1And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.
2And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a heavy force. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the field of the launderer.
3And there went out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder.
4And Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust?
5I say, 'Surely a word of the lips is counsel and might for the war.' Now, on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6Behold, you trust upon the staff of this crushed reed, upon Egypt, which, if a man (ish) lean upon it, it goes into his palm and pierces it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust upon him.
7And if you say to me, 'In YHWH our God we trust'—is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'Before this altar you shall bow down'?
8And now, make a pledge, please, with my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them.
9And how will you turn back the face of one governor of the least of my lord's servants, and you trust for yourself upon Egypt for chariot and for horsemen?
10And now, is it apart from YHWH that I have come up against this land to destroy it? YHWH said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"
11And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak, please, to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judean in the ears of the people who are on the wall."
12And Rabshakeh said, "Is it to your lord and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Is it not to the men (ish) who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung and to drink their own water with you?"
13And Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.
15And let not Hezekiah make you trust in YHWH, saying, 'YHWH 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 with me a blessing and come out to me, and eat each man (ish) of his own vine and each man (ish) of his own fig tree, and drink each man (ish) the waters of his own cistern,
17until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18Lest Hezekiah incite you, saying, 'YHWH will deliver us.' Have the gods of the nations delivered, each man (ish) his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20Who among all the gods of these lands are they that have delivered their land from my hand, that YHWH should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"
21But they kept silent and did not answer him a word, for it was the commandment (mitzvah) of the king, saying, "Do not answer him."
22And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with clothes torn, and they told him the words of Rabshakeh.