Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 269
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SAMUEL–KINGS
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this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear
it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you.
They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and
drink their own urine.”
Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on
the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! This is
what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able
to rescue you from my power. Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the
Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall
into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with m
e—open the gates and come out. Then each of
you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well. Then I will arrange to take you to another land like
this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards, olive groves
and honey. Choose life instead of death!
“Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tries to mislead you by saying, ‘The
Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their
people from the king of Assyria? What happened to the gods of Hamath
and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?
Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? What god of any nation has
ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think
that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah
had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”
Then Eliak im son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court
secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hez
ekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king
and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.
When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on
burlap and went into the Temple of the Lord. And he sent Eliak im the
palace administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and the leading priests,
all dressed in burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him,
“This is what King Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble, insults, and
disgrace. It is like when a child is ready to be born, but the mother has no
strength to deliver the baby. But perhaps the Lord your God has heard
the Assyrian chief of staff, sent by the king to defy the living God, and will
punish him for his words. Oh, pray for those of us who are left!”
After King Hezekiah’s officials delivered the king’s message to Isaiah, the
prophet replied, “Say to your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not
be disturbed by this blasphemous speech against me from the Assyrian