CHAPTER 36
In the fourteenth
year
of the reign
of Hezekiah,
Sennacherib
king
of Assyria
attacked
and captured
all
the fortified
cities
of Judah.
And the king
of Assyria
sent
the Rab-shakeh,
with a great
army,
from Lachish
to
King
Hezekiah
at Jerusalem.
And he stopped
by the aqueduct
of the upper
pool,
on the road
to the Launderer’s
Field.
Then Eliakim
son
of Hilkiah
the palace
administrator,
Shebna
the scribe,
and Joah
son
of Asaph
the recorder,
went out
to him.
The Rab-shakeh
said
to them,
“Tell
Hezekiah
that this is what
the great
king,
the king
of Assyria,
says:
‘What
is the basis
of this
confidence
of yours?
You claim
to have a strategy
and strength
for war,
but
these are empty
words.
On
whom
are you now
relying,
that
you have rebelled
against me?
Look now,
you are trusting
in
Egypt,
that
splintered
reed
of a staff
that
will pierce
the hand
of anyone
who leans
on it.
Such is
Pharaoh
king
of Egypt
to all
who trust
in him.
But if
you say
to me,
“We trust
in
the LORD
our God,”
is He
not
the One
whose high places
and altars
Hezekiah
has removed,
saying
to Judah
and Jerusalem,
“You must worship
before
this
altar”?
Now therefore,
make a bargain
with
my master,
the king
of Assyria.
I will give
you
two thousand
horses—
if
you can
put
riders
on them!
For how
can you repel
a single
officer
among the weakest
of my master’s
servants
when you depend
on
Egypt
for chariots
and horsemen?
So now,
was it apart from
the LORD
that I have come up
against
this
land
to destroy it?
The LORD Himself
said
to me,
‘Go up
against
this
land
and destroy it.’”
Then Eliakim,
Shebna,
and Joah
said
to
the Rab-shakeh,
“Please
speak
to
your servants
in Aramaic,
since
we
understand it.
Do not
speak
to us
in Hebrew
in the hearing
of the people
on
the wall."
But the Rab-shakeh
replied,
“Has my master
sent
me to speak
these
words
only to
you and
your master,
and not
to
the men
sitting
on
the wall,
who are destined with you
to eat
their own dung
and drink
their own urine?"
Then the Rab-shakeh
stood
and called out
loudly
in Hebrew:
“Hear
the words
of the great
king,
the king
of Assyria!
Do not
let Hezekiah
persuade you to trust
in the LORD
when he says,
‘The LORD
will surely deliver
us;
this
city
will not
be given
into the hand
of the king
of Assyria.’
Do not
listen
to
Hezekiah,
for
this is what
the king
of Assyria
says:
Make
peace
with me
and come out
to me.
Then every one of you
will eat
from his own vine
and
his own fig tree,
and drink
water
from his own cistern,
until
I come
and take you away
to
a land
like your own—
a land
of grain
and new wine,
a land
of bread
and vineyards.
Do not let
Hezekiah
mislead
you when he says,
‘The LORD
will deliver us.’
Has the god
of any
nation
ever delivered
his land
from the hand
of the king
of Assyria?
Where
are the gods
of Hamath
and Arpad?
Where
are the gods
of Sepharvaim?
Have they delivered
Samaria
from my hand?
Who
among all
the gods
of these
lands
has delivered
his land
from my hand?
How then
can the LORD
deliver
Jerusalem
from my hand?”
But the people remained silent
and did not
answer a word,
for
Hezekiah
had commanded,
“Do not
answer him.”
Then Hilkiah’s
son
Eliakim
the palace
administrator,
Shebna
the court secretary,
and Asaph’s
son
Joah
the court historian,
came
to
Hezekiah
with their clothes
torn,
and they relayed
to him
the words
of
the Rab-shakeh.