And He replied:

Go! Say to these people:
Keep listening, but do not understand;
keep looking, but do not perceive.

Dull the minds of these people;
deafen their ears and blind their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes
and hear with their ears,
understand with their minds,
turn back, and be healed.

Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.

Because these people rejected
the slowly flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoiced with Rezin
and the son of Remaliah,

Do not call everything an alliance
these people say is an alliance.
Do not fear what they fear;
do not be terrified.

Many will stumble over these;
they will fall and be broken;
they will be snared and captured.

These also stagger because of wine
and stumble under the influence of beer:
priest and prophet stagger because of beer,
they are confused by wine.
They stumble because of beer,
they are muddled in their visions,
they stumble in their judgments.

The Lord said:

Because these people approach Me with their mouths
to honor Me with lip-service—
yet their hearts are far from Me,
and their worship consists of man-made rules
learned by rote—

therefore I will again confound these people
with wonder after wonder.
The wisdom of their wise men will vanish,
and the understanding of the perceptive will be hidden.

But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

Who among all the gods of these lands ever delivered his land from my power? So will the Lord deliver Jerusalem.”

Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands.

Lord, because of these promises people live,
and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;
You have restored me to health
and let me live.

Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came to me from a distant country, from Babylon.”

Look up and see:
who created these?
He brings out the starry host by number;
He calls all of them by name.
Because of His great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.

Who, like Me, can announce the future?
Let him say so and make a case before Me,
since I have established an ancient people.
Let these gods declare the coming things,
and what will take place.

Remember these things, Jacob,
and Israel, for you are My servant;
I formed you, you are My servant;
Israel, you will never be forgotten by Me.

I form light and create darkness,
I make success and create disaster;
I, Yahweh, do all these things.

You said, ‘I will be the mistress forever.’
You did not take these things to heart
or think about their outcome.

These two things will happen to you
suddenly, in one day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will happen to you in their entirety,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the potency of your spells.

All of you, assemble and listen!
Who among the idols has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
he will accomplish His will against Babylon,
and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

See, these will come from far away,
from the north and from the west,
and from the land of Sinim.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.

Then you will say within yourself,
‘Who fathered these for me?
I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,
exiled and wandering—
but who brought them up?
See, I was left by myself—
but these, where did they come from?’”

These two things have happened to you:
devastation and destruction,
famine and sword.
Who will grieve for you?
How can I comfort you?

These dogs have fierce appetites;
they never have enough.
And they are shepherds
who have no discernment;
all of them turn to their own way,
every last one for his own gain.

Your portion is among the smooth stones of the wadi;
indeed, they are your lot.
You have even poured out a drink offering to them;
you have offered a grain offering;
should I be satisfied with these?

Who are these who fly like a cloud,
like doves to their shelters?

These people continually provoke Me
to My face,
sacrificing in gardens,
burning incense on bricks,

They say, ‘Keep to yourself,
don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you!’
These practices are smoke in My nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.

My hand made all these things,
and so they all came into being.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will look favorably on this kind of person:
one who is humble, submissive in spirit,
and trembles at My word.

One slaughters an ox, one kills a man;
one sacrifices a lamb, one breaks a dog’s neck;
one offers a grain offering, one offers pig’s blood;
one offers incense, one praises an idol—
all these have chosen their ways
and delight in their detestable practices.