10. ‘Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.”
11. Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
12. Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver them – the gods of Gozan, Harran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar?
13. Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?’
14. Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.
15. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ‘Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
16. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
17. ‘It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.
18. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.
19. Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.’
20. Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria.
21. This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him:‘ “Virgin Daughter Ziondespises you and mocks you.Daughter Jerusalemtosses her head as you flee.
22. Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?Against whom have you raised your voiceand lifted your eyes in pride?Against the Holy One of Israel!
23. By your messengersyou have ridiculed the Lord.And you have said,‘With my many chariotsI have ascended the heights of the mountains,the utmost heights of Lebanon.I have cut down its tallest cedars,the choicest of its junipers.I have reached its remotest parts,the finest of its forests.
24. I have dug wells in foreign landsand drunk the water there.With the soles of my feetI have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’
25. ‘ “Have you not heard?Long ago I ordained it.In days of old I planned it;now I have brought it to pass,that you have turned fortified citiesinto piles of stone.
26. Their people, drained of power,are dismayed and put to shame.They are like plants in the field,like tender green shoots,like grass sprouting on the roof,scorched before it grows up.
27. ‘ “But I know where you areand when you come and goand how you rage against me.
28. Because you rage against meand because your insolence has reached my ears,I will put my hook in your noseand my bit in your mouth,and I will make you returnby the way you came.”
29. ‘This will be the sign for you, Hezekiah:‘This year you will eat what grows by itself,and the second year what springs from that.But in the third year sow and reap,plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
30. Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judahwill take root below and bear fruit above.