20. You say you have the counsel and the might for war – but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?
21. Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.
22. But if you say to me, ‘We are depending on the Lord our God’ – isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
23. ‘ “Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses – if you can put riders on them!