Isaiah Chapter 36

Sennacherib Invades Judah

¹ In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked the fortified towns in Judah and took them. ² He sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem with a large army. They took position by the aqueduct to the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field. ³ Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna, the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went out to meet them.

⁴ The Rabshakeh said,

“Tell Hezekiah the great king of Assyria says, ‘What’s this confidence you claim to have? ⁵ Empty talk can’t substitute for military strategy and power. Who are you depending on when you rebel against me? ⁶ Are you depending on Egypt as a staff? If you lean on that splintering reed, it’ll puncture your hand. That’s the way Pharaoh operates with everybody that depends on him. ⁷ If you tell me you’re trusting in the LORD your God, isn’t he the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has closed down, and made Judah and Jerusalem worship at this altar in Jerusalem? ⁸ Come on, make a deal with my master: I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them. ⁹ Can you drive off even the least of my master’s contingents even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and cavalry? ¹⁰ Anyway, haven’t I actually come up at the LORD’s behest to destroy this place? He’s told me to attack this land and destroy it.’”    

Is 36:1-10

¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the Rabshakeh, “Speak in Aramaic; we understand it. Don’t speak in Hebrew. There are people listening on the wall.”              

¹² But he shouted in Hebrew,

“Has my master just sent me to you and your master with this message? Hasn’t he also sent me to those people sitting on the wall that are doomed to eat their own feces and drink their own urine with you?

Is 36:11-12

¹³ “Listen to what the great king of Assyria says, ¹⁴ ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; he can’t deliver you. ¹⁵ Don’t let him make you trust in the LORD, “The LORD will deliver us. This city won’t be delivered to the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶ Don’t listen to him.  Surrender and come out to me. Eat from your own grapevines and fig trees, and drink water from your own cisterns, ¹⁷ till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land with grain and new wine, bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you. Have any of the nations’ gods delivered their lands from the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath, Arpad, and Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from me? ²⁰ Will the LORD deliver Jerusalem from me?’”

²¹ But they didn’t answer him; the king told them not to. ²² They went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in despair and told him what the Rabshakeh said.                

Is 36:13-21