In this verse the Assyrian king gives a third warning to the people of Jerusalem concerning Hezekiah. He warns them not to listen to Hezekiah. He promises them a better future if they surrender to him. Neither Hezekiah (verse 14) nor Yahweh (verse 15) can assure Jerusalem’s future, but he can. If they surrender, they will be free to leave the city and return to their fields and gardens, so that they can eat from their own crops and drink from their own water supply. This contrasts with the foul things they will eat and drink if they refuse to surrender (verse 12).

Do not listen to Hezekiah means not only to refuse to listen to Hezekiah, but also not to obey him.

For thus says the king of Assyria: The connector for introduces the words of the Assyrian king as the reason for not listening to Hezekiah. Since the king is still speaking, the king of Assyria may be rendered “I, the king of Assyria.”

Make your peace with me and come out to me: The Hebrew word for peace is not the usual term shalom, but berakah, which is often rendered “blessing.” There are various views on the specific sense of the term here. BDB suggests “peace treaty.” This sense fits the context well in light of the promised material blessings the people will enjoy if they make peace with Assyria. Make your peace with me may simply mean “surrender” (so Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Come out to me implies surrender. The people would have to leave the safety of their walled city if they surrendered. Both Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch change the order of these two clauses for naturalness. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Come out of there and surrender!” Other languages may find this helpful.

Then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern: There are three promises here. Each promise is emphasized by the repetition of the Hebrew word rendered every one (literally “man”). No one will miss out on the blessings of a treaty with Assyria. However, the next verse makes it clear that these promises have a short time limit. So this is exaggerated language, intended to sway the people toward surrender. It is important to use the same verbs for eat and drink as in verse 12, so that readers can notice the contrast with that verse. The vine and the fig tree represent good food, while the cistern represents clean water. For vine see the comments on “vineyard” at 1.8; for fig tree, see 34.4; and for cistern see 30.14 even though a different Hebrew word is used there. The Hebrew nouns for vine, fig tree and cistern are singular but with a collective meaning, so they may be translated as plurals if necessary.

Some translation examples for this verse are:

• Don’t listen to Hezekiah because I, the king of Assyria, say, “Make a peace treaty with me and surrender. If you do, then each of you will eat the fruit of your own grapevines and your own fig trees, and drink water from your own wells….

• Do not take any notice of Hezekiah! I, the king of Assyria, invite you to make a peace treaty with me and surrender. If you do, then each and every one of you will get to eat the fruit of your own grapevines and fig trees and drink from your own wells….

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .