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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Yeshayah (Isaiah) 36: TS2009
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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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