Isaiah 36
36
Chapter 36 #36:0 Chapters 36 to 39 tell us about the time when the Assyrian army attacked God's people in Judah. The Lord kept Jerusalem safe from Assyria's soldiers.
Assyria's army attacks Judah
1When King Hezekiah had ruled Judah for 14 years, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked Judah with his army. He took all the strong cities in Judah for himself. #36:1 Jerusalem was not one of the cities that the king of Assyria had taken for himself. 2Then the king of Assyria sent his army officer from Lachish to Jerusalem, to speak to King Hezekiah. The officer took a large army with him. He stopped at the stream of water that came from the higher pool. It was on the road to the field where people washed clothes.
3These people came out to meet him:
Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who was the most important officer in the king's palace.
Shebna, a government officer.
Asaph's son, Joah, the king's secretary.
4The Assyrian army officer said to them, ‘Tell Hezekiah that the great king, the king of Assyria, says this to him:
“Why are you so sure that someone will rescue you from our power? 5You say that you have good plans. You say that your army is strong. But those are only useless words! You have turned against me, so who are you trusting to save you? 6Yes, you think that Egypt is strong enough to help you. But you should not trust Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He is like a weak stick. If you use it to walk with, it will break! A broken piece of stick will make a hole through your hand and give you much pain! That is the trouble that the king of Egypt brings to everyone who trusts him to help them. 7Maybe you will say to me, ‘We are trusting the Lord our God to help us.’ But it was your king, Hezekiah, who removed the altars and the special places where you worship your God. He told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship God only at the altar here in Jerusalem.’ ”
8So you should make an agreement with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses, if you have enough riders to put on them. 9You cannot refuse what I offer to you! And I am only an unimportant officer who serves my master. You are hoping that Egypt will give you chariots and men to ride on horses. But you will never be strong enough to win a battle against us. 10You should also understand this: It was the Lord himself who commanded me to bring my army here and attack Jerusalem. He said to me, “Attack this country and destroy it!” ’
11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the leader of the Assyrian army, ‘Please sir, speak to us in the Aramaic language. We can understand it. Do not speak to us in the Hebrew language, because all the people who are on the wall of the city will understand it.’
12But the Assyrian army leader replied, ‘My master did not send me here to give this message only to your king and to you. The men who are sitting on the city wall also need to hear my master's message. Like you, they will soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.’
13Then the Assyrian army leader stood there and he shouted in the Hebrew language, ‘Listen to this message from the great king, the king of Assyria! 14This is what the king says to you:
“Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot save you from my power. 15Do not believe Hezekiah when he tells you that you can trust the Lord to help you. He says, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. He will not let the king of Assyria take this city for himself.’ 16Do not believe what Hezekiah says!”
This is what the king of Assyria says to you: “Show me that you accept my offer of peace and come out of your city. Then you will all live safely in your homes. You will eat the fruit from your own vines and fig trees. You will drink the water from your own wells. 17Later, I will come to Jerusalem. I will take you away to a country that is like your own land here. There will be plenty of grain and new wine for you in that country. There will be bread and there will be vineyards. 18Do not let Hezekiah deceive you when he says, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ No god of any nation has ever saved his country from the king of Assyria's power.
19The gods of Hamath and Arpad could not help their people. The gods of Sepharvaim could not help their people either. No god was able to rescue Samaria from my power. 20No god among all the gods of those countries could save their people from my power. So do not think that the Lord can save Jerusalem from my power.” ’
21When the people who were sitting on the wall heard this, they were quiet. They did not reply, because King Hezekiah had said, ‘Do not answer him.’
22Then King Hezekiah's three officers, Eliakim, Shebna and Joah, went back to Hezekiah. They had torn their clothes because they were very upset. They told the king what the Assyrian officer had said.
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Isaiah 36: EASY
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Yeshayah (Isaiah) 36
36
1And it came to be in the fourteenth year of Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu that Sanḥĕriḇ sovereign of Ashshur came up against all the walled cities of Yehuḏah and took them.
2And the sovereign of Ashshur sent the Raḇshaqĕh with a great army from Laḵish to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu at Yerushalayim. And he stood by the channel of the upper pool, on the highway to the Launderer’s Field.
3And there came to him Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, who was over the household, and Sheḇnah the scribe, and Yo’aḥ son of Asaph, the recorder.
4The Raḇshaqĕh then said to them, “Please say to Ḥizqiyahu, ‘Thus said the great sovereign, the sovereign of Ashshur, “What trust is this in which you trust?
5“I say: You speak of having counsel and strength for battle, but they are vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6“Look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Mitsrayim, on which if a man leans, it shall go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh the sovereign of Mitsrayim to all who trust in him.
7“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in יהוה our Elohim,’ is it not He whose high places and whose slaughter-places Ḥizqiyahu has taken away, and has said to Yehuḏah and to Yerushalayim, ‘Bow yourselves before this slaughter-place’?
8“And now, I urge you, please give a pledge to my master the sovereign of Ashshur, and I give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
9“And how do you refuse one officer of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Mitsrayim for chariots and horsemen?
10“And now, have I come up without יהוה against this land to destroy it? יהוה said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”
11And Elyaqim, Sheḇnah, and Yo’aḥ said to the Raḇshaqĕh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. And do not speak to us in the language of Yehuḏah in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12But the Raḇshaqĕh said, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
13And the Raḇshaqĕh stood and called out with a loud voice in the language of Yehuḏah, and said, “Hear the words of the great sovereign, the sovereign of Ashshur!
14“Thus said the sovereign, ‘Do not let Ḥizqiyahu deceive you, for he is unable to deliver you,
15and do not let Ḥizqiyahu make you trust in יהוה, saying, “יהוה shall certainly deliver us, this city is not given into the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur.” ’
16“Do not listen to Ḥizqiyahu, for thus said the sovereign of Ashshur, ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me. And let each of you eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree, and each of you drink the waters of his own cistern,
17until I come. Then I shall take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18Beware lest Ḥizqiyahu mislead you, saying, “יהוה shall deliver us.” Has any one of the mighty ones of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the sovereign of Ashshur?
19Where are the mighty ones of Ḥamath and Arpaḏ? Where are the mighty ones of Sepharwayim? And when have they delivered Shomeron from my hand?
20Who among all the mighty ones of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that יהוה should deliver Yerushalayim from my hand?’ ”
21But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the command of the sovereign was, “Do not answer him.”
22And Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, who was over the household, Sheḇnah the scribe, and Yo’aḥ son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Ḥizqiyahu with their garments torn, and they reported to him the words of the Raḇshaqĕh.
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