Isaiah 36:13
Ver. 13. Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language,.... In which he spoke before; but now he raised up himself, and elevated his voice, and strained himself to the utmost, that all the people might hear, and that he might strike a terror into them, and stir them up to mutiny and rebellion, and oblige their governors to give up the city into the hands of the Assyrians; this use he made of the request of Hezekiah's ministers, perceiving hereby their fears, and the disposition of the people:
and said, hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria; See Gill on "Isa 36:4". Isaiah 36:14Ver. 14. Thus saith the king,.... The king of Assyria, whom he personated, whose general and ambassador he was; so he spake to command the greater awe of the people, and the more to terrify them:let not Hezekiah deceive you; with fair words, promising protection and safety, making preparations for the defence of the city, and to oblige the besiegers to break up the siege of it:for he shall not be able to deliver you; but if he was not, his God, whom he served, and in whom he trusted, was able to deliver them, and did deliver them; though he endeavoured to dissuade them from trusting in him, or hearkening to Hezekiah's persuasions thereunto, as in the following verse. Isaiah 36:15Ver. 15. Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord,.... Hezekiah trusted in the Lord himself, and he endeavoured, both by his own example, and by arguments, to persuade his people to do so likewise; of this Rabshakeh was sensible, and was more afraid of this than of any thing else, and, therefore laboured this point more than any other; see 2Ch 32:6;saying, the Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria: which he might say with the greatest confidence, since the Lord had promised to defend it, Isa 31:5 and especially if his sickness, and recovery out of it, and promises then made to him, were before this, as some think; since it is expressly promised by the Lord, that he would deliver him and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, Isa 38:6. Isaiah 36:16Ver. 16. Hearken not to Hezekiah,.... To his exhortations and persuasions to trust in the Lord; nor would he have them obey him in things civil, any more than hearken to him in things sacred, though their liege lord and sovereign; for his view and endeavour were to stir them up to mutiny and rebellion; and so the Targum,"do not obey Hezekiah:''or receive any orders from him, or pay any regard to them:for thus saith the king of Assyria, make an agreement with me by a present; or, "make a blessing with me" {i}; either send a large and liberal gift to secure his favour, and their happiness; a most insolent and unrighteous demand this, when he had already received three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, to withdraw his army; or make a blessed peace with me; suggesting that it would turn more to their account to give up themselves to him, than to be in the condition they were; so the Targum,"make peace with me:''this sense Ben Melech gives; and the Septuagint version is, "if ye would be blessed" {k}, or happy,come out to me; forsake your king, throw off your allegiance to him, surrender yourselves and city to me:and eat ye everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree: and drink ye everyone the waters of his own cistern; promising liberty and property, but does not tell them how long they should enjoy them; he signifies that they should enjoy everything that was necessary, convenient, and delightful; vines and fig trees are mentioned, because common in Judea, and all had cisterns near them for their use; unless this last clause is to be understood of everyone having their own wives; see Pr 5:15 as the other clauses may design the enjoyment of their estates and possessions, without any molestation or infringement of them; see Mic 4:4.{i} hkrb yta wve "facit mecum benedictionem", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus. {k} ei boulesye euloghyhnai, Sept. Isaiah 36:17Ver. 17. Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land,..... Some have thought, as Jerom observes, that the land of Media was meant, which bore some likeness to the land of Judea in situation and fruitfulness. Maimonides thinks that Africa is intended {l}. Rabshakeh names no land, nor could he name any like, or equal to, the land of Canaan; he could not conceal his intention to remove them from their own land to another; this having been always done by the king of Assyria to people conquered by him, and as was usual for conquerors to do, that so the conquered might have no expectation or opportunity of recovering their own land:a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards; corn for bread, and vineyards for wine, and both for food and drink; such a land was the land of Judea. The description agrees with De 8:8. Rabshakeh was well acquainted with the land of Judea; and this seems to confirm the conjecture of the Jews, that he was one of their people, since he could speak their language, and describe their land so well; all this he said to sooth and persuade them to a voluntary surrender.{l} See T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1. Isaiah 36:18Ver. 18. