9
After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem (at that time he was stationed with all his army in front of Lachish), to say to Hezekiah and all the men of Judah in Jerusalem,
10
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, In what are you placing your hope, waiting here in the walled town of Jerusalem?
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Is it not Hezekiah who has got you to do it, causing your death from need of food and water, by saying, The Lord our God will give us salvation out of the hands of the king of Assyria?
12
Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Give worship before one altar only, burning offerings on it?
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Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling into my hands?
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Who was there among all the gods of those nations, which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your God will keep you safe from my hands?
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So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands!
16
And his servants said even more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.
17
And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands.
18
These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting fear into them, so that they might take the town;
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Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands.