⁹ After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying,

¹⁰ “Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria: ‘Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?

¹¹ Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria”?

¹² Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, “Ye shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it”?

¹³ Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands any way able to deliver their lands out of mine hand?

¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?

¹⁵ Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?’”

¹⁶ And his servants spoke yet more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.

¹⁷ He wrote also letters to rail at the Lord God of Israel and to speak against Him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine hand.”

¹⁸ Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ speech unto the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten them and to trouble them, that they might take the city.

¹⁹ And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.