 1 In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field. 3 Then Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came out to him. 4 Then Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust? 5 I say, Are only words of the lips wisdom and strength for war? In whom do you trust now that you rebel against me? 6 You trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt. On which, if a man lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7 But if you say to me, We trust in the Lord our God. Is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? 8 Now then, please exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you 2,000 horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them for you. 9 How then will you turn away the face of one commander of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10 Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it. 11 Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers, Speak to your servants in in the Syrian language Aramaic for we understand it. But do not speak to us in Jews' language in the hearing+ of the people on the wall. 12 But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall so that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you? 13 Then Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers stood and shouted with a loud voice in Jewish and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord saying, The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria. 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria, Make a blessing with me by a present and come out to me. Let everyone eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern, 17 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. 18 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you saying, The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? 21 But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command saying, Do not answer him. 22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh chief of the cupbearers.
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