Isaiah 36

1 In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Ezekias, [that] Sennacherim, king of the Assyrians, came up against the strong cities of Judea, and took them.

2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, 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.

And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces out of Laches to Jerusalem to king Ezekias with a large force: and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller's field.

3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him.

And there went forth to him Heliakim the steward, the [son] of Chelcias, and Somnas the scribe, and Joach the [son] of Asaph, the recorder.

4 The Rabshakeh 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?

And Rabsaces said to them, Say to Ezekias, Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians, Why are you secure?

5 You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?

Is war carried on with counsel and [mere] words of the lips? and now on whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?

6 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.

Behold, you trust on this bruised staff of reed, on Egypt: [as soon] as a man leans upon it, it shall go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao king of Egypt and all that trust in him.

7 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’?

But if you say, We trust in the Lord our God;

8 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!

yet now make an agreement with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you shall be able to set riders upon them.

9 For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

And how can you [then] turn to the face of the satraps? They that trust on the Egyptians for horse and rider, are [our] servants.

10 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.’”

And now, Have we come up against this land to fight against it without the Lord? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “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.”

Then Eliakim and Somnas and Joach said to him, Speak to your servants in the Syrian tongue; for we understand [it]: and speak not to us in the Jewish tongue: and therefore speak you in the ears of the men on the wall?

12 But the Rabshakeh 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?”

And Rabsaces said to them, Has my lord sent me to your lord or to you, to speak these words? [has he] not [sent] me to the men that sit on the wall, that they may eat dung, and drink [their] water together with you?

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

And Rabsaces stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and said, Hear you the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians:

14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you.

thus says the king, Let not Ezekias deceive you with words: he will not be able to deliver you.

15 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.’

And let not Ezekias say to you, That God will deliver you, and this city will not at all be delivered into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.

16 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,

Listen not to Ezekias: thus says the king of the Assyrians, If you wish to be blessed, come out to me: and you shall eat every one [of] his vine and his fig-trees, and you shall drink water out of your own cisterns:

17 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.

until I come and take you to a land, like your own land, a land of corn and wine, and bread, and vineyards.

18 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?

Let not Ezekias deceive you, saying, God will deliver you. Have the gods of the nations delivered each one his own land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Where is the god of Emath, and Arphath? and where is the god of Eppharuaim? have they been able to deliver Samaria out of my hand?

20 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?”

Which is the god of all these nations, that has delivered his land out of my hand, that God should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

21 But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

And they were silent, and none answered him a word; because the king had commanded that none should answer.

22 Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

And Heliakim the [son] of Chelcias, the steward, and Somnas the military scribe, and Joach the [son] of Asaph, the recorder, came in to Ezekias, having their garments tore, and they reported to him the words of Rabsaces.