2 Kings 18:17–25

Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent the ⁷Tartan, the ⁸Rabsaris, and the ⁹Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the ^uaqueduct from the upper pool, ^vwhich was on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. ¹⁸And when they had called to the king, ^wEliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the ¹scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. ¹⁹Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: ^x“What confidence is this in which you trust? ²⁰You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are ²mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? ^21yNow look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²²But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He ^zwhose ³high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?” ’ ²³Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! ²⁴How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ²⁵Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”