Study Desk

And the chief of the cupbearers said to them, Now say to Hezekiah, So says the great king, the king of Assyria, What is this hope in which you have trusted?

Do you say that a mere word of the lips is counsel and strength for battle; now, on whom have you trusted that you have rebelled against me?

Now, behold, you have trusted for yourself on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it! So is Pharaoh the king of Egypt to all those who trust in him.

And when you say to me, We have trusted to Jehovah our God, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Before this altar you shall bow yourselves in Jerusalem?

And, now, I ask you, exchange pledges for yourself to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give to you two thousand horses if you are able to give for yourself riders on them.

And how will you turn back the face of one prefect of the least of the servants of my lord, that you trust for yourself upon Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Now, have I come up against this place to destroy it without Jehovah? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land, and you shall destroy it.

And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said to the chief of the cupbearers, Please speak Aramaic to your servants, for we understand; and do not speak with us in Jewish, in the ears of the people on the wall.

And the chief of the cupbearers said to them, Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master, and to you, and not to the men that sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink the water of their feet with you?

And the chief of the cupbearers stood and called with a great voice in Jewish, and spoke and said, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria;

So says the king, Do not let Hezekiah delude you, for he is not able to deliver you out of his hand;

and do not let Hezekiah make you trust to Jehovah, saying, Jehovah delivering shall deliver us; and, This city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Do not listen to Hezekiah, for so says the king of Assyria, Make with me a peace treaty and come out to me; and you each shall eat of his vine, and each of his fig tree, and you each shall drink of the waters of his own well,

until I come; and I will take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil, and honey; and live, and do not die; and do not listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying,Jehovah shall deliver us.

Have the gods of the nations at all delivered each his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah, that they have delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

But the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, saying, Do not answer him.

And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came in to Hezekiah, having torn their garments; and they told him the words of the chief of the cupbearers.