7. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8. So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.
9. When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10. ‘Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: “Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?
12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
13. Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?”’”
14. Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s house, and spread it before the Lord.
15. Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, “Lord, the God of Israel, who sit above the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
16. Incline your ear, Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to defy the living God.
17. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
18. and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them.
19. Now therefore, Lord our God, save us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God alone.”
20. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “the Lord, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you.
21. This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
22. Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
23. By your messengers, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon, and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field.
24. I have dug and drunk strange waters, and I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt with the sole of my feet.”
25. Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
26. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like grain blasted before it has grown up.