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New Testament
2 Chronicles 32:1-19
The King of Assyria Threatens Jerusalem
321After these events and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came into Judah and laid siege to the fortified cities. He intended to capture them for himself.
2When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and was ready to wage war against Jerusalem, 3he made plans with his officials and soldiers to block the water supply from the springs outside the city. They helped him 4by gathering a large group of people, who stopped all the springs and the water channel that flowed through the middle of the land.[] They said, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”
5Hezekiah strengthened his position. He rebuilt the whole part of the wall that had been broken down. He made the towers taller. He made a second wall outside the first wall. He strengthened the Millo[] of the City of David. He made many weapons and shields. 6He set military officers over the people. He brought them together with him in the square at the city gate.
He spoke to encourage them: 7“Be strong. Be courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be terrified because of the presence of the king of Assyria and the horde that is with him, because the one with us is greater than all those who are with him. 8With him is only an arm of flesh. With us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
9After this, while Sennacherib king of Assyria was attacking Lachish with his powerful forces, he sent his officials to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem.
10Sennacherib's officials proclaimed:
This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says. What are you relying on as you sit there under siege in Jerusalem? 11Isn't Hezekiah misleading you? He is handing you over to die by famine and by thirst, when he says, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria.”
12Hasn't this same Hezekiah taken away the Lord's high places and altars and commanded Judah and Jerusalem: “You are to worship in front of one altar, and you are to send up sacrifices only from it”?
13Don't you know what I and my fathers have done to all the people of the other lands? Were the gods of those foreign nations ever able to deliver their land from my hand? 14Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers devoted to destruction was able to deliver his people from my hand? So, will your God be able to deliver you from my hand?
15Now don't let Hezekiah deceive you and mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my father. How much less will your God! He will not deliver you from my hand.
16These officials had even more to say against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. 17The king of Assyria wrote letters to heap scorn on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to speak against him by saying, “Like the gods of those foreign nations, which have not delivered their people from my hands, the god of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand.”
18They shouted loudly in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, in order to frighten them and terrify them so that they could take the city. 19They spoke about the God of Jerusalem in the same way that they spoke about the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of human hands.
Lord