2 Kings 18:17-37

B. SENNACHERIB'S INITIAL SURRENDER DEMANDS 18:17-19:7

The Assyrian king was not satisfied with the tribute paid by Hezekiah. He wanted nothing less than the total surrender of Jerusalem. While he himself was engaged in military operations in the lowland region of Palestine, he sent an embassy to Jerusalem to demand capitulation (2 Kings 18:17-37). In response to the bombastic demands and blasphemous assertions of these pagans, Isaiah delivered an oracle promising deliverance for Judah (2 Kings 19:1-7).

Whereas older commentators viewed the actions and words of the Assyrian envoys in this section as improbable, more recent scholars have been forced to concede the historical verisimilitude of 2 Kings 18:17 to 2 Kings 9:7.[605] The details of this section and the diplomatic arguments of Rab-shakeh have an analogy in a siege of Babylon by Tiglath-pileser III.[606]

[605] Gray, OTL, p. 684.
[606] See Childs, IAC, pp. 69-103.

1. THE ARROGANT ASSYRIAN DEMANDS (2 Kings 18:17-37)

TRANSLATION

(17) And the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish unto King Hezekiah with a heavy force to Jerusalem; and they went up, and came to Jerusalem, and stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool which is in the highway of the fuller's field. (18) And they called unto the king; and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the remembrancer went out unto them. (19) And Rab-shakeh said unto them, Say now unto Hezekiah, Thus says the Great King, the king of Assyria: What is this confidence in which you trust? (20) You have said (but they are merely words), Counsel and might for war! Now upon whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? (21) Now behold you trust for your sake upon the staff of this bruised reed, upon Egypt, on which if a man leans it will go into his hand and pierce it. Thus is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. (22) And if you say unto me, Upon the LORD our God we will trust: Is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? (23) And now make a wager, I pray you, with my lord, the king of Assyria, and I will give to you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. (24) And how will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of the servants of my lord, and trust for your part in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? (25) Now have I come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it. (26) Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said unto Rab-shakeh, Speak unto your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak with us in the language of the Jews in the presence of the people who are upon the wall. (27) And Rab-shakeh said unto them, Did my master send me to speak these words unto your master and unto you? Did he not send me unto the men who sit on the wall, that they might eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you? (28) And Rab-shakeh stood and cried in a loud voice in the Jew's language, and spoke, and said, Hear the word of the Great King, the king of Assyria: (29) Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you for he is not able to deliver you from my hand. (30) Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, the LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. (31) Do not hearken unto Hezekiah for thus says the king of Assyria: Negotiate with me by a present, and go out unto me, that each may eat from his vine and each from his fig tree, and each may drink water of his cistern, (32) until I come and take you unto a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey that you might live and not die. Do not hearken to Hezekiah, for he has enticed you, saying, the LORD will deliver us. (33) Have the gods of the nations delivered each his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? (34) Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? (35) Who is it among all the gods of the lands that has delivered their land from my hand that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? (36) But the people were silent and answered him not a word for it was a commandment from the king, saying, Do not answer him. (37) Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the sons of Asaph the recorder to Hezekiah with their clothing rent; and they told him the words of Rab-shakeh.

COMMENTS

Historians and Biblical commentators are not in agreement as to the time setting of 2 Kings 18:17-37. Some think that even after receiving the tribute money from Hezekiah, Sennacherib was not satisfied, and that he was determined to punish this rebellious vassal. Consequently he sent a contingent of troops to Jerusalem in an effort to get Hezekiah to surrender. Others think that a time gap may exist between 2 Kings 18:16-17. According to this view, Sennacherib withdrew from Palestine in 701 B.C. Because of certain overtures from Egypt. Hezekiah determined again to extricate himself from the Assyrian grip. Sennacherib then reappeared in the region about 688 B.C. marching through the Philistine plain to confront any Egyptian force that might attempt to march northward. A small contingent was dispatched to Jerusalem to hold Hezekiah in check and to wage psychological warfare against him.[607]

[607] Among recent Evangelical writers, Finley (BBC, p. 480-81) has presented a powerful defense of the two invasion theory.

