Isaiah 36:2-22

2And the 1king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the 2conduit of the upper pool on the road to the 3fuller’s field. 3Then 4Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and 5Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.

4And 6Rabshakeh 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 7empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that 8you have revolted against me? 6Behold, you have relied on the 9staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his 10hand and pierce it. 11So 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 12whose 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 13drive back even one 14official of the least of my master’s servants and 1516rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10And have I now come up 17without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? 18The 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 19Aramaic, for we 20understand it; and do not speak to us in 2122Judean 23so 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 24called 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 25deceive you, for he will not be able to save you; 15and do not let Hezekiah lead you to 26rely on the Lord, saying, “The Lord will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!” 16Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says: ‘27Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his 28vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the 29waters of his own cistern, 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “30The Lord will save us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19Where are the gods of 31Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of 32Sepharvaim? And when have they 33saved Samaria from my hand? 20Who among all the 34gods of these lands have saved their land from my hand, that the 35Lord would save Jerusalem from my hand?’”

21But they were silent and did not 36answer him so much as a word; for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” 22Then 37Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and 38Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.