1Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 2And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a great army. And he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field. 3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to him. 4And 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? 5You say (but they are only words of the lips), I have counsel and strength for war. Now, in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 6Lo, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which, if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7But if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall bow down before this altar? 8Now then, please exchange pledges with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are even able on your part to put riders on them. 9How then will you repel the face of one commander of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10Have I now come up without Jehovah against this land to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it. 11Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. But do not speak to us in the Jewish language in the ears of the people who are on the wall. 12But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you? 13Then Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in the Jewish language and said, Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you! 15Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will deliver, to rescue us; this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria! 16Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make a peace treaty with me, and come out to me; and let everyone eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern, 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and fresh wine, a land of bread and vineyards! 18Let not Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? 21But they kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command said, Do not answer him. 22Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 SENNACHERIB'S INVASION; BLASPHEMOUS SOLICITATIONS; HEZEKIAH IS TOLD OF THEM. (Isa. 36:1-22)
fourteenth--the third of Sennacherib's reign. His ultimate object was Egypt, Hezekiah's ally. Hence he, with the great body of his army (
2Chr 32:9), advanced towards the Egyptian frontier, in southwest Palestine, and did not approach Jerusalem.
2 Rab-shakeh--In
2Kgs 18:17, Tartan and Rab-saris are joined with him. Rab-shakeh was probably the chief leader; Rab is a title of authority, "chief-cup-bearer."
Lachish--a frontier town southwest of Jerusalem, in Judah; represented as a great fortified city in a hilly and fruitful country in the Koyunjik bas-reliefs, now in the British Museum; also, its name is found on a slab over a figure of Sennacherib on his throne.
upper pool--the side on which the Assyrians would approach Jerusalem coming from the southwest (see on
Isa 7:3).
3 Eliakim--successor to Shebna, who had been "over the household," that is, chief minister of the king; in
Isa 22:15-
Isa 22:20, this was foretold.
scribe--secretary, recorder--literally, "one who reminds"; a remembrancer to keep the king informed on important facts, and to act as historiographer. In
2Kgs 18:18, the additional fact is given that the Assyrian envoys "called to the king," in consequence of which Eliakim, &c., "came out to them."
4 great king--the usual title of the Persian and Assyrian kings, as they had many subordinate princes or kings under them over provinces (
Isa 10:8).
5 counsel--Egypt was famed for its wisdom.
6 It was a similar alliance with So (that is, Sabacho, or else Sevechus), the Ethiopian king of Egypt, which provoked the Assyrian to invade and destroy Israel, the northern kingdom, under Hoshea.
7 The Assyrian mistakes Hezekiah's religious reforms whereby he took away the high places (
2Kgs 18:4) as directed against Jehovah. Some of the high places may have been dedicated to Jehovah, but worshipped under the form of an image in violation of the second commandment: the "brazen serpent," also (broken in pieces by Hezekiah, and called Nehushtan, "a piece of brass," because it was worshipped by Israel) was originally set up by God's command. Hence the Assyrian's allegation has a specious color: you cannot look for help from Jehovah, for your king has "taken away His altars."
to Jerusalem-- (
Deut 12:5,
Deut 12:11;
John 4:20).
8 give pledges--a taunting challenge. Only give the guarantee that you can supply as many as two thousand riders, and I will give thee two thousand horses. But seeing that you have not even this small number (see on
Isa 2:7), how can you stand against the hosts of Assyrian cavalry? The Jews tried to supply their weakness in this "arm" from Egypt (
Isa 31:1).
9 captain--a governor under a satrap; even he commands more horsemen than this.
10 A boastful inference from the past successes of Assyria, designed to influence the Jews to surrender; their own principles bound them to yield to Jehovah's will. He may have heard from partisans in Judah what Isaiah had foretold (
Isa 10:5-
Isa 10:6).
11 Syrian--rather, "Aramean": the language spoken north and east of Palestine, and understood by the Assyrians as belonging to the same family of languages as their own: nearly akin to Hebrew also, though not intelligible to the multitude (compare
2Kgs 5:5-7). "Aram" means a "high land," and includes parts of Assyria as well as Syria.
Jews' language--The men of Judah since the disruption of Israel, claimed the Hebrew as their own peculiarly, as if they were now the only true representatives of the whole Hebrew twelve tribes.
ears of . . . people on . . . wall--The interview is within hearing distance of the city. The people crowd on the wall, curious to hear the Assyrian message. The Jewish rulers fear that it will terrify the people and therefore beg Rab-shakeh to speak Aramean.
12 Is it to thy master and thee that I am sent? Nay, it is to the men on the wall, to let them know (so far am I from wishing them not to hear, as you would wish), that unless they surrender, they shall be reduced to the direst extremities of famine in the siege (
2Chr 32:11, explains the word here), namely, to eat their own excrements: or, connecting, "that they may eat," &c., with "sit upon the wall"; who, as they hold the wall, are knowingly exposing themselves to the direst extremities [MAURER]. Isaiah, as a faithful historian, records the filthy and blasphemous language of the Assyrians to mark aright the true character of the attack on Jerusalem.
13 Rab-shakeh speaks louder and plainer than ever to the men on the wall.
15 The foes of God's people cannot succeed against them, unless they can shake their trust in Him (compare
Isa 36:10).
16 agreement . . . by . . . present--rather, "make peace with me"; literally, "blessing" so called from the mutual congratulations attending the ratification of peace. So Chaldee. Or else, "Do homage to me" [HORSLEY].
come out--surrender to me; then you may remain in quiet possession of your lands till my return from Egypt, when I will lead you away to a land fruitful as your own. Rab-shakeh tries to soften, in the eyes of the Jews, the well-known Assyrian policy of weakening the vanquished by deporting them to other lands (
Gen 47:21;
2Kgs 17:6).
19 Hamath . . . Arphad--(See on
Isa 10:9).
Sepharvaim--literally, "the two scribes"; now Sipphara, on the east of Euphrates, above Babylon. It was a just retribution (
Pro 1:31;
Jer 2:19). Israel worshipped the gods of Sepharvaim, and so colonists of Sepharvaim were planted in the land of Israel (thenceforth called Samaria) by the Assyrian conqueror (
2Kgs 17:24; compare
2Kgs 18:34).
Samaria--Shalmaneser began the siege against Hoshea, because of his conspiring with So of Egypt (
2Kgs 17:4). Sargon finished it; and, in his palace at Khorsabad, he has mentioned the number of Israelites carried captive--27,280 [G. V. SMITH].
20 (Compare
Isa 10:11;
2Chr 32:19). Here he contradicts his own assertion (
Isa 36:10), that he had "come up against the land with the Lord." Liars need good memories. He classes Jehovah with the idols of the other lands; nay, thinks Him inferior in proportion as Judah, under His tutelage, was less than the lands under the tutelage of the idols.
21 not a word--so as not to enter into a war of words with the blasphemer (
Exod 14:14;
Jude 1:9).
22 clothes rent--in grief and horror at the blasphemy (
Matt 26:65).