The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

Neither let Hezekiah make you to trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliuer vs: this citie shall not be giuen ouer into the hand of the King of Asshur.

Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus sayth the King of Asshur, Make appointment with me, and come out to me, that euery man may eate of his owne vine, and euery man of his owne fig tree, and drinke euery man the water of his owne well,

Till I come and bring you to a land like your owne land, euen a land of wheate, and wine, a land of bread and vineyardes,

Least Hezekiah deceiue you, saying, The Lord wil deliuer vs. Hath any of the gods of the nations deliuered his land out of the hand of the King of Asshur?

Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arpad? where is the god of Sepharuaim? or howe haue they deliuered Samaria out of mine hand?

Who is hee among all the gods of these lands, that hath deliuered their countrey out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliuer Ierusalem out of mine hand?

Then they kept silence, and answered him not a worde: for the Kings commandement was, saying, Answere him not.

Then came Eliakim the sonne of Hilkiah the steward of the house, and Shebna the chanceller, and Ioah the sonne of Asaph the recorder, vnto Hezekiah with rent clothes, and tolde him the wordes of Rabshakeh.

And when the King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth and came into the House of the Lord.

And he sent Eliakim the stewarde of the house, aud Shebna the chanceller, with the Elders of the Priestes, clothed in sackcloth vnto Isaiah the Prophet, the sonne of Amoz.

And they sayd vnto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of tribulation and of rebuke and blasphemie: for the children are come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring foorth.

If so be the Lord thy God hath heard the wordes of Rabshakeh, whom the King of Asshur his master hath sent to raile on the liuing God, and to reproch him with wordes which the Lord thy God hath heard, then lift thou vp thy prayer for the remnant that are left.

So the seruants of the King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

And Isaiah sayde vnto them, Thus say vnto your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afrayd of the wordes that thou hast heard, wherewith the seruants of the king of Asshur haue blasphemed me.

Beholde, I wil send a blast vpon him, and he shall heare a noyse, and returne to his owne land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his owne land.

So Rabshakeh returned, and found the King of Asshur fighting against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

He heard also men say of Tirhakah, King of Ethiopia, Beholde, he is come out to fight against thee: and when he heard it, he sent other messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

Thus shall ye speake to Hezekiah King of Iudah, saying, Let not thy God deceiue thee, in whom thou trustest, saying, Ierusalem shall not be giuen into the hand of the King of Asshur.

Beholde, thou hast heard what the Kings of Asshur haue done to all lands in destroying them, and shalt thou be deliuered?

Haue the gods of the nations deliuered them, which my fathers haue destroyed? as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were at Telassar?

Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arpad, and the King of the citie of Sepharuaim, Hena and Iuah?

So Hezekiah receiued the letter of the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went vp into the House of the Lord, and Hezekiah spread it before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed vnto the Lord, saying,

O Lord of hostes, God of Israel, which dwellest betweene the Cherubims, thou art very God alone ouer all the kingdomes of the earth: thou hast made the heauen and the earth.

Encline thine eare, O Lord, and heare: open thine eyes, O Lord, and see, and heare all the wordes of Saneherib, who hath sent to blaspheme the liuing God.

Trueth it is, O Lord, that the Kings of Asshur haue destroyed all lands, and their countrey,

And haue cast their gods in ye fire: for they were no gods, but the worke of mans hands, euen wood or stone: therefore they destroyed them.

Nowe therefore, O Lord our God, saue thou vs out of his hand, that all the kingdomes of the earth may knowe, that thou onely art the Lord.

Then Isaiah the sonne of Amoz sent vnto Hezekiah, saying, Thus sayth the Lord God of Israel, Because thou hast prayed vnto me, concerning Saneherib king of Asshur,

This is the worde that the Lord hath spoken against him, the virgine, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorne: the daughter of Ierusalem, hath shaken her head at thee.

Whome hast thou railed on and blasphemed? and against whome hast thou exalted thy voyce, and lifted vp thine eyes on hie? euen against the holy one of Israel.

