Isaiah 36
36
CHAPTER 36
1And it was done in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of Assyrians, ascended [or went up] on all the strong cities of Judah, and took them.
2And the king of Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with great power; and he stood at the water conduit of the higher cistern, in the way of the field of a fuller, or tucker.
3And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was on the house, went out to him, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the chancellor.
4And Rabshakeh said to them, Say ye to Hezekiah, The great king, the king of Assyrians, saith these things, What is the trust, in which thou trustest?
5either by what counsel either strength disposest thou for to rebel? on whom hast thou trust, for thou hast gone away from me?
6Lo! thou trustest on this broken staff of reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leaneth, either resteth, it shall enter into his hand, and shall pierce it; so doeth Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all men that trust in him.
7That if thou answerest to me, We trust in our Lord God [or in the Lord our God]; whether it is not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah did away, and he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?
8And now betake thee to my lord, the king of Assyrians, and I shall give to thee two thousand horses, and thou mayest not give of thee riders of those horses.
9And how shalt thou abide the face of the judge of one place of the less servants of my lord? That if thou trustest in Egypt, and in carts, and in knights;
10and now whether I ascended [or went up] to this land without the Lord, that I should destroy it? The Lord said to me, Ascend thou [or Go up] on this land, and destroy thou it.
11And Eliakim, and Shebna, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, Speak thou to thy servants by the language of Syria, for we understand; speak thou not to us by the language of Jews, in the ears of the people, which is on the wall.
12And Rabshakeh said to them, Whether my lord sent me to thy lord, and to thee, that I should speak all these words, and not rather to the men that sit on the wall, that they eat their turds, and drink the piss off their feet, with you?
13And Rabshakeh stood, and cried with [a] great voice in the language of Jews, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyrians.
14The king saith these things, Hezekiah deceive not you, for he may not deliver you;
15and Hezekiah give not to you trust on the Lord, and say, The Lord delivering shall deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyrians.
16Do not ye hear Hezekiah. For why the king of Assyrians saith these things, Make ye blessing with me, and go ye out to me; and eat ye each man his vinery [or his vine], and each man his fig tree, and drink ye each man the water of his cistern,
17till I come, and take away you to a land which is as your land; to a land of wheat and of wine, to a land of loaves and of vineries [or vines].
18Hezekiah trouble not you, and say, The Lord shall deliver us. Whether the gods of folks delivered each his land from the hand of the king of Assyrians?
19Where is the god of Hamath, and of Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Whether they delivered Samaria from mine hand?
20Who is of all [the] gods of these lands, that delivered his land from mine hand, that the Lord deliver Jerusalem from mine hand?
21And they were still, and answered not to him a word. For why the king commanded to them, and said, Answer ye not to him.
22And Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was on the house, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, chancellor, entered with rent clothes to Hezekiah, and told to him the words of Rabshakeh.
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Isaiah 36: WBMS
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Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
Wycliffe’s Apocrypha ©2013, 2015
Wycliffe’s Bible © 2012, 2015
Wycliffe’s New Testament ©2001, 2011
Wycliffe’s Old Testament ©2001, 2010
Isaiah 36
36
Assyria Invades Judah
1In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign,#36:1 The fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign was 701 b.c. King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them. 2Then the king of Assyria sent his chief of staff#36:2a Or the rabshakeh; also in 36:4, 11, 12, 22. from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.#36:2b Or bleached.
3These are the officials who went out to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.
Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
4Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah:
“This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident? 5Do you think#36:5 As in Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kgs 18:20); Masoretic Text reads Do I think. that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me? 6On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!
7“But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?
8“I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them! 9With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers? 10What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without the Lord’s direction? The Lord himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”
11Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew,#36:11 Hebrew in the dialect of Judah; also in 36:13. for the people on the wall will hear.”
12But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”
13Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! 14This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you. 15Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
16“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well. 17Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.
18“Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? 19What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? 20What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
21But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”
22Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.
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