“What!” exclaimed the king of Israel. “Has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?”

Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why do you want to involve me? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.” “No,” the king of Israel answered, “because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to deliver us into the hands of Moab.”

This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord; he will also deliver Moab into your hands.

The Lord provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before.

The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”

Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand.

Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’

Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord.

They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?

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?

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.”

I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”