The Koine Bible

And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherim king of the Assyrians went up against the fortified cities of Judea and took them.

And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great force, and he stood in the conduit of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller’s field.

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, went out to him

And Rabshakeh said to them, Say to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what are you trusting?

Is it not by counsel or by words of lips that battle is made? And now on whom have you trusted, that you rebel against me?

Behold, you are trusting in this broken reed staff, in Egypt, which if a man lean on it, it will go into his hand; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt and all those who trust in him.

But if you say, We have trusted in the Lord our God,

Now, make a wager with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to give riders on them

And how are you able to turn back one provincial governor? You are servants, those who have trusted in the Egyptians for horse and rider.

And now, without the Lord, have we come up against this land to make war against it?

And Eliakim and Somnas and Joach said to him, Speak to your servants in Syriac, for we are listening, and do not speak to us in Judean, and why do you speak in the ears of the men who are on the wall?

And Rapsakes said to them: Has my master not sent me to speak these words to your master or to you, rather to the men sitting on the wall, so that they may eat dung and drink urine with you together?

And Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, Hear the words of the king, of the great king of the Assyrians

Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you with words, which will not be able to rescue you.

And let not Hezekiah say to you that God will deliver you and this city shall certainly not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians

Do not listen to Hezekiah; thus says the king of the Assyrians: if you are willing to be blessed, come out to me and each one eat his vine and his fig trees, and drink water from your cistern.

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

Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying, Your God will deliver you; did not the gods of the nations each deliver his own land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?

Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad, and where is the god of the city of Sepharim? Were they not able to deliver Samaria out of my hand?

Who among all the gods of all these nations has delivered his land out of my hand, that God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

And they were silent and no one answered him a word, because the king had commanded no one to answer.

And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe of the force, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came in to Hezekiah, with their garments torn, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.