Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors

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: ¹⁰'Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Let not thy God in whom thou trustest beguile thee, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given 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, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar? ¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'

      ¹⁴And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: 'O Lord, the God of Israel, that sittest upon the cherubim, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Incline Thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open Thine eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, wherewith he hath sent him to taunt the living God. ¹⁷Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste 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, save Thou us, I beseech Thee, 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, the God of Israel: Whereas thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard thee. ²¹This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him:

      The virgin daughter of ZionHath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn;The daughter of JerusalemHath shaken her head at thee.²²Whom hast thou taunted and blasphemed?And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice?Yea, thou hast lifted up thine eyes on high,Even against the Holy One of Israel!²³By the messengers thou hast taunted the Lord,And hast said: With the multitude of my chariotsAm I come up to the height of the mountains,To the innermost parts of Lebanon;And I have cut down the tall cedars thereof,And the choice cypresses thereof;And I have entered into his farthest lodge,The forest of his fruitful field.²⁴I have digged and drunkStrange waters,And with the sole of my feet have I dried upAll the rivers of Egypt. ²⁵Hast thou not heard?Long ago I made it,In ancient times I fashioned it;Now have I brought it to pass,Yea, it is done; that fortified citiesShould be laid waste 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 is grown up.²⁷But I know thy sitting down, and thy going out, and thy coming in,And thy raging against Me.²⁸Because of thy raging against Me,And for that thy tumult is come up into Mine ears,Therefore will I put My hook in thy nose,And My bridle in thy lips,And I will turn thee back by the wayBy which thou camest.

      ²⁹And this shall be the sign unto thee: ye shall eat this year that which groweth of itself, 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 fruit thereof. ³⁰And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. ³¹For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of mount Zion they that shall escape; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. ³²Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast a mound against it. ³³By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto 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 forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when men 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 Sarezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

      20In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him: 'Thus saith the Lord: Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.' ²Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying: ³'Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.' And Hezekiah wept sore. ⁴And it came to pass, before Isaiah was gone out of the inner court of the city, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying: ⁵'Return, and say to Hezekiah the prince of My people: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears; behold, I will heal thee; on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. ⁶And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for Mine own sake, and for My servant David's sake.' ⁷And Isaiah said: 'Take a cake of figs.' And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

      ⁸And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah: 'What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up unto the house of the Lord the third day?' ⁹And Isaiah said: 'This shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? ¹⁰And Hezekiah answered: 'It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.' ¹¹And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord; and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

      ¹²At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent a letter and a present unto Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and showed them all his treasure-house, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not. ¹⁴Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him: 'What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee?' And Hezekiah said: 'They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.' ¹⁵And he said: 'What have they seen in thy house?' And Hezekiah answered: 'All that is in my house have they seen; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.'

      ¹⁶And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah: 'Hear the word of the Lord. ¹⁷Behold, the days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. ¹⁸And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be officers in the palace of the king of Babylon.' ¹⁹Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: 'Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken.' He said moreover: 'Is it not so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?'

      ²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ²¹And Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.

       21Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzi-bah. ²And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the nations, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. ³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for