again and bear fruit — a promise of recovery after the crisis.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:33He will go back by the same way he came, without entering the city — this is the word of the Lord.
2 Kings 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 Kings 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 Kings 19:36After the disaster in the camp, Sennacherib withdraws, goes home, and settles in Nineveh, never having managed to take Jerusalem.
2 Kings 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.