Septuagint (Greek Old Testament)

And Rapsakes said to them, Has my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? [has he] not [sent me] to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own water together with you?

And Rapsakes stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and spoke, and said, Hear the words of the great king of the Assyrians:

thus says the king, Let not Ezekias encourage you with words: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand.

And let not Ezekias cause you to trust on the Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly deliver us; this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of the Assyrians: hearken not to Ezekias:

for thus says the king of the Assyrians, Gain my favour, and come forth to me, and every man shall drink [of the wine] of his own vine, and every man shall eat of his own fig-tree, and shall drink water out of his own cistern;

until I come and remove you to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, and bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil, and honey, and ye shall live and not die: and do not ye hearken to Ezekias, for he deceives you, saying, The Lord shall deliver you.

Have the gods of the nations at all delivered each their own land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

Where is the god of Hæmath, and of Arphad? where is the god of Seppharvaim, Ana, and Aba? for have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who [is there] among all the gods of the countries, who have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

But [the men] were silent, and answered him not a word: for [there was] a commandment of the king, saying, Ye shall not answer him.

And Heliakim the son of Chelcias, the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and Joas the son of Saphat the recorder came in to Ezekias, having rent their garments; and they reported to him the words of Rapsakes.

And it came to pass when king Ezekias heard it, that he rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

And he sent Heliakim the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and the elders of the priests, clothed with sackcloth, to Esaias the prophet the son of Amos.

And they said to him, Thus says Ezekias, This day [is] a day of tribulation, and rebuke, and provocation: for the children are come to the travail-[pangs], but the mother has no strength.

Peradventure the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rapsakes, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God and to revile him with the words which the Lord thy God has heard: and thou shalt offer [thy] prayer for the remnant that is found.

So the servants of king Ezekias came to Esaias.

And Esaias said to them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed.

Behold, I send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a report, and shall return to his own land; and I will overthrow him with the sword in his own land.

So Rapsakes returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Lobna: for he heard that he [had] departed from Lachis.

And he heard concerning Tharaca king of the Ethiopians, saying, Behold, he is come forth to fight with thee: and he returned, and sent messengers to Ezekias, saying,

Let not thy God on whom thou trustest encourage thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.

Behold, thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians have done in all the lands, to waste them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered?

Have the gods of the nations at all delivered them, whom my fathers destroyed; both Gozan, and Charran, and Raphis, and the sons of Edem who were in Thaesthen?

Where is the king of Hæmath, and the king of Arphad? and where is the king of the city of Seppharvaim, of Ana, and Aba?

And Ezekias took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and he went up to the house of the Lord, and Ezekias spread it before the Lord,

and said, O Lord God of Israel, that dwellest over the cherubs, thou art the only God in all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.

Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherim, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

For truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have wasted the nations,

and have cast their gods into the fire: because they are no gods, but the works of men's hands, wood and stone; and they have destroyed them.

And now, O Lord our God, deliver us out of his hand, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall know that thou alone [art] the Lord God.

And Esaias the son of Amos sent to Ezekias, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, I have heard thy prayer to me concerning Sennacherim king of the Assyrians.

This [is] the word which the Lord has spoken against him; The virgin daughter of Sion has made light of thee, and mocked thee; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou reviled? and against whom hast thou lifted up thy voice, and raised thine eyes on high? [Is it] against the Holy One of Israel?

By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, I will go up with the multitude of my chariots, to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Libanus, and I have cut down the height of his cedar, [and] his choice cypresses; and I have come into the midst of the forest and of Carmel.

I have refreshed [myself], and have drunk strange waters, and I have dried up with the sole of my foot all the rivers of fortified places.

I have brought about [the matter], I have brought it to a conclusion; and it is come to the destruction of the bands of warlike prisoners, [even of] strong cities.

And they that dwelt in them were weak in hand, they quaked and were confounded, they became [as] grass of the field, or [as] the green herb, the grass [growing on] houses, and that which is trodden down by him that stands [upon it].

But I know thy down-sitting, and thy going forth, and thy rage against me.

Because thou wast angry against me, and thy fierceness is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hooks in thy nostrils, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

And this shall be a sign to thee; eat this year the things that grow of themselves, and in the second year the things which spring up: and in the third year [let there be] sowing, and reaping, and planting of vineyards, and eat ye the fruit of them.

And he shall increase him that has escaped of the house of Juda: and the remnant [shall strike] root beneath, and it shall produce fruit above.

For from Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and he that escapes from the mountain of Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

[Is it] not so? Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians, He shall not enter into this city, and he shall not shoot an arrow there, neither shall a shield come against it, neither shall he heap a mound against it.

By the way by which he comes, by it shall he return, and he shall not enter into this city, saith the Lord.

And I will defend this city as with a shield, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

And it came to pass at night that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand: and they rose early in the morning, and, behold, [these were] all dead corpses.

And Sennacherim king of the Assyrians departed, and went and returned, and dwelt in Nineve.

And it came to pass, while he was worshipping in the house of Meserach his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararath; and Asordan his son reigned in his stead.

