Sennacherib Undermines Hezekiah

⁹ After this ^(A)Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem while he was ^[a]besieging Lachish with all his forces with him, against Hezekiah king of Judah and against all of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ “This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: ‘On what are you trusting that you are staying in Jerusalem under siege? ¹¹ Is Hezekiah not misleading you to give yourselves over to die by hunger and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God will save us from the ^[b]hand of the king of Assyria”? ^12 (B)Is it not the same Hezekiah who removed His high places and His altars, and said to Judah and ^[c]Jerusalem, “You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall ^[d]burn incense”? ¹³ Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? ^(C)Were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able to save their land from my hand? ^14 (D)Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed who could save his people from my hand, that your God would be able to save you from my hand? ¹⁵ Now then, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this, and do not believe him, for ^(E)no god of any nation or kingdom was able to save his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God save you from my hand?’”

¹⁶ His servants spoke further against the Lord God and against His servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He also wrote letters to insult the Lord God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, “^(F)As the gods of the nations of the lands ^[e]have not saved their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not save His people from my hand.” ^18 (G)They called this out with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, so that they might take the city. ¹⁹ They spoke ^[f]of the God of Jerusalem as they did against ^(H)the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of human hands.