Skip to content
Isaiah / Sennacherib's Siege and Rabshakeh's Taunt
Navigation
A A
Judah's Rebellion and Call to Repentance The Mountain of the Lord and the Nations' Hope Judgment on Arrogance and Idolatry Judgment on Jerusalem's Leaders and Social Order The Branch and the Renewal of Zion The Song of the Vineyard: Israel's Failure Woes to Israel and Coming Judgment Isaiah's Vision and Commission Ahaz, the Immanuel Sign, and Invasion The Sign of Plunder and a Call to Courage Trust the Lord, Not Alliances or Diviners A Child Is Born: Promise of Peace Israel's Arrogance and Coming Punishment Assyria: Instrument of Judgment and Its Doom The Remnant and the Fall of Assyria The Righteous Branch and the Peaceable Kingdom A Song of Praise for God's Salvation Babylon's Doom and the Day of the Lord God's Decree: Assyria Overthrown Oracle Concerning Philistia and Promise to Zion Lament for Moab Judgment on Damascus and Northern Israel A Message to Cush (Ethiopia) Judgment on Egypt and Future Salvation Isaiah's Sign against Egypt and Cush Prophecy of Babylon's Fall (The Watchman's Report) Oracle concerning Dumah: The Night Watchman's Lament Oracle Against Arabia (Dedan and Kedar) The Valley of Vision: Jerusalem's Fall and Leadership Change Tyre's Fall and Future Restoration The Lord's Universal Judgment and Final Reign Praise for God's Triumph and Deliverance Trust in God and Hope for Deliverance The Slaying of Leviathan and Israel's Restoration Woe to Ephraim and Judah: Drunkenness and Judgment Woe to Ariel (Jerusalem) and Promise of Enlightenment Rebuke for Seeking Egypt's Help; Call to Trust the Lord Egypt Is No Help; The Lord Will Save Jerusalem A Righteous King and Just Leadership Call to Repentance and Promise of Renewal A Plea for Deliverance and the Lord's Judgment The Lord's Vengeance on the Nations (Edom) The Glorious Restoration of the Redeemed Sennacherib's Siege and Rabshakeh's Taunt Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah; Rabshakeh's Threat Hezekiah's Prayer and Isaiah's Assurance God Delivers Jerusalem and Sennacherib's Defeat Hezekiah's Illness, Prayer, and Recovery Babylonian Envoys and the Announcement of Exile Comfort for Zion and the Majesty of God God Defends Israel Against the Nations and Idols The Servant of the Lord: Covenant and Mission A Call to Praise and God's Guidance for the Blind Israel's Unfaithfulness and Resulting Judgment Israel Redeemed: God's Sovereign Deliverer The Lord Proclaims Redemption and Rebukes Israel Israel Chosen and Blessed by the Spirit The Folly of Idols and God's Uniqueness God the Creator and the Call of Cyrus for Israel's Restoration The God Who Carries and Redeems: Yahweh's Sovereignty over Idols The Humbling of Babylon the Mistress Israel's Stubbornness and God's Resolute Purpose God's Sovereign 'I Am' and Call to Return The Servant's Commission to Restore Israel and the Nations Restoration and Promise to Gather Israel The Servant's Suffering and Israel's Rejection Comfort for Zion: Remember Abraham; God's Salvation Awakening of Zion and Proclamation of Salvation The Suffering Servant and Atonement The Exalted Zion: Promise of Restoration and Protection Invitation to Life and the Power of God's Word Justice, Inclusion, and Sabbath Observance Condemnation of Idolatry and Complacency Restoration for the Humble and Promise of Peace True Fasting: Justice, Mercy, and Sabbath Blessing Sin's Consequences and God's Redeeming Intervention The Glory and Gathering of Zion The Year of the Lord's Favor and Joyful Restoration Zion's Vindication and New Name The Lord's Vengeance: Treading the Winepress Remembering God's Mercy and Plea for Restoration God's Grace to the Faithful and Judgment on the Rebellious A New Creation: Joy and Peace The Lord's Final Judgment and the New Creation

Sennacherib's Siege and Rabshakeh's Taunt

Isaiah 36:1-22

36
Chapter 36
1 And it was in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah; Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 The king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a heavy force. He stood at the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the field of the fuller. 3 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him. 4 And he said to them, the Rab-shakeh: "Say please to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you have trusted?'" 5 I said, "Only word of lips—counsel and strength for warfare now. On whom have you trusted that you have rebelled against me?" 6 Look, you have trusted in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, which—if a man leans on it—enters into his palm and pierces it. So Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all those trusting in him. 7 And if you say to me, "To the LORD our God we have trusted"—is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall prostrate yourselves before this altar'?" 8 Now, please make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able to put riders on them. 9 And how do you turn back the face of one prefect of the servants of my lord, the smallest ones, and trust for yourself in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 10 And now, have I come up against this land to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it." 11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief cupbearer, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in Judean within hearing of the people on the wall." 12 Then the Rab-shakeh said, "I was sent to speak these words to your God and to your lord. Is it not to the men sitting on the wall, who will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?" 13 Then the Rab-shakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria." 14 The king says to you: Hezekiah will not be able to save you. 15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The deliverer will deliver us; the LORD will not give this city into the hand of the king of Assyria." 16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for in this way the king of Assyria has said: "Make a blessing with me and come out to me. Eat, every man his vine and every man his fig tree, and drink, every man water of his cistern." 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 lest Hezekiah seduce you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Did the gods of the nations deliver each his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And did they deliver Samaria from my hand? 20 Who among all the gods of the lands that saved their land from my hand—will the LORD save Jerusalem from my hand? 21 But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him." 22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and they told him the words of Rab-shakeh.