CLV(i)
14 and Hezekiah king of Judah sends unto the king of Asshur to Lachish, saying, `I have sinned, turn back from off me; that which you put on me I bear;' and the king of Asshur lays on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold,
15 and Hezekiah gives all the silver that is found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the house of the king;"
16 at that time has Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and the pillars that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gives them to the king of Asshur.
17 And the king of Asshur sends Tartan, and the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the butlers, from Lachish, unto king Hezekiah, with a heavy force, to Jerusalem, and they go up and come in to Jerusalem, and they go up, and come in and stand by the conduit of the upper pool that [is] in the highway of the fuller's field.
18 And they call unto the king, and go out unto them does Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who [is] over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the remembrancer.
19 And the chief of the butlers said unto them, `Say, I pray you, unto Hezekiah, Thus said the great king, the king of Asshur, What [is] this confidence in which you have confided?
20 You have said:Only a word of the lips! counsel and might [are] for battle; now, on whom have you trusted that you have rebelled against me?
21 `Now, lo, you have trusted for you on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which a man leans on, and it has gone into his hand, and pierced it! --so [is] Pharaoh king of Egypt to all those trusting on him.
22 `And when you say unto me, Unto Yahweh our Elohim we have trusted, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has turned aside, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Before this altar do you bow yourselves in Jerusalem?
23 `And, now, give a pledge for you, I pray you, to my lord the king of Asshur, and I give to you two thousand horses, if you are able to give for you riders on them.
24 And how do you turn back the face of one captain of the least of the servants of my lord, that you do trust for you on Egypt for chariot, and for horsemen?
25 Now, without Yahweh have I come up against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said unto me, Go up against this land, and you have destroyed it..
26 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah said--and Shebna, and Joah--to the chief of the butlers, `Speak, we pray you, unto your servants [in] Aramean, for we are understanding, and do not speak with us [in] Jewish, in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall..
27 And the chief of the butlers said unto them, `For your lord, and unto you, has my lord sent me to speak these words? is it not for the men, those sitting on the wall to eat their own dung and to drink their own water, with you?.
28 And the chief of the butlers stands and calls with a great voice [in] Jewish, and speaks and said, `Hear you a word of the great king, the king of Asshur.
29 thus said the king, Let not Hezekiah lift you up, for he is not able to deliver you out of his hand;"
30 and let not Hezekiah make you trust unto Yahweh, saying, Yahweh does certainly deliver us, and this city is not given into the hand of the king of Asshur.
31 `Do not hearken unto Hezekiah, for thus said the king of Asshur, Make with me a blessing, and come out unto me, and eat you each of his vine, and each of his fig-tree, and drink you each the waters of his own well,
32 till my coming in, and I have taken you unto a land like your own land, a land of corn and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive, and honey, and live, and die not; and do not hearken unto Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, Yahweh does deliver us.
33 `Have the elohims of the nations delivered at all each his land out of the hand of the king of Asshur?
34 Where [are] the elohims of Hamath and Arpad? where the elohims of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah, that they have delivered Samaria out of my hand?
35 Who [are they] among all the elohims of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that Yahweh does deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?.
36 And the people have kept silent, and have not answered him a word, for the command of the king is, saying, `Do not answer him..
37 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who [is] over the house, comes in, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the remembrancer, unto Hezekiah, with rent garments, and they declare to him the words of the chief of the butlers.