seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Isaiah 36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When the commander stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, 3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to him.
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.
a. Isaiah 36:9 Or charioteers
Well, I've been using Bible-studys.org for this book so I went right back to it here.
Standing like a beacon in the middle of Isaiah’s prophecies is the Historic Interlude (36:1 – 39:8), which records the fulfillment of the prophet’s predictions concerning the overthrow of Assyria and the rise of Babylon. The 4 chapters duplicate almost verbatim (2 Kings 18:13 – 20:19; 2 Chronicles 32:1-23).
(Chapters 36 and 37), are the historical consummation (of chapters 1-35), Jerusalem’s deliverance from Assyria (and chapters 38 and 39), the historical basis for (chapters 40-66), a preview of the Babylonian captivity.
This section shifts from poetry to prose and is parallel to the accounts recorded (in 2 Kings chapters 18–20 and 2 Chron. chapter 32).
Sennacherib ruled Assyria (from 705 to 681 B.C.). He immediately ousted the usurper Merodach-baladan of Babylon (see Isaiah 39), and invaded Judah (in 701 B.C.). His initial campaign against the cities of Judah was completely successful, as the Assyrians swept through the area, with Ashkelon and Lachish suffering the worst. The Chronicle of Sennacherib claims that he captured 46 towns and 200,000 people.
From Lachish, he sent officers to Hezekiah to demand the surrender of Jerusalem. The archaeological discovery of the Taylor Prism reveals Sennacherib’s own description of the siege of Jerusalem: “I shut him (Hezekiah), like a caged bird within his royal capital.” However, the account makes no claim to the actual conquest of Jerusalem or Hezekiah. The conduit of the upper pool is where Hezekiah had dug a new water tunnel to help maintain the water supply for the city.
Rab-shakeh (2 Kings 18:17), is a title meaning “chief aide” and refers to a high court official. Ironically, he actually came to the very spot where Isaiah met Ahaz 30 years earlier to warn him not to trust in Assyria (see 7:3). The Rab-shakeh demands that Hezekiah surrender to the “great king … of Assyria” (i.e. Sennacherib).
He shows his ignorance of Hebrew theology by assuming that Hezekiah had torn down the “high places … and altars” of Jehovah, when in reality Hezekiah had brought about a great spiritual revival and destroyed the altars of Baal. The demand to “give pledges” means to pay tribute.
Rabshakeh’s logic was twofold:
(1) Egypt was to be unable to deliver Jerusalem; and
(2) The Lord had called on the Assyrians to destroy Judah (verses 7 and 10).
Rabshakeh taunted and minimized Judah’s best defensive efforts, even with Egypt’s help.
Fearful that the words of the Rab-shakeh might panic the common people, the Jewish representatives requested that he speak to them in the “Syrian language” (Aramaic), instead of the “Jews’ language” (Judean or Hebrew). By this period of history, Aramaic had become the common language of international diplomacy. “Make an agreement with me by a present”, means to make an alliance to pay tribute to Assyria.
Rabshakeh spoke longer and louder, suggesting that Hezekiah could not save the city, but the great king, the king of Assyria, would fill the people with abundance.
In Rabshakeh’s eyes, the Lord was one of the many gods worshiped by nations conquered by the Assyrians.
This is from the easy English site.But the Rabshakeh does not understand the God whom Hezekiah trusts. People from other nations would make an idol out of wood, silver or gold. They would consider that idol to be their god. But the Lord is not like some idol that people have made.
The Rabshakeh argues that the Lord is not willing to help the people in Judah. And the Rabshakeh claims that Hezekiah has not been loyal to the Lord. The Rabshakeh even suggests evidence to prove this point. Hezekiah has destroyed many local places for worship. And Hezekiah told the people they must worship the Lord only in Jerusalem. (In fact, Hezekiah did this because the people were also worshipping idols at these local holy places – see 2 Kings 18:4.)
The Rabshakeh continues to try to make the people’s trust in God weaker. Now he pretends that the Lord himself has ordered the Assyrian attack.
Something radical happened back in 2 Kings 19:14-19 when the king of Judah was debriefed. The king actually prayed. He asked God what to do.
The king of Assyria was mistaken...... Hezekiah was one of the good guys. IMHO.... if this guy Hezekiah was a preacher.... he would instruct his flock with their Bibles wide open so they could see the truth for themselves instead of relying on whatever twisted thing came along.
So... check out what happened next.....
2 Kings 19:35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
That's what happens when humans underestimate the One Living God.