2 Kings 18:24-34

24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25 Have I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it."'"
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, "Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it; and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people who are on the wall."
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, "Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine 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 saith the king: `Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his 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 Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria: `Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me; and then eat ye every man of his own vine and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern,
32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live and not die. And hearken not unto Hezekiah when he persuadeth you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us."
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?

2 Kings 18:24-34 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.

Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.