At the head of the contingent which was dispatched to Jerusalem were three officers bearing the titles Tartan, Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh. All three titles are known from Assyrian records. The Tartan was the commander-in-chief of the field army. It is not certain what the precise functions of the other two officers might have been.[608] The Assyrian officers positioned themselves by the aqueduct (KJV, conduit)[609] which carried water from the spring Gihon, the main source of water for the city, to the upper pool, probably the Pool of Siloam. This aqueduct was located on the road which led to the fuller's field, an area adjacent to En-rogel south of Jerusalem[610] (2 Kings 18:17).

[608] The Rabsaris was probably the chief of the king's bodyguard. Rab-shakeh means chief officer.

[609] This aqueduct is mentioned also in Isaiah 7:3.

[610] On the location of En-rogel, see comments on 1 Kings 1:9-10. According to Finley (BBC, p. 482) this field was the place where newly shorn wool and woven cloth were processed by the use of an alkaline cleanser.

From their vantage point on the east side of the city, the Assyrian officers shouted to the Jewish guards that they had a message for the king. Hezekiah sent out to the wall three of his highest officials: Eliakim who was over the household, i.e., prime minister;[611] Shebna the scribe, perhaps something equivalent to a secretary of state; and Joah the recorder or remembrancer.[612]

[611] Eliakim had displaced Shebna in this office just as Isaiah the prophet had predicted (Isaiah 22:15-23).

[612] On the duties of the remembrancer see comments on 1 Kings 4:3.

Rab-shakeh took the lead in speaking for the Assyrians probably because he could speak Hebrew fluently. His rude and abrupt order to the Jewish officers was stripped of all diplomatic niceties. Throughout the address he spoke of Sennacherib as the Great King while to Hezekiah he ascribed no title whatsoever. Rab-shakeh came right to the point: What was this confidence in which the Jews trusted? (2 Kings 18:19). Hezekiah had withheld tribute. He had fortified his capital (2 Chronicles 32:2-5); he had collected arms and soldiers and had shut himself up in Jerusalem, having made every preparation for a siege. How had he dared take those steps? What was the basis for his confidence?

Beginning in 2 Kings 18:20, Rab-shakeh attempts to eliminate one by one the possible grounds upon which Hezekiah based his rebellion. First, he imagines Hezekiah boasting of his counsel and strength for war, i.e., of the wisdom of his advisers and his military capabilities. Such boasts were merely words, or one might say in modern idiom, so much hot air (2 Kings 18:20). Sennacherib apparently knew of Hezekiah's efforts to secure an alliance with Egypt (Isaiah 30:2-7) and rightly judged that he was expecting to receive aid from that quarter. Rab-shakeh ridiculed this expectation. Egypt was nothing but a bruised reed[613] which will snap the moment any weight is applied to it. The sharp jagged casing of that broken reed might well injure the man who tried to use it for a staff (2 Kings 18:21). The Assyrians were entirely justified in their contempt for the military capabilities of Egypt. Pharaoh had never yet given effective aid to any state which had come under attack by Assyria.[614]

[613] This characterization of Egypt is repeated in Ezekiel 29:6.

[614] King So gave no aid to Samaria in 722 B.C. Though Pharaoh came to the aid of Gaza in 720 B.C., the city fell easily to Sargon. Egyptian efforts to aid Ashdod in 711 B.C. and Ashkalon in 701 B.C. were equally unsuccessful.

Sennacherib had also heard of Hezekiah's great religious reformation and of his boasts concerning the God of Israel (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:8). He either had been told or had concluded that this reformation was not popular with all segments of the population, and therefore Rab-shakeh was instructed to attempt to exploit this issue. How could Hezekiah confidently rely on the protection of the God of the nation when he had for years been desecrating and destroying the high places and altars of this God? To the pagan Sennacherib it seemed inconceivable that any deity could condone such action.

Were it not for the explicit command of the Law of Moses concerning a centralized place of worship, the argument of the Assyrian would make excellent sense. Certainly there would have been many of those who were within earshot of Rab-shakeh who probably would have agreed with his line of thinking. Jews from rural areas would have flocked to Jerusalem during the emergency and no doubt many of them resented the fact that Hezekiah had made a determined effort to centralize the worship of Yahweh in Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:22). The illicit high places had been winked at for so long that they had become in the eyes of many a perfectly legitimate facet of formal worship.

