¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’?^(A) Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster^(B) on your people.

¹⁰ “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend^(A) on deceive^(B) you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ ¹¹ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? ¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my predecessors deliver^(C) them—the gods of Gozan,^(D) Harran,^(E) Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”^(F)

Hezekiah’s Prayer^(G)

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter^(H) from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim,^(I) you alone^(J) are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Give ear,^(K) Lord, and hear;^(L) open your eyes,^(M) Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

¹⁷ “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. ¹⁸ They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods^(N) but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.^{(O) 19} Now, Lord our God, deliver^(P) us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms^(Q) of the earth may know^(R) that you alone, Lord, are God.”

¹⁵ If you put all these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ¹⁶ ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath,^(A) so he slaughtered them in the wilderness.’^(B)