Assyria at the Gate
Assyria's commander stands outside the wall and argues in Judean so every listener hears: Egypt is a splintered reed, Hezekiah cannot save you, no nation's god has stopped us yet. He even claims the LORD sent him. The people obey the king and say nothing back.
36 1In King Hezekiah's fourteenth year, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all Judah's fortified cities and captured them. 2The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. He stood at the upper pool's aqueduct, on the road to the Launderer's Field. a a v2 The Rabshakeh was a senior Assyrian military title, roughly equivalent to a field commander or chief of staff. 3Eliakim son of Hilkiah, palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.
4The Rabshakeh told them, "Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What is this confidence you trust in?
5You say you have counsel and strength for war—but that's only talk. Now, whom do you trust, that you've rebelled against me? 6Look, you trust in this crushed reed staff—Egypt—that will pierce your hand and go right through it if you lean on it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7If you tell me, 'We trust in the LORD our God'—isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship before this altar'? b b v7 The Rabshakeh invokes the LORD's name to deceive, not to worship. FHB preserves 'the LORD' rather than 'our Father' when pagan mockers use the name without knowing the Father they name. 8So make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria: I'll give you 2,000 horses—if you can put riders on them. 9How then can you turn back one officer, even the least of my master's servants, when you trust Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10Now, did I come up against this land to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD told me: Go up against this land and destroy it."
11Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the Rabshakeh, "Please speak Aramaic to your servants, since we understand it. Don't speak Judean to us within earshot of the people on the wall." c c v11 'Judean' here means the Hebrew language — the everyday speech of the people of Judah.
12The Rabshakeh replied, "Did my master send me to say this to your master and you, not the men sitting on the wall, who must eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?" 13Then the Rabshakeh stood and shouted in Judean, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14The king says: Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot rescue you. 15Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, 'The LORD will surely rescue us; this city won't fall to Assyria's king.' 16Don't listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Each of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and each of you will drink water from his own well, 17until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Don't let Hezekiah deceive you by saying, 'The LORD will rescue us.' Has any nation's god rescued its land from the king of Assyria's hand? 19Where are gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 20Which of all these lands' gods rescued their land from my hand, that the LORD should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?"
21They stayed silent, answered him not a word—the king's command was, "Don't answer him."
22Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with torn clothes and reported the Rabshakeh's words.