By thy seruants hast thou railed on the Lord, and sayd, By the multitude of my charets I am come vp to the top of the mountaines to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut downe the hie cedars thereof, and the faire firre trees thereof, and I will goe vp to the heightes of his top and to the forest of his fruitfull places.

I haue digged and drunke the waters, and with the plant of my feete haue I dryed all the riuers closed in.

Hast thou not heard howe I haue of olde time made it, and haue formed it long ago? and should I now bring it, that it should be destroyed, and layde on ruinous heapes, as cities defensed?

Whose inhabitants haue small power, and are afrayd and confounded: they are like the grasse of the field and greene herbe, or grasse on the house tops, or corne blassed afore it be growen.

But I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy comming in, and thy fury against me.

Because thou ragest against me, and thy tumult is come vnto mine eares, therefore will I put mine hooke in thy nostrels, and my bridle in thy lips, and wil bring thee backe againe the same way thou camest.

And this shalbe a signe vnto thee, O Hezekiah, Thou shalt eate this yeere such as groweth of it selfe: and the second yeere, such things as growe without sowing: and in the third yeere, sowe ye and reape, and plant vineyards, and eate the fruite thereof.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Iudah, shall againe take roote downward and beare fruite vpward.

For out of Ierusalem shall goe a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeale of the Lord of hostes shall doe this.

Therefore thus sayth the Lord, concerning the King of Asshur, He shall not enter into this citie, nor shoote an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a mount against it.

By the same way that he came, he shall returne, and not come into this citie, saith the Lord.

For I will defend this citie to saue it, for mine owne sake, and for my seruant Dauids sake.

Then the Angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the campe of Asshur an hundreth, fourescore, and fiue thousand: so when they arose early in the morning, beholde, they were all dead corpses.

So Saneherib king of Asshur departed, and went away and returned and dwelt at Nineueh.

And as he was in the temple worshipping of Nisroch his god, Adramelech and Sharezer his sonnes slewe him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat: and Esarhaddon his sonne reigned in his steade.

About that time was Hezekiah sicke vnto the death, and the Prophet Isaiah sonne of Amoz came vnto him, and sayd vnto him, Thus sayth the Lord, Put thine house in an order, for thou shalt dye, and not liue.

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord,

And saide, I beseeche thee, Lord, remember nowe howe I haue walked before thee in trueth, and with a perfite heart, and haue done that which is good in thy sight: and Hezekiah wept sore.

Then came the worde of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,

Goe, and say vnto Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord God of Dauid thy father, I haue heard thy prayer, and seene thy teares: behold, I will adde vnto thy dayes fifteene yeeres.

And I will deliuer thee out of the hand of the King of Asshur, and this citie: for I will defende this citie.

And this signe shalt thou haue of ye Lord, that ye Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken,

Beholde, I will bring againe the shadowe of the degrees (whereby it is gone downe in the diall of Ahaz by the sunne) ten degrees backeward: so the sunne returned by tenne degrees, by the which degrees it was gone downe.

The writing of Hezekiah King of Iudah, when he had bene sicke, and was recouered of his sickenesse.

I saide in the cutting off of my dayes, I shall goe to the gates of the graue: I am depriued of the residue of my yeeres.

I said, I shall not see the Lord, euen the Lord in the land of the liuing: I shall see man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

Mine habitation is departed, and is remoued from me, like a shepheards tent: I haue cut off like a weauer my life: he will cut me off from the height: from day to night, thou wilt make an ende of me.

I rekoned to the morning: but he brake all my bones, like a lion: from day to night wilt thou make an ende of me.

Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourne as a doue: mine eies were lift vp on high: O Lord, it hath oppressed me, comfort me.

What shall I say? for he hath said it to me, and he hath done it: I shall walke weakely all my yeeres in the bitternesse of my soule.

O Lord, to them that ouerliue them, and to all that are in them, the life of my spirite shalbe knowen, that thou causedst me to sleepe and hast giuen life to me.

Beholde, for felicitie I had bitter griefe, but it was thy pleasure to deliuer my soule from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sinnes behinde thy backe.

