Isaiah 36

Isaiah 36, verse 1. ¹Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Isaiah 36, verse 2. ²Then the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, and he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the way of the fuller's field. Isaiah 36, verse 3. ³So Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him. Isaiah 36, verse 4. ⁴Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: “Why are you confident? Isaiah 36, verse 5. ⁵Is a war carried on by counsel or mere words? Now in whom do you trust, that you disobey me? Isaiah 36, verse 6. ⁶Behold, you are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will puncture his hand. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt and all who trust in him. Isaiah 36, verse 7. ⁷But will you say, ‘We trust in the Lord our God’?’” Isaiah 36, verse 8. ⁸Now therefore, make an agreement with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them. Isaiah 36, verse 9. ⁹How are you able to turn back the face of one governor? Those who trust in the Egyptians for horse and rider are our servants. Isaiah 36, verse 10. ¹⁰Have we now come up without the Lord to make war against this country?” Isaiah 36, verse 11. ¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the men who are on the wall.” Isaiah 36, verse 12. ¹²But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my lord sent me to your lord or to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to speak to the men who sit on the wall, so they may eat their own dung, and drink their own urine with you?” Isaiah 36, verse 13. ¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. Isaiah 36, verse 14. ¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you with words which will be unable to deliver you; Isaiah 36, verse 15. ¹⁵nor let Hezekiah say to you, “God will deliver you, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.’” Isaiah 36, verse 16. ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘If you wish to be blessed, come out to me, and each of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and all of you will drink the waters of your own cistern, Isaiah 36, verse 17. ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards.’ Isaiah 36, verse 18. ¹⁸Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, ‘God will deliver us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? Isaiah 36, verse 19. ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Isaiah 36, verse 20. ²⁰Who among all the gods of these nations delivered his land from my hand, that God should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” Isaiah 36, verse 21. ²¹But they held their peace and answered him not a word, because of the king's commandment not to answer him. Isaiah 36, verse 22. ²²Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, Shebna the scribe of the army, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.