Isaiah36

Sennacherib, King of Assyria, invades Judah and sends his chief officer, Rabshakeh, with a great army to Jerusalem. Rabshakeh publicly challenges King Hezekiah's trust in the LORD and reliance on Egypt, mocking their ability to resist Assyria. He attempts to demoralize the people of Jerusalem, urging them to surrender and questioning the power of their God compared to the gods of other conquered nations. Hezekiah's officials report these blasphemous words to the king.

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1
It was in the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu that Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y'hudah and captured them. ​
2
From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Rav-Shakeh to Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. He positioned himself by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers' Field. ​
3
Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went out to meet him. ​

Rabshakeh Taunts Hezekiah

4
Rav-Shakeh addressed them: "Tell Hizkiyahu: 'Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: "What makes you so confident? ​
5
I say: do mere words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?
6
Look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff - when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him. ​
7
But if you tell me, 'We trust in ADONAI our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, 'You must worship before this altar'? ​
8
All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them.
9
How then can you repulse even one of my master's lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders!
10
Do you think I have come up to this land to destroy it without ADONAI's approval? ADONAI said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'"'" ​

Rabshakeh Addresses the People Directly

11
Elyakim, Shevnah and Yo'ach said to Rav-Shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don't speak to us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening." ​
12
But Rav-Shakeh answered, "Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?" ​
13
Then Rav-Shakeh stood up and, speaking loudly in Hebrew, said: "Hear what the great king, the king of Ashur, says!
14
This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won't be able to save you.
15
And don't let Hizkiyahu make you trust in ADONAI by saying, "ADONAI will surely save us; this city will not be given over to the king of Ashur." ​
16
Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king says: 'Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern, ​
17
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards. ​
18
Beware of Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, "ADONAI will save us." Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur? ​
19
Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S'farvayim? Did they save Shomron from my power? ​
20
Where is the god of any of these countries that has saved its country from my power, so that ADONAI might be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?'"

Hezekiah's Officials Report Back

21
But they kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word, for the king's order was, "Don't answer him." ​
22
Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said. ​

Study Notes for Isaiah 36

Verse 1

The 14th year of King Hezekiah (c. 701 BC) marks the historical setting for Sennacherib's famous campaign, which devastated much of Judah before besieging Jerusalem. This account is nearly identical to 2 Kings 18:13–19:7.

Verse 2

Lachish was a major fortified city captured by Assyria before Jerusalem. The Rabshakeh ('Chief Cupbearer' or 'Chief Officer') was a high-ranking military official responsible for diplomacy and psychological warfare. The upper pool location recalls Isaiah’s meeting with Ahaz (Isa 7:3).

Verse 3

Eliakim and Shebna are high officials previously named in Isaiah’s prophecies (Isa 22:15–25), highlighting the seriousness of the diplomatic mission sent to meet the Assyrian commander.

Verse 4

The title 'the great king' was a common appellation used by powerful Mesopotamian rulers, especially Assyrian kings, to assert their universal sovereignty and dominance over lesser rulers like Hezekiah.

Verse 6

Egypt is consistently portrayed in Isaiah as an unreliable and dangerous ally, symbolized here as a ‘broken reed.’ Trusting in Egypt, rather than Yahweh, was the source of Judah’s political and spiritual folly (cf. Isa 30:1-7).

Verse 7

Rabshakeh cleverly turns Hezekiah’s successful religious reforms (destroying the ‘high places,’ or *bamoth*) against him, suggesting that Hezekiah had angered his own God by confining worship to Jerusalem.

Verse 10

This claim of divine sanction is key Assyrian propaganda, intended to break the morale of the defenders by suggesting that resistance was futile because Yahweh Himself had commissioned the destruction.

Verse 11

The officials request Aramaic (the 'Syrian language'), which was the common language of international diplomacy, hoping to keep the demoralizing threats hidden from the common people who only spoke Hebrew.

Verse 12

Rabshakeh refuses to speak privately and uses deliberately vulgar language to emphasize the horrific conditions of siege warfare (eating and drinking bodily waste) that awaited the inhabitants if they refused to surrender.

Verse 15

This verse shows that Hezekiah was actively promoting faith in Yahweh’s deliverance, a trust Rabshakeh attempts to undermine through mockery and fear.

Verse 16

Rabshakeh presents a false promise of immediate peace and prosperity (eating from one’s own vine and fig tree) as an incentive for immediate surrender.

Verse 17

The Assyrian promise of a better land reveals the true intention: mass deportation. Assyria systematically relocated conquered populations to prevent future rebellion and to destabilize local identity.

Verse 18

The Assyrian strategy culminates in a theological comparison, placing Yahweh on the same level as the defeated gods of the surrounding nations.

Verse 19

Hamath, Arphad, and Sepharvaim were cities already conquered by Assyria. The reference to Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel) is especially potent, as it was conquered in 722 BC despite its inhabitants trusting in Yahweh.

Verse 21

The officials’ silence was a deliberate act of obedience to the king’s command, preventing Rabshakeh from gaining further psychological advantage through public debate.

Verse 22

Rending their clothes was the traditional expression of deep grief, horror, or hearing blasphemy, signaling the profound spiritual and physical threat posed by the Assyrian challenge to God’s honor and Jerusalem’s safety.

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