2 Chronicles 32:1-23 ¶ After these things and after this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to break them up.

EJ2000⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ ¶ After these things and after this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities and thought to break them up. ² And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, ³ he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were outside the city, and they helped him. ⁴ So many people gathered together, and they stopped up all the fountains and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? ⁵ Also he strengthened himself and built up all the wall that was broken and caused the towers to be raised up, and another wall outside, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made swords and shields in abundance. ⁶ And he set captains of war over the people and gathered them together to him in the plaza of the gate of the city and spoke unto their heart, saying, ⁷ Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. ⁸ With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people were upheld by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. ⁹ ¶ After this Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his slaves to Jerusalem (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying, ¹⁰ Thus hath said Sennacherib, king of Assyria, In whom do ye trust that ye abide in the siege in Jerusalem? ¹¹ Does not Hezekiah deceive you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹² Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar and burn incense upon it? ¹³ Have ye not known what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? Could peradventure the gods of the Gentiles of those lands deliver their lands out of my hand? ¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those Gentiles that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of my hands? Why should your God be able to deliver you out of my hand? ¹⁵ Now, therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you in this matter neither believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hands and out of the hands of my fathers; how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand? ¹⁶ And his slaves spoke yet more against the LORD God and against his slave Hezekiah. ¹⁷ In addition to this, he wrote letters that blasphemed the LORD God of Israel and spoke against him, saying, As the gods of the Gentiles of other lands could not deliver their people out of my hand, neither shall the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of my hand. ¹⁸ Then they cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ speech unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to make them afraid and to trouble them, that they might take the city. ¹⁹ And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man. ²⁰ And for this cause Hezekiah, the king, and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven. ²¹ And the LORD sent an angel who cut off all the mighty men of valour and the captains and the princes in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And as he entered into the house of his god, those that had come forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. ²² Thus, the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hands of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hands of all others and guided them concerning everything. ²³ And many brought a present unto the LORD to Jerusalem and precious gifts unto Hezekiah, king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all the Gentiles from then on.