Isaiah 36:10-22 ▼

10 So now, was it apart from the LORD {YHWH} that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”

11 Then Eliakim (GGod sets up), Shebna (vigor), and Joah (YHWH is brother) said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic (language), since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew (in the dialect of Judah) in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

12 But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you⁺ to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria (a step)!

14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah (YHWH is my strength) deceive you⁺, for he cannot deliver you⁺.

15 Do not let Hezekiah (YHWH is my strength) persuade you⁺ to trust in the LORD {YHWH} when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria (a step).’

16 Do not listen to Hezekiah (YHWH is my strength), for this is what the king of Assyria (a step) says: Make peace with me (Make a blessing with me) and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,

17 until I come and take you⁺ away to a land like your⁺ own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 Do not let Hezekiah (YHWH is my strength) mislead you⁺ when he says, ‘The LORD {YHWH} will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria (a step)?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath (fortress) and Arpad (I shall be supported)? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim (the two Sipparas)? Have they delivered Samaria (watch mountain) from my hand?

20 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD {YHWH} deliver Jerusalem (city of peace) from my hand?”

21 But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Hilkiah’s (my portion is YHWH) son Eliakim (GGod sets up) the palace administrator, Shebna (vigor) the scribe, and Asaph’s (gatherer) son Joah (YHWH is brother) the recorder came to Hezekiah (YHWH is my strength) with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.