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One Year Chronological Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 109

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JULY 20
tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what
the Assyrian chief of staff had said.
Isaiah 36:4-22
4
Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah:
“ This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that
makes you so confident? 5Do you think* that mere words can substitute for
military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled
against me? 6On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that
splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of
Egypt, is completely unreliable!
7
“But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the LORD our God!’
But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear
down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem
worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?
8
“I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I
will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them!
9
With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest
contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and
charioteers? 10 What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without
the LORD’s direction? The LORD himself told us, ‘Attack this land and
destroy it!’”
11
Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please
speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew,* for
the people on the wall will hear.”
12
But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this
message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for
when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be
so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own
urine.”
13
Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the
wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! 14 This is what the
king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you.
15
Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the LORD by saying, ‘ The LORD will surely
rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’
16
“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering:
Make peace with me—open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own
well. 17 Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one—a land of
grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.
18
“Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘ The LORD will rescue us!’ Have
the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?
19
What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of
Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power? 20 What god of any
nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you
think that the LORD can rescue Jerusalem from me?”
36:5 As in Dead Sea Scrolls (see also 2 Kgs 18:20); Masoretic Text reads Do I think.
Judah; also in 36:13.
36:11 Hebrew in the dialect of