Isaiah 36 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Then the king of Assyria sent his chief officer from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem with a massive army. He took his position near the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field.

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who managed the royal household, came out to meet him, along with Shebna the court secretary and Joah son of Asaph, the royal recorder.

The chief officer said to them, "Deliver this message to Hezekiah: 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What exactly are you trusting in?

You say you have strategy and military strength — but those are just empty words. So who are you really counting on, that you would dare to rebel against me?

Look, you're leaning on Egypt — a splintered walking stick! If anyone leans on it, it stabs right through their hand. That's exactly what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to everyone who relies on him.

And if you tell me, 'We're trusting in Yahweh our God' — isn't he the one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah tore down, telling Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship at this altar only'?

So here's a challenge — make a bet with my master, the king of Assyria: I'll give you two thousand horses, if you can even find enough riders to put on them!

How could you possibly turn back even the lowest-ranking officer among my master's servants? And yet you're counting on Egypt for chariots and horsemen!

And besides — do you think I marched against this land to destroy it without Yahweh's backing? Yahweh himself told me, 'March against this land and destroy it.'"

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief officer, "Please — speak to us in Aramaic. We understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew where the people on the wall can hear you."

But the chief officer replied, "Do you think my master sent me to deliver this message just to your master and to you? No — I was sent to the men sitting on that wall, who are going to end up eating their own dung and drinking their own urine right alongside you!"

Then the chief officer stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice: "Listen to the message from the great king, the king of Assyria!

This is what the king says: Don't let Hezekiah fool you — he can't rescue you.

And don't let Hezekiah convince you to trust in Yahweh by saying, 'Yahweh will definitely rescue us — this city won't be handed over to the king of Assyria.'

Don't listen to Hezekiah! Because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your own well,

until I come and take you to a land just like yours — a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Don't let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, 'Yahweh will rescue us.' Has any god of any nation ever rescued their land from the king of Assyria's grip?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And did any of them rescue Samaria from my power?

Which of all the gods of these nations has ever rescued their country from my grip? So what makes you think Yahweh can rescue Jerusalem from me?"

But the people stayed silent and didn't say a single word back to him, because the king had ordered, "Don't answer him."

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the household manager, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the royal recorder, went back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported everything the chief officer had said.