Shaya 36
Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 2The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field. 3Then came forth to him Eliakim Ibn Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah Ibn Asaph, the recorder. 4Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust? 5I say, your counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6Behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Firaun king of Egypt to all who trust on him. 7But if you tell me, We trust in Allah our God: isn't that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10Am I now come up without Allah against this land to destroy it? Allah said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. 11Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, Please speak, to your servants in Aramaic; for we understand it: and do not speak to us in Hebrew, in the ears of the people who are on the wall. 12But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you? 13Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in Hebrew, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. 14Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you: 15neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Allah, saying, Allah will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 16Do not listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and drink you everyone the waters of his own cistern; 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Allah will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20Who are they among all the gods of these countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Allah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? 21But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, Do not answer him. 22Then came Eliakim Ibn Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah Ibn Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.