To this point Rab-shakeh proceeded with logical precision. He could not, however, resist the temptation to ridicule the military capabilities of the Jews. If Hezekiah would wager two thousand men, Sennacherib would supply horses for them to ride upon (2 Kings 18:23). By this remark Rab-Shakeh was mocking the fact that the Jewish army lacked any cavalry. He was also suggesting that Hezekiah was facing a shortage of fighting men. Without such a force the Jews could not hope to be able to turn back even one unit of the Assyrian army, and for such a force the Jews were dependent upon undependable Egypt (2 Kings 18:24). Furthermore, the Assyrian armies were invincible because, boasted Rab-Shakeh, Yahweh Himself had dispatched Sennacherib against Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:25). Perhaps the Assyrian king had heard of the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:17-24; Isaiah 10:5-12) which foretold the Assyrian invasion of Judah.

The three Jewish officials stood on the wall and listened to the threats and boasts of Rab-shakeh. They could sense the uneasiness of the soldiers who manned the wall. The propaganda of Rab-shakeh was having its intended effect. Eliakim, Shebna and Joah interrupted the Assyrian officer at this point and requested that he speak to them in the diplomatic language of the daythe Aramaic tongue. Hebrew and Aramaic are closely related languages, but sufficiently different to be distinct languages which were only intelligible to those who had learned them. The common people of Jerusalem would not know Aramaic; the diplomats would. The Jewish officials desperately desired that any further negotiations be conducted in the international language of the time (2 Kings 18:26). Rab-shakeh, of course, refused to comply with this request. The very purpose of his coming to Jerusalem was to intimidate the soldiers and weaken the resolve of the citizens to resist. He had come to make the men who defended Jerusalem's walls realize that before long they would be brought to the last extremity of hunger and thirstthey would be forced even to consume their own excrement (2 Kings 18:27).

The urgent request of the Jewish diplomats only stirred Rabshakeh to greater efforts. He rosehe must heretofore have been seatedand addressed himself directly to the citizens on the walls (2 Kings 18:28). He urged the people not to allow Hezekiah to deceive them particularly with his assurances of supernatural deliverance (2 Kings 18:29). The Assyrians knew that Hezekiah had been stirring up the people to militant resistance with promises that God would not allow Jerusalem to fall to the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:30). Hezekiah based these assurances on the definite prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 31:4-6; Isaiah 33:20-22).

From threat Rab-shakeh turned to grandiose promises. If Jerusalem would but come to terms with Sennacherib and surrender, everybody in the city would be allowed to return to his own land where for a time he might live a peaceful and happy life (2 Kings 18:31). Then after a time, Sennacherib would come and transplant them to a new land. Such national deportations were so common in the Assyrian empire that Rab-shakeh knew he must mention it if his remarks were to enjoy any measure of credibility. So he attempted to place this practice in the best possible light. He tried to persuade the Jews that being transported hundreds of miles from their homes really would not be so badthat they were to be envied rather than pitied for being about to experience it. The king of Assyria would see to it that they were taken to a land as nearly as possible like their own land. In describing the land of Judah the Assyrian used glowing terminology which was designed to win the sympathy of the Jews within earshot. If they followed Rab-Shakeh's advice they would live; if Hezekiah'S, they would die (2 Kings 18:32).

Again Rab-shakeh repeated his warning: Do not let Hezekiah persuade you that your God will deliver you (2 Kings 18:32). Recent history provided crushing evidence that Hezekiah's faith was fanatical and unrealistic. No local deity thus far had been able to deliver his people from the mighty Assyrian army (2 Kings 18:33). From the Assyrian point of view it was sheer madness to think that the insignificant god of this insignificant people could do what the mighty Moloch, Chemosh, Baal and Bel had been unable to do. To make his point more emphatically, Rabshakeh ticked off the recent victories of the Assyrian war machine: Hamath and Arpad in Syria had been conquered about 720 B.C. by Sargon. The Syrian cities of Sepharvaim, Ivah (Ava in 2 Kings 17:24), and Hena[615] also had easily been conquered, probably about 710 B.C. The idols of Samaria had not been able to deliver that city either when the Assyrians conquered it in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 18:34). Rab-shakeh challenged his auditors to produce a single example of a national god who had been able to withstand the Assyrian might. If no such example could be produced then the Jews should have abandoned their hope of supernatural deliverance from Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:35). Rabshakeh could not conceive of the idea of Yahweh being anything but a local god, on a par with the idols of surrounding nations.

