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.