Second Kings 18:18-36

¹⁸When they had called to King Hezekiah, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, went out to meet them.

¹⁹So the chief commander said to them to tell Hezekiah what the great king, the king of Assyria, said: “What is the source of your confidence?

²⁰You speak only useless words, saying there are allies and strength for war. In whom are you trusting, that you should rebel against me?

²¹Look, you trust in the walking stick of this bruised reed of Egypt, but if a man leans on it, it will stick into his hand and pierce it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to anyone who trusts in him.

²²But if you say to me, 'We are trusting in Yahweh our God,' is not he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem'?

²³Now therefore, I want to make you a good offer from my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to find riders for them.

²⁴How could you resist even one captain of the least of my master's servants? You have put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen!

²⁵Have I traveled up here without Yahweh to fight against this place and destroy it? Yahweh said to me, 'Attack this land and destroy it.'”

²⁶Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah said to the chief commander, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Judah in the ears of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷But the chief commander said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, who will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸Then the chief commander stood and shouted in a loud voice in the Jews' language, saying, “Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹The king says, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to rescue you from my power.

³⁰Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely rescue us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”'

³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and from his own fig tree, and drink from the water in his own cistern.

³²You will do this 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, a land of olive trees and honey, so that you may live and not die.' Do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to persuade you, saying, 'Yahweh will rescue us.'

³³Has any of the gods of the peoples rescued them out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria out of my hand?

³⁵Among all the gods of the lands, is there any god who has rescued his land from my power? How could Yahweh save Jerusalem from my might?”

³⁶But the people remained silent and did not respond, for the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”