2 Kings 18:19-37 ▼

19 And the chief of the butlers says to them, “Now say to Hezekiah, Thus said the great king, the king of Asshur: What [is] this confidence in which you have confided?

20 You have said: Only a word of the lips! Counsel and might [are] for battle; now, on whom have you trusted that you have rebelled against me?

21 Now behold, you have trusted for yourself on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which a man leans on, and it has gone into his hand and pierced it! So [is] Pharaoh king of Egypt to all those trusting on him.

22 And when you say to me, We have trusted in our God YHWH, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has turned aside, and says to Judah and to Jerusalem, You bow yourselves before this altar in Jerusalem?

23 And now, please give a pledge for yourself to my lord the king of Asshur, and I give two thousand horses to you, if you are able to give riders for yourself on them.

24 And how do you turn back the face of one captain of the least of the servants of my lord, that you trust for yourself on Egypt for chariot and for horsemen?

25 Have I now come up without YHWH against this place to destroy it? YHWH said to me, Go up against this land, and you have destroyed it.”

26 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah says—and Shebna and Joah—to the chief of the butlers, “Please speak to your servants [in] Aramaic, for we are understanding, but do not speak with us [in] Jewish, in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall.”

27 And the chief of the butlers says to them, “For your lord, and to you, has my lord sent me to speak these words? Is it not for the men—those sitting on the wall—to eat their own dung and to drink their own water, with you?”

28 And the chief of the butlers stands and calls with a great voice [in] Jewish, and speaks and says, “Hear a word of the great king, the king of Asshur—

29 thus said the king: Do not let Hezekiah lift you up, for he is not able to deliver you out of his hand;

30 and do not let Hezekiah make you trust in YHWH, saying, YHWH certainly delivers us, and this city is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur.

31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus said the king of Asshur: Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and each eat of his vine, and each [eat] of his fig tree, and each drink the waters of his own well,

32 until my coming in, and I have taken you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil, and honey; and live, and do not die; and do not listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, YHWH delivers us.

33 Have each of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Asshur?

34 Where [are] the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah, that they have delivered Samaria out of my hand?

35 Who [are they] among all the gods of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that YHWH delivers Jerusalem out of my hand?”

36 And the people have kept silent, and have not answered him a word, for the command of the king is, saying, “Do not answer him.”

37 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who [is] over the house, comes in, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the remembrancer, to Hezekiah, with torn garments, and they declare to him the words of the chief of the butlers.