Study Desk

And they were silent, and none answered him a word; because the king had commanded that none should answer.

And Heliakim the son of Chelcias, the steward, and Somnas the military scribe, and Joach the son of Asaph, the recorder, came in to Ezekias, having their garments rent, and they reported to him the words of Rabsaces.

And he sent Heliakim the steward, and Somnas the scribe, and the elders of the priests clothed with sackcloth, to Esaias the son of Amos, the prophet. And they said to him, Thus says Ezekias,

Hast thou not heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done, how they have destroyed the whole earth? and shalt thou be delivered?

and have cast their idols into the fire: for, they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; and they have cast them away.

I weakened their hands, and they withered; and they became as dry grass on the house-tops, and as grass.

And they that are left in Judea shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

And the angel of the Lord went forth, and slew out of the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand: and they arose in the morning and found all these bodies dead.

And while he was worshipping Nasarach his country’s god in the house, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons smote him with swords; and they escaped into Armenia: and Asordan his son reigned in his stead.

And Esaias the prophet came to king Ezekias, and said to him, What say these men? and whence came they to thee? and Ezekias said, They are come to me from a land afar off, from Babylon.

And Esaias said, What have they seen in thine house? and Ezekias said, They have seen everything in my house; and there is nothing in my house which they have not seen: yea, also the possessions in my treasuries.

Behold, the days come, when they shall take all the things that are in thine house, and all that thy fathers have gathered until this day, shall go to Babylon; and they shall not leave anything at all: and God hath said,

that they shall take also of thy children whom thou shalt beget; and they shall make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.

For they shall not plant, neither shall they sow, neither shall their root be fixed in the ground: he has blown upon them, and they are withered, and a storm shall carry them away like sticks.

but they that wait on God shall renew their strength; they shall put forth new feathers like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not hunger.

The artificer has become strong, and the coppersmith that smites with the hammer, and forges also: sometimes he will say, It is a piece well joined: they have fastened them with nails; they will fix them, and they shall not be moved.

Behold, all thine adversaries shall be ashamed and confounded; for they shall be as if they were not: and all thine opponents shall perish.

Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find the men who shall insolently rage against thee: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against thee shall not be.

And the poor and the needy shall exult; for when they shall seek water, and there shall be none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hear, and will not forsake them:

that they may see, and know, and perceive, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has wrought these works, and the Holy One of Israel has displayed them.