Isaiah 36

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1 ¹Now in the fourteenth * year of King Hezekiah, ²Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

2 And the ³king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the ⁴conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller's field.

3 Then ⁵Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ⁶Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

4 Then ⁷Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What is this confidence that you have?

5 "I say, 'Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.' Now on whom do you rely, that ⁸you have rebelled against me?

6 "Behold, you rely on the ⁹staff of this crushed reed, even on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. ¹⁰So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

7 "But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' is it not He ¹¹whose 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, come make a bargain with 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 repulse * one official of the least of my master's servants and ¹²rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

10 "Have I now come up without the LORD'S approval against this land to destroy it? ¹³The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.' ""'

11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in ¹⁴Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in ¹⁵Judean 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, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"

13 Then Rabshakeh stood and ¹⁶cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

14 "Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah ¹⁷deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;

15 nor let Hezekiah make you ¹⁸trust in the LORD, 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 and come out to me, and eat each of his ¹⁹vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the ²⁰waters 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 that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, "²¹The LORD will deliver us." Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 'Where are the gods of ²²Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of ²³Sepharvaim? And when have they ²⁴delivered Samaria from my hand?

20 'Who among all the ²⁵gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the ²⁶LORD would deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' "

21 But they were silent and ²⁷answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, "Do not answer him."

22 Then ²⁸Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ²⁹Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Isaiah 36 Commentary

Chapter 36

( 2 Kings. 18:17-37 )

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 18:13
• 2. 2 Chronicles 32:1
• 3. 2 Kin 18:17-20:11; 2 Chronicles 32:9-24; Is 36:2-38:8
• 4. Isaiah 7:3
• 5. Isaiah 22:20
• 6. Isaiah 22:15
• 7. 2 Kings 18:19
• 8. 2 Kings 18:7
• 9. Ezekiel 29:6, 7
• 10. Psalms 146:3; Is 30:3, 5, 7
• 11. Deuteronomy 12:2-5; 2 Kings 18:4, 5
• 12. Isaiah 20:5; Isaiah 30:2-5, 7; Isaiah 31:3
• 13. 1 Kings 13:18; 1 Kings 22:6, 12
• 14. Ezra 4:7; Daniel 2:4
• 15. Isaiah 36:13
• 16. 2 Chronicles 32:18
• 17. Isaiah 37:10
• 18. Isaiah 36:18, 20; Isaiah 37:10, 11
• 19. 1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10
• 20. Proverbs 5:15
• 21. Isaiah 36:15
• 22. Isaiah 10:9-11; Isaiah 37:11-13; Jeremiah 49:23
• 23. Isaiah 10:9-11; Isaiah 37:11-13; Jeremiah 49:23
• 24. 2 Kings 17:6
• 25. 1 Kings 20:23, 28
• 26. Isaiah 36:15
• 27. Proverbs 9:7, 8; Proverbs 26:4
• 28. Isaiah 22:20; Isaiah 36:3
• 29. Isaiah 22:15

Footnotes

• [a]. I.e. launderer's
• [b]. Lit "trust"
• [c]. Lit "words of lips"
• [d]. Lit "palm"
• [e]. Lit "please exchange pledges"
• [f]. Lit "turn away the face of"
• [g]. Or "governor"
• [h]. Lit "rely on for yourself"
• [i]. Lit "without the LORD
• [j]. Lit "hear"
• [k]. I.e. Hebrew
• [l]. Lit "Make with me a blessing"

Chapter Summary

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.