15. And Ḥizqiyah gave him all the silver that was found in the House of יהוה and in the treasuries of the sovereign’s house.
16. At that time Ḥizqiyah cut off the doors of the Hĕḵal of יהוה, and the doorposts which Ḥizqiyah sovereign of Yehuḏah had overlaid, and gave it to the sovereign of Ashshur.
17. And the sovereign of Ashshur sent the Tartan, and the Raḇsaris, and the Raḇshaqĕh from Laḵish, with a great army against Yerushalayim, to Sovereign Ḥizqiyahu. And they went up and came to Yerushalayim. And when they had come up, they came and stood by the channel of the upper pool, which was on the highway to the Launderer’s Field.
18. And they called to the sovereign. And Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, who was over the household, and Sheḇnah the scribe, and Yo’aḥ son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
19. And the Raḇshaqĕh said to them, “Please say to Ḥizqiyahu, ‘Thus said the great sovereign, the sovereign of Ashshur, “What is this trust in which you have trusted?
20. “You have spoken of having counsel and strength for battle, but they are only words of the lips! And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?
21. “Now look! You have put your trust in the staff of this crushed reed, Mitsrayim, on which if a man leans, it shall go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh sovereign of Mitsrayim to all who trust in him.
22. “But when you say to me, ‘We trust in יהוה our Elohim,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Ḥizqiyahu has taken away, and said to Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim, ‘Bow yourselves before this altar in Yerushalayim’?” ’
23. “And now, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the sovereign of Ashshur, then I give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put riders on them!
24. “And how do you turn back the face of one commander of the least of my master’s servants, and trust in Mitsrayim for chariots and horsemen?
25. “Have I now come up without יהוה against this place to destroy it? יהוה said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and you shall destroy it.’ ”
26. Then said Elyaqim son of Ḥilqiyahu, and Sheḇnah, and Yo’aḥ to the Raḇshaqĕh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. And do not speak to us in the language of Yehuḏah, in the ears of the people on the wall.”