Isaiah 36:4

4 And Rabshakeh said to them, "Now say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What [is] this confidence [in] which you trust?

Isaiah 36:4 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 36:4

And Rabshakeh said unto them
The three ministers above mentioned: say ye now to Hezekiah;
tell him what follows; he does not call him king, as he does his own master: thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria;
this he said boastingly of his master, and in order to terrify Hezekiah and his subjects; whom he would represent as little in comparison of him, who had subdued many kingdoms, and aimed at universal monarchy; so the eastern kings used to be called, as now the Grand Signior with the Turks, and the French call their king the great monarch; but the title of a great king suits best with God himself, ( Psalms 95:3 ) : what confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
meaning, what was the ground and foundation of his confidence? what was it that kept him in high spirits, that he did not at once submit to the king of Assyria, and surrender the city of Jerusalem to him?

Isaiah 36:4 In-Context

2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a large army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on [the] highway of [the] field of [the] washer.

3 And Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who {was in charge of the palace}, came out to him, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the reminder.

4 And Rabshakeh said to them, "Now say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What [is] this confidence [in] which you trust?

5 I said, 'Only a word of lips! {War has power and a plan}!' Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

6 Look, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [if] a man leans on it, goes into his hand and bores through it! Such [is] Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all those who trust in him.