In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish and let him know about the wrong he had done. And the Assyrians required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver and gold that was in the house of the Lord and the king’s house. He cut the gold sheet from the doors of the temple and gave it to the Assyrians. The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish with a great army to king Hezekiah at Jerusalem. There by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway by the fuller’s field, they called for Hezekiah. The steward Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph came out to them. Rabshakeh said to them, “Sennacherib asks for your loyalty and why have you rebelled, Hezekiah? Egypt, the broken reed, is no more. It will pierce your hand if you lean on it. Like Pharaoh himself, Hezekiah has removed all the high places and altars and has said God may only be worshiped at the altar in Jerusalem. I will give you two thousand horses without riders for a bet, if you are able to set riders on them.” And he raged and said, “The Lord has sent us up to you to destroy you!” Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak to your servants in
Aramaic, for we understand it, and not in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall. Then Rabshakeh was angry and cried with a loud voice in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king of Assyria, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not trust in the Lord to save you. This city will also fall into the hands of Assyria. Make peace with me, and everyone of you will eat from his own vine, and fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain, wine, bread and vineyards, olive trees and honey. You will remain alive and not eat dung and drink grain as you do here. Do not listen to Hezekiah! Has any of the nations ever been delivered out of the hand of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Where are the gods of Samaria? Have they delivered themselves out of my hand? How? Where is a god among all the gods of all the countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
But the people held their peace and did not answer, as the king had commanded them. And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe and Joah went back to King Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what had happened.