Yeshayahu 36 ישעיהו ל״ו

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Ḥizqiyyahu, that Sanĥeriv king of Ashshur came up against all the fortified cities of Yehuda, and took them.

And the king of Ashshur sent Ravshaqe from Lakhish to Yerushalayim to king Ḥizqiyyahu with a great army. And he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool in the highway of the washer’s field.

Then Elyaqim, Ḥilqiyyahu’s son, who was over the house, came out to him, and Shevna the scribe, and Yo᾽aĥ Asaf’s son, the recorder.

And Ravshaqe said to them, Say now to Ḥizqiyyahu, Thus says the great king, the king of Ashshur, What confidence is this in which thou trustest?

I said, A mere word with the lips is thy counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, in Miżrayim; on which if a man lean, it will go into his arm, and pierce it: so is Par῾o king of Miżrayim to all that trust in him.

But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Ḥizqiyyahu has taken away, and said to Yehuda and to Yerushalayim, You shall worship before this altar?

Now therefore make a wager, I pray thee, with my master the king of Ashshur, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.

How then wilt thou turn away the face of one officer of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust in Miżrayim for chariots and for horsemen?

And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? it is the Lord who said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

Then said Elyaqim and Shevna and Yo᾽aĥ to Ravshaqe, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the tongue of Aram: for we understand it: and speak not to us in the language of Yehuda, in the hearing of the people that are on the wall.

But Ravshaqe said, Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own urine with you?

Then Ravshaqe stood, and cried with a loud voice in the language of Yehuda, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Ashshur.

Thus says the king, Let not Ḥizqiyyahu deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.

Neither let Ḥizqiyyahu make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Ashshur.

Hearken not to Ḥizqiyyahu: for thus says the king of Ashshur, Make an agreement with me, and come out to me: and then you may eat every one of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink every one the waters of his own cistern;

until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Beware lest Ḥizqiyyahu persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Ashshur?

Where are the gods of Ḥamat and Arpad? where are the gods of Sefarvayim? and have they delivered Shomeron out of my hand?

Which of the gods of these lands, have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Yerushalayim out of my hand?

But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

Then Elyaqim, the son of Ḥilqiyyahu, that was over the household, and Shevna the scribe, and Yo᾽aĥ, the son of Asaf, the recorder, came to Ḥizqiyyahu with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Ravshaqe.