The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 227

18:29. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand.

18:30. Neither let him make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of the a.s.syrians.

18:31. Do not hearken to Ezechias. For thus saith the king of the a.s.syrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me: and every man of you shall eat of his own vineyard, and of his own fig tree: and you shall drink water of your own cisterns,

18:32. Till I come, and take you away, to a land, like to your own land, a fruitful land, and plentiful in wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, and oil, and honey, and you shall live, and not die.

Hearken not to Ezechias, who deceiveth you, saying: The Lord will deliver us.

18:33. Have any of the G.o.ds of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of a.s.syria?

18:34. Where is the G.o.d of Emath, and of Arphad? where is the G.o.d of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

18:35. Who are they among all the G.o.ds of the nations that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

18:36. But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for they had received commandment from the king that they should not answer him.

18:37. And Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Ezechias, with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.

4 Kings Chapter 19

Ezechias is a.s.sured of G.o.d's help by Isaias the prophet. The king of the a.s.syrians still threateneth and blasphemeth. Ezechias prayeth, and G.o.d promiseth to protect Jerusalem. An angel destroyeth the army of the a.s.syrians, their king returneth to Nineve, and is slain by his two sons.

19:1. And when king Ezechias heard these words, he rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

19:2. And he sent Eliacim, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and the ancients of the priests, covered with sackcloths, to Isaias, the prophet, the son of Amos.

19:3. And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: the children are come to the birth, and the woman in travail hath not strength.

19:4. It may be the Lord, thy G.o.d, will hear all the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the a.s.syrians, his master, hath sent to reproach the living G.o.d, and to reprove with words, which the Lord, thy G.o.d, hath heard: and do thou offer prayer for the remnants that are found.

19:5. So the servants of king Ezechias came to Isaias.

19:6. And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid for the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the a.s.syrians have blasphemed me.

19:7. Behold I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return into his own country, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own country.

19:8. And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the a.s.syrians besieging Lobna: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachis.

19:9. And when he heard of Tharaca, king of Ethiopia: Behold, he is come out to fight with thee: and was going against him, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:

19:10. Thus shall you say to Ezechias, king of Juda: Let not thy G.o.d deceive thee, in whom thou trustest: and do not say: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the a.s.syrians.

19:11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of the a.s.syrians have done to all countries, how they have laid them waste: and canst thou alone be delivered?

19:12. Have the G.o.ds of the nations delivered any of them, whom my fathers have destroyed, to wit, Gozan, and Haran, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thela.s.sar?

19:13. Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Ana, and of Ava?

19:14. And when Ezechias had received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and had read it, he went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord,

19:15. And he prayed in his sight, saying: O Lord G.o.d of Israel, who sittest upon the cherubims, thou alone art the G.o.d of all the kings of the earth: thou madest heaven and earth:

19:16. Incline thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to upbraid unto us the living G.o.d.

19:17. Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the a.s.syrians have destroyed nations, and the lands of them all.

19:18. And they have cast their G.o.ds into the fire: for they were not G.o.ds, but the work of men's hands, of wood and stone, and they destroyed them.

19:19. Now therefore, O Lord our G.o.d, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, the only G.o.d.

19:20. And Isaias, the son of Amos, sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord, the G.o.d of Israel: I have heard the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib, king of the a.s.syrians.

19:21. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin, the daughter of Sion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughtor of Jerusalem hath wagged her head behind thy back.

19:22. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed? against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high?

against the holy one of Israel.

19:23. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said: With the mult.i.tude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Liba.n.u.s, and have cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees. And I have entered into the furthest parts thereof, and the forest of its Carmel.

Carmel... A pleasant fruitful hill in the forest. These expressions are figurative, signifying under the names of mountains and forests, the kings and provinces whom the a.s.syrians had triumphed over.

19:24. I have cut down, and I have drunk strange waters, and have dried up with the soles of my feet all the shut up waters.

19:25. Hast thou not heard what I have done from the beginning? from the days of old I have formed it, and now I have brought it to effect: that fenced cities of fighting men should be turned to heaps of ruins:

I have formed it, etc... All thy exploits, in which thou takest pride, are no more than what I have decreed; and are not to be ascribed to thy wisdom or strength, but to my will and ordinance: who have given to thee to take and destroy so many fenced cities, and to carry terror wherever thou comest.-Ibid. Heaps of ruin... Literally ruin of the hills.

19:26. And the inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they trembled and were confounded, they became like the gra.s.s of the field, and the green herb on the tops of houses, which withered before it came to maturity.

19:27. Thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy way I knew before, and thy rage against me.

19:28. Thou hast been mad against me, and thy pride hath come up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

19:29. And to thee, O Ezechias, this shall be a sign: Eat this year what thou shalt find: and in the second year, such things as spring of themselves: but in the third year sow and reap: plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

19:30. And whatsoever shall be left of the house of Juda, shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

19:31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and that which shall be saved out of mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

19:32. Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the a.s.syrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with s.h.i.+eld, nor cast a trench about it.

19:33. By the way that he came he shall return: and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.

19:34. And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for David, my servant's sake.

19:35. And it came to pa.s.s that night, that an angel of the Lord came, and slew in the camp of the a.s.syrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. And when he arose early in the morning, he saw all the bodies of the dead.

19:36. And Sennacherib, king of the a.s.syrians, departing, went away, and he returned and abode in Ninive.