1 Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that
Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of
Judah, and took them. 2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to
Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the
upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 Then came forth to him
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. 4 Rabshakeh said to
them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of
Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say, your
counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom do you
trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 Behold, you trust on the staff
of this bruised reed, even on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into
his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on 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 give pledges 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 Am I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy
it? Yahweh said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. 11 Then
said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah to Rabshakeh, Please speak, to your servants
in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and don’t speak to us in the
Jews’ language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall. 12 But
Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak
these words? has he not sent me to the men who sit on the
wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’
language, and said, Hear you 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 neither let Hezekiah make you trust in
Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us; this city shall not 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 eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and
drink you everyone 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. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land
out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath
and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria
out of 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 held their peace, and answered him
not a word; for the king’s commandment was, saying, Don’t answer him.
22 Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with
their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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