II Kings 18 Sennacherib invades Judah

 II Kings 18

Sennacherib invades Judah

13 But in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have sinned; depart from me; whatever you impose on me I will take." Then the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

15 So Hezekiah gave 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 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, from Lachish, with a great army, to King Hezekiah, to Jerusalem: and they went up, and came to Jerusalem: and as they went up and came, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is by the way of the fuller's field.

 18 And they called the king: and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.

 19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Tell Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which thou trustest? 

20 Thou sayest (but the word of thy lips is), There is counsel and power for war. In whom then do thou trust now, that thou rebellest against me? 

21 Now you trust in Egypt, a staff of broken reeds; if anyone leans on it, it will go through his hand and pierce it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him. 

22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is this not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You will bow down to this altar in Jerusalem?’ 

23 Now therefore give hostages to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to give them riders. 

24 How then can you turn away the face of one of the least of my lord’s servants? Yet you trust in Egypt because of the chariots and horsemen. 

25 Now therefore have I come up against this place without the Lord 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 Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Syriac, for we understand it, and do not speak to us in Judah in the ears of the people who are on the wall."

 27 But Rabshakeh said to them, "Did my lord send me to speak these words only to your lord and to you, and not to the men who sit on the wall, so that they may eat their dung and drink their urine with you?" 

28 So Rabshakeh stood up and cried out with a loud voice in Judah, and spoke, and said, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 

29 Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand. 

30 Neither 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: ‘Make a bargain with me for a present, and come out to me, and let each of you eat his vine and his fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern,

32 Until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees, oil and honey; then you will live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is urging you, saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’

33 Have the gods of the nations been able to deliver each of their lands out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

34 What about the gods of Hamath and Arpad? What has become of the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

35 Who are they among all the gods of the lands who have delivered their land out of my hand, so that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

36 But the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded, “You shall not answer him.”

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