Isaiah 37:9

9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying,

Isaiah 37:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:9

And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia
Not Rabshakeh, but the king of Assyria heard a rumour of this Ethiopian king coming out to war against him: his name, in Josephus ^F23, is Tharsices; in the Septuagint version it is Tharaca; and by Africanus

---

FOOTNOTES:

F24 he is called Taracus; and is the same, who, by Strabo ^F25, out of Megasthenes, is named Tearcon the Ethiopian: the Ethiopia of which he was king was either the upper Ethiopia or that beyond Egypt; to which agrees the Arabic version, which calls him Tharatha king of the Abyssines; but others take it for Cush, or rather Ethiopia in the land of Midian, or Arabia, as Bochart; which lay nearer to Judea than the other Ethiopia. Now the report that was brought to the king of Assyria of him was, he is come forth to make war with thee;
not by assisting the Egyptians, as Josephus, but rather the Jews; or by making an irruption into the king of Assyria's country in his absence: this some think to be the rumour predicted, ( Isaiah 37:7 ) and when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah;
with terrifying letters, to frighten him into an immediate surrender of the city, that he might withdraw his army, and meet the king of Ethiopia with the greater force; and the rather he dispatched these messengers in all haste to Hezekiah, that his letters might reach him before he had knowledge of the king of Ethiopia, asking a diversion in his favour, which would encourage him to hold out the siege the longer: saying; as follows:
F23 Antiqu. l. 10. c. 1. sect. 4.
F24 Apud Euseb. Chron.
F25 Geograph. l. 15. p. 472.

Isaiah 37:9 In-Context

7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death.

8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish.

9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying,

10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate?