The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 36
1 Now in the fourteenth year of King
Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria
attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah
and captured them.
2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh
from Lachish to Jerusalem to King
Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by
the aqueduct from the upper pool in the
fuller’s field highway.
3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who
was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the
recorder came out to him.
4 Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell
Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria,
says, “What confidence is this in
which you trust?
5 I say that your counsel and strength
for the war are only vain words. Now in
whom do you trust, that you have rebelled
against me?
6 Behold, you trust in the staff of this
bruised reed, eveninEgypt, whichif aman
leans on it, it will go into his hand and
pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all
who trust in him.
7 But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’
isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars
Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to
Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this
altar’?”
8 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.
9 How then can you turn away the face
of one captain of the least of my master’s
servants, and put your trust in Egypt for
chariots and for horsemen?
10 Have I come up now without Yahweh
againstthis landtodestroy it? Yahwehsaid
to me, “Goup againstthis land, and destroy
it.” ’ ”
11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to
Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants
in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t
speak to us in the Jews’ language in the
hearing ofthe people who are on the wall.”
12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master
sent me only to your master and to you, to
speak these words, and notto the men who
sit on the wall, who will eattheir own dung
and drink their own urine with you?”
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out
with a loud voice in the Jews’ language,
and said, “Hear the words ofthe great king,
the king of Assyria!
14 The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah
deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver
you.
15 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in
Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the
hand of the king of Assyria.”
16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king
of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me,
and come out to me; and each of you eat
from his vine, and each one from his fig
tree, and each one of you drink 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 new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you,
saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” Have any
of the gods of the nations delivered their
lands from the hand ofthe king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and
Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from
my hand?
20 Who are they among all the gods
of these countries that have delivered
their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my
hand?’ ”
21 But they remained silent, and said
nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who
was over 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
Rabshakeh.