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you,.... To trust in the Lord, stand up in your own defence and not listen to these proposals; or, lest he "deceive you" {m}; with vain words; whom he would represent not only as not being their lawful king, and therefore never gives him that title, but also as a deceiver and impostor, of whom they should be cautious, and guard against:saying, the Lord will deliver us; and therefore need not fear the boasts and threats, the force and fury, of the enemy:hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land; over whom he presided, and to whom the people of it were devotees:out of the hand of the king of Assyria? this reasoning would have had some weight in it had the Lord God of Israel been like the gods of the nations, but he is not; he is the Former and Maker of all things, and sits in the heavens, and does whatsoever he pleases in heaven and in earth; and therefore, though they could not deliver their nations that worshipped them, it did not follow that the God of Israel could not deliver Hezekiah and his people.{m} Mkta tyoy Np "ne forte decipiat vos", Calvin, Vatablus; "ne seducat vos", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. Isaiah 36:19Ver. 19. Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad?.... What is become of them? where are they to be found? where's their power to protect and defend the people they presided over? thus they might be justly derided, but not so the God at Israel; these places are mentioned in Isa 10:9. Hamath was a city in Syria, thought by some to be the same afterwards called Antiochia and Epiphania, from Antiochus Epiphanes: Arphad is joined with it in Jer 49:23 as a city of Syria; perhaps originally founded and inhabited by the Arvadite, mentioned with the Hamathite, in Ge 10:18:where are the gods of Sepharvaim? another place in Syria, the city Sipphore; not the Sipphara of Ptolemy {n}, in Mesopotamia, or that, near Babylon, Abydenus {o} makes mention of, but a city in Syro-Phoenicia, 2Ki 17:24:and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? the gods of the above places, which were worshipped in Samaria, or the gods peculiar to that place; though Samaria was not taken by the present king of Assyria, Sennacherib, but by a predecessor of his, Shalmaneser, 2Ki 17:3,6, which yet is here boasted of as a conquest of the present king.{n} Geograph. l. 5. c. 18. {o} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457. Isaiah 36:20Ver. 20. Who are they amongst all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand?.... Not one of them, it is suggested; wherefore then should it be thought practicable,that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? thus blasphemously setting the Lord God of Israel upon a level with the fictitious gods of the Gentiles; though these could not, the Lord could, being the Lord God Almighty. If Rabshakeh was an apostate Jew, he must have known better; but the malice of such is usually the greatest. Isaiah 36:21Ver. 21. But they held their peace, and answered him not a word,.... The three ministers of Hezekiah; not as confounded, and unable to return an answer: they were capable of saying many things in proof that the Lord God was greater than the gods of the nations, and in favour of their king, Hezekiah, whom he had treated in a scurrilous manner; and could have objected to him the king of Assyria's breach of faith and honour, but these things they waved, and said nothing of; no doubt they said something to him, had some conference with him, or otherwise what were they sent as commissioners about? but they made no answer to his blasphemies and menaces:for the king's commandment was, saying, answer him not: with respect to the above things; when he sent them, he might be aware that he would behave in such a rude, insolent, and blaspheming manner, and therefore the king gave them instructions how to conduct themselves, should this be the case. Musculus thinks the king was on the wall, and heard all himself, and gave orders to his ministers to make no reply; but this does not seem likely; what is here said of the ministers is also said of the people, 2Ki 18:36. Isaiah 36:22Ver. 22. Then came Eliakim, that was over the household,.... The first of the commissioners sent to Rabshakeh:and Shebna the Scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah: by which it seems that he could not be with them on the wall, but was all the while in his own palace, whither they came to him, to report the issue of their conference with Rabshakeh:with their clothes rent; which was done perhaps not in the presence and within the sight of Rabshakeh, but as they came along; and that partly on account of the blasphemies they had heard, Mt 26:65, and partly through the grief of heart, for the distress and calamity they might fear were coming on themselves, their king, their city, and country, Joe 2:13:and told him the words of Rabshakeh; what he had said against him, and against the God of Israel, his menaces and his blasphemies; they made a faithful report of the whole, as messengers ought to do. What effect this had upon the king, we have an account of in the following chapter.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.