Isaiah 36:4

KJV1611 – Modern English

And Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this in which you trust?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם֙ רַב שָׁקֵ֔ה אִמְרוּ־נָ֖א אֶל־חִזְקִיָּ֑הוּ כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר הַמֶּ֤לֶךְ הַגָּדוֹל֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ אַשּׁ֔וּר מָ֧ה הַבִּטָח֛וֹן הַזֶּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּטָֽחְתָּ

Transliteration

And wayyōʾmer to them raḇ šāqēh, ʾimrû-nāʾ to ḥizqîyāhû: thus kōh-ʾāmar ham-melek hag-gāḏôl melek ʾaššûr, what māh hab-biṭāḥôn haz-zeh ʾăšer bāṭāḥtā

Grammar Details

• *wayyōʾmer*: waw-consecutive + qal imperfect 3rd masculine singular - and he said
• *raḇ šāqēh*: title/position - Rabshakeh (chief cupbearer)
• *ʾimrû-nāʾ*: qal imperative masculine plural + particle of entreaty - say, please
• *kōh-ʾāmar*: adverb + qal perfect 3rd masculine singular - thus says/said
• *ham-melek hag-gāḏôl*: definite article + noun + definite article + adjective - the king the great
• *melek ʾaššûr*: construct noun + proper noun - king of Assyria
• *māh hab-biṭāḥôn haz-zeh*: interrogative + definite article + noun + definite article + demonstrative pronoun - what is this confidence
• *ʾăšer bāṭāḥtā*: relative particle + qal perfect 2nd masculine singular - which you trust

Word Meanings

• *nāʾ*: please/now (particle of entreaty)
• *kōh*: thus/so
• *biṭāḥôn*: confidence/trust/reliance
• *bāṭāḥtā*: you trust/rely/have confidence

Other Translations

• Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

  The Rabshakeh said to them, 'Say to Hezekiah: This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is this confidence you rely on?

• King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

• American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

• King James Version with Strong's Numbers

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

• Coverdale Bible (1535)

  And Rabsaches sayde vnto them: Tel Ezechias, that the greate kinge of Assiria sayeth thus vnto him: What presumpcion is this, that thou trustest vnto?

• Geneva Bible (1560)

  And Rabshakeh sayde vnto them, Tell you Hezekiah, I pray you, Thus sayth the great King, the King of Asshur, What confidence is this, wherein thou trustest?

• Bishops' Bible (1568)

  And Rabsakeh sayde vnto them, Tell Hezekia that the great kyng saith thus vnto hym: What presumption is this that thou trustest vnto?

• Authorized King James Version (1611)

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence [is] this wherein thou trustest?

• Webster's Bible (1833)

  Rabshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?

• Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

  And Rabshakeh saith unto them, `Say ye, I pray you, unto Hezekiah, `Thus said the great king, the king of Asshur, What `is' this confidence in which thou hast confided?

• American Standard Version (1901)

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

• American Standard Version (1901)

  And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

• Bible in Basic English (1941)

  And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In what are you placing your hope?

• World English Bible (2000)

  Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust?

• NET Bible® (New English Translation)

  The chief adviser said to them,“Tell Hezekiah:‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says:“What is your source of confidence?

Referenced Verses

• 2 Kgs 18:19-37 : 19 Rabshakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this in which you trust? 20 You say (but they are only vain words) I have counsel and strength for war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 21 Now behold, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which if a man leans, will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, We trust in the LORD our God, is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? 23 Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 24 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. 26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it, and do not speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall. 27 But Rabshakeh said to them, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not sent me to the men sitting on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you? 28 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, saying, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand. 30 Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be handed over to the king of Assyria. 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make peace with me and come out to me, and every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink from the water of his own cistern, 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. 33 Has any of the gods of the nations at all 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 Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? 36 But the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command was, Do not answer him. 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
• 2 Kgs 19:10 : 10 Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
• 2 Chr 32:7-9 : 7 Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude with him, for there are more with us than with him: 8 With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9 After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (while he was besieging Lachish with all his forces), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah that were in Jerusalem, saying, 10 Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, On what do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem?
• 2 Chr 32:14-16 : 14 Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed was able to deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? 15 Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you in this manner, nor believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand and from the hand of my fathers, how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand? 16 And his servants spoke yet more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah.
• Ps 42:3 : 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where is your God?
• Ps 42:10 : 10 As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is your God?
• Ps 71:10-11 : 10 For my enemies speak against me; and those who lie in wait for my soul take counsel together, 11 Saying, God has forsaken him; pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.
• Prov 16:18 : 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
• Isa 10:8-9 : 8 For he says, Are not my princes altogether kings? 9 Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? 10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose carved images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria; 11 Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, also do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12 Therefore, it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13 For he says, By the strength of my hand, I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the boundaries of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have brought down the inhabitants like a valiant man; 14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped.
• Isa 37:11-15 : 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,
• Ezek 31:3-9 : 3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a sheltering canopy, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. 4 The waters made it great, the deep set it up on high with its rivers running around its plants, and sent out its little rivers to all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long because of the multitude of waters as it spread out. 6 All the birds of heaven made their nests in its boughs, and under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow all great nations dwelt. 7 Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was by great waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like its branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like it in beauty. 9 I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it. 10 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have lifted yourself up in height, and it has set its top among the thick boughs, and its heart is lifted up in its height; 11 I have therefore delivered it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with it: I have driven it out for its wickedness. 12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut it off and have left it; on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the peoples of the earth have gone down from its shadow and have left it. 13 On its ruin all the birds of the heavens will dwell, and all the beasts of the field will be on its branches: 14 So that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, nor set their top among the thick boughs, nor any tree stand up to its height, all that drink water; for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit. 15 Thus says the Lord GOD; In the day when it went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for it, and I restrained its floods, and the great waters were stopped: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field fainted for it. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of its fall, when I cast it down to hell with those who descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the lower parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into hell with it to those who are slain with the sword; and those who were its arm, who dwelt under its shadow in the midst of the nations. 18 Who are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD.
• Dan 4:30 : 30 The king spoke, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal residence, by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?
• Acts 12:22-23 : 22 And the people shouted, 'It is the voice of a god, and not of a man!' 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.
• Jude 1:16 : 16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
• 2 Kgs 18:5 : 5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any before him.