2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

32 After these things and this faithful course Sennacherib the king of Assyria came and proceeded to invade Judah and camp against the fortified cities, and kept thinking of making them his by a breakthrough. 2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come with his face set for war against Jerusalem. 3 then he decided with his princes and his mighty men to stop up the waters of the springs that were outside the city; and so they helped him. 4 Accordingly many people were collected together, and they went stopping up all the fountains and the torrent that floods through the middle of the land, saying: "Why should the kings of Assyria come and actually find a great deal of water?" 5 Furthermore, he took courage and built up all the brokendown wall and raised towers upon it, and on the outside another wall, and repaired the Mound of the City of David, and made missiles in abundance and shields. 6 And he proceeded to put military chiefs over the people and collect them to him at the public square of the gate of the city and speak to the heart of them, saying: 7 Be courageous and strong. Do not be afraid nor be terrified because of the king of Assyria and on account of all the crowd that is with him; for with us there are more than there are with him. 8 With him there is an arm of flesh, but with us there is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people began to brace themselves upon the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah. 9 It was after this that Sennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem, while he was at Lachish and all his imperial might with him, to Hezekiah the king of Judah and to all the Judeans that were in Jerusalem, saying: 10 "This is what Sennacherib the king of Assyria has said, 'In what is it that you are trusting while sitting quiet under siege in Jerusalem? 11 Is not Hezekiah alluring you so as to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying: "Jehovah our God himself will deliver us out of the palm of the king of Assyria"? 12 Is it not Hezekiah himself that removed his high places and his altars and then said to Judah and to Jerusalem: "Before one altar your should bow and upon it YOU should make sacrificial smoke"? 13 DO YOU not know what I myself and my forefathers did to all the peoples of the lands? Did the gods of the nations of the lands at all prove able to deliver their land out of my hand? 14 Who was there among all the gods of these nations that my forefathers devoted to destruction that proved able to deliver his people out of my hand, so that YOUR God should be able to deliver YOU out of my hand? 15 And now do not let Hezekiah deceive YOU or allure YOU like this and do not put faith in him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my forefathers. How much less, then, will YOUR own God deliver YOU out of my hand?" 16 And his servants spoke yet further against Jehovah the [true] God and against Hezekiah his servant. 17 Even letters he wrote to reproach Jehovah the God of Israel and to talk against him, saying: "Like the gods of the nations of the lands who did not deliver their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people out of my hand." 18 And they kept calling with a loud voice in the Jews language to the people of Jerusalem that were upon the wall, to make them afraid and to disturb them, in order that they might capture the city. 19 And they went on speaking against the God of Jerusalem the same way as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of man's hands. 20 But Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, kept praying over this and crying to the heavens for aid. 21 And Jehovah proceeded to send an angel and efface every valiant, mighty man and leader and chief in the camp of the king of Assyria, so that he went back with shame of face to his own land. Later on he entered the house of his god and there certain ones that had come out of his own inward parts felled him with the sword. 22 Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhaitants of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and out of the hand of all others and gave them rest all around. 23 And there were many bringing gifts to Jehovah at Jerusalem and choice things to Hezekiah the king of Judah, and he came to be exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that. 24 In those days Hezekiah fell sick to the point of dying, and he began to pray to Jehovah. So He talked to him, and a portent He gave him. 25 But according to the benefit rendered him Hezekiah made no return, for his heart became haughty and there came to be indignation against him and against Judah and Jerusalem. 26 However, Hezekiah humbled himself for the haughtiness of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and Jehovah's indignation did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. 27 And Hezekiah came to have riches and glory to a very great amount; and storehouses he made for himself for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for balsam oil and for shields and for all the desirable articles; 28 and also storage places for the produce of grain and new wine and oil, and also stalls for all the different sorts of beasts and stalls for the droves. 29 And cities he acquired for himself, and also livestock of the flock and of the herd in abundance; for God gave him very many goods. 30 And Hezekiah was the one that stopped up the upper source of the waters of Gihon and kept them directed straight along down to the west to the City of David, and Hezekiah continued to prove successful in every work of his. 31 And thus it was that by the spokesmen of the princes of Babylon that were sent to him to inquire about the portent that had happened in the land, the [true] God left him to put him to the test, to get to know everything in his heart. 32 As for the rest of the affairs of Hezekiah and his acts of loving-kindness, there they are written in the vision of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 33 Finally Hezekiah lay down with his forefathers, and they buried him in the ascent to the burial places of the sons of David; and honor was what all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem rendered to him at his death. And Manasseh his son began to reign in place of him.