Study Desk

Yahweh is exalted, for He dwells on high;He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased;He has broken the covenant, he has rejected the cities;He has no regard for man.

But there the Mighty One, Yahweh, will be for usA place of rivers and wide canalsOn which no boat with oars will go,And on which no mighty ship will pass—

For Yahweh is our judge,Yahweh is our lawgiver,Yahweh is our king;He will save us—

For the indignation of Yahweh is against all the nations,And His wrath against all their hosts;He has devoted them to destruction;He has given them over to slaughter.

For My sword is satiated in heaven;Behold, it shall descend for judgment upon EdomAnd upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

For Yahweh has a day of vengeance,A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

He has cast the lot for them,And His hand has divided it to them by line.They shall possess it forever;From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

Then the lame will leap like a deer,And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.For waters will break forth in the wildernessAnd streams in the Arabah.

And a roadway will be there, a highway,And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.The unclean will not pass by on it,But it will be for him who walks in that way,And ignorant fools will not wander on it.

I say, ‘Your counsel and might for the war are only empty words.' Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

So now, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to give riders for them.

How then can you turn away one official of the least of my master's servants and trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;

Do not listen to Hezekiah,' for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree, and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,

But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, reproof, and rejection; for children have come to the point of breaking forth, but there is no strength to give birth.

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore, lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had set out from Lachish.