Isaiah 36:8
◄  Isaiah 36:8  ►
New International Version (©2011)
"'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses--if you can put riders on them!

New Living Translation (©2007)
"I'll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them!

English Standard Version (©2001)
Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Now therefore, come make a bargain with 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.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you're able to supply riders for them!

International Standard Version (©2012)
Come now, all of you, make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you can furnish riders for them!

NET Bible (©2006)
Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
"Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Now therefore give pledges, I urge you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders upon them.

American King James Version
Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders on them.

American Standard Version
Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And now deliver thyself up to my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able on thy part to find riders for them.

Darby Bible Translation
And now engage, I pray thee, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

English Revised Version
Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou canst on thy part set riders upon them.

World English Bible
Now therefore, please make a pledge 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.

Young's Literal Translation
'And now, negotiate, I pray thee, with my lord the king of Asshur, and I give to thee two thousand horses, if thou art able to put for thee riders on them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

36:1-22:See 2Ki 18:17-37, and the commentary thereon.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Now therefore give pledges; i.e. "bind yourselves under s-me penalty." Rabshakeh here interrupts his message' to introduce an offer of his own. Intent on ridiculing the absurdity of Hezekiah's resistance of Assyria, he promises to make him a present of two thousand horses, if he (Hezekiah) can find two thousand trained riders to mount them. It is quite likely that he was safe in making this promise, and that, notwithstanding the abundant use of chariots and horses by the Jews of the time for purposes of luxury (Isaiah 2:7), they were destitute of a cavalry force and unaccustomed to the management of war-horses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now therefore give pledges to my master the king of Assyria,.... Or; "hostages" (h); that thou wilt not rebel against him, but be faithful to him, and he will withdraw his army; or give security for the horses after promised: "or mingle thyself with him"; agree the matter with him, give pledges for future fidelity; or join in battle with him, come out and fight him, if able:

and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders on them; thus scoffing at him, as if he had not so many soldiers to bring out against him; or so many men in his kingdom as had skill enough to ride a horse; in his bravado he signifies, that if he would come out and fight him, he would lend him so many horses, if he could put men upon them, to assist him; this he said as boasting of his master's strength and power, and in scorn and derision at Hezekiah's weakness.

(h) "da obsides", Vatablus; "paciscere cum domino meo, Gataker; "misceto, quaeso, bellum cum domino meo", Junius & Tremellius.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. give pledges—a taunting challenge. Only give the guarantee that you can supply as many as two thousand riders, and I will give thee two thousand horses. But seeing that you have not even this small number (see on [763]Isa 2:7), how can you stand against the hosts of Assyrian cavalry? The Jews tried to supply their weakness in this "arm" from Egypt (Isa 31:1).

Isaiah 36:8 Parallel Commentaries

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Sennacherib Invades Judah
…7But if you 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, You shall worship before this altar? 8Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders on them. 9How then will 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? …

2 Kings 18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Isaiah 36:2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field,
Isaiah 36:7 But if you say to me, "We are depending on the LORD our God"--isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"?
Isaiah 36:9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?