11. You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?
12. My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.
13. Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”
14. King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord,
15. and prayed,
16. “Almighty Lord, God of Israel, enthroned above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.
17. Now, Lord, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.
18. We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,
19. and burnt up their gods — which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.
20. Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God.”
21. Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer
22. the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and despises you.
23. Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.
24. You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.
25. You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the River Nile dry.
26. “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
27. The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.
28. “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
29. I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the road on which you came.”