In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of
Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took
them. And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to
King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the
conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. And
there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the
household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the
recorder.
And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the
great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of
yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?
In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?
Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff,
which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is
Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. But if you say to
me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places
and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem,
“You shall worship before this altar”? Come now, make a wager with
my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses,
if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can
you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's
servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this
land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land
and destroy it.”’”
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please
speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not
speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the
people who are on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master
sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to
the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their
own dung and drink their own urine?”
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the
language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of
Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for
he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you
trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This
city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Do
not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make
your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will
eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one
of you will drink the water of his own cistern, until I come and
take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah mislead
you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of
the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of
Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods
of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who
among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of
my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's
command was, “Do not answer him.” Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the
son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes
torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
