2 Kings 19 Jerusalem delivered

2 Kings 19

At the end of the last chapter we left king Hezekiah of Judah alone facing an Assyrian army and his capital city, Jerusalem under imminent threat of siege, the message from the ambassadors of Sennacherib of Assyria is basically "nothing can save you from me, so you might as well surrender and save your lives, your king's faith is misplaced and your God is as powerless as the gods of the other nations I've conquered".

Hezekiah sought guidance from the prophet of God, Isaiah at this time. Isaiah tells Hezekiah that God has heard the message from the subordinates of the king of Assyria and their blasphemy and ridicule of the one true god and that God will step in an save Judah - the leader of the Assyrians will hear a report and will retreat to sort it out in his own country and he will be killed there by the sword.

As it happens news reached the Assyrians that the king from Cush was marching against him. 
As he was marching out he sent a message to Hezekiah, basically saying the same as before.

Hezekiah took the letter from the Assyrians and laid it out before God in the temple - he asks God to hear the rebuke issued by the enemies, admitting that the Assyrians had done all he said that they had defeated and destroyed the gods of the nations they have defeated , but those gods are merely man made idols. He asks God to come to the rescue of Jerusalem.

Isaiah then sent a message from God saying that God has heard and will answer his prayer and issues a word against Sennacherib 

Sennacherib is murdered in his home city in the temple of his god by his sons.

 ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel! 23 By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon, and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field. 24 I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.” 25 Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it has grown up. 27 But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 28 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’

29 “This will be the sign to you: This year, you will eat that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat its fruit. 30 The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. Yahweh’s zeal will perform this.

32 “Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ says Yahweh. 34 ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’”

Text from the World English bible (www.ebible.org)