¹⁷So the king of Assyria sent the commander in chief, the chief eunuch, and the chief advisor^d from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a heavy army. They went up and came to Jerusalem, then they went up and came and stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool which is on the main road of the washer’s^e field. ¹⁸Then they called to the king, so Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them.

Assyrians Advise against Trust in Yahweh

¹⁹Then the chief advisor said to them, “Please say to Hezekiah: ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What is this confidence that you trust? ²⁰You think only a word of lips, ‘I have advice and power for the war.’ Now, on whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Now, look! You rely^f on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which when a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it! So is Pharaoh the king of Egypt for all who are trusting on him! ²²But if you say to me, ‘On Yahweh our God we trust,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and he had said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘In the presence of this altar you shall bow down only in Jerusalem?’

Read in Logos

Footnotes

dTraditionally “Rabshekah”
eOr “fuller’s”
fLiterally “trust for yourself”