seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Kings 18:26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”
27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
27 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”
28 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
31 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!
“Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? 35 Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
36 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”
37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.
Preppers must have gotten at least one idea from the Bible!
This is from the easy English site.
Hezekiah’s officials asked the army commander from Assyria to speak in the Aramaic language. (Politicians spoke Aramaic.) They asked him not to speak Hebrew (the language that the people spoke in Judah). Then the ordinary people would not understand what he was saying. But the commander said that his message was for everybody. He wanted to make the people oppose their king.
The army commander continued to oppose Hezekiah. He told the people not to believe Hezekiah. On behalf of Assyria’s king, the commander promised peace and wealth to the people, if they obeyed him. He told them to choose life, not death. No other god had rescued its nation from Assyria’s army. And the commander told the people that the Lord would not be able to do it. The people did not answer the commander.
Notice this. The leader used the same words that Moses had used in Deuteronomy 30:19. Moses told his people that they could have life. That would happen if they obeyed God’s commandments.
The army commander made a serious mistake. He thought that God was like other (false) gods. The devil wants us to think that God is not very great. The devil also promises good things to us. But God alone can give really good things to us.
The army commander continued to oppose Hezekiah. He told the people not to believe Hezekiah. On behalf of Assyria’s king, the commander promised peace and wealth to the people, if they obeyed him. He told them to choose life, not death. No other god had rescued its nation from Assyria’s army. And the commander told the people that the Lord would not be able to do it. The people did not answer the commander.
Notice this. The leader used the same words that Moses had used in Deuteronomy 30:19. Moses told his people that they could have life. That would happen if they obeyed God’s commandments.
The army commander made a serious mistake. He thought that God was like other (false) gods. The devil wants us to think that God is not very great. The devil also promises good things to us. But God alone can give really good things to us.
Apparently, this field commander was chosen for the job because of his grasp of social media of the day.... yep... he was a politician who knew how to push those buttons that matter so much.
This is from the blueletterbible.org site.
Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land: Here, the Rabshakeh referred to the policies of ethnic cleansing and forced resettlement practiced by the Assyrians. When they conquered a people, they forcibly resettled them in far away places, to keep their spirits broken and their power weak. The Rabshakeh's speech was intended to make this terrible fate seem attractive.
Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? The Rabshakeh's speech was intended to destroy their trust in God. His message was simple, and brilliant in its Satanic logic: "The gods of other nations have not been able to protect them against us. Your God is just like one of them, and can't protect you either."
Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? The Rabshakeh's speech was intended to destroy their trust in God. His message was simple, and brilliant in its Satanic logic: "The gods of other nations have not been able to protect them against us. Your God is just like one of them, and can't protect you either."
They've been dancing this horrible dance for centuries. Judah has been paying Assyria off for decades and the Assyrians don't like the idea of loosing all that income. If the Assyrians gather up all the people of Judah and disperse them throughout the territories of the Assyrians.... then they would be so busy being slaves... they wouldn't have the time, energy, or resources to fight as a cohesive unit, securing the victory for Assyria. That's what Assyria had in mind. They were selling it as an easy relocation for their own safety.