In those days was Ezekias sick [even] to death. And the prophet Esaias the son of Amos came in to him, and said to him, Thus saith the Lord, Give charge to thy household; [for] thou shalt die, and not live.

And Ezekias turned to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying,

Lord, remember, I pray thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thine eyes. And Ezekias wept with a great weeping.

And Esaias was in the middle court, and the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

Turn back, and thou shalt say to Ezekias the ruler of my people, Thus saith the Lord God of thy father David, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the Lord.

And I will add to thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

And he said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it upon the ulcer, and he shall be well.

And Ezekias said to Esaias, What [is] the sign that the Lord will heal me, and I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?

And Esaias said, This [is] the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will perform the word which he has spoken, the shadow [of the dial] shall advance ten degrees: [or] if it should go back ten degrees [this would also be the sign].

And Ezekias said, [It is] a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return ten degrees backward on the dial.

And Esaias the prophet cried to the Lord: and the shadow returned back ten degrees on the dial.

At that time Marodach Baladan, son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Ezekias, because he had heard that Ezekias was sick.

And Ezekias rejoiced at them, and shewed all the house of his spices, the silver and the gold, the spices, and the fine oil, and the armoury, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing which Ezekias did not shew them in his house, and in all his dominion.

And Esaias the prophet went in to king Ezekias, and said to him, What said these men? and whence came they to thee? And Ezekias said, They came to me from a distant land, [even] from Babylon.

And he said, What saw they in thy house? And he said, They saw all things that [are] in my house: there was nothing in my house which I shewed not to them; yea, all that was in my treasures also.

And Esaias said to Ezekias, Hear the word of the Lord:

Behold, the days come, that all things that are in thy house shall be taken, and all that thy fathers have treasured up until this day, to Babylon; and there shall not fail a word which the Lord has spoken.

And as for thy sons which shall come forth of thee, which thou shalt beget, [the enemy] shall take them, and they shall be eunuchs in the house of the king of Babylon.

And Ezekias said to Esaias, Good [is] the word of the Lord which he has spoken: [only] let there be peace in my days.

And the rest of the acts of Ezekias, and all his might, and all that he made, the fountain and the aqueduct, and [how] he brought water into the city, [are] not these things written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Juda?

And Ezekias slept with his fathers: and Manasses his son reigned in his stead.

Manasses [was] twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name [was] Apsiba.

And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.

And he built again the high places, which Ezekias his father [had] demolished; and set up an altar to Baal, and made groves as Achaab king of Israel [made them]; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

And he built an altar in the house of the Lord, whereas he had said, In Jerusalem I will place my name.

And he built an altar to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.

And he caused his sons to pass through the fire, and used divination and auspices, and made groves, and multiplied wizards, so as to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

And he set up the graven image of the grove in the house of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I even place my name for ever.

And I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I gave to their fathers, [even of those] who shall keep all that I commanded, according to all the commandments which my servant Moses commanded them.

But they hearkened not; and Manasses led them astray to do evil in the sight of the Lord, beyond the nations whom the Lord utterly destroyed from before the children of Israel.

And the Lord spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,

Forasmuch as Manasses the king of Juda has wrought all these evil abominations, beyond all that the Amorite did, who lived before [him], and has led Juda also into sin by their idols,

[it shall] not [be] so. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I bring calamities upon Jerusalem and Juda, so that both the ears of every one that hears shall tingle.

And I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measure of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Achaab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a jar is wiped, and turned upside down in the wiping.

And I will reject the remnant of my inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; and they shall be for a plunder and for a spoil to all their enemies:

forasmuch as they have done wickedly in my sight, and have provoked me from the day that I brought out their fathers out of Egypt, even until this day.

Moreover Manasses shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem [with it] from one end to the other, beside his sins with which he caused Juda to sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.

And the rest of the acts of Manasses, and all that he did, and his sin which he sinned, [are] not these things written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Juda?

And Manasses slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his house, [even] in the garden of Oza: and Amos his son reigned in his stead.

Twenty and two years old [was] Amos when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name [was] Mesollam, daughter of Arus of Jeteba.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasses his father did.

And he walked in all the way in which his father walked, and served the idols which his father served, and worshipped them.

And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord.

And the servants of Amos conspired against him, and slew the king in his house.

And the people of the land slew all that had conspired against king Amos; and the people of the land made Josias his son king in his room.

And the rest of the acts of Amos, [even] all that he did, behold, [are] not these written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Juda?

And they buried him in his tomb in the garden of Oza: and Josias his son reigned in his stead.

Josias [was] eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name [was] Jedia, daughter of Edeia of Basuroth.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father; he turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josias, in the eighth month, the king sent Sapphan the son of Ezelias the son of Mesollam, the scribe of the house of the Lord, saying,

Go up to Chelcias the high priest, and take account of the money that is brought into the house of the Lord, which they that keep the door have collected of the people.

And let them give it into the hand of the workmen that are appointed in the house of the Lord. And he gave it to the workmen in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house,