Isaiah:36

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah , Sennacherib , king of Assyria , came up against all the fortified cities of Judah , and took them . * And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem , with a great army , against King Hezekiah , and he halted at the aqueduct of the upper pool , in the highway to the fuller ’s field . * Then came forth to him Eliakim , the son of Hilkiah , who was over the palace , and Shebna the scribe , and Josh , the son of Asaph , the annalist . * And Rabshakeh said to them , Say ye to Hezekiah , Thus saith the great king , the king of Assyria : What a confidence is this which thou cherishest ! * Thou sayest , (but it is vain talk ,) "I have counsel and strength for war ." In whom , then , dost thou trust , that thou rebellest against me ? * Behold , thou trustest in that broken reed –staff , Egypt , on which if a man lean , it will pierce his hand , and go through it . Such is Pharaoh , king of Egypt , to all that trust in him . * But if ye say to me , "We trust in Jehovah , our God ,"––is it not he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away , and commanded Judah and Jerusalem to worship before this altar ? * Engage , now , with my master , the king of Assyria ! and I will give thee two thousand horses , when thou art able to provide for thyself riders for them . * How , then , canst thou resist a single captain , one of the least of the servants of my master ? Yet thou trustest in Egypt , on account of her chariots and her horsemen . * And am I now come up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it ? Jehovah hath said to me , "Go up against this land and destroy it !" * Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Josh to Rabshakeh : Speak , we beseech thee , to thy servants in the Aramaic language , for we understand it ; and speak not to us in the Jewish language , in the hearing of the people that are upon the wall . * But Rabshakeh said , Hath my master sent me to speak these words to thy master and to thee only , and not to the people who sit upon the wall , to eat their own dung , and to drink their own urine with you ? * Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language , and said , Hear ye the words of the great king , the king of Assyria . * Thus saith the king : Let not Hezekiah deceive you , for he will not be able to deliver you . * And let not Hezekiah persuade you to trust in Jehovah , saying , "Jehovah will certainly deliver us . This city shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria ." * Hearken not to Hezekiah ; for thus saith the king of Assyria : Make peace with me , and come out to me ; and ye shall every one eat of his own vine , and every one of his own fig –tree , and ye shall every one drink the waters of his own cistern , * until I come , and take you to a land like your own land ; a land of corn , and of new wine , a land of bread and of vineyards . * Be not persuaded by Hezekiah , when he saith , "Jehovah will deliver us ." Have the gods of the nations delivered every one his own land from the hand of the king of Assyria ? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arphad ? * Where are the gods of Sepharvaim ? And did the gods deliver Samaria from my hand ? * Who is there among all the gods of these lands , that hath delivered his land out of my hand , that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand ? * But the people held their peace , and answered him not a word ; for the king ’s command was , "Answer him not ." * Then came Eliakim , the son of Hilkiah , that was over the palace , and Shebna the scribe , and Joah , the son of Asaph , the annalist , to Hezekiah , with their clothes rent , and told him the words of Rabshakeh .

---