When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah,

In the year King Ahaz died, ¹  this message was revealed: ² 

This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!

They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

When King Hezekiah heard this, ¹  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, ¹  I saw the sovereign master ²  seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple.

Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.

The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, ¹  “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.

I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴ 

The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser ¹  from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, ²  along with a large army. The chief adviser ³  stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ⁴ 

The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence? ¹ 

Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. ¹  Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”