⁹ After this Sennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (now he and all his armies with him were against Lachish) to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all of Judah that was in Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus says Sennacherib the king of Assyria: ‘On what are you relying that you are dwelling in siege works in Jerusalem? ¹¹ Is not Hezekiah urging you to give you up to die by starvation and thirst, saying, “Yahweh our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria”? ¹² Has not Hezekiah himself removed his high places and his altars and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, saying, “You must bow down before one altar and upon it you must make offerings”? ¹³ Do you not know what I have done, I and my ancestors,^[a] to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of all the lands at all able to save their land from my hand? ¹⁴ Who among all the gods of those nations whom my ancestors^[b] utterly destroyed was able to save his people from my hand, that your God will be able to save you from my hand? ¹⁵ So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you. Do not let him urge you according to this. Do not put trust in him, for no god of any nation and kingdom has been able to save his people from my hand and from the hand of my ancestors.^[c] Surely then your God will not save you from my hand!’”

¹⁶ And still more his servants said against Yahweh God and against Hezekiah his servant. ¹⁷ And he wrote letters to treat Yahweh the God of Israel with contempt and spoke against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the earth who did not save their people from my hand, so likewise the God of Hezekiah will not save his people from my hand.” ¹⁸ Then they called with a great voice in Judean to the people of Jerusalem who were upon the wall to frighten them and terrify them, so that they could take the city captive. ¹⁹ And they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as about the gods of the peoples of the earth, the works of the hands of humankind.