out to them. And the high official
said to them, "Why are you so confident? To whom do you look for help
that you have rebelled against me? You count on Egypt to help you.
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is as weak as a broken reed. But if you say, 'We
trust in Jehovah our God,' is not he the one whose high places and
altars Hezekiah has destroyed? Now therefore make a bargain with my
master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if
you are able on your part to set riders upon them. How then can you
conquer one of the least of my master's servants? Have I now come up
against this place to destroy it without Jehovah's approval? Jehovah it
was who said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"

Then Eliakim and Shebnah and Joah said to the high official, "Speak, I
pray you, to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand
it; but do not speak with us in the Jewish language in the hearing of
the people who are on the wall." But the high official said to them,
"Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words?
Is it not rather to the men who sit on the wall, who will suffer most
from the siege?"

Then the high official stood and cried with a loud voice, in the Jewish
language, saying, "Hear the message of the great king, the king of
Assyria. 'Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he will
not be able to save you from my hand. Neither let Hezekiah make you
trust in Jehovah by saying, Jehovah will surely save us, and this city
shall not be given into the power of the king of Assyria.'"

"Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make
your peace with me and come over to me; then each one of you shall eat
from his own vine and his own fig-tree and drink the waters of his own
cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a
land full of grain and new wine, a land full of bread and vineyards, a
land full of olive-trees and honey, that you may live and not die. But
do not listen to Hezekiah, when he deceives you by saying, Jehovah will
save us. Has any of the gods of the nations ever saved his land from the
power of the king of Assyria? Have the gods of the land of Samaria saved
Samaria from my power? Who are they among all the gods of the countries,
that have saved their country from my power, that Jehovah should save
Jerusalem from my power?'"

Then the people were silent and made no answer; for the ruler's comma