Isaiah 36:1-15

11Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, 2Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them. 2And the 3king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the 4conduit of the upper pool on the road to the 5fuller’s field. 3Then 6Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and 7Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.

4And 8Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have? 5I say, ‘Your plan and strength for the war are only 9empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that 10you have revolted against me? 6Behold, you have relied on the 11staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his 12hand and pierce it. 13So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 7But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He 14whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’? 8Now then, come 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 put riders on them! 9How then can you 15drive back even one 16official of the least of my master’s servants and 1718rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10And have I now come up 19without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? 20The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

11Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in 21Aramaic, for we 22understand it; and do not speak to us in 2324Judean 25so that the people who are on the wall hear you.” 12But Rabshakeh said, “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?”

13Then Rabshakeh stood and 26called out with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah 27deceive you, for he will not be able to save you; 15and do not let Hezekiah lead you to 28rely on the Lord, saying, “The Lord will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!”