Isaiah

36 And in the year fourteen of King Hezekiah King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities in Judah and captured them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lakish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a formidable force; and he stood on the aqueduct of the upper reservoir, the one that is on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 3 and Eljakim the son of Hilkijah, the steward of the palace, and Shebna, the secretary for documents, and Joah the son of Asaph, the king’s private secretary, went out to him. 4 And the Rabshakeh said to them “Say to Hezekiah ‘Says the Great King, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this that you are feeling? 5 you think policy and strength for war is just a matter of talk. Now in whom are you trusting, that you have broken your allegiance to me? 6 trusting to this cracked bamboo cane Egypt, which, when a man leans his weight on it, will run into his hand and transfix it—that is what the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is like for everybody who trusts to him. 7 And as for your saying to me “We are trusting on our God Jehovah,” is not he the one whose heights and altars Hezekiah has made away with, and has told Judah and Jerusalem “You shall do reverence before this altar”? 8 Now make a bet with my sovereign the king of Assyria, that I am to give you two thousand ponies if you can furnish riders for them; 9* and how are you to repel one of my sovereign’s minor officers? and you are trusting to Egypt for chariotry and cavalry. 10 And then, have I come up against this country independently of Jehovah to ravage it? Jehovah said to me “Go up to this country and ravage it.”’”

11* And Eljakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rabshakeh “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judaic in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 12 But the Rabshakeh said “Was it to your sovereign and you that my sovereign sent me to tell these things? was it not to the men that are sitting on the wall to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” 13 And the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in Judaic “Listen to the words of the Great King, the king of Assyria! 14 Says the king, Do not let Hezekiah delude you, because he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah get you to trusting on Jehovah, with his ‘Jehovah will deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for the king of Assyria says ‘Have an understanding with me and come out to me, and eat from your home vines and fig-trees and drink the water of your home cisterns 17 till I come and take you to a country like your own, a country of grain and grape-juice, of bread and vineyards, 18 so that Hezekiah will not influence you with his “Jehovah will deliver us.” Have the gods of the different nations delivered their countries out of the hands of the king of Assyria? 19* Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria, did they deliver Samaria out of my hands? 20 Who are there among all the gods of these different countries that have delivered their countries out of my hands, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hands?’”

21 But they kept still and made no answer to him; for the king’s order was “Do not answer him.”

22 And Eljakim the son of Hilkijah, the steward of the palace, and Shebna, the secretary for documents, and Joah the son of Asaph, the king’s private secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the Rabshakeh’s words.