2 Kings 18:29-37 ▼

29 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; he can’t rescue you from my power.

30 Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD by saying, “Certainly the LORD will rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.” ’

31 “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and each may drink water from his own cistern

32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey —so that you may live and not die. But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The LORD will rescue us.”

33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?

34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?

35 Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued his land from my power? So will the LORD rescue Jerusalem from my power? ’ ”

36 But the people kept silent; they did not answer him at all, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”

37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.