For the graue cannot confesse thee: death cannot praise thee: they that goe downe into the pit, cannot hope for thy trueth.

But the liuing, the liuing, he shall confesse thee, as I doe this day: the father to the children shall declare thy trueth.

The Lord was ready to saue me: therefore we will sing my song, all the dayes of our life in the House of the Lord.

Then said Isaiah, Take a lumpe of drye figs and lay it vpon the boyle, and he shall recouer.

Also Hezekiah had said, What is ye signe, that I shall goe vp into the House of the Lord?

At the same time, Merodach Baladan, the sonne of Baladan, King of Babel, sent letters, and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had bene sicke, and was recouered.

And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of the treasures, the siluer, and the golde, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was founde in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his kingdome that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Then came Isaiah the Prophet vnto King Hezekiah, and said vnto him, What said these men? and from whence came they to thee? And Hezekiah saide, They are come from a farre countrey vnto me, from Babel.

Then saide he, What haue they seene in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house haue they seene: there is nothing among my treasures, that I haue not shewed them.

And Isaiah saide to Hezekiah, Heare the worde of the Lord of hostes,

Beholde, the dayes come, that all that is in thine house, and which thy fathers haue layed vp in store vntill this day, shall be caried to Babel: nothing shall be left, sayeth the Lord.

And of thy sonnes, that shall proceede out of thee, and which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be eunuches in the palace of the King of Babel.

Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, The worde of the Lord is good, which thou hast spoken: and he saide, Yet let there be peace, and trueth in my dayes.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, will your God say.

Speake comfortably to Ierusalem, and crye vnto her, that her warrefare is accomplished, that her iniquitie is pardoned: for she hath receiued of the Lords hand double for all her sinnes.

A voyce cryeth in the wildernesse, Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make streight in the desert a path for our God.

Euery valley shall be exalted, and euery mountaine and hill shall be made lowe: and the crooked shalbe streight, and the rough places plaine.

And the glory of the Lord shalbe reueiled, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

A voyce saide, Crie. And he saide, What shall I crie? All flesh is grasse, and all the grace thereof is as the floure of the fielde.

The grasse withereth, the floure fadeth, because the Spirite of the Lord bloweth vpon it: surely the people is grasse.

The grasse withereth, the floure fadeth: but the worde of our God shall stand for euer.

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee vp into the hie mountaine: O Ierusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift vp thy voyce with strength: lift it vp, be not afraide: say vnto the cities of Iudah, Beholde your God.

Beholde, the Lord God will come with power, and his arme shall rule for him: beholde, his rewarde is with him, and his worke before him,

He shall feede his flocke like a shepheard: he shall gather the lambes with his arme, and cary them in his bosome, and shall guide them with young.

Who hath measured the waters in his fist? and counted heauen with the spanne, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? and weighed ye mountaines in a weight, and the hilles in a balance?

Who hath instructed ye Spirit of the Lord? or was his counseler or taught him?

Of whom tooke he counsell, and who instructed him and taught him in the way of iudgement? or taught him knowledge, and shewed vnto him the way of vnderstanding?

Beholde, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the dust of the balance: beholde, he taketh away the yles as a litle dust.

And Lebanon is not sufficient for fire, nor the beastes thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him, lesse then nothing, and vanitie.

To whom then wil ye liken God? or what similitude will ye set vp vnto him?

The workeman melteth an image, or the goldsmith beateth it out in golde, or the goldesmith maketh siluer plates.

Doeth not the poore chuse out a tree that will not rot, for an oblation? he seeketh also vnto him a cunning workeman, to prepare an image, that shall not be moued.

Know ye nothing? haue ye not heard it? hath it not bene tolde you from the beginning? haue ye not vnderstand it by the foundation of the earth?

He sitteth vpon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers, hee stretcheth out ye heauens, as a curtaine, and spreadeth them out, as a tent to dwell in.

He bringeth the princes to nothing, and maketh the iudges of the earth, as vanitie,

As though they were not plated, as though they were not sowen, as though their stocke tooke no roote in the earth: for he did euen blow vpon them, and they withered, and the whirlewinde will take them away as stubble.