36 In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hizkiyah (Hezekiah), Ashur’s (Assyria’s) King Sanheriv (Sennacherib) attacked Yehudah’s (Judah’s) fortified cities and captured them. 2 Then from Lakish, the Assyrian king sent his top negotiator to King Hizkiyah in Yerushalem (Jerusalem) with a large army. He stopped by the aqueduct at the upper pool on the road to the field where women wash clothes, 3 and Hilkiyah’s son Elyakim, the palace supervisor, went out to meet him, taking Shevna the administrator, and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary. 4 The negotiator instructed them, “Tell Hizkiyah that Ashur’s powerful king wants to know who or what you think you’re trusting in to rescue you? 5 Your plan and war preparations are only hot air, so who are you relying on that encourages you to rebel against me? 6 Listen, if it’s Mitsrayim (Egypt), that’s like trusting a staff made from a splintered reed. If a man were to lean on it, it would pierce his palm—that’s what relying on Mitsrayim’s King Par’oh (Pharaoh) is like for those who put their trust in him. 7 But if you tell me that you’re relying on your god Yahweh, hasn’t Hizkiyah removed his hilltop shrines and altars, and forced all Yehudah to worship him in front of the altar there in Yerushalem?

8 “So now, make a deal with my master, the Assyrian king. Let me give you two thousand horses if you can find that many riders for them. 9 How could you even repel a captain who’s one of the least of my master’s servants since you’ve been relying on Mitsrayim for chariots and horsemen to rescue you? 10 Also, listen, I didn’t come here to destroy this region without Yahweh—it was Yahweh who told me to come here and destroy this nation.”

11 Then Elyakim and Shevna and Yoah asked the negotiator, “Please speak Aramaic (Heb. Aramit; Syrian) to your servants, because we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are up on the wall.”

12 But the negotiator replied, “Do you think that my master sent me to give this message just to you and your master? Don’t you think that it’s also for the men sitting on the wall who’ll have to join you in eating their own dung and drinking their own urine?”

13 Then the negotiator stood and looked up, and shouted in Hebrew, “Listen to this message from the great Assyrian king. 14 The king says not to let your king Hizkiyah deceive you all, because he won’t be able to save you. 15 Don’t let him make you rely on Yahweh by telling you all that Yahweh will rescue you, and that this city won’t be captured by the Assyrian king. 16 No, don’t listen to Hizkiyah, because the Assyrian king says that if you all surrender and come out here, you’ll be allowed to continue to harvest your own grapevines and fig trees, and everyone will be able to drink the water from their own wells 17 until I come and take you to a land like your own that has grain and new wine—a land with bread and vineyards.

18 “Don’t let Hizkiyah (Hezekiah) mislead you all by saying that Yahweh will rescue you. Did the gods of any other nations saved them from the Assyrian king’s power? 19 Where were Hamat and Arpad’s gods? Where were Sefarvayim’s gods? Did any gods save Shomron (Samaria) from my power? 20 From all those regions, which of their gods saved them from my power, so what makes you all think that Yahweh will save Yerushalem (Jerusalem) from me.”

21 But those on the wall kept silent and didn’t answer him, because King Hizkiyah had ordered them not to respond. 22 Then Elyakim (Hilkiyah’s son who was the palace supervisor) and Shevna (the administrator) and Yoah (the secretary) returned to Hizkiyah with their clothes torn in grief and passed the negotiator’s messages on to him.