Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
(2 Kings 18:13–37; 2 Chronicles 32:1–8)

1And it will be in the fourteenth year to king Hezekiah, Senherib kind of Assur came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he will seize them. 2And the king of Assur will send Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a weighty army. And he will stand by the channel of the higher pool in the highway of the fuller's field. 3And Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, will come forth, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah Asaph's son, remembering.

4And Rabshakeh will say to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus said the king, the great king of Assur, What this trust in which thou trustedst? 5I said, (also a word of the lips) Counsel and strength for the war; now upon whom trustedst thou that thou didst rebel against me? 6Behold, thou trustedst upon the staff of this broken reed, upon Egypt; which, shall a man rest upon it, it was into his hand and pierced it: thus Pharaoh king of Egypt to all trusting upon him. 7And if thou shalt say to me, We trusted to Jehovah our God: is it not he whom Hezekiah turned away his heights, and his altars, and he will say to Judah and to Jerusalem, Before this altar shall ye worship? 8And now, become surety now, to my lord the king of Assur, and I will give to thee two thousand horses if thou shalt be able to give to thee riders upon them. 9And how wilt thou turn back the face of one prefect of the servants of my lord, the smallest of them, aid trust for thee upon Egypt for chariot and for horsemen? 10And now came I up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.

11And Eliakim will say, and Shebna, and Joah, to Rabshakeh, Speak now to thy servants Aramean, for we hear; and thou shalt not speak to us Judaic in the ears of the people who are upon the wall. 12And Rabshakeh will say, Did my lord send me to thy lord and to thee to speak these words? did he not to the men sitting upon the wall to eat their excrements and to drink their urine with you?

13And Rabshakeh will stand and call with a great voice in Judaic, and say, Hear ye the words of the king, the great king of Assur. 14Thus said the king, Hezekiah shall not lift up to you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15And Hezekiah shall not cause you to trust to Jehovah, saying, Delivering, Jehovah will deliver us: this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assur. 16Ye shall not hear to Hezekiah; for thus said the king of Assur, Make to me a blessing, and come forth to me: and eat a man of his vine and a man of his fig tree, and drink ye a man water of his cistern; 17Till my coming and I took you to a land as your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Lest Hezekiah shall stimulate you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Did each of the gods of the nations deliver his land from the hand of the king of Assur? 19Where the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where the gods of Sepharvaim? and when have they delivered Shomeron from my hand? 20Who among all the gods of these lands who delivered their land from my hand, that Jehovah will deliver Jerusalem from my hand?

21And they will be silent and not answer him a word: for this the command of the king, saying, Ye shall not answer. 22And Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was over the house, will go in, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, remembering, to Hezekiah, their garments rent, and they will announce to him the words of Rabshakeh.