17. Then the king of Assyria sent his commander-in-chief, his quartermaster, and his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They came there and stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to the Laundryman’s Field.
18. When they called for King Hezekiah, Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander.
19. The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident?
20. You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me?
21. Now, look! When you trust Egypt, you’re trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him.
22. Suppose you tell me, “We’re trusting the Lord our God.” He’s the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. He told Judah and Jerusalem, “Worship at this altar in Jerusalem.” ’
23. “Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them.
24. How can you defeat my master’s lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?
25. “Have I come to destroy this place without the Lord on my side? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this country, and destroy it.’ ”
26. Then Eliakim (son of Hilkiah), Shebnah, and Joah said to the field commander, “Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening.”
27. But the field commander asked them, “Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn’t he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?”
28. Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, “Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria.
29. This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He can’t rescue you from me.
30. Don’t let Hezekiah get you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.’