CLV(i)
1 Now it is coming, in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that up comes Sennacherib, king of Assyria, against all the defended cities of Judah, and is taking them."
2 And the king of Assyria is sending the grand cupbearer from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah, with a very heavy army. And he is standing in the trench of the uppermost reservoir, in the highway of the field of the launderer."
3 And faring forth to him is Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who is over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the recorder."
4 And saying to them is the grand cupbearer, "Say, pray, to Hezekiah, `Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What trust is this in which you trust?
5 You say, yea, a word of the lips, `Counsel and mastery for war.' Now, on whom do you trust, that you revolt against me?
6 Behold! You trust on a staff, this bruised reed, on Egypt, which, when a man is supported by it, then it enters into his palm and pierces it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those trusting in him."
7 `"And, in case you are saying to me, `In Yahweh, our Elohim, we trust,' is it not He Whose fane heights and altars Hezekiah took away when he is saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, `Before this altar shall you worship in Jerusalem'"?
8 `And now, pray, give hostages to my lord, the king of Assyria, and I will give to you two thousand horses, if you can put your riders on them."
9 Then how will you reverse the face of one viceroy of my lord's small servants? Yet you yourself are trusting on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen.
10 `And now, apart from Yahweh, did I come up against this land to ruin it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up to this land to ruin it."'"
11 And saying are Eliakim, and Shebna and Joah to the grand cupbearer, "Speak, pray, with your servants, with us in Syrian, for we have hearers, and you must not speak these words to us in Jewish. And why are you speaking in the ears of the people, these mortals who are sitting on the wall?
12 Yet saying is the grand cupbearer, "Is it to your lord and to you that my lord sends me to speak these words? Not to the mortals sitting on the wall, that shall eat their own excrement and drink their urine, with you?
13 And the grand cupbearer is standing and calling in a loud voice in Jewish, and saying, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria."
14 Thus saith the king of Assyria, `Hezekiah must not lure you by words, for he cannot rescue you."
15 Nor must Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, by saying, "Rescue, yea rescue us will Yahweh, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
16 You must not hearken to Hezekiah.' "For thus says the king of Assyria, `Make of me a blessing, and fare forth to me, and eat, each man of his vine and each man of his fig tree, and drink, each man the waters of his cistern,
17 till I come and take you to a land as your land, to a land of grain and grape juice, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, fresh oil and honey, and you shall live and not die. And you must not be hearkening to Hezekiah,
18 lest Hezekiah shall incite you, saying, "Yahweh will rescue you.Did the elohim of the nations rescue any man's land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the elohim of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the elohim of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? And where are the elohim of the land of Samaria? And when have they rescued Samaria from my hand?
20 Which, among all the elohim of these lands, have rescued their land from my hand, assuring you that Yahweh will rescue Jerusalem from my hand?'"
21 Yet they are silent, and do not answer him a word, for it is the instruction of the king, saying, "You shall not answer him."
22 And coming are Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, who is over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah, with torn garments, and they are telling him the words of the grand cupbearer."