2 Chronicles 32:13-19

32:13 Are you not aware of what I and my predecessors ¹  have done to all the nations of the surrounding lands? Have the gods of the surrounding lands actually been able to rescue their lands from my power? ²  32:14 Who among all the gods of these nations whom my predecessors annihilated was able to rescue his people from my power? ³  32:15 Now don’t let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors. So how ⁴  can your gods rescue ⁵  you from my power?’”

32:16 Sennacherib’s ⁶  servants further insulted ⁷  the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah. 32:17 He wrote letters mocking the Lord God of Israel and insulting him with these words: ⁸  “The gods of the surrounding nations could not rescue their people from my power. Neither can Hezekiah’s god rescue his people from my power.” ⁹  32:18 They called out loudly in the Judahite dialect to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, trying to scare and terrify them so they could seize the city. 32:19 They talked about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the man-made gods of the nations of the earth.

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¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 14, 15), but in this context the term does not necessarily refer to Sennacherib’s ancestors, but to his predecessors on the Assyrian throne.

² tn Heb “hand.”

³ tn Heb “hand.”

⁴ tn Heb “how much less.”

⁵ tn The verb is plural, suggesting that the preceding אֱלֹהֵיכֶם (’elohekhem) be translated “your gods,” rather than “your God.”

⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Sennacherib) has been specified in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “spoke against.”

⁸ tn Heb “and speaking against him, saying.”

⁹ tn Heb “Like the gods of the nations of the lands who did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand.”