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
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. ​
2
The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. ​
3
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. ​

Rabshakeh Taunts Hezekiah

4
Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust? ​
5
I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
6
Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ​
7
But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” ​
8
Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, 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 Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
10
Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’” ​

Rabshakeh Addresses the People Directly

11
Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ​
12
But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” ​
13
Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!
14
Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.
15
Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ ​
16
Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; ​
17
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ​
18
Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations 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 delivered Samaria from my hand? ​
20
Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

Hezekiah's Officials Report Back

21
But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.” ​
22
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. ​

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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