UST ISA Chapter 36

◄ ISA 36 ► ║ ═ ©

36 After Hezekiah had been ruling Judah for almost 14 years, King Sennacherib of Assyria led his army to attack all of the cities in Judah that had walls around them. They started capturing these cities one by one. 2 The king of Assyria sent one of his most important officials, the Rabshakeh, with a large army from the city of Lachish to persuade King Hezekiah to surrender. When the army reached Jerusalem, they stopped alongside the aqueduct through which water flowed from the Upper Pool into Jerusalem. They stopped at the place where it went under the road that led to the Field of the Fuller. 3 Hezekiah sent three of his officials to speak with him. He sent Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace. He also sent Shebna, his official secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the official who reported to the people everything that Hezekiah decided they should do. 4 The Rabshakeh told them to tell Hezekiah, “The great king, the king of Assyria, says that you have no reason to expect that anyone will help you fight against him. 5 You claim that you have a strong enough army and good enough plans to resist him. But that is only talk. You can not resist him alone, and you can not depend on anyone else to help you. So you should not have rebelled against him. 6 In fact, you are relying on the army of Egypt to help you. But you must realize that that is like using a broken reed as a staff for support. The pointed end of such a staff would make a hole in the hand of anyone who tried to use it! That is what Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is like. He hurts anyone who relies on him for help.” 7 The Rabshakeh then said to Hezekiah’s officials, “Perhaps you will tell me that you are relying on Yahweh your God to help you. But he will not help you, because Hezekiah has insulted him by destroying his hilltop shrines and the altars on which the Judeans were offering sacrifices to him. Hezekiah has required everyone who lives in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judah to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. 8 So tell Hezekiah for me that I am offering him a deal on behalf of my master, the king of Assyria. I will give him 2,000 horses if he still has enough healthy soldiers to ride on them! 9 But also tell him that I know that even if I gave him those horses, he would not be able to defeat the squad of one of the least important officers in our army. Tell him I know that is why he is hoping that the king of Egypt will send chariots and soldiers on horseback to help him. 10 Furthermore, do not think that we have come to destroy Judah without Yahweh’s help. It is Yahweh himself who told us to come here and destroy this land!”

11 Then Eliakim told the Rabshakeh on behalf of himself and Shebna and Joah, “Sir, please speak to us in your own Aramaic language. We understand it. Do not keep speaking to us in our Judean language. The people who are standing on the wall can hear and understand you, and you are frightening them.” 12 But the Rabshakeh told Eliakim, “You should not think that my master sent me to say these things only to your king and to you and not also to the people on the wall who are listening! If you do not surrender, we will besiege the city, and soon they will have nothing to eat but their own dung and nothing to drink but their own urine. The three of you will also have nothing else to eat or drink.” 13 Then the Rabshakeh directly faced the people on the wall. He shouted to them in Judean, “Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria. 14 He says that you must not allow Hezekiah to deceive you. Hezekiah will not be able to rescue you from his army. 15 The king says that you must not allow Hezekiah to persuade you to rely on Yahweh by telling you that Yahweh will certainly rescue you and not allow the army of the king of Assyria to capture this city! 16 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you! The king of Assyria says that you should come out of the city and surrender to him. He says that if you do that, instead of being very hungry as you are now, each of you will be able to eat the grapes and figs you have grown and drink water from your own wells. 17 He promises that you will be able to do that until his soldiers come and take you to a land that is like your land. It will be a land where you can grow grain to make bread and grow grapes to make wine. 18 The king says that you must not believe Hezekiah, because he is deceiving you when he says that Yahweh will rescue you. The king reminds you that none of the gods that the people of other nations worship have been able to prevent him from conquering those nations! 19 The gods of Hamath and Arpad did not come and rescue the people who lived there! The gods of Sepharvaim did not come and rescue the people who lived there! And even the gods of Samaria did not prevent me from conquering it! 20 The king reminds you that none of these gods prevented him from conquering the people who worshiped them. So do not think that Yahweh will prevent him from conquering Jerusalem.”

21 King Hezekiah had commanded the people, “When the Rabshakeh speaks to you, do not answer him.” So the people who were listening did not say anything in reply to him. 22 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes because they felt great distress. They went back to Hezekiah and told him what the Rabshakeh had said.