2 Kings 18:13–19:18; Isaiah 36:1–37:8; 2 Chronicles 32:1–22

2 Kings 18-13–19-18

13In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them. 14King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish- “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me.” So the king of Assyria imposed upon King Hezekiah of Judah a payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was on hand in the House of the Lord and in the treasuries of the palace. 16At that time Hezekiah cut down the doors and the doorposts of the Temple of the Lord, which King Hezekiah had overlaid [with gold], and gave them to the king of Assyria.

17But the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. They marched up to Jerusalem; and when they arrived, they took up a position near the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field. 18They summoned the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them.

19The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah- Thus said the Great King, the King of Assyria- What makes you so confident? 20You must think that mere talk is counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me? 21You rely, of all things, on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it! That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. 22And if you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God, He is the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar in Jerusalem.’ 23Come now, make this wager with my master, the king of Assyria- I’ll give you two thousand horses if you can produce riders to mount them. 24So how could you refuse anything even to the deputy of one of my master’s lesser servants, relying on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25And do you think I have marched against this land to destroy it without the Lord? The Lord Himself told me- Go up against that land and destroy it.”

26Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 27But the Rabshakeh answered them, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall—who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.” 28And the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in Judean- “Hear the words of the Great King, the King of Assyria. 29Thus said the king- Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you from my hands. 30Don’t let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord, saying- The Lord will surely save us- this city will not fall into the hands of the king of Assyria. 31Don’t listen to Hezekiah. For thus said the king of Assyria- Make your peace with me and come out to me, so that you may all eat from your vines and your fig trees and drink water from your cisterns, 32until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain [fields] and vineyards, of bread and wine, of olive oil and honey, so that you may live and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, who misleads you by saying, ‘The Lord will save us.’ 33Did any of the gods of other nations save his land from the king of Assyria? 34Where were the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? [And] did they save Samaria from me? 35Which among all the gods of [those] countries saved their countries from me, that the Lord should save Jerusalem from me?” 36But the people were silent and did not say a word in reply; for the king’s order was- “Do not answer him.” 37And so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and they reported to him what the Rabshakeh had said.

19When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the House of the Lord. 2He also sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah- This day is a day of distress, of chastisement, and of disgrace. The babes have reached the birthstool, but the strength to give birth is lacking. 4Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will mete out judgment for the words that the Lord your God has heard—if you will offer up prayer for the surviving remnant.”
5When King Hezekiah’s ministers came to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows- Thus said the Lord- Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria. 7I will delude him; he will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”

8The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the king] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah. 9But [the king of Assyria] learned that King Tirhakah of Nubia had come out to fight him; so he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Tell this to King Hezekiah of Judah- Do not let your God, on whom you are relying, mislead you into thinking that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hands of the king of Assyria. 11You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, how they have annihilated them; and can you escape? 12Were the nations that my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Beth-edenites in Telassar—saved by their gods? 13Where is the king of Hamath? And the king of Arpad? And the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

14Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Hezekiah then went up to the House of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord of Hosts, Enthroned on the Cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 16O Lord, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to blaspheme the living God! 17True, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have annihilated the nations and their lands, 18and have committed their gods to the flames and have destroyed them; for they are not gods, but man’s handiwork of wood and stone. 19But now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hands, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah 36-1–37-8

36In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them. 2From Lachish, the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a large force, to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. [The Rabshakeh] took up a position near the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field; 3and Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
4The Rabshakeh said to them, “You tell Hezekiah- Thus said the Great King, the king of Assyria- What makes you so confident? 5I suppose mere talk makes counsel and valor for war! Look, on whom are you relying, that you have rebelled against me? 6You are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which enters and punctures the palm of anyone who leans on it. That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. 7And if you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God, He is the very one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah did away with, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship only at this altar!’ 8Come now, make this wager with my master, the king of Assyria- I’ll give you two thousand horses, if you can produce riders to mount them. 9So how could you refuse anything, even to the deputy of one of my master’s lesser servants, relying on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10And do you think I have marched against this land to destroy it without the Lord? The Lord Himself told me- Go up against that land and destroy it.”
11Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah replied to the Rabshakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; do not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people on the wall.” 12But the Rabshakeh replied, “Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak those words? It was precisely to the men who are sitting on the wall—who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine with you.” 13And the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in Judean- 14“Hear the words of the Great King, the king of Assyria! Thus said the king- Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you. 15Don’t let Hezekiah make you rely on the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely save us; this city will not fall into the hands of Assyria!’ 16Don’t listen to Hezekiah. For thus said the king of Assyria- Make your peace with me and come out to me, so that you may all eat from your vines and your fig trees and drink water from your cisterns, 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of bread and wine, of grain [fields] and vineyards. 18Beware of letting Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will save us.’ Did any of the gods of the other nations save his land from the king of Assyria? 19Where were the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvaim? And did they save Samaria from me? 20Which among all the gods of those countries saved their countries from me, that the Lord should save Jerusalem from me?” 21But they were silent and did not answer him with a single word; for the king’s order was- “Do not answer him.”
22And so Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and they reported to him what the Rabshakeh had said.

