17
And the king of Assyria sent the
1Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by
2the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer’s Field.
18
And when they called for the king, there came out to them
3Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and
4Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
19
And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?
20
Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?
21
Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of
5a 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.
22
But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God, ” is it not he
6whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”?
23
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.
24
How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25
Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. ’”
26
Then
7Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and
8Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in
9Aramaic, 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. ”
27
But the Rabshakeh said to them, “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 to drink their own urine? ”