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The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem.
The three chapters now following form the historical appendix to the first part of the book of the prophet Isaiah, serving chiefly to make the prophecies concerning Assyria more intelligible. The events here told are narrated in practically the same form as in 2Ki_18:13 to 2Ki_20:11, but stress certain features of the story for the purposes which the inspired author had in mind.
Rabshakeh's Mockery
v. 1. Now, it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the defensed cities of Judah, all those which were fortified with walls and towers, and took them, their number, according to an Assyrian account of the expedition, being forty-six. The Assyrian attack was directed primarily against Phoenicia, Philistia, Edom, and Moab, but the enemies also overran the country of Judah.
v. 2. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh, the commander-in-chief of his army, from Lachish, a fortress in the southwestern part of Canaan, which the Assyrians wished to take preliminary to their descent upon Egypt, to Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great army, a large detachment of his troops. And he, the general of the Assyrian king, stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, on an eminence overlooking the city from the west, 7:3. Hezekiah, in anticipation of Sennacherib's invasion, had stopped up the fountains outside of the city and conducted the water of the fountain of Gihon and that of the upper pool in a new conduit between the two walls.
v. 3. Then came forth unto him, as emissaries of the king of Judah, Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, which was over the house, the royal chamberlain, and Shebna, the scribe, the king's secretary, and therefore an important state officer, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder, he who kept the royal archives.
v. 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? Just on whom and on what did Hezekiah depend to deliver him and his city at this time?
v. 5. I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words, upon which it is not safe to rely), I have counsel and strength for war, that is, empty bragging is his talk concerning preparation for war; now, on whom dost thou trust that thou rebellest against me? namely, by refusing to surrender Jerusalem in addition to the ransom paid.
v. 6. Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, as Rabshakeh contemptuously calls the ally of Judah, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all that trust in him, the Assyrian general naturally deriding and mocking the strength of Assyria's rival for world supremacy.
v. 7. But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord, our God, in Jehovah, the God of Israel, is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar? Hezekiah had indeed done away with all the high places in Judah, even with those erected in honor of Jehovah, but that had been done only in the interest of the one central Sanctuary in Jerusalem and was therefore no interference with the authority of Jehovah.
v. 8. Now, therefore, give pledges, I pray thee, giving sufficient security, and thus entering upon a wager, to my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. In other words, Rabshakeh wanted to bet the king of Judah that he could not produce two thousand men trained to serve in the cavalry of an army.
v. 9. How, then, wilt thou turn away, resist and cause to retire, the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? The course which Hezekiah was following, so his argument ran, was ridiculous, suicidal; for Judah, even with the help of Egypt, had no chance of winning.
v. 10. And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? This argument was intended to be particularly effective in breaking down the morale of the Jews. The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it. This was a bold shot, without foundation, but apt to terrify all those within hearing, so that they would refuse to follow Hezekiah any longer. A similar trick is used by the enemies of the Church in our day, when they insist that they are acting only in its interest as their evil plans are put into execution.