<p class="poetry">So now, do not mock,p> <p class="poetry">or your chains will become heavier!p> <p class="poetry">For I have heard a message about decreed destruction,p> <p class="poetry">from the sovereign master, the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, against the entire land.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">The sovereign master<n id="1" /> will give you distress to eatp> <p class="poetry">and suffering to drink;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">but your teachers will no longer be hidden;p> <p class="poetry">your eyes will see them.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will give a mighty shout<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and intervene in power,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.p>

<p class="poetry">Yet he too is wise<n id="1" /> and he will bring disaster;p> <p class="poetry">he does not retract his decree.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will attack the wicked nation,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">and the nation that helps<n id="4" /> those who commit sin.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">You will no longer see a defiant<n id="1" /> peoplep> <p class="poetry">whose language you do not comprehend,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">whose derisive speech you do not understand.<n id="3" />p>

Certainly you will not refuse one of my master&#8217;s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.

Don&#8217;t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the <sc>Lordsc> by saying, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.&#8221;

until I come and take you to a land just like your own &#8211; a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

<p class="bodytext">When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">Hezekiah took the letter<n id="1" /> from the messengers and read it.<n id="2" /> Then Hezekiah went up to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and spread it out before the <sc>Lordsc>.

Pay attention, <sc>Lordsc>, and hear! Open your eyes, <sc>Lordsc>, and observe! Listen to this entire message Sennacherib sent and how he taunts the living God!<n id="1" />

They have burned the gods of the nations,<n id="1" /> for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at?p> <p class="poetry">At whom have you shoutedp> <p class="poetry">and looked so arrogantly?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">At the Holy One of Israel!<n id="2" />p>

<n id="1" /><p class="poetry">Certainly you must have heard!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Long ago I worked it out,p> <p class="poetry">in ancient times I planned<n id="3" /> it,p> <p class="poetry">and now I am bringing it to pass.p> <p class="poetry">The plan is this:p> <p class="poetry">Fortified cities will crashp> <p class="poetry">into heaps of ruins.<n id="4" />p>

Isaiah<n id="1" /> asked, &#8220;What have they seen in your palace?&#8221; Hezekiah replied, &#8220;They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">Who acts and carries out decrees?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Who<n id="2" /> summons the successive generations from the beginning?p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, am present at the very beginning,p> <p class="poetry">and at the very end &#8211; I am the one.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!p> <p class="poetry">Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">so we may examine them<n id="2" /> and see how they were fulfilled.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Or decree for us some future events!p>

<p class="poetry">He feeds on ashes;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">his deceived mind misleads him.p> <p class="poetry">He cannot rescue himself,p> <p class="poetry">nor does he say, &#8216;Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Gather together and come!p> <p class="poetry">Approach together, you refugees from the nations!p> <p class="poetry">Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,p> <p class="poetry">those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.p>