Isaiah 36
English Standard Version
Sennacherib Invades Judah
36 (A)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, (B)Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 (C)And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh[a] from (D)Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood (E)by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. 3 And there came out to him (F)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and (G)Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the (H)great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? 5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6 (I)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. 7 But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he (J)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? 8 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. 9 How then can you repulse (K)a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when (L)you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? (M)The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants (N)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.” 12 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?”
13 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! 14 Thus says the king: (O)‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 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.” 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me[b] 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, 17 until (P)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. 18 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? 19 (Q)Where are the gods of (R)Hamath and (S)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? (T)Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 (U)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?’”
21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” 22 (V)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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 36:2 Rabshakeh is the title of a high-ranking Assyrian military officer
- Isaiah 36:16 Hebrew Make a blessing with me
Isaiah 36
Easy-to-Read Version
The Assyrians Invade Judah
36 During Hezekiah’s 14th year as king, Sennacherib king of Assyria went to fight against all the strong cities of Judah. Sennacherib defeated those cities. 2 He sent his commander with a large army to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The commander and his army left Lachish and went to Jerusalem. They stopped near the aqueduct[a] by the Upper Pool,[b] on the street that leads up to Laundryman’s Field.
3 Three men from Jerusalem went out to talk with the commander. These men were Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Joah son of Asaph, and Shebna. Eliakim was the palace manager, Joah was the record keeper, and Shebna was the royal secretary.
4 The commander told them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:
“‘What are you trusting in to help you? 5 I tell you, if you are trusting in power and great battle plans, that is useless. Those are nothing but empty words. Now I ask you, who do you trust so much that you are willing to rebel against me? 6 Are you depending on Egypt to help you? Egypt is like a broken walking stick. If you lean on it for support, it will only stab you and hurt you. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, cannot be trusted by anyone who depends on him for help.
7 “‘So maybe you will say, “We trust the Lord our God to help us.” But Hezekiah destroyed the altars and high places where people worshiped your God, right? Hezekiah told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship only at this one altar here in Jerusalem.”
8 “‘If you still want to fight, my master, the king of Assyria, will make this agreement with you. I promise that I will give you 2000 horses if you can find enough men to ride them into battle. 9 But even then, you couldn’t beat even one of my master’s lowest ranking officers. So why do you still depend on Egypt’s chariots and horse soldiers?
10 “‘Now, do you think I came to this country to destroy it without the Lord’s help. No, it was the Lord who said to me, “Go up against this country and destroy it!”’”
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the commander, “Please, speak to us in Hebrew.[c] We understand that language. Don’t speak to us in the language of Judah. If you use our language, the people on the city walls will understand you.”
12 But the commander said, “My master sent me to speak to everyone, not just to you and your master. I must also speak to those people sitting there on the wall. When we surround your city, they will suffer too. Like you, they will become so hungry they will eat their own waste and drink their own urine!”
13 Then the commander, shouting loudly in Hebrew,[d] gave this warning to them all:
Hear this message from the great king, the king of Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah fool you! He cannot save you from my power. 15 Don’t listen to him when he tells you to trust in the Lord. Don’t believe him when he says, “The Lord will save us. He will not let the king of Assyria defeat the city.”
16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah! This is what the king of Assyria says: Come out here and show me that you want peace. Then you will all be free to have grapes from your own vines, figs from your own trees, and water from your own well. 17 After some time, I will come and take you to a land like your own. In that new land, you will have plenty of grain for making bread and vineyards for producing wine.
18 Don’t believe Hezekiah when he tells you, “The Lord will save us.” He is wrong. Did any of the gods of other nations save their land from the king of Assyria? 19 When I destroyed the cities of Hamath and Arpad, where were their gods? What about the gods of Sepharvaim? Were any gods able to save Samaria from my power? 20 None of the gods of these other places were able to save their land from me! So why do you think the Lord can save Jerusalem from me?
21 But the people were silent. They did not say a word to the commander, because King Hezekiah had commanded them, “Don’t say anything to him.”
22 Then the palace manager (Eliakim son of Hilkiah), the royal secretary (Shebna), and the record keeper (Joah son of Asaph) went to Hezekiah. Their clothes were torn to show they were upset. They told Hezekiah everything the Assyrian commander had said.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 36:2 aqueduct A ditch or pipe that carries water from one place to another. Here, this is the Shiloah, a channel that carried water from Gihon Spring to the Old Pool and the Pool of Siloam.
- Isaiah 36:2 Upper Pool The Pool of Siloam at the southern tip of the City of David (Jerusalem), just above the older pool now called Birket al Hamrah.
- Isaiah 36:11 Hebrew Literally, “Judean,” the language of Judah and Israel.
- Isaiah 36:13 Hebrew Literally, “Judean,” the language of Judah and Israel.
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International