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¹ And it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.² And the king of Assyria sent the chief of the cupbearers from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the Fuller's Field.³ And Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came out to him.⁴ And the chief of the cupbearers said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, The great king says this, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?⁵ I say, Are only words of the lips counsel and strength for war? Now, in whom have you trusted that you rebelled against me?⁶ Behold, you trust on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.⁷ But if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed? And He said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar.⁸ Now, then, please exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to set riders on them for you.⁹ How then will you turn away the face of one commander of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariotry and horsemen?¹⁰ And now have I come up against this land to destroy it without Jehovah? Jehovah said to me, Go up to this land and destroy it.

¹¹ And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the chief of the cupbearers, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we hear. But do not speak to us in Judean, in the ears of the people on the wall.¹² But the chief of the cupbearers said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Is it not on the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink the water of their feet with you?¹³ And the chief of the cupbearers stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.¹⁴ So says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you.¹⁵ And let not Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah saving will save us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.¹⁶ Do not listen to Hezekiah. For the king of Assyria says this, Make peace with me and come out to me. Then let each eat of his own vine, and each of his own fig tree, and each drink the waters of his own well,¹⁷ until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.¹⁸ Let not Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Have the gods of the nations delivered a man of his land from the king of Assyria's hand?¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath, and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?²⁰ Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should keep Jerusalem out of my hand?²¹ But they were silent, and did not answer him a word; for this was the king's order, saying, Do not answer him.²² And Eliakim, Hilkiah's son who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn. And they reported to him the words of the chief of cupbearers.