Yeshayah 36:2

2 And Melech Ashur sent Rav Shakeh from Lachish to Yerushalayim unto Melech Chizkiyah with a large army. And he stood by the te’alat haberekhah haelyonah (aqueduct of the Upper Pool) on the highway of the sadeh of the launderer.

Yeshayah 36:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:2

And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to
Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great army
Notwithstanding he had taken Hezekiah's money to withdraw his army out of his country, yet sends it out to his very capital; along with this Rabshakeh he sent two other generals, Tartan and Rabsaris, ( 2 Kings 18:17 ) though they are not mentioned, only Rabshakeh, because he was the principal person, however the chief speaker. Lachish was a city in the tribe of Judah, ( Joshua 15:39 ) , which Sennacherib was now besieging, ( 2 Chronicles 32:9 ) . This message was sent, Bishop Usher says, three years after the former expedition: and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the
fullers' field;
where they spread their clothes, as the Targum, having washed them in the pool, of which see ( Isaiah 7:3 ) . Ben Melech thus describes the pool, conduit, and highway: the pool is a ditch, built with stone and lime, where rainwater was collected, or where they drew water from the fountain, and the waters were gathered into this pool; and there was in this pool a hole, which they stopped, until the time they pleased to fetch water, out of the pool: and the conduit was a ditch near to the pool, and they brought water out of the pool into the conduit, when they chose to drink, or wash garments: the highway was a way paved with stones, so that they could walk upon it in rainy days; and here they stood and washed their garments in the waters of the conduit, and in the field they spread them to the sun. This pool lay outside the city, yet just by the walls of it, which showed the daring insolence of Rabshakeh to come so very nigh, for he was in the hearing of the men upon the walls, ( Isaiah 36:12 ) , this Rabshakeh is by the Jewish writers thought to be an apostate Jew, because he spoke in the Jews' language; and some of them, as Jerome says, will have him to be a son of the Prophet Isaiah's, but without any foundation, Procopius, in ( 2 Kings 18:18 ) , thinks it probable that he was a Hebrew, who either had fled on his own accord to the Assyrians, or was taken captive by them.

Yeshayah 36:2 In-Context

1 6 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth shanah of Melech Chizkiyah, that Sancheriv Melech Ashur came up against all the fortified cities of Yehudah, and captured them.

2 And Melech Ashur sent Rav Shakeh from Lachish to Yerushalayim unto Melech Chizkiyah with a large army. And he stood by the te’alat haberekhah haelyonah (aqueduct of the Upper Pool) on the highway of the sadeh of the launderer.

3 Then came forth unto him Elyakim Ben Chilkiah, who was over the Bais (palace), and Shevna the Sofer, and Yoach Ben Asaph, the Mazkir (secretary).

4 And Rav Shakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Chizkiyah, Thus saith the HaMelech Hagadol, Melech Ashur, What bitachon (confidence) is this wherein thou trustest?

5 I say, Your etzah (counsel) and gevurah (strength) for milchamah (war) are only devar sefatayim [words of the lips, empty words]); now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?