Isaiah 36:4-22

4 The field commander said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: “ ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours?

5 You say you have counsel and might for war—but you speak only empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?

6 Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him.

7 But if you say to me, “We are depending on the LORD our God”—isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”?

8 “ ‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!

9 How then can you repulse one officer of the least of my master’s officials, even though you are depending on Egypt for chariots and horsemen^[a] ?

10 Furthermore, have I come to attack and destroy this land without the LORD? The LORD himself told me to march against this country and destroy it.’ ”

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

12 But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”

13 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

14 This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you!

15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘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. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,

17 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

20 Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”

21 But the people remained silent and said nothing in reply, because the king had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.

Isaiah 36:4-22 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References

• 1. S 2 Kings 18:7
• 2. S 2 Kings 17:4; S Isaiah 8:12
• 3. Ezekiel 17:17
• 4. S Isaiah 30:2,5
• 5. Isaiah 42:3; Isaiah 58:5; Ezekiel 29:6-7
• 6. Psalms 22:8; Matthew 27:43
• 7. S 2 Kings 18:4
• 8. Deuteronomy 12:2-5; S 2 Chronicles 31:1
• 9. S Psalms 20:7; S Isaiah 30:16
• 10. S Isaiah 31:3
• 11. Isaiah 37:24
• 12. S Psalms 20:7; Isaiah 30:2-5
• 13. S 1 Kings 13:18; Isaiah 10:5-7
• 14. ver 3
• 15. S Ezra 4:7
• 16. 2 Kings 6:25; Ezekiel 4:12
• 17. S 2 Chronicles 32:18
• 18. Isaiah 37:4
• 19. S 2 Chronicles 32:15
• 20. S Psalms 3:2,7
• 21. Isaiah 37:10
• 22. S 1 Kings 4:25; Zechariah 3:10
• 23. Proverbs 5:15
• 24. S 2 Kings 15:29
• 25. S Genesis 27:28; S Deuteronomy 28:51
• 26. S 2 Kings 18:34
• 27. S 2 Kings 17:24
• 28. S 2 Kings 15:29
• 29. S 1 Kings 20:23
• 30. Exodus 5:2; 2 Chronicles 25:15; Isaiah 10:8-11; Isaiah 37:10-13,18-20; Isaiah 40:18; Daniel 3:15
• 31. Proverbs 9:7-8; S Proverbs 26:4
• 32. S 2 Kings 18:18
• 33. S 2 Samuel 8:16
• 34. S Genesis 37:29; S 2 Chronicles 34:19

Footnotes

• [a] Or "charioteers"