[615] Hena and Ivah are problematical. They are not mentioned in the parallel account in Isaiah 36 nor in the Greek translation of the present passage. The Targum renders these words as though they were verbal forms, he sent them wandering and caused them to stray.

In the face of these outrageous and blasphemous assertions, the Jews of Jerusalem maintained a resolute silence. Rabshakeh's efforts to generate some sort of insurrection within the city failed. Upon hearing of the arrival of this Assyrian psychological warfare team, Hezekiah had given strict orders that no matter what was said, his subjects were to maintain strict silence (2 Kings 18:36). Horrified at the blasphemies of Rabshakeh, Hezekiah's three ministers ripped their robes and returned to the royal palace to report all that had been said (2 Kings 18:37).

2. THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF ISAIAH THE PROPHET (2 Kings 19:1-7)

TRANSLATION

(1) And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard, that he tore his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went to the house of the LORD. (2) And he sent Eliakim who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. (3) And they said unto him, Thus says Hezekiah: A day of trouble, chastisement and abhorrence is this day, for children have come to the time of birth and there is no strength to bring forth. (4) Perhaps the LORD your God will hearken unto all the words of Rab-shakeh who was sent by the king of Assyria his master to revile the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God heard, now lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is left. (5) And the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. (6) And Isaiah said unto them, Thus say unto your master: Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words which you have heard with which the lackeys of the king of Assyria blaspheme Me. (7) Behold I am about to send a blast against him and he shall hear a report, and return to his land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.

COMMENTS

When Hezekiah heard the report of his ministers, he too was terribly upset. Following their example, he tore his garments and donned sackclotha sign of grief and self-humiliation.[616] He then took his troubles to the Lord as he went to the Temple to seek divine counsel and solace (2 Kings 18:1). At the same time the king dispatched an embassy to the great prophet Isaiah[617] who resided in Jerusalem. Isaiah had been an adviser to Ahaz and most certainly would have been among the counselors of Hezekiah. The embassy wore sackcloth to emphasize the horror and grief which Rab-shakeh's threatening boasts had engendered (2 Kings 18:2).

[616] By this action the king may have initiated a public fast.
[617] Isaiah is the first canonical (writing) prophet to be mentioned in the historical books of the Old Testament.

The king's message to the prophet is summed up in 2 Kings 18:3-4. This, said the king, is a day of trouble for the nation, a day of rebuke or chastisement for the sins we have committed against God, and a day of abhorrence in which God has allowed His people to be insulted by their enemies. The expression children are come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth is a proverbial expression, probably meaning that the nation is facing a dangerous crisis and has no strength to face up to it (2 Kings 18:3). Perhaps, suggested the king, the Lord would take note of the contemptuous words which Rab-shakeh had spoken against the living God and then reprove those words in some mighty act of judgment. To this end Hezekiah urged Isaiah to pray on behalf of the remnant who had not yet fallen into the hands of Sennacherib. The Assyrian king claims to have carried away 200,150 persons in this expedition. He also had taken away from Hezekiah certain cities and assigned them to more friendly monarchs. Thus, only a remnant of the people of Judah were left (2 Kings 18:4). With this message the embassy came to seek the help of the prophet (2 Kings 18:5).

Isaiah seems to have already formulated a reply to the king even before the delegation arrived at his home. Hezekiah did not need to be afraid of the blasphemous words which the lackeys (lit., foot-boys) of the king of Assyria had spoken (2 Kings 18:6). God would send a blast (lit., a wind) against Sennacheribthe destruction of his army. The report of this disaster would send the Assyrian king into full retreat.[618] When he returned to his own land Sennacherib would be assassinated (2 Kings 18:7).

[618] Keil thinks the report or rumor which Sennacherib heard was the news of Tirhakah's advance from Egypt.