Isaiah 36:1-13

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,  King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish  to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to Launderer’s Field.  Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary,  and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him. The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on? You  think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?  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 how 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 Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’?  “Now make a deal 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 horsemen?  Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s approval? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’ ” Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic,  since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew  within earshot of the people who are on the wall.” But the royal spokesman replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine? ” Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!