Isaiah 36:4
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? 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?
The verse stands in the historical portion of Isaiah 36–39 within the first thirty-nine chapters, which record history and prophetic messages from Isaiah's active ministry among rulers and people. Isaiah's prophetic work began in Uzziah's reign and continued through Hezekiah's reign in a critical period for Judah that foreshadowed future days. Its setting is the Assyrian invasion led by Sennacherib during Hezekiah's reign, when Assyria threatened Judah and Jerusalem and Hezekiah ultimately triumphed.
The surrounding history includes the siege of Lachish, the tribute Hezekiah paid, the dispatch of an Assyrian force against Jerusalem, its destruction in one night, and Sennacherib's later killing by his sons. Assyrian records found at Nineveh confirm the siege of Lachish and the tribute from Hezekiah. The verse records the great king of Assyria speaking through his Rabshakeh or spokesman to Hezekiah, his representatives, his people, and Jerusalem, demanding the basis of their confidence and what or whom they trusted for deliverance from Assyria. That demand to Hezekiah and Jerusalem asked what basis they had for trusting anyone to save them from Assyria.
The question was a threatening boast meant to frighten the people into surrender, expressing Sennacherib's confidence in his victories and his contemptuous assumption that Jehovah was no stronger than the gods of the nations Assyria had conquered, so that trust in Jerusalem's God was useless. It expressed the king's boast that his power — and the power of the nations he had conquered — made such trust useless. The challenge precipitated God's message and Jerusalem's rescue by direct intervention through His angel, proving that confidence in God was not misplaced because God is mightier than Assyria.