31. “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and every one may drink water from his own cistern
32. until I come and take you away to a land like your own land — a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey — so that you may live and not die. But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying: The Lord will deliver us.
33. Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land from the power of the king of Assyria?
34. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
35. Who among all the gods of the lands has delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem? ’ ”
36. But the people kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”
37. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.