Isaiah Chapter 36
1 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
2 The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway.
3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.
4 Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'The great king, the king of Assyria, says, "What confidence is this in which you trust?
5 I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6 Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, 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.
7 But if you tell me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar?' "
8 Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it." ' "
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don't speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
12 But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"
13 Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14 The king says, 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.
15 Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria." '
16 Don't listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?
19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?
20 Who are they amongst all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?' "
21 But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king's commandment was, "Don't answer him."
22 Then 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 told him the words of Rabshakeh.
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Isaiah Chapter 36 Guide
This chapter is the first of four which constitute a brief historical interlude. All have to do with Hezekiah and Isaiah. The first two are related to the prophecies of judgment so far as they are of local application. They deal with the invasion under Sennacherib. The last two are related to the prophecies of peace. They deal with Hezekiah's sickness and ultimate folly, and form the historic background to the great utterances which set forth the ultimate purpose of God.
In this first of the four, the story of Sennacherib's invasion and Rabshakeh's mission to the city is chronicled. He first met three representatives of Judah: Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah. He taunted them with their weakness, desiring to bully them into submission by telling them that it was useless for them to trust in Egypt; moreover, that it was useless for them to trust in God, because they were there by His commission, which, of course, was a daring and blasphemous lie. The deputation from Judah attempted to persuade him to speak in Aramaic, as they were afraid that the Jews, hearing such words in their own language, would be filled with panic. He immediately seized on the suggestion, and spoke to the people assembled on the wall in their own language, warning them against trusting in Hezekiah, promising them plenty in another land, and declaring to them that God was unable to deliver them. The loyalty of the people is manifest in the fact that they remained silent.
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Isaiah Chapter 36 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- See II Kin. 18:17-37, and the commentary thereon.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.