Chapter 6: The Voice at the Wall

Sennacherib sent three of his highest officials to Jerusalem with a massive army. They stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field. Three of Hezekiah's men went out to meet them: Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah the recorder.

The Assyrian commander, known as the Rabshakeh, did not come to negotiate. He came to break them. And he did not speak in Aramaic, the language of diplomacy. He spoke in Hebrew, loud enough for every soldier and citizen standing on the wall to hear.

RABSHAKEH“Tell Hezekiah: on what are you basing this confidence of yours? You say you have counsel and might for war, but you speak only empty words. I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. And if you say, 'We are depending on the Lord our God,' isn't He the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? Come now, make a bargain with my master. I will give you two thousand horses, if you can find riders to put on them!”— 2 Kings 18:19-23

He even claimed that the Lord Himself had told him to march against Judah and destroy it. He was using their own faith as a weapon against them.

Hezekiah's officials were desperate.

ELIAKIM“Please, speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”— 2 Kings 18:26

The Rabshakeh ignored them. He raised his voice even louder and turned to the people directly.

RABSHAKEH“Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. Do not let him persuade you to trust in the Lord. Make peace with me and come out, and each of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree. Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”— 2 Kings 18:28-35

The people on the wall said nothing. Hezekiah had given them one command: do not answer him.

The officials returned to Hezekiah with their clothes torn.