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Isaiah 36:8-18

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8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
9 How then can you repulse 1a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when 2you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10 Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? 3The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.'"
11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants 4in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
12 But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"
13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14 Thus says the king: 5'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.
15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me[a] and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,
17 until 6I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
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Isaiah 36:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 36

In this chapter we have an account of the king Assyria's invasion of Judea, and of the railing speech of Rabshakeh his general, to discourage the ministers and subjects of the king of Judah. The time and success of the invasion are observed in Isa 36:1 the messenger the former king sent to the latter, and from whence, and with whom, he conferred, Isa 36:2,3, the speech of the messenger, which consists of two parts; the first part is directed to the ministers of Hezekiah, showing the vain confidence of their prince in his counsels and strength for war, in the king of Egypt, and in his chariots and horsemen, and even in the Lord himself, pretending that he came by his orders to destroy the land, Isa 36:4-10. The other part is directed to the common people on the wall, he refusing to speak in the Syrian language, as desired, Isa 36:11,12, dissuading them from hearkening to Hezekiah to their own deception; persuading them to come into an agreement with him for their own safety and good; observing to them that none of the gods of the nations could deliver them out of his master's hands, and therefore it was in vain for them to expect deliverance from the Lord their God, Isa 36:13-20, to which neither ministers nor people returned any answer; but the former went with their clothes rent to Hezekiah, and reported what had been said, Isa 36:21,22.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 6

  • 1. [Isaiah 10:8]
  • 2. [Isaiah 20:5; Isaiah 30:3, 7; Isaiah 31:1]
  • 3. Isaiah 10:5, 6
  • 4. Ezra 4:7; Daniel 2:4
  • 5. [Isaiah 37:10; 2 Chronicles 32:6-8]
  • 6. 2 Kings 18:11

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Hebrew Make a blessing with me
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.