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?
25. Have I come up apart from the will of the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.”
26. Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak with us in the language of Judah in earshot of the people who are on the wall.”
27. But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are about to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”