12. because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not obey or do them.
13. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
14. Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me. I will bear whatever you put on me.” So the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house.
16. At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17. Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the Fuller’s Field.
18. Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
19. Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Speak to Hezekiah:“Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is the basis of your confidence?
20. You speak empty words concerning counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
21. Now, look! You trust in the staff of this bruised reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will enter his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
22. But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?
23. “Now, make a wager with my lord king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses if you are able to set riders on them.
24. How can you turn away one official of the least of my master’s servants and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?