2 Kings 18:19-37
Evangelical Heritage Version
19 The herald said to him, “Tell Hezekiah what the great king, the king of Assyria, says.”
The Taunt
What are you relying on? 20 You say that you have the plan and power for war, but this is only words from your lips. So who are you trusting when you rebel against me? 21 Tell me, are you really trusting in Egypt as your staff, that splintered reed which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it? That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is for all those who trust in him.
22 And if you say to me, “We are trusting in the Lord our God,” didn’t Hezekiah remove his high places and his altars and tell Judah and Jerusalem, “You must bow down before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23 But now, make a bargain with my lord, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you can provide riders for them. 24 How will you resist one officer from among the least significant of my lord’s servants? You are trusting in Egypt for chariots and charioteers. 25 Have I now come up against this place without the Lord? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”
26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebna and Joah, said to the herald, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But don’t speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
27 Then the herald said to them:
Is it only to your lord and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Is it not also to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?[a]
28 Then the herald stood up and called out in a loud voice in Hebrew and said the following:
Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 This is what the king says. Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, because he can’t save you from my hand. 30 And don’t let Hezekiah cause you to trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely save us! He will not let this city be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
31 Don’t listen to Hezekiah because this is what the king of Assyria says. Make a peace treaty with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat from his own vine and drink from his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land with grain and sweet wine, a land with bread and vineyards, a land with olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah because he is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will save us.”
33 Have the gods of any nation ever saved their 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? Did they save Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands saved their land from my hand? Will the Lord really save Jerusalem from my hand?
36 But the people were silent. They did not answer him a word because the king had commanded them not to speak or answer. 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was the palace administrator, Shebna who was the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, who was the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their robes torn and told him the words of the herald.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Kings 18:27 The terms for excrement and urine are apparently coarse, because the scribal notes substitute euphemisms for them.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.