Isaiah 36:1-9

1 Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hizkiyahu, that Sancheriv king of Ashshur came up against all the fortified cities of Yehudah, and took them.

2 The king of Ashshur sent Ravshakeh from Lakhish to Yerushalayim to king Hizkiyahu with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.

3 Then came forth to him Elyakim the son of Hilkiyah, who was over the household, and Shevna the Sofer, and Yo'ach, the son of Asaf, the recorder.

4 Ravshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hizkiyahu, Thus says the great king, the king of Ashshur, What confidence is this in which you trust?

5 I say, [your] counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

6 Behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Mitzrayim, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Par`oh king of Mitzrayim to all who trust on him.

7 But if you tell me, We trust in the LORD our God: isn't that he, whose high places and whose altars Hizkiyahu has taken away, and has said to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, You shall worship before this altar?

8 Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Ashshur, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

9 How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Mitzrayim for chariots and for horsemen?

Isaiah 36:1-9 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.