Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign,
Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified
cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of
Assyria sent his field commander with a large army
from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the
commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper
pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field, 3 Eliakim son
of Hikiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary,
and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
4 The field commander said to them, "Tell Hezekiah:
" 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says:
On what are you basing this confidence of yours? 5 You say
you have counsel and might for war--but you speak only empty
words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?
6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that
splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of
anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of
Egypt to all who depend on him. 7 But if you say to
me, "We are depending on the LORD our God" --isn't
he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah
removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must
worship before this altar"?
8 " 'Come now, make a bargain with my master, the
king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses
--if you can put riders on them! 9 How then can you
repulse one officer of the least of my master's officials,
even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots
and horsemen? 10 Furthermore, have I come to attack
and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself
told me to march against this country and destroy it.' "
11 Then Eliakim, shebna and Joah said to the field
commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,
since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in
the hearing of the people on the wall."
12 But the commander replied, "Was it only to your
master and you that my master sent me to say these
things, and not to the people sitting on the wall--who,
like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink
their own urine?"
13 Then the commander stood and called out in
Hebrew, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of
Assyria! 14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah
deceive you. He cannot deliver you! 15 Do not let Hezekiah
persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD
will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the
hand of the king of Assyria.'
16 "Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of
Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me.
Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and
fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 17 until
I come and take you to a land like your own-- a land of
grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 "Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says,
'The LORD will deliver us.' Have the gods of any nations
ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of
Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?
Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued
Samaria from my hand? 20 Who of all the gods of these
countries have been able to save their lands from me?
How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my
hand?"
21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in
reply, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer
him."
22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,
Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder
went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what
the field commander had said.