Sennacherib Invades Judah^(A)

¹³ In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. ¹⁴ Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me. I will bear whatever you put on me.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[a] of silver and thirty talents^[b] of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan,^[c] the Rabsaris,^[d] and the Rabshakeh^[e] from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the Fuller’s Field. ¹⁸ Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.

¹⁹ Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Speak to Hezekiah:

“Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is the basis of your confidence? ²⁰ You speak empty words concerning counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Now, look! You trust in the staff of this bruised reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²² But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?

²³ “Now, make a wager with my lord king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you are able to set riders on them. ²⁴ How can you turn away one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ²⁵ Have I come up apart from the will of the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.”

²⁶ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Judah in earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

²⁷ But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are about to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸ Then the Rabshakeh stood and called with a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. ²⁹ Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he is not able to deliver you from my hand. ³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

³¹ “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Submit to me; come out to me, so that every man may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, ³² until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die.’

“Do not listen to Hezekiah when he leads you astray saying, The Lord will deliver us. ³³ Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ³⁵ Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

³⁷ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

⁹ After all this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem—while he was at Lachish with all his military force that was with him—to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all Judah that was in Jerusalem stating,

¹⁰ “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria: By what do you all trust that you remain in a besieged Jerusalem? ¹¹ Is not Hezekiah leading you all astray to give you over to death by famine and thirst when he tells you, ‘The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria’? ¹² Has not Hezekiah himself taken down this god’s high places and altars by ordering Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You all will bow down at one altar and on it burn sacrifices’?

¹³ “Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of these lands surely able to rescue their lands from my hand? ¹⁴ Who from among all the gods of these nations that my fathers utterly destroyed was able to rescue his people from my hand? For will your god be able to rescue you all from my hand? ¹⁵ Now do not let Hezekiah trick or lead you all astray in this. And do not believe him, for no god from any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand?”

¹⁶ And his servants continued to speak against the Lord God and Hezekiah his servant. ¹⁷ He also wrote letters to insult the Lord God of Israel, speaking against Him, “As the gods of the nations of other lands did not rescue their people from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not rescue his people from my hand.” ¹⁸ And they proclaimed it also in a loud voice in the Judean language against the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten and terrify them in order to capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the God of Jerusalem like the gods of the other peoples of the earth, which are only objects made by men’s hands.