1 Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that
Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of
Judah, and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to
Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the
upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph,
the recorder came out to him. 4 Rabshakeh said to
them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of
Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say that your
counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you
trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you trust in the staff
of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into
his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
7 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose
high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah
and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” 8 Now
therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will
give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on
them. 9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of
my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for
horsemen? 10 Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy
it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants
in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don’t speak to us in the
Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak
these words, and not to the men who sit on the
wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’
language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of
Assyria! 14 Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he
will not be able to deliver you. 15 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in
Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given
into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ 16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for
thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me;
and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and
each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17 until I come and
take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a
land of bread and vineyards. 18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying,
“Yahweh will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands
from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath
and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria
from my hand? 20 Who are they among all the gods of these countries
that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver
Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
21 But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment
was, “Don’t answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with
their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
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