Sennacherib Threatens Jerusalem
(2 Kings 18:13–37; 2 Chronicles 32:1–8)
In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. 2Ch 32:12Ki 18:132Ki 18:17Isa 10:28-32Isa 1:7-8Isa 33:7-8Isa 7:17Isa 8:7-8 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, 1 with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 2Ch 32:9-23Isa 7:32Ki 18:17-37Isa 22:9-11
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him. 2Sa 20:24-252Sa 8:16-17Isa 22:15-21
The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? 2Ki 18:19-372Ch 32:14-162Ch 32:7-102Ki 18:52Ki 19:10Act 12:22-23Ezk 31:3-18Isa 10:8-14 You claim to have 2a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me? 2Ki 18:72Ki 24:1Ezk 17:15Jer 52:3Neh 2:19-20Pro 21:30-31Pro 24:5-6
Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. Ezk 29:6-72Ki 18:212Ki 17:4Isa 20:5-6Isa 30:1-7Isa 31:3Jer 37:5-8 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar’? 2Ki 18:4-51Co 2:15Psa 42:10-11Psa 42:51Ch 5:202Ch 16:7-92Ch 30:142Ch 31:1
Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! 1Sa 17:40-431Ki 20:101Ki 20:182Ki 14:142Ki 18:23Neh 4:2-5Psa 123:3-4Psa 20:7-8 For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Isa 10:82Ki 18:24Deu 17:16Isa 20:5Isa 30:16-17Isa 30:2-5Isa 30:7Isa 31:3 So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” 2Ki 18:25Isa 10:5-71Ki 13:182Ch 35:21Amo 3:6Isa 37:28
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew 3in the hearing of the people on the wall.” Ezr 4:7Dan 2:42Ki 18:26-27
But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?” 2Ki 18:27Lev 26:292Ki 6:25-29Deu 28:53-57Ezk 4:16Isa 9:20Jer 19:9Lam 4:9-10
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 2Ch 32:181Sa 17:8-112Ki 18:28-32Dan 4:37Ezk 31:3-10Isa 10:8-13Isa 36:4Isa 8:7 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you. 2Th 2:4Rev 13:5-62Ch 32:112Ch 32:13-192Ki 19:10-132Ki 19:22Dan 3:15-17Dan 6:20 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Isa 36:7Isa 37:10Isa 37:23-24Mat 27:43Psa 22:7-8Psa 4:2Psa 71:9-11
Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me 4and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, 1Ki 4:25Zec 3:10Mic 4:41Ki 4:201Sa 11:31Sa 25:272Co 9:52Ki 18:31 until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 2Ki 18:322Ki 17:6-232Ki 18:9-122Ki 24:11Deu 11:12Deu 8:7-9Exo 3:8Job 20:17
Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Isa 36:15Isa 37:17-182Ch 32:13-172Ki 18:33-352Ki 19:12-132Ki 19:17-18Dan 3:15Hab 2:19-20 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Isa 10:9-11Jer 49:232Ki 17:242Ki 17:5-72Sa 8:9Isa 37:11-13Num 34:82Ki 18:10-12 Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” 2Ch 32:19Psa 50:211Ki 20:232Ch 32:152Ki 19:22-37Dan 3:15Exo 5:2Isa 37:18-19
But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.” Pro 26:42Ki 18:262Ki 18:37Amo 5:13Mat 7:6Pro 9:7-8Psa 38:13-15Psa 39:1
Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh. Isa 36:3Isa 33:72Ki 5:7Ezr 9:3Isa 36:11Isa 37:1-2Mat 26:65