And this happened: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a large army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the field of the washer. And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.

And Rabshakeh said to them, "Now say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What is this confidence in which you trust? I said, ‘Only a word of lips! War has power and a plan!’ Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him. And if you say to me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ was it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed? And he said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall bow down in the presence of this altar.’" And now please make a wager with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, that is, if you are able put riders for yourself on them! But how can you drive back one governor among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? And now was it without Yahweh that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land and destroy it!"’"

And Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we can understand it, and you must not speak to us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your masters and you? Was it not for the people who sit on the wall, to eat their dung and drink their urine with you?"

Then Rabshakeh stood and called in a great voice in Judean and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you! And do not let Hezekiah make you rely on Yahweh, saying, "Surely Yahweh will deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!" You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: "Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat from his vine and from his fig tree and drink water from his cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, ‘Yahweh will save us!’ Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who are there among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?"’"

But they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the command of the king was, "You must not answer him." Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder, came to Hezekiah with torn garments and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

And this happened: When King Hezekiah heard, he tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and entered the temple of Yahweh. And he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet. And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace, for children have come to the cervical opening, and there is no strength to give birth. Maybe Yahweh your God heard the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God, and he will rebuke the words that Yahweh your God hears. And you must lift up a prayer for the benefit of the remnant that is found.’"

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, "You must say this to your master: ‘Thus says Yahweh: "You must not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Look! I am about to put a spirit in him so that he shall hear a rumor and he shall return to his land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land."’"

And Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had left from Lachish. Now he heard concerning Tirhakah the king of Cush, saying, "He has set out to fight against you."

When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, "You shall say this to Hezekiah, king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust in him deceive you by saying, "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." Look! you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands to destroy them, and you—shall you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed deliver them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’"

And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and he read it. Then he went up to the temple of Yahweh, and Hezekiah spread it out before the presence of Yahweh. And Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel who is enthroned on the cherubim, you are the one, God by yourself, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you are the one who made the heavens and the earth. Yahweh, extend your ear and hear! Yahweh, open your eyes and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God! Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the lands and their land, to set their gods in the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them. So now, Yahweh, our God, save us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, you alone!"

And Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him:

To the holy one of Israel!

And this shall be the sign for you: the eating of volunteer plants this year, and in the second year self-seeded plants, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. And the remnant of the house of Judah that remain shall grow roots downwards and make fruit upwards.

The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.’

Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria:

declares Yahweh.

‘And I will defend this city, to save it for my sake and for the sake of David, my servant.’"

And the angel of Yahweh set out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When they rose in the morning, look! All of them were dead corpses. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria left, went, and returned and lived at Nineveh. And this happened: he was bowing in worship in the house of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him with the sword. And they themselves escaped to the land of Ararat, and Esar-haddon his son reigned as king in his place.

A song of ascents.

For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all went through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with the majority of them, for they were struck down in the desert.

Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil things, just as those also desired them, and not become idolaters, as some of them did, just as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play," nor commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day, nor put Christ to the test, as some of them tested him, and were destroyed by snakes, nor grumble, just as some of them grumbled, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to those people as an example, but are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, the one who thinks that he stands must watch out lest he fall. Temptation has not come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will also make a way out together with the temptation, so that you may be able to endure it.

Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I am speaking as to sensible people; you judge what I am saying. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share from the one bread. Consider Israel according to the flesh: are not the ones who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? Therefore, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but that the things which they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become sharers with demons. You are not able to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You are not able to share the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we attempting to provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he is, are we?

All things are permitted, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good but the good of the other. Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for the sake of the conscience, for "the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness." If any of the unbelievers invites you, and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, asking no questions for the sake of the conscience. But if someone says to you, "This is offered to idols," do not eat it, for the sake of that one who informed you and the conscience. Now I am not speaking about your own conscience, but the conscience of the other person. For why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

Therefore, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God. Give no offense both to Jews and to Greeks and to the church of God, just as I also please all people in all things, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of the many, in order that they may be saved.