Isaiah 36

1 When King Hezekiah had been [ruling Judah] for almost 14 years, King Sennacherib of Assyria came [with his army] to attack the cities in Judah that had walls around them. [They did not conquer Jerusalem, but] they conquered all the other cities.

Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2 Then the king of Assyria sent a large army with some of his important officials from Lachish [city] to [persuade] King Hezekiah [to surrender]. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they stood in their positions alongside the aqueduct/channel in which water flows into the upper pool [into Jerusalem], near the road to the field where the women wash clothes.

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 The Israeli officials who went out of the city to talk with them were Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, the (palace administrator/man who supervised the workers in the palace), Shebna the king’s secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah, who wrote down the government decisions.

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 Then one of Sennacherib’s important officials told them to take this message to Hezekiah: This is what the King of Assyria, the great king, says: “What are you trusting in to rescue you?

Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?

5 You say that you have weapons to fight us and some country’s promises [to help you], [and that will enable you to defeat us], but that is only talk [RHQ]. Who do you think will help you to rebel against my [soldiers from Assyria]?

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 Listen to me! You are relying on [the army of] Egypt. But [that will be like] [MET] using a broken reed for a walking stick on which you could lean. [But] it would pierce the hand of anyone who would lean on it! That is what the King of Egypt would be like for anyone who relied on him [for help].

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 perhaps you will say to me, ‘[No], we are relying on Yahweh our God [to help us].’ [I would reply], ‘Is he not the one whom [you insulted by] tearing down his shrines and altars and forcing everyone in Jerusalem and [other places in] Judah to worship [only] in front of the altar [in Jerusalem]?’

But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is not 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 So I suggest that you make a deal with my master/boss, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses, but [I do not think that] you can find 2,000 of your men who can ride on them!

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 You are expecting the king of Egypt to send chariots and men riding horses [to assist you]. But they certainly would not [RHQ] be able to resist/defeat even the most insignificant/unimportant official in the army of Assyria!

How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

10 Furthermore, [do not think that] [RHQ] we have come here to attack and destroy this land without Yahweh’s orders! It is Yahweh himself who told us to come here and destroy this land!”

Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the official from Assyria, “Please speak to us in [your] Aramaic language, because we understand it. Do not speak to us in [our] Hebrew language, because the people who are standing on the wall will understand it [and become frightened].”

Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

12 But the official replied, “Do you think that my master sent me to say these things [only] to you, and not to the people standing on the wall [RHQ]? [If you reject this message], the [people in this city] will soon need to eat their own dung and drink their own urine, just like you will, [because there will be nothing more for you to eat or drink].”

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 the official stood up and shouted in the Hebrew language [to the people sitting on the wall]. He said, “Listen to this message from the great king, the King of Assyria!

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 He says, ‘Do not allow Hezekiah to deceive you! He will not be able to rescue you!

The king says, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.

15 Do not allow him to persuade you to trust in Yahweh, saying that Yahweh will rescue you, and that [the army of] the King of Assyria will never capture this city!’

Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’

16 Do not pay attention to what Hezekiah says! This is what the king [of Assyria] says: ‘Come out of the city and surrender to me. [If you do that, I will arrange for] each of you to drink the juice from your own grapevines and to eat figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own well.

Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘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 [You will be able to do that] until we come and take you to a land that is like your land—a land where there is grain to make bread and [vineyards to produce grapes for making] new wine and, and where we make lots of bread.’

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 Do not allow Hezekiah to mislead you by saying, “Yahweh will rescue us.” The gods that people of other nations worship have never [RHQ] rescued any of them from the power [MTY] of the King of Assyria!

Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Why were the gods of Hamath and Arpad [cities], and the gods of Sepharvaim unable to rescue Samaria from my power [MTY]?

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

20 No, no god [RHQ] of any nation has been able to rescue their people from me. So why do you think that Yahweh will rescue you people of Jerusalem from my power [MTY]?’”

Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

21 But the people [who were listening] were silent. No one said anything, because King [Hezekiah] had commanded, “[When the official from Assyria talks to you], do not answer him.”

But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah returned to Hezekiah with their clothes torn [because they were extremely distressed]. They told him what the official from Assyria had said.

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.