The Prophets · Old Testament

Isaiah 36

Isaiah 36: Rabshakeh's speech at the wall of Jerusalem

General context

In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria comes up against all the defenced cities of Judah and takes them. He sends Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem with a great army, and Rabshakeh stands by the conduit of the upper pool. Eliakim, Shebna and Joah come out to him. Rabshakeh delivers the great king's message to Hezekiah: what confidence is this? He calls Egypt a broken reed that pierces the hand that leans on it, argues that Hezekiah has removed the Lord's high places and altars, offers two thousand horses if Judah can find riders, and claims the Lord himself told him to go up and destroy the land. Eliakim, Shebna and Joah ask him to speak in the Syrian language rather than the Jews' language, because the people on the wall are listening. Rabshakeh refuses, saying his master sent him to the men on the wall. He stands and cries aloud in the Jews' language: the king says Hezekiah cannot deliver them and must not make them trust in the Lord; they should make an agreement by a present, come out, eat from their own vines and cisterns, and later be taken to a land like their own. He asks whether any god of the nations delivered its land from the king of Assyria, where the gods of Hamath, Arphad and Sepharvaim are, whether they delivered Samaria, and why the Lord should deliver Jerusalem. The people hold their peace, because the king commanded them not to answer. Eliakim, Shebna and Joah return to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and report Rabshakeh's words.

Cited passages: Isaiah 36:1, Isaiah 36:2, Isaiah 36:3, Isaiah 36:4, Isaiah 36:6, Isaiah 36:7, Isaiah 36:8, Isaiah 36:10, Isaiah 36:11, Isaiah 36:12, Isaiah 36:13, Isaiah 36:14, Isaiah 36:15, Isaiah 36:16, Isaiah 36:17, Isaiah 36:18, Isaiah 36:19, Isaiah 36:20, Isaiah 36:21, Isaiah 36:22

Isaiah 36 (KJV)

¹Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them.

²And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.

³Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder.

⁴And 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?

⁵I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

⁶Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; 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.

⁷But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: 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?

⁸Now therefore give pledges, I pray thee, 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.

⁹How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? the Lord said unto me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

¹¹Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

¹²But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

¹⁴Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.

¹⁵Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹⁶Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;

¹⁷Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

²¹But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

²²Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

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Historical context

This chapter is narrative, and it supplies its own setting: the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria, and Rabshakeh sent from Lachish to Jerusalem. Rabshakeh is presented as a messenger who speaks for the king of Assyria, and everything he says about Egypt, about Hezekiah's removal of high places, and about the Lord's command to destroy the land is his claim, not the narrator's statement. Hezekiah does not appear in person in this chapter; his three officers receive the speech and carry it back, and the only act attributed to the king in Jerusalem is the commandment not to answer. The text names the officers with their fathers and titles, Eliakim son of Hilkiah over the house, Shebna the scribe, Joah son of Asaph the recorder, and names the places whose gods Rabshakeh cites, Hamath, Arphad and Sepharvaim, and Samaria, which he says they did not deliver. A parallel account appears in 2 Kings 18:13, which reads, Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them; 2 Kings 18:17 names Tartan and Rabsaris alongside Rab-shakeh, whereas this chapter names Rabshakeh alone. 2 Chronicles 32:1 also records that Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah. The chapter does not describe the fall of Lachish or say how many cities were taken.

Cited passages: Isaiah 36:1, Isaiah 36:2, Isaiah 36:4, Isaiah 36:10, Isaiah 36:21, Isaiah 36:3, Isaiah 36:19, 2 Kings 18:13, 2 Kings 18:17, 2 Chronicles 32:1

Literary context

The chapter is almost entirely one man's speech, delivered in two stages. The first stage is addressed to the three officers and framed as a message to Hezekiah, built around the word trust: what confidence, on whom dost thou trust, thou trustest in Egypt, we trust in the Lord, put thy trust on Egypt. The request to change language is the hinge; Rabshakeh's refusal turns a diplomatic exchange into a public appeal, and the narrator marks it by having him stand and cry with a loud voice. The second stage is addressed to the people on the wall and repeats the name Hezekiah four times as the one not to be trusted, offering vines, fig trees and cisterns now and a land like your own later. Rabshakeh's argument runs by a list of questions about the gods of other lands and ends with the Lord placed in the same series. The people's silence is the only reply, and it is given as obedience to the king. The chapter ends with rent clothes, and the answer to Rabshakeh's questions is deferred to chapter 37. His mockery of Egypt as a broken reed echoes the woes on trusting Egypt in chapters 30 and 31, though the narrator draws no line between them.

Cited passages: Isaiah 36:5, Isaiah 36:7, Isaiah 36:9, Isaiah 36:11, Isaiah 36:13, Isaiah 36:16, Isaiah 36:18, Isaiah 36:20, Isaiah 36:21, Isaiah 36:22, Isaiah 36:6, Isaiah 31:1

Key moments

Sennacherib takes Judah's cities (Isaiah 36:1). In Hezekiah's fourteenth year the king of Assyria takes the defenced cities of Judah.
Rabshakeh at the upper pool (Isaiah 36:2). The Assyrian envoy comes from Lachish with a great army and stands by the conduit.
What confidence is this? (Isaiah 36:4). Rabshakeh opens the great king's message by questioning Hezekiah's trust.
Egypt a broken reed (Isaiah 36:6). Rabshakeh says leaning on Egypt pierces the hand that leans on it.
Speak in Syrian (Isaiah 36:11). The officers ask Rabshakeh not to use the Jews' language before the people on the wall.
A loud cry to the wall (Isaiah 36:13). Rabshakeh shouts the king of Assyria's words directly to the people.
Silence and rent clothes (Isaiah 36:21). The people answer nothing, and the officers return to Hezekiah with torn clothes.

For reflection

Rabshakeh asks what confidence Hezekiah trusts in, and lists Egypt, the altars Hezekiah removed, and the Lord himself as equally doubtful. What does the people's ordered silence on the wall say in reply, and what does it leave unsaid?

People in this chapter

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