¹⁷ He wrote other letters insulting the Lord God of Israel, defying him by saying, “Just as the gods of the nations in other countries couldn’t rescue their people from my power, Hezekiah’s god won’t be able to rescue his people from my power.” ¹⁸ Then they shouted loudly in Hebrew^[a] at the people of Jerusalem gathered on the wall, in an attempt to frighten and demoralize them, in order to capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as though he were the work of human hands, like the gods of the other peoples of the earth.