2 Kings 18:19-37

Modern English Version

¹⁹ Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Speak to Hezekiah:

“Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is the basis of your confidence? ²⁰ You speak empty words concerning counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Now, look! You trust in the staff of this bruised reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²² 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 in Jerusalem’?

²³ “Now, make a wager with my lord king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you are able to set riders on them. ²⁴ How can you turn away one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ²⁵ Have I come up apart from the will of the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.”

²⁶ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Judah in earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷ But the Rabshakeh said to them, “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 about to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸ Then the Rabshakeh stood and called with a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. ²⁹ Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he is not able to deliver you from my hand. ³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

³¹ “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Submit to me; come out to me, so that every man may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, ³² until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die.’

“Do not listen to Hezekiah when he leads you astray saying, The Lord will deliver us. ³³ Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵ Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

³⁷ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.