2 Crónicas 32

Sennacherib threatens Jerusalem

¹After these faithful deeds, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah. He camped against the fortified cities, intending to break into them and take them for himself. ²When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and was set on making war against Jerusalem, ³he consulted with his officials and his warriors about stopping the water of the springs outside the city, and they supported him. ⁴A great many people gathered and blocked all the springs and the stream running across the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find water in plenty?” they said. ⁵Hezekiah took courage. He rebuilt all the wall where it was broken down and raised it up to the towers, and he built another wall outside it. He strengthened the Millo in the City of David and made large numbers of weapons and shields.^{a 6}He appointed military commanders over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate. Then he spoke encouragement to them: ⁷“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there is more on our side than on his. ⁸With him is only an arm of flesh, but we have the LORD our God with us, to help us and fight our battles for us.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁹After this, while Sennacherib king of Assyria was at Lachish with all his forces, he sent his officials to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem, with this message: ¹⁰“Sennacherib king of Assyria says this: What are you relying on, that you stay in Jerusalem under siege? ¹¹Is Hezekiah not misleading you, handing you over to die of hunger and thirst, when he says, ‘The LORD our God will rescue us from the power of the king of Assyria’? ¹²Did this same Hezekiah not get rid of his high places and his altars and tell Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must bow down before one altar and burn your offerings on it’? ¹³Do you not know what I and my forefathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations in those lands ever able to rescue their land from my hand? ¹⁴Which of all the gods of these nations that my forefathers devoted to destruction was able to rescue its people from my hand? How then could your God rescue you from my hand? ¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah fool you or mislead you like this. Do not believe him. No god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue its people from my hand or from the hand of my forefathers. How much less will your God rescue you from my hand!” ¹⁶His officials said still more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷He also wrote letters to insult the LORD, the God of Israel, and to speak against him: “Just as the gods of the nations of other lands have not rescued their people from my hand, so Hezekiah’s God will not rescue his people from my hand.” ¹⁸They shouted in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem on the wall, trying to frighten and terrify them so that they could take the city. ¹⁹They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the gods of the earth’s peoples, the work of human hands.

The LORD saves Jerusalem

²⁰Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven.

²¹The LORD sent an angel, who cut off every mighty warrior, ruler and commander in the Assyrian king’s camp. Sennacherib went back to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the house of his god, some of his own offspring cut him down there with the sword. ²²In this way the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the power of everyone else, and he took care of them on every side.^{b 23}Many brought gifts to the LORD in Jerusalem and costly presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, and from then on he was highly regarded by all the nations.

Hezekiah’s illness, pride and death

²⁴In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was close to death. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a sign. ²⁵But Hezekiah did not respond in keeping with the kindness shown to him, because his heart became proud. So wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. ²⁶Then Hezekiah humbled himself for his proud heart, he and the people of Jerusalem with him, so the wrath of the LORD did not come on them in Hezekiah’s days. ²⁷Hezekiah had very great wealth and honor. He made himself treasuries for silver and gold, for precious stones and spices, for shields and for all kinds of valuable things, ²⁸and storehouses for the harvest of grain, new wine and oil. He also made stalls for every kind of livestock and folds for the flocks. ²⁹He also built towns for himself and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds, for God had given him very great wealth. ³⁰It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and channeled them straight down to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did. ³¹And so, in the matter of the envoys of the officials of Babylon who were sent to him to ask about the sign that had happened in the land, God left him to himself to test him, to know everything that was in his heart. ³²The rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his faithful deeds are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ³³Then Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and they buried him on the ascent to the tombs of David’s descendants. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him at his death. His son Manasseh became king in his place.