2 Kings 18:17-36

17Then the king of Assyria sent 1Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the 2conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the 3fuller’s field. 18When they called to the king, 4Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and 5Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

19Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “6What is this confidence that you 7have? 20You say (but they are 8only empty words), ‘I have counsel and strength for the war.’ Now on whom do you rely, 9that you have rebelled against me? 21Now behold, you 1011rely on the staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his 12hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 22But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and 13whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23Now therefore, 14come, make a bargain with 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. 24How then can you 15repulse one 16official of the least of my master’s servants, and 17rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25Have I now come up 18without the Lord’s approval against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

26Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we 19understand it; and do not speak with us in 2021Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

28Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, 22saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29Thus says the king, ‘23Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from 24my hand; 30nor 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.” 31Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, “25Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat 26each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern, 32until I come and take you away 27to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” 3328Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 3429Where are the gods of Hamath and 30Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and 3132Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 35Who among all the gods of the lands 33have delivered their land from my hand, 34that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

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