1 O que tendo ouvido o rei Ezequias, rasgou os seus vestidos, cobriu-se de saco e entrou na casa de Jeová.
2 Enviou Eliaquim, mordomo, e Sebna secretário, e os anciãos dos sacerdotes, cobertos de saco, ao profeta Isaías, filho de Amós.
3 Eles lhe disseram: Assim diz Ezequias: Este dia é dia de angústia, de increpação e de contumélia: porque os filhos são chegados ao parto, e não há força para os dar à luz.
4 Jeová teu Deus ouvirá talvez todas as palavras de Rabsaqué, a quem o rei da Assíria, seu amo, enviou para afrontar ao Deus vivo, e repreenderá as palavras que Jeová teu Deus ouviu. Pelo que levanta a tua oração a favor do resto que ainda fica.
5 Foram os servos do rei Ezequias ter com Isaías.
6 Isaías disse-lhes: Assim direis ao vosso amo: Assim diz Jeová: Não tenhas medo das palavras que ouviste, com as quais os servos do rei da Assíria me blasfemaram.
7 Eis que estou para lhe dar um espírito, e ouvirá uma nova, e voltará para a sua terra; e fá-lo-ei cair à espada na sua terra.
8 Voltou Rabsaqué e achou o rei da Assíria pelejando contra Libna, porque tinha sabido que o rei se havia retirado de Laquis.
9 Ouvindo ele dizer de Tiraca, rei da Etiópia: Eis que ele é chegado para pelejar contra ti; tornou a enviar mensageiros a Ezequias, dizendo:
10 Assim falareis a Ezequias, rei de Judá: Não te engane o teu Deus, no qual tu confias, dizendo: Jerusalém não será entregue nas mãos do rei da Assíria.
11 Porque tu tens ouvido o que os reis da Assíria têm feito a todas as terras, destruindo-as totalmente: e serás tu poupado?
12 Porventura os deuses das nações livraram os povos que meus pais destruíram, Gozã, e Harã, e Rezefe, e os filhos de Éden, que estavam em Telassar?
13 Onde está o rei de Hamate, e o rei de Arpade, e o rei da cidade de Sefarvaim, de Hena e de Iva?
14 Tendo Ezequias recebido a carta da mão dos mensageiros, leu-a, subiu à casa de Jeová e estendeu-a diante de Jeová.
15 Ezequias orou diante de Jeová e disse: Jeová, Deus de Israel, que estás sentado sobre os querubins, tu, só tu, és o Deus de todos os reinos da terra; tu fizeste o céu e a terra.
16 Inclina, ó Jeová, os teus ouvidos e ouve; abre, ó Jeová, os teus olhos e vê: e ouve as palavras de Senaqueribe, com as quais enviou o seu mensageiro a afrontar ao Deus vivo.
17 Verdade é, Jeová, que os reis da Assíria têm assolado as nações e as suas terras,
18 e lançado os deuses delas no fogo: pois deuses não eram, mas obras de mão de homens, pau e pedra; por isso os destruíram.
19 Agora Jeová nosso Deus, salva-nos das suas mãos, para que todos os reinos da terra saibam que tu, só tu, és Deus Jeová.
20 Então Isaías, filho de Amós, mandou dizer a Ezequias: Assim diz Jeová, Deus de Israel: Já que me fizeste a tua súplica contra Senaqueribe, rei da Assíria, eu te ouvi.
21 Esta é a palavra que Jeová falou acerca dele: A virgem filha de Sião te desprezou e te escarneceu; a filha de Jerusalém contra ti meneou a cabeça.
22 A quem afrontaste e blasfemaste? contra quem levantaste a tua voz? e ergueste os teus olhos ao alto? Contra o Santo de Israel.
23 Por meio dos teus mensageiros afrontaste a Jeová e disseste: Com a multidão dos meus carros subi eu ao alto dos montes, ao interior do Líbano; eu deitarei abaixo os seus altos cedros e os seus mais formosos ciprestes: entrarei na sua mais distante pousada, no bosque do seu campo fértil.
24 Eu tenho cavado e bebido águas estranhas, e com as plantas dos meus pés secarei todos os rios do Egito.
25 Não ouviste como fiz isto já há muito tempo, e o formei desde dias antigos? agora o executei, para que fosses tu o que reduzisses cidades fortificadas a montões de ruínas.
26 Por isso os que nelas habitavam tinham pouca força, ficaram pasmados e confundidos; tornaram-se como a erva do campo, e como a relva verde, e como o feno dos telhados, e como o trigo queimado antes de amadurecer.
27 Mas sei o teu assentar, o teu sair, o teu entrar e o teu furor contra mim.
28 Por causa do teu furor contra mim, e porque a tua arrogância 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 pelo qual vieste.
29 Isto te será por sinal: este ano comereis o que nascer por si mesmo, e no segundo ano o que daí proceder, e no terceiro ano semeai e colhei, plantai vinhas e comei o seu fruto.
30 O resto que escapar da casa de Judá, tornará a lançar raízes para baixo, e dará fruto para cima.
31 Porque de Jerusalém sairá um resto, e do monte de Sião os que escaparem: o zelo de Jeová fará isto.
32 Portanto assim diz Jeová acerca do rei da Assíria: Não chegará a esta cidade, nem atirará aqui uma seta; tão pouco virá perante ela com escudo, nem contra ela levantará uma trincheira.
33 Pelo caminho pelo qual veio, por ele mesmo voltará, e não chegará a esta cidade, diz Jeová.
34 Pois defenderei esta cidade para a salvar, por amor de mim e por amor do meu servo Davi.
35 Naquela noite saiu o anjo de Jeová e feriu no arraial dos assírios cento e oitenta e cinco mil homens: e ao levantarem-se pela manhã cedo, viram que todos eram cadáveres.
36 Então se retirou Senaqueribe, rei da Assíria, e foi e voltou, e habitou em Nínive.
37 Quando ele adorava na casa de Nisroque, seu deus, feriram-no à espada Adrameleque e Sarezer, que escaparam para a terra de Ararate. Em seu lugar reinou seu filho Esar-Hadom.
1 And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.
4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of the people.
5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing.
7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death by the sword.
8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had come to his ears that he had gone away from Lachish.
9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah again, saying,
10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.
11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse; and will you be kept safe?
12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena and of Ivvah?
14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
16 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God.
17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the nations and their lands,
18 And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction.
19 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you and only you, O Lord, are God.
20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.
21 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.
22 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.
24 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.
25 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls.
26 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops.
27 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in.
28 Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.
29 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and take of their fruit.
30 And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth and give fruit.
31 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.
32 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it;
33 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town, says the Lord.
34 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David.
35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.
36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh.
37 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place.