1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah and took them.
2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he camped by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the washer’s field.
3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the writer of chronicles.
4 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which thou dost trust?
5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust that thou dost rebel against me?
6 Behold, thou dost trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt upon which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it, so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.
7 But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?
8 Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou art able on thy part to set riders upon them.
9 How, therefore, wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s slaves even if thou art trusting in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 And peradventure am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it.
11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy slaves in the Syrian language, for we understand it, and do not speak to us in the Jewish language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.
12 But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall that they may eat their own dung and drink their own piss with you?
13 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14 Thus saith the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.
15 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
16 Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make peace with me and come out to me and eat each one of his vine and each one of his fig tree and drink each one 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 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the Gentiles delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 What god is there 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 held their peace and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded thus, saying, Answer him not.
22 Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah, the son of Asaph, the writer of chronicles, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh.