The Divided Kingdom

Then Rav-Shakeh stood up and, speaking loudly in Hebrew, said: "Hear what the great king, the king of Ashur, says!

This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won't be able to save you from the power of the king of Ashur.

And don't let Hizkiyahu make you trust in ADONAI by saying, "ADONAI will surely save us; this city will not be given over to the king of Ashur."

Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king of Ashur says: 'Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern;

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards, a land with olive trees and honey; so that you can live and not die. So don't listen to Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, "ADONAI will save us."

Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?

Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S'farvayim, Hena and 'Ivah? Did they save Shomron from my power?

Where is the god of any country that has saved its country from my power, so that ADONAI might be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?'"

But the people kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word; for the king's order was, "Don't answer him."

Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said.

On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of ADONAI.

He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and the leading cohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz.

They said to him, "This is what Hizkiyahu says: 'Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.

Maybe ADONAI your God will hear all the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which ADONAI your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left."

When King Hizkiyahu's servants came to Yesha'yahu,

he said to them, "Tell your master that this is what ADONAI says: 'Don't be afraid of the words you heard the servants of the king of Ashur use to insult me.

I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.'"

Rav-Shakeh returned and, having heard that the king of Ashur had left Lakhish, found him making war with Livnah.

Then, on hearing it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, telling them,

"This is what you are to say to Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, "Yerushalayim will not be handed over to the power of the king of Ashur."

You have heard what the kings of Ashur have done to all lands - they have completely destroyed them. So how will you be delivered?

Have the gods of the nations delivered them? No, my ancestors destroyed them - Gozan, Haran, Retzef and the people of 'Eden who were in Tel'asar.

Where is the king of Hamat? the king of Arpad? the king of the city of S'farvayim, of Hena and 'Ivah?'"

Hizkiyahu took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it. Then Hizkiyahu went up to the house of ADONAI and spread it out before ADONAI.

Hizkiyahu prayed as follows in the presence of ADONAI: "ADONAI God of Isra'el, who dwells above the k'ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.