1. After these things and these faithful acts, Assyria’s King Sennacherib invaded Judah and attacked its fortified cities, intending to capture them.
2. When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib also planned on fighting Jerusalem,
3. he consulted with his officials and soldiers about stopping up the springs outside the city, and they supported him.
4. A large force gathered to stop up all the springs and the streams that flowed through the land. "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?" they asked.
5. Hezekiah vigorously rebuilt all the broken sections of the wall, erected towers, constructed another wall outside the first, reinforced the terrace of David’s City, and made a large supply of weapons and shields.
6. He appointed military officers over the troops, assembled them in the square of the city gate, and spoke these words of encouragement:
7. "Be brave and be strong! Don’t let the king of Assyria and all those warriors he brings with him scare you or cause you dismay, because our forces are greater than his.
8. All he has is human strength, but we have the Lord our God, who will help us fight our battles!"The troops trusted Judah’s King Hezekiah.
9. After this Assyria’s King Sennacherib, who was attacking Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem with the following message for Judah’s King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem:
10. This is what Assyria’s King Sennacherib says: What makes you so confident that you stay put in Jerusalem while it is being attacked?
11. Obviously, Hezekiah has fooled you into surrendering yourselves to death by hunger and thirst when he says, "The Lord our God will rescue us from Assyria’s king."
12. Isn’t this the same Hezekiah who got rid of his shrines and altars, and then demanded of Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship and burn incense before only one altar"?