18 ¹³ In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 18 ¹⁴ And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 18 ¹⁵ And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasuries of the king's house. 18 ¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. 18 ¹⁷ And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Fuller's Field. 18 ¹⁸ And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

18 ¹⁹ And the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this confidence of yours? 18 ²⁰ Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? 18 ²¹ Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 18 ²² But if you say to me, "We rely on Yahweh our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem"? 18 ²³ Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 18 ²⁴ How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 18 ²⁵ Moreover, is it without Yahweh that I have come up against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.' "

18 ²⁶ Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, "Pray, speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall." 18 ²⁷ But the Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?"

18 ²⁸ Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 18 ²⁹ Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. 18 ³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah make you to rely on Yahweh by saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' 18 ³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: 'Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern; 18 ³² until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, Yahweh will deliver us. 18 ³³ Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 18 ³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 18 ³⁵ Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"

18 ³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."