Isaiah 37:9

9 The king had heard this about Tirhakah, king of Cush:^[a] "He has set out to fight against you." So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, 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

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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 Look! I am putting a spirit in him and he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.' "

8 When the Rabshakeh heard that the king had left Lachish, he returned and discovered that the king of Assyria was fighting against Libnah.

9 The king had heard this about Tirhakah, king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." So when he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Don't let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem won't be handed over to the king of Assyria.

11 Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries; they destroyed them completely. Will you be rescued?

Footnotes

• [a] Or Nubia