“And am I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? It was Yahweh himself who said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.”
But what about trusting in Yahweh? Let them now consider this. It is in fact at the behest of Yahweh that they have come, in order to teach this altar-destroyer a lesson. This may reflect some knowledge of what Isaiah had already been declaring (Isaiah 10:5), but represented as having been said by Yahweh to Sennacherib himself. After all Sennacherib is favoured by all the gods! (In his annals Sennacherib actually gives the credit for his victories to Ashur). Or it may have been speaking of what would be the obvious consequence of Hezekiah's reforming actions to those who saw things as they saw them.
‘This land.' 2 Kings has ‘this place', emphasising more the impact on Jerusalem. But as Isaiah made clear elsewhere, Sennacherib's invasion of God's land was one of the things that had aroused His anger (Isaiah 14:25).