5 When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message,
6 he sent back this answer: "The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you by their claims that he cannot save you.
7 The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there."
8 The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him.
9 Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia, was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah
10 of Judah to tell him: "The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you.
11 You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape?
12 My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them.
13 Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?"
14 King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord,
16 "Almighty Lord, God of Israel, seated above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky.
1 17 Now, Lord, hear us and look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God.
18 We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,
19 and burned up their gods - which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands.
20 Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that you alone are God."
21 Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer
22 the Lord had said, "The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you.
23 Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.
24 You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.
25 You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.
26 "Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble.
27 The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.
28 "But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me.
29 I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."
30 Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, "Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes.