A man of God came to the king of Israel with this message: “The Lord says, ‘The people of Aram say that I, the Lord, am a god of the mountains, not a god of the valleys. So I will allow you to defeat this huge army, and then you will know I am the Lord.’ ”
Don’t let the people of Egypt say, ‘The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt for an evil purpose. He planned to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth.’ So stop being angry, and don’t destroy your people.
“Tell Hezekiah king of Judah: Don’t be fooled by the god you trust. Don’t believe him when he says Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.
The people of Judah have quit following me. They have made this a place for foreign gods. They have burned sacrifices to other gods that neither they, nor their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah had ever known before. They filled this place with the blood of innocent people.
She made herself dirty by her sins and did not think about what would happen to her. Her defeat was surprising, and no one could comfort her. She says, “Lord, see how I suffer, because the enemy has won.”
So, O king, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Stop doing wicked things and be kind to the poor. Then you might continue to be successful.”
Otherwise, Egypt will say, ‘It was because the Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them, and it was because he hated them that he took them into the desert to kill them.’
The Canaanites and all the other people in this country will hear about this and will surround and kill us all! Then what will you do for your own great name?”