2 Kings 18:26-36

26 Then said Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy slaves in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and do not talk with us in the Jews’ language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak these words and not rather to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you?
28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language and spoke, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
29 Thus hath the king said, Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand.
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
31 Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Give me a blessing and come out to me, and then each one of you shall eat of their own vine and of their own fig tree, and each one shall drink the waters of their own well,
32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, of oil, and of honey, that ye may live, and not die. Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for he deceives you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
33 Peradventure have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
35 What god out of all the gods of the lands has delivered their land out of my hand that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
36 But the people remained silent and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded, saying, Do not answer him.

2 Kings 18:26-36 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 18

This chapter begins with the good reign of Hezekiah king of Judah, the reformation he made in the kingdom, and the prosperity that attended him when Israel was carried captive, 2Ki 18:1-12 and gives an account of the siege of Jerusalem by the king of Assyria, and of the distress Hezekiah was in, and the hard measures he was obliged to submit unto, 2Ki 18:13-18 and of the reviling and blasphemous speech of Rabshakeh, one of the generals of the king of Assyria, urging the Jews to a revolt from their king, 2Ki 18:19-37.

The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010