37When King Hezekiah heard this, he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the House of the Lord. 2He also sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna, the scribe, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Thus said Hezekiah- This day is a day of distress, of chastisement, and of disgrace. The babes have reached the birthstool, but the strength to give birth is lacking. 4Perhaps the Lord your God will take note of the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to blaspheme the living God, and will mete out judgment for the words that the Lord your God has heard—if you will offer up prayer for the surviving remnant.”
5When King Hezekiah’s ministers came to Isaiah, 6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master as follows- Thus said the Lord- Do not be frightened by the words of blasphemy against Me that you have heard from the minions of the king of Assyria. 7I will delude him- He will hear a rumor and return to his land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his land.”
8The Rabshakeh, meanwhile, heard that [the King] had left Lachish; he turned back and found the king of Assyria attacking Libnah.

2 Chronicles 32-1–22

32After these faithful deeds, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and encamped against its fortified towns with the aim of taking them over. 2When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, intent on making war against Jerusalem, 3he consulted with his officers and warriors about stopping the flow of the springs outside the city, and they supported him. 4A large force was assembled to stop up all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, for otherwise, they thought, the king of Assyria would come and find water in abundance. 5He acted with vigor, rebuilding the whole breached wall, raising towers on it, and building another wall outside it. He fortified the Millo of the City of David, and made a great quantity of arms and shields. 6He appointed battle officers over the people; then, gathering them to him in the square of the city gate, he rallied them, saying, 7“Be strong and of good courage; do not be frightened or dismayed by the king of Assyria or by the horde that is with him, for we have more with us than he has with him. 8With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by the speech of King Hezekiah of Judah.

9Afterward, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his officers to Jerusalem—he and all his staff being at Lachish—with this message to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem- 10“Thus said King Sennacherib of Assyria- On what do you trust to enable you to endure a siege in Jerusalem? 11Hezekiah is seducing you to a death of hunger and thirst, saying, ‘The Lord our God will save us from the king of Assyria.’ 12But is not Hezekiah the one who removed His shrines and His altars and commanded the people of Judah and Jerusalem saying, ‘Before this one altar you shall prostrate yourselves, and upon it make your burnt offerings’? 13Surely you know what I and my fathers have done to the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able to save their lands from me? 14Which of all the gods of any of those nations whom my fathers destroyed was able to save his people from me, that your God should be able to save you from me? 15Now then, do not let Hezekiah delude you; do not let him seduce you in this way; do not believe him. For no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from me or from my fathers—much less your God, to save you from me!” 16His officers said still more things against the Lord God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17He also wrote letters reviling the Lord God of Israel, saying of Him, “Just as the gods of the other nations of the earth did not save their people from me, so the God of Hezekiah will not save his people from me.” 18They called loudly in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them into panic, so as to capture the city. 19They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as though He were like the gods of the other peoples of the earth, made by human hands. 20Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this, and cried out to heaven.

21The Lord sent an angel who annihilated every mighty warrior, commander, and officer in the army of the king of Assyria, and he returned in disgrace to his land. He entered the house of his god, and there some of his own offspring struck him down by the sword. 22Thus the Lord delivered Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria, and from everyone; He provided for them on all sides. 23Many brought tribute to the Lord to Jerusalem, and gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah; thereafter he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations.

Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem- Jewish Publication Society) 1985.