2 Kings 18:24

How then wilt thou, &c. Rab-shakeh impudently takes for granted that Hezekiah's only answer would be -I have not the men". So he proceeds with his insults, and points out what he deems the folly of resistance. -We, three of the principal officers of our master, are come to treat with you. As your power is so feeble, you ought not to think of opposition, but to listen to the Assyrian proposals if they were brought even by some inferior person." The word which in this verse is rendered -captains" is that which is constantly used in Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther of the -governors" of provinces belonging to the great king. Any one of these, Rab-shakeh intimates, would be a power by himself which Hezekiah ought not to despise, as he possesses no men, even if the horses were made a present to him, out of which to form a body of cavalry. When Assyria can be so liberal in offers of horses, and when even her smallest governors are so well equipped with troops, is it not folly to go to Egypt for chariots and horses? He knows, and intimates that the same kind of vassalage would be required by the king of Egypt, as the king of Assyria demands.

Some have taken the verb -wilt thou turn away" as equivalent to -wilt thou defeat and put to flight". But this seems to suit very badly with the concluding clause of the sentence. -To put trust in Egypt" is a good antithesis to the rejection of a proposal from the side of Assyria, but not to the defeat of the Assyrian troops.