Now it came to pass in the fourteenthyear of kingHezekiah, thatSennacheribking of Assyriacame up against all the defencedcities of Judah, and tookthem.
And the king of AssyriasentRabshakehfromLachish to JerusalemuntokingHezekiahwith a greatarmy. And he stood by the conduit of the upperpool in the highway of the fuller’sfield.
Lo, thoutrustest in the staff of thisbrokenreed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaohking of Egypt to all thattrust in him.
But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not he, whosehighplaces and whosealtarsHezekiahhathtakenaway, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shallworshipbeforethisaltar?
Now thereforegivepledges, I praythee, to my master the king of Assyria, and I willgivethee two thousandhorses, if thou be able on thy part to set ridersuponthem.
ThensaidEliakim and Shebna and JoahuntoRabshakeh, Speak, I praythee, unto thy servants in the Syrianlanguage; for we understand it; and speak not to us in the Jews’language, in the ears of the peoplethat are on the wall.
But Rabshakehsaid, Hath my mastersent me to thy master and to thee to speakthesewords? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, thatthey may eat their own dung, and drinktheir own pisswith you?
Neither let Hezekiahmake you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORDwillsurelydeliver us: thiscityshall not be deliveredinto the hand of the king of Assyria.
Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thussaith the king of Assyria, Make an agreementwith me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
BewarelestHezekiahpersuade you, saying, The LORDwilldeliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nationsdelivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
ThencameEliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiahwiththeirclothesrent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.