We all know, LORD, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate,

Now then, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, oboes, lyres, zithers, harps, and all the other instruments, bow down and worship the statue. If you do not, you will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Do you think there is any god who can save you?"

"Who is the LORD?" the king demanded. "Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD; and I will not let Israel go."

Now don't let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like that. Don't believe him! No god of any nation has ever been able to save his people from any Assyrian emperor. So certainly this god of yours can't save you!"

That is the fate of those who shake their fists at God and defy the Almighty.

They are proud and rebellious; they stubbornly hold up their shields and rush to fight against God.

But the LORD says, "Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn't lift up a person; a person lifts up a club."

Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel.

You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands, and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth and will take you back by the same road you came."