Isaiah 36:4

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?

📖 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

• 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?

• 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?

• King James Version 1611 (Original)

  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 Then the Rab-shakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah: 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is this confidence you have?' 20 You say—but they are only empty words—'I have counsel and strength for war.' Now, in whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? 21 Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such 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,’ isn’t He the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’? 23 Now then, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you have riders to put on them! 24 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, relying on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD’s approval? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’" 26 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, "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 Rab-shakeh replied, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you only? Has he not sent me to the people sitting on the wall—who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine with you?" 28 Then the Rab-shakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew, saying, "Hear the words 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 handed over to 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 every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own well, 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, so that you may live and not die. 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 among all the gods of these lands has delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' 36 But the people remained silent and did not answer him a word, because the king had commanded, ‘Do not answer him.’ 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rab-shakeh.
• 2 Kgs 19:10 : 10 "This is what you are to say to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.'
• 2 Chr 32:7-9 : 7 "Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. 8 With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles." The people regained confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9 After this, while Sennacherib king of Assyria was at Lachish with all his forces, he sent his officials to Jerusalem to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were there, saying: 10 "This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: On what are you trusting, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege?
• 2 Chr 32:14-16 : 14 Who among all the gods of these nations that my ancestors utterly destroyed was able to deliver his people from my hand, that your God will be able to deliver you from my hand? 15 Now do not let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you in this way, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my ancestors. How much less will your God save you from my hand? 16 His servants continued to speak against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah.
• Ps 42:3 : 3 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
• Ps 42:10 : 10 I say to God, my rock: 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?'
• Ps 71:10-11 : 10 For my enemies have spoken against me; those who watch my life conspire together. 11 They say, 'God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will 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 all my princes kings? 9 Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? And is not Samaria like Damascus? 10 Just as my hand seized the kingdoms of idols, whose carved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images? 12 When the Lord has finished all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will punish the pride of the king of Assyria's heart and the glory of his haughty eyes. 13 For he says, 'By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, plundered their treasures, and brought down their mighty ones like a bull.' 14 My hand seized the wealth of nations like one finds a nest. As one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth; no wing fluttered, no beak opened to chirp.
• Isa 37:11-15 : 11 You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them. Will you be delivered? 12 Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar—deliver them? 13 Where now is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena and Ivvah? 14 Hezekiah received the letters from the messengers, read them, and went up to the house of the LORD. There he spread them out before the LORD. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
• Ezek 31:3-9 : 3 Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches, dense shade, and towering height, its top reaching among the thick clouds. 4 The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, sending its rivers around its planting place, and they watered all the trees of the field. 5 So it grew taller than all the trees of the field; its branches multiplied, and its boughs grew long because of the abundance of water as it sent them out. 6 All the birds of the sky nested in its branches, every beast of the field gave birth under its boughs, and all the great nations lived in its shade. 7 It was majestic in its size, with long branches, because its roots reached abundant waters. 8 The cedars in God's garden could not rival it; the cypresses could not compare to its branches, and the plane trees were not like its boughs. No tree in the garden of God was equal to it in beauty. 9 I made it beautiful with its many branches, and all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, envied it. 10 Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Because it grew tall, lifting its top among the clouds, and its heart became arrogant because of its height, 11 I handed it over to a mighty ruler among the nations; he dealt with it according to its wickedness. I drove it out. 12 Foreigners, the most ruthless of nations, cut it down and abandoned it. Its branches fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its boughs were broken in all the ravines of the earth, and all the nations of the earth left its shade. 13 All the birds of the sky rested on its fallen trunk, and all the wild animals were among its branches. 14 This happened so that no trees beside the abundant waters may grow tall enough to reach the clouds, nor lift their tops among the thick branches, and no trees that drink water will stand before them in their height. For they have all been consigned to death, to the lower earth, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit. 15 This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day it went down to Sheol, I caused mourning; I covered the deep because of it, restrained its rivers, and held back the abundant waters. I clothed Lebanon in gloom because of it, and all the trees of the field withered away over it. 16 I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I brought it down to Sheol along with those who descend to the pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower earth. 17 They too went down to Sheol with it, to join the slain by the sword, along with its supporters who had lived in its shadow among the nations. 18 To whom can you be compared in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you too will be brought down to the lower earth, lying among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the Lord GOD.
• Dan 4:30 : 30 Immediately, what was spoken about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people, ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
• Acts 12:22-23 : 22 The crowd kept shouting, 'This is the voice of a god, not of a man!' 23 Immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God. He was eaten by worms and died.
• Jude 1:16 : 16 These people are grumblers and complainers, living according to their own desires. Their mouths speak arrogant words, flattering others for their own advantage.
• 2 Kgs 18:5 : 5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.