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You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and cavalry!
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Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord's help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it."
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Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, "Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening."
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He replied, "Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will."
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Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, "Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you!
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He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you.
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And don't let him persuade you to rely on the Lord. Don't think that the Lord will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city.
31
Don't listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells -
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until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread; it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. If you do what he commands, you will not die, but live. Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you.
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Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria?
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Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did anyone save Samaria?