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17 ducting in Hebrew so that the whole populace might understand him. What did he have to say that the populace ought to have known? As the biblical text makes clear, the verbal exchanges concerned the question of whether the Assyrian invasion of Judea was autho- rized by the Lord Yahweh! "And Rab-Shakeh said unto them: Speak ye now to Hezekiah: Thus sayeth the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is it wherein thou trusteth?" If ye say unto me: "We trust in Yahweh, our God"... Now then. Am I come against this place to destroy it without Yahweh? Yahweh did say unto me: "Go up against this land, and destroy it!" The more the ministers of king Hezekiah. standing upon the city's walls, pleaded with Rab-Shakeh to cease saying these untrue things in Hebrew and to deliver his message in the then language of diplomacy, Aramaic, the more did Rab-Shakeh approach the walls to shout his words in Hebrew for all to hear. Soon he began to use foul language against Hezekiah's emissaries; then he started to de- grade the king himself. Carried away by his own oratory. Rab- Shakeh abandoned his claim to have had Yahweh's permission to Latta. a. Wat nate bee Te Teen dae ee When Hezekiah was told of the blasphemy, "he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the House of Yahweh. . . . And he sent word to the Prophet Isaiah, saying: 'This is a day of trouble, of rebuke, of blasphemy. . . . May Yah- weh thy Lord hear all the words of Rab-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria hath sent to scorn the Living God.' And the word of the Lord Yahweh came back through his Prophet Isaiah: ‘Concerning the king of Assyria . . . the way that he came, he shall return; and unto this city he shall not come in . . . for I shall defend this city to save it.'" And it came to pass that night, that the angel of Yahweh went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand; The Wars of Man attack Jerusalem and went on to belittle the God himself.