8. The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
9. Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
10. “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?
12. Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
13. Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
14. Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:
16. “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
17. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
18. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,
19. and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
20. So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.”
21. Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
22. this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:“‘She despises you, she scorns you— the virgin daughter of Zion;she wags her head behind you—the daughter of Jerusalem.
23. “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?Against whom have you raised your voiceand lifted your eyes to the heights?Against the Holy One of Israel!
24. By your servants you have mocked the Lord,and you have said, With my many chariotsI have gone up the heights of the mountains,to the far recesses of Lebanon, to cut down its tallest cedars,its choicest cypresses,to come to its remotest height,its most fruitful forest.
25. I dug wellsand drank waters,to dry up with the sole of my footall the streams of Egypt.
26. “‘Have you not heardthat I determined it long ago?I planned from days of oldwhat now I bring to pass,that you should make fortified citiescrash into heaps of ruins,