The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 391

Pndi their prince, who remained faithful to AssyriR, and whom they "placed in chains of iron, and unto Hezekiah King of Judah delivered," who "shut him up in dark- ness (or prison)." Before the allies could unite their forces, Sennacherib appeared upon the scene, having obtained a hint of the confederacy being formed against him. First he swooped down upon Luliah the King of Sidon, who fled to a distant spot in the middle of the sea, leaving to the mercy of the conqueror "his strong cities and castles, walled and fenced, and his :finest garrison towns." Next the kings of Samaria, Bidon, Arvad, Guba!, Ashdod, Beth-Ammon, Moab, and Edom, hastened to meet the invader with "great presents," and kiss his feet. Zedek of Ascalon, who, along with Judah, still stood out, was, with his wife, sons, daughters, brothers, and gods, apprehended and deported to Assyria. At Lachish a halt was made to await the Ethiopian and Assyrian kings, who were soon after defeated at Altaku, the Eltekon of Josh. xv. 59. Dreading the fate he saw approaching, Hezekiah despatched an embassy to La.chish, proffering submission, and agreeing to pay whatever tribute might be asked (2 Kings xviii. 14). Sennacherib demanded three hundred talents of ~ilver and thirty talents of gold. The monuments give the tribute as eight hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold, and state that it was sent to Nineveh after Sennacherib, with "woven cloth, scarlet, embroidered; precious stones of large size, couches of ivory, movable thrones of ivory, skins, and teeth of buffaloes--all sorts of treasures, his (Hezekiah's) daughters, the male and female inmates of his palace, as also male and female slaves." The discrepancy as to the number of silver talenb may be explained by supposing different standards of value to have been employed in reckoning, while the biblical account of the place to which the tribute was sent is clearly to be preferred. In order to pay the exaction Hezekiah appropriated all the silver in the temple, and the treasures in the palace, as well as stripped the gold from off the doors aud pillars of the former (2 Kings xviii. 15, 16). (' Records,' etc., i. 33, etc.; Smith, 'Assyrian Discoveries,' p. 295, etc.; Schrader, 'Die Keilin- schriften,' p. 291, etc.; Sayce, • Fresh Light,' etc., p. 139, etc.) II. SENNACHERIB'S COMMISSION 'l'O BIS GENERALS. These generals were three in number. 1. Their titles. (1) Tartan. In Assyria, tur-ta-nu, commander-in-chief, or :field-marshal (2 Kings xviii. 17; Isa. xx. 1). (2) Rabsaris, "chief of the eunuchs" (2 Kings xviii. 17), probably Sennacherib's lorcl chamberlain, whose duty was to act as official scribe. (3) Rabshakeh, "chief of the cup-bearers" (2 Kings xviii. 17; Isa. xxxvi. 2). As the inscriptions never speak of this court official as a military personage, it has been suggested (Schrader, p. 319) that Rabshakeh is a Hebraized or Aramaized form of Rabsak, meaning "upper chief," "superior officer," perhaps Sennacherib's prime minister. 'l'iglath-Pileser II. had a general of this name, whom he sent to Tyre-(Smith's 'Assyrian Discoveries,' p. 264). The Rabshakeh was obviously the orator of Sennacherib's three (2 Kings xviii. 19). 'l'he tartan was most likely too exalted a personage to hold either oral or writteu communications with the king's enemies. 2. Their commission. To advance, with a detachment of the army, against Jerusalem, with the view of intimidating it into surrender; failing in this, to prosecute against it a siege. Sennacherib was most likely moved to this by the report of the approach of the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia; before encountering these, it was clearly to his advantage to reduce both Ekron and Jerusalem. III. SENNACHERIB'S ADDRESS TO THE KmG AND INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM. Not delivered in person, but through "his servants" (ver. 9), aud in particular Rabshakeh (2 Kings xviii. 19; Isa. xxxvi. 2--4). Nor spoken directly to Hezekiah and his people, but to Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who WIIS over the household, i.e. the king's high steward (Isa. xxii. 20), to Shebna the scribe, or king's secretary, who had lately been deposed from the office of high steward (Isa. xxii. 15-19) because of favouring the interest of Assyria, and to Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder, or king's annalist. Stand- ing by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, where Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub had met with Ahaz when the Syro-Israelitish invasion was threatened (Isa. vii. 3), and where ~he Assyrian army was n?w encamped,_over ag_ainst the Gcnnath Gate, in front of winch the envoys of Hezekiah stood, while the mha- bitaDts crowded round it and evrn sat upon the city wall, observin~ the scene ([sa. xxii. 1-13),-Rabshal~eh, in the name of his master, c~lled _npon th_e king an,! his subjects to surrender, usrng the Hebrew tongue, thnt the mh:"1b1tants might under•  896 Tm: SECOND nooit OF TllE CHRONICLJ;:S. [on. nxn. 1-89.