Daily Tanach Thursday 5th Nissan Sefer Melachim 2 Chapter 19 Part 2: Sancheirev continues to threaten Chizkiyah who prays to G-d for help

1. Sancheirev continues to threaten Chizkiyah who prays to G-d for help:

• Ravshakeh returns to his land and discovers that his king is in war: Ravshakeh returned back to his land and found the king of Ashur waging war against Livnah, as he heard that he had left Lachish. The king of Ashur heard a rumor that Tirhakah the king of Cush had come up to wage war against him.
• A new message to Chizkiyah asking him to capitulate: The king of Ashur once again sent messengers to Chizkiyah telling him that [as soon as he is done with his war against the kingdom of Cush, he will be back to attack Jerusalem^[1]] he should not waste his time trusting in his G-d that Jerusalem will not be handed into the hands of the king of Ashur. “You surely have already heard of all the nations that I, the king of Ashur, managed to conquer and destroy. Now, how do you think that you will manage to be saved. Did the deities of the nations whom my ancestors destroyed-Gozan and Charan, and Retzef and the children of Eden which is in Telassar, save them? Where were the kings of Chamas and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim when I came to conquer them? I exiled these nations and controlled them.”
• Chizkiyah prays to G-d in the temple to help him: Chizkiyah received the letters from the messengers of the king of Ashur, and read them. Chizkiyah took the letters to the temple and spread them open in front of G-d. Chizkiyah then prayed before Hashem and said, “Hashem, Who dwells between the cherubim, You are the only G-d of the heavens and the earth and are the one who created them. Please pay attention to the words of Sancheirev, who sent Ravshakeh to blaspheme the living G-d. Indeed, Hashem, the kings of Ashur have destroyed many nations and their land. They have destroyed their deities in fire, for they are not G-ds, but the handiwork of man, wood and stone, and they destroyed them. Now, my G-d, please save us from his hands, so that all the kingdoms of the earth shall know that You alone are the G-d of the earth.”
• Yeshayahu reassures Chizkiyah that G-d will save them: Yeshayahu the son of Amotz sent a message to Chizkiyah telling him that G-d had heard his prayers concerning Sancheirev, king of Ashur. Yeshayahu told him that he has the following prophecy regarding Sancheirev: “This is the word that Hashem has spoken about Sancheirev: The virgin daughter of Tzion despises and mocks you. Who do you think you have blasphemed and insulted? You have raised your eyes against all that is holy to the Jewish people. You have blasphemed G-d and insulted Him, bragging that you will be able to annihilate the Jewish land and destroy the temple. But I will not allow you to do so, and return you back to the road that you came from.” Yeshayahu then gave a sign to Chizkiyah that the above prophecy will take place and that Sancheirev will fall, “This shall be the sign for you, as although Sancheirev has destroyed all the produce of the land and created a famine, you shall nevertheless find food as this year you shall eat what grows by itself, and the next year you will eat from what grows from the tree stumps, and in the third year, you will be able to sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” Yeshayahu assures Chizkiyah that the remaining survivors of the tribe of Yehuda will once again resettle and grow in the land, and that Sancheirev will not even enter the city of Jerusalem “Now he shall not shoot an arrow, nor shall he advance upon it with a shield, nor shall he pile up a siege mound against it. By the way he comes he shall return, and this city he shall not enter. I will protect Jerusalem for My sake and for the sake of My servant Dovid.”

[1] Rashi 19:9