7
Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria nor for all the multitude that
is with him, for
there are more with us than with him.
8
With him
is an arm of flesh, but with us
is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people were upheld by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.
9
After this Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his slaves to Jerusalem (but he
himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that
were at Jerusalem, saying,
10
Thus hath said Sennacherib, king of Assyria, In whom do ye trust that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem?
11
Does not Hezekiah deceive 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
Has 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
Have ye not known what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of
other lands? Could peradventure the gods of the Gentiles of those lands deliver their lands out of my hand?
14
Who
was there among all the gods of those Gentiles that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of my hands? Why should your God be able to deliver you out of my hand?
15
Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you in this matter neither believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hands and out of the hands of my fathers; how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand?
16
And his slaves spoke yet
more against the LORD God and against his slave Hezekiah.
17
In addition to this, he wrote letters that blasphemed the LORD God of Israel and spoke against him, saying, As the gods of the Gentiles of
other lands could not deliver their people out of my hand, neither shall the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of my hand.