KJ3 Literal Translation
Isaiah 36
Sennacherib invades Judah. The chief cuobearer, sent by Sennacherib, by blasphemous persuasions solicits the people to revolt.
1And it happened in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
2And the king of Assyria sent the chief cupbearer from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the Fuller's Field.
3And Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came out to him.
4And the chief cupbearer said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, The great king says this, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?
5I say, Are only words of the lips counsel and might for war? Now, in whom have you trusted that you rebelled against me?
6Behold, you trust on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it goes into his palm and pierces it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.
7But if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed? And He said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar.
8And now please exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to set riders on them for you.
9How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariotry and horsemen?
10And now have I come up against this land to destroy it without Jehovah? Jehovah said to me, Go up to this land and destroy it.
11And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the chief cupbearer, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we hear. But do not speak to us in Jewish, in the ears of the people on the wall.
12But the chief cupbearer said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Is it not on the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink the water of their feet with you?
13And the chief cupbearer stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean, and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
14So says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you.
15And let not Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, Saving Jehovah will save us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
16Do not listen to Hezekiah. For the king of Assyria says this, Make with me a blessing and come out to me. Then let each man eat of his own vine, and each man of his own fig tree, and each man drink the waters of his own well,
17until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18Lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Have the gods of the nations delivered a man of his land from the king of Assyria's hand?
19Where are the gods of Hamath, and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim; and when was it that they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21But they were silent, and did not answer him a word; for it was the king's order, saying, Do not answer him.
22And Eliakim, Hilkiah's son who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their garments torn. And they reported to him the words of the chief cupbearer.
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