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.
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took 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.
And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, with a great army, against King Hezekiah, and he halted at the aqueduct of the upper pool, in the highway to the fuller's field.
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 came forth to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and Josh, the son of Asaph, the annalist.
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?
And Rabshakeh said to them, Say ye to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria: What a confidence is this which thou cherishest!
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]?
Thou sayest, (but it is vain talk, ) “I have counsel and strength for war.” In whom, then, dost thou trust, that thou rebellest 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, thou trustest in that broken reed-staff, Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will pierce his hand, and go through it. Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all that 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 ye say to me, “We trust in Jehovah, our God,”—is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem to 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!
Engage, now, with my master, the king of Assyria! and I will give thee two thousand horses, when thou art able to provide for thyself riders for 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, canst thou resist a single captain, one of the least of the servants of my master? Yet thou trustest in Egypt, on account of her chariots and her 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!”
And am I now come up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah hath 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 said Eliakim and Shebna and Josh to Rabshakeh: Speak, we beseech thee, to thy servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; and speak not to us in the Jewish language, in the hearing of the people that are upon 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, Hath my master sent me to speak these words to thy master and to thee only, and not to the people who sit upon the wall, to eat their own dung, and to 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 cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and said, Hear ye 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!
Thus saith the king: Let not 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!’
And let not Hezekiah persuade you to trust in Jehovah, saying, “Jehovah will certainly deliver us. This city shall not be delivered into the hands 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.
Hearken not to Hezekiah; for thus saith the king of Assyria: Make peace with me, and come out to me; and ye shall every one eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig-tree, and ye shall every one 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 to a land like your own land; a land of corn, and of new wine, a land of bread and of 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!
Be not persuaded by Hezekiah, when he saith, “Jehovah will deliver us.” Have the gods of the nations delivered every one his own land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arphad?
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 Sepharvaim? And did the gods deliver 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 is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his land out of my hand, that Jehovah 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 the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's command was, “Answer him not.”
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 came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the palace, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the annalist, to Hezekiah, with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
