Isaiah 36:10-22 ▼

10 And am I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Speak to your servants in the Aramaic language; for we understand it; and do not speak to us in the Jews' language, in the presence of the people who are standing on the wall.

12 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, My master has not sent me to you and to your master to speak these words, but to the men who sit on the wall, that they may not eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you.

13 Then the Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

14 Thus says 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 hands of the king of Assyria.

16 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: Do me a favor, and come out to me; and eat every one of his vines and every one of his fig tree and drink every 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 oil, a land of olive orchards and vineyards.

18 Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hands?

20 Who is he among all the gods of these lands that has delivered his land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

21 But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king had commanded, saying, Do not answer him.

22 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was steward of the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.