13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyah’s (Hezekiah’s) reign, Assyrian King Sanheriv (Sennacherib) attacked all the fortified cities in Yehudah (Judah) and captured them. 14 So King Hizkiyah of Yehudah sent messengers to the Assyrian king at Lakish, saying, “I apologise for my mistake. Stop attacking me and I’ll give you whatever you demand of us.” Then the Assyrian king demanded a tribute of ten tonnes of gold and ten tonnes of silver. 15 So Hizkiyah gave him all the silver out of the temple and from the palace treasuries. 16 He cut the doors off Yahweh’s temple and the pillars that he’d overlaid gold onto, and gave them to the Assyrian king.

17 However, the Assyrian king still sent his general and some of his top officials from Lakish to King Hizkiyah in Yerushalem (Jerusalem). They arrived at Yerushalem with a large army and camped by the aquifer supplying the upper pool that was near the field where the people washed their clothes. 18 They called out to the king, and Hilkiyah’s son Elyakim who was the palace manager, and the scribe Shevna, and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary, went out to them.

19 Then the top Assyrian commander said to them, “Now, tell Hizkiyah that the great Assyrian king asks him who he thinks he’s trusting in. 20 He claims to be powerful enough to fight us. Who is he trusting to help you all that gives you confidence to rebel against us? 21 Listen, your king’s trusting in a broken stick to lean on which will just splinter and pierce his hand. That’s what King Par’oh (Pharaoh) of Mitsrayim (Egypt) is like to everyone who puts their trust in him. 22 Ah, but he might tell me that he’s trusting in your god Yahweh to help you all. If so, I’d ask him if he isn’t the one whose hilltop shrines King Hizkiyah demolished when he told you people in Yerushalem and all Yehudah (Judah) that you have to worship at the altar there?

23 “So now ask your king if he’ll make a deal with my master, the king of Ashur (Assyria): He’ll give you two thousand horses, on the condition that you can supply two thousand horsemen who can ride them. 24 If you can’t do that, how could you all possibly repel even one of our army units? Haha, but of course you trust in Mitsrayim to supply chariots and horsemen. 25 Do you think that we’ve come here to destroy this place without Yahweh’s permission? No, no, it was Yahweh himself who told us to attack and destroy you.”

26 But Elyakim and Shevna and Yoah asked the Assyrian commander, “Please speak Aramaic (Heb. Aramit; Syrian) to your servants because we understand it. Don’t speak our language because our people on the nearby city wall will be able to understand it.”

27 “Ha ha, do you think my master sent this message just to you three and your king?” he replied. “No, don’t you think that this message is also for the hungry people sitting on the wall who’ll soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?”

28 Then he stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, “Everyone listen to what the great king from Ashur says: 29 He’s warning you all not to let Hizkiyah (Hezekiah) deceive you, because he’s unable to save you all from our army. 30 And don’t let him force you all to trust in Yahweh thinking that we won’t capture your city and that Yahweh will somehow rescue you all. 31 Don’t listen to Hizkiyah because the Assyrian king is offering you all a chance to come out of the city and surrender. In exchange for saving me some trouble, you’ll be able to drink fresh water again and enjoy the fruit off your own trees out here 32 until he comes here. Then he’ll take you to another country like your own—with grain and wine, and bread and vineyards, olive oil and honey. That way you’ll live and not die of starvation. So don’t listen to Hizkiyah when he misleads you saying that Yahweh will rescue you all.” 33 Did the gods of any of the other countries rescue their people from the power of the Assyrian king? 34 Where were the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sefarvayim, Hena, and Ivah? Were they able to save Shomron (Samaria) from the king’s power? 35 From all the other countries, which of their gods was able to save their people, that might give confidence that Yahweh might be able to rescue Yerushalem (Jerusalem) from the king’s power?”

36 But the people on the wall listening remained silent—they didn’t say a word because the king had already ordered them not to answer the Assyrians. 37 Then Hilkiyah’s son Elyakim the palace manager, Shevna the scribe and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary went back in the city to Hizkiyah, tearing their clothes as they went, and they relayed the words of the chief commander to him.