The royal spokesman said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?

拉伯沙基对他们说：“你们去告诉希西家说，亚述大王如此说：‘你所倚靠的有什么可仗赖的呢？

将军对他们说：“你们去告诉希西家，大王亚述王如此说：‘你倚赖什么，让你如此自信满满？

将军对他们说：“你们去告诉希西家，大王亚述王如此说：‘你倚赖什么，让你如此自信满满？

亚述的将军对他们说：“你们去告诉希西迦，伟大的亚述王说，‘你凭什么这样自信呢？

拉伯沙基对他们说：“你们去对希西家说：‘亚述大王这样说：你所倚靠的算得是什么倚靠呢？

将军对他们说：“请你们告诉希西加：亚述大王如此说‘你所依靠的算什么依靠？

拉伯沙基對他們說：「你們去告訴希西家說，亞述大王如此說：『你所倚靠的有甚麼可仗賴的呢？

將軍對他們說：「你們去告訴希西家，大王亞述王如此說：『你倚賴甚麼，讓你如此自信滿滿？

將軍對他們說：「你們去告訴希西家，大王亞述王如此說：『你倚賴甚麼，讓你如此自信滿滿？

亞述的將軍對他們說：「你們去告訴希西迦，偉大的亞述王說，『你憑什麼這樣自信呢？

拉伯沙基對他們說：“你們去對希西家說：‘亞述大王這樣說：你所倚靠的算得是甚麼倚靠呢？

參謀長對他們說：『你們去對希西家說：「大王亞述王這麼說：你所倚靠的這種倚靠心算得了甚麼？

將軍對他們說：「請你們告訴希西加：亞述大王如此說『你所依靠的算什麼依靠？

拉伯沙基謂之曰、其告希西家、大王亞述王云、爾所恃者何耶、

臘沙基曰、爾當告希西家亞述大王云、爾誰恃、

拉伯沙基謂之曰、爾曹告希西家曰、亞述大王如是云、爾何所恃耶、

The field commander said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah:“‘ This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

The field commander said to them,“ Give Hezekiah this message. Tell him,“‘ Sennacherib is the great king of Assyria. He says,“ Why are you putting your faith in what your king says?

And the Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say to Hezekiah,‘ Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?

Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah:“ This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?

And Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say now to Hezekiah,‘ This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:“ What is this confidence that you have?

Then the Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say now to Hezekiah,‘ Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria:“ What confidence is this in which you trust?

And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

The Rabshakeh said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?

And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence[ is] this wherein thou trustest?

The chief adviser said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah:‘ This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says:“ What is your source of confidence?

Rabshakeh said to them,“ Now tell Hezekiah,‘ The great king, the king of Assyria, says,“ What confidence is this in which you trust?

Then the royal spokesman said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says:‘ What are you relying on?You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on so that you have rebelled against me?Now look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.Suppose you say to me,“ We rely on the LORD our God.” Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem,“ You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem”?’“ So now, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?Now, have I attacked this place to destroy it without the LORD’s approval? The LORD said to me,‘ Attack this land and destroy it.’”Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the royal spokesman,“ Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak with us in Hebrew within earshot of the people on the wall.”But the royal spokesman said to them,“ Has my master sent me to speak these words only to your master and to you? Hasn’t he also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”The royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew:“ Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.This is what the king says:‘ Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; he can’t rescue you from my power.Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD by saying,“ Certainly the LORD will rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”’“ Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says:‘ Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and each may drink water from his own cisternuntil I come and take you away to a land like your own land— a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey— so that you may live and not die. But don’t listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying,“ The LORD will rescue us.”Has any of the gods of the nations ever rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?Who among all the gods of the lands has rescued his land from my power? So will the LORD rescue Jerusalem from my power?’”But the people kept silent; they did not answer him at all, for the king’s command was,“ Don’t answer him.”Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.

the king exclaimed,“ Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”

My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me,“ Where is your God?”

The assembled people began to shout,“ It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!”At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

Hezekiah relied on the LORD God of Israel; not one of the kings of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.

Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued?Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed rescue them— Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar?Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’”Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers’ hands, read it, then went up to the LORD’s temple and spread it out before the LORD.Then Hezekiah prayed to the LORD:

My adversaries taunt me, as if crushing my bones, while all day long they say to me,“ Where is your God?”

For he says,“ Aren’t all my commanders kings?Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?As my hand seized the kingdoms of worthless images, kingdoms whose idols exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria,and as I did to Samaria and its worthless images will I not also do to Jerusalem and its idols?”But when the Lord finishes all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say,“ I will punish the king of Assyria for his arrogant acts and the proud look in his eyes.”For he said: I have done this by my own strength and wisdom, for I am clever. I abolished the borders of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty warrior, I subjugated the inhabitants.My hand has reached out, as if into a nest, to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered the whole earth. No wing fluttered; no beak opened or chirped.

These people are discontented grumblers, living according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage.

“ Say this to King Hezekiah of Judah:‘ Don’t let your God, on whom you rely, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.

Think of Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and shady foliage and of lofty height. Its top was among the clouds.The waters caused it to grow; the underground springs made it tall, directing their rivers all around the place where the tree was planted and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.Therefore the cedar became greater in height than all the trees of the field. Its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long as it spread them out because of the abundant water.All the birds of the sky nested in its branches, and all the animals of the field gave birth beneath its boughs; all the great nations lived in its shade.It was beautiful in its size, in the length of its limbs, for its roots extended to abundant water.The cedars in God’s garden could not eclipse it; the pine trees couldn’t compare with its branches, nor could the plane trees match its boughs. No tree in the garden of God could compare with it in beauty.I made it beautiful with its many limbs, and all the trees of Eden, which were in God’s garden, envied it.“‘ Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Since it towered high in stature and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height,I determined to hand it over to a ruler of nations; he would surely deal with it. I banished it because of its wickedness.Foreigners, ruthless men from the nations, cut it down and left it lying. Its limbs fell on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth’s ravines. All the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.All the birds of the sky nested on its fallen trunk, and all the animals of the field were among its boughs.This happened so that no trees planted beside water would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and so that no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the underworld, among the people who descend to the Pit.“‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: I caused grieving on the day the cedar went down to Sheol. I closed off the underground deep because of it: I held back the rivers of the deep, and its abundant water was restrained. I made Lebanon mourn on account of it, and all the trees of the field fainted because of it.I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I threw it down to Sheol to be with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were comforted in the underworld.They too descended with it to Sheol, to those slain by the sword. As its allies they had lived in its shade among the nations.“‘ Who then are you like in glory and greatness among Eden’s trees? You also will be brought down to the underworld to be with the trees of Eden. You will lie among the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his hordes. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.’”

Who among all the gods of these nations that my predecessors completely destroyed was able to rescue his people from my power, that your God should be able to deliver you from my power?So now, don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, and don’t let him mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!’”His servants said more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah.

“ Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.He has only human strength, but we have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people relied on the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.After this, while King Sennacherib of Assyria with all his armed forces besieged Lachish, he sent his servants to Jerusalem against King Hezekiah of Judah and against all those of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,“ This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says:‘ What are you relying on that you remain in Jerusalem under siege?

For my enemies talk about me, and those who spy on me plot together,saying,“ God has abandoned him; chase him and catch him, for there is no one to rescue him.”