Isaiah 36:4

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?

📖 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

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 but vain words), 'There is counsel and strength for war.' Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 21 Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him. 22 But if you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God;' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to 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 can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.'"'" 26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it. Don't speak with us in the Jews' language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." 27 But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?" 28 Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spoke, saying, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 Thus says the king, 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand. 30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." 31 Don't listen to Hezekiah.' For thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern; 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die. Don't listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, "Yahweh will deliver us." 33 Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" 36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, "Don't answer him." 37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, came with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
• 2 Kgs 19:10 : 10 'Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, "Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
• 2 Chr 32:7-9 : 7 "Be strong and courageous, don't be afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him. 8 With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Yahweh our God to help us, and to fight our battles." The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9 After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying, 10 Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, "In whom do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem?
• 2 Chr 32:14-16 : 14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? 15 Now therefore don't let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way, neither believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?" 16 His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah.
• Ps 42:3 : 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"
• Ps 42:10 : 10 As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"
• Ps 71:10-11 : 10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, 11 saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him."
• Prov 16:18 : 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
• Isa 10:8-9 : 8 For he says, "Aren't all of my princes kings? 9 Isn't Calno like Carchemish? Isn't Hamath like Arpad? Isn't Samaria like Damascus?" 10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12 Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks. 13 For he has said, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers. 14 My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped."
• Isa 37:11-15 : 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?'" 14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh's house, and spread it before Yahweh. 15 Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,
• Ezek 31:3-9 : 3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. 4 The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. 5 Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth. 6 All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations. 7 Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its 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 said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 11 I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness. 12 Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 13 On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches; 14 to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who 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 Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. 17 They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations. 18 To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will 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 Yahweh.
• Dan 4:30 : 30 The king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
• Acts 12:22-23 : 22 The people shouted, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!" 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn't give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
• Jude 1:16 : 16 These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
• 2 Kgs 18:5 : 5 He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor [among them] that were before him.