The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 4

lhe PBBt,' vol. ii. p. 91). Mesh&, King of with no other result the.n that of being re- Moab, dccle.ree, " Chemoeh sl\id to me, Go duced, together with ;you, to the lnat ex• Rnd take Nebo [in Wl\r] &gtiinst Israel" tremity of famine, when the eiege oomee, (ibid., vol. xi. p. J 66). ABBhur is genemlly Ver. 13.-ThenRab1hakeh1tood; i.e. "rose repr,•sonted as oomme.nding the expeditions from a sitting or reclining poeture "-to "f the ABByrie.n king,i (ibid., vol. i. pp. 21, iLttract attention, and the better to moke 4i;, 60, eto.). Still, it is surprising thnt Sen- himeelf board. He continued bis speech in naeherib should mention "Jehovah" 118 the Hebrew, and ot the se.mo time purposely God from whom he had re<'eived the order raised his voice t.o a loud pitch. The envoys to RttAek Hezekiah, Rnd we rn1ty susp~-ct would have been justified in ordoring the the.t the term which he aetually l'mployed archers t.o shoot him from the wnll. But Wll8 flu, "God,'' and that eith,•r Rl\hshakeh, they seem to havo been ~truok of B heap, or the reporter of the speech, substituted 8:8 Epiphanes was by the nudacity of Popil- "Jehove.h" 118 more intelligible to the lrns (see the comment on the preceding Jews. ver~). Ver. 11.-Spea.k , , , llllto thy 18rv&nt& Ver. 14.-Thua saith the king. It '8 in the Syrian language; literally, in the searoely probable that Senne.cherib had ex- Aramaic language. Arammans were widely pressly empowered Rabsho.keh to make a spread over the entire region between the speech to the Jewish people, much less that Lower Tigris aud the Mediterranean ; and he had dictated its words. But the envoy their langua;;e seems to have been in general reg,,rds himself as having plenary powers to use, as a l1tnguage of commerce. "Private declare the king's mind. Let not Hezekiah contract tablets in Aramaic and ABsyrian deceive you. By vain hopes of resisting have been found in the remains of ancient the Assyrian arms successfully (comp. vers. Nineveh" (Cheyne). Habsl,akeh ha.d, per- 6-7). haps, spoken•· in the Jews' language" with- Ver. 15.-Neither let Hezekiah make you out any ill intPnt, thinking that it W118 the trust in Jehovah, There is nothing impro- only tongue which Jewish envoya would bable in Rl\bshakeh's having thus spoken. understand; but his so doing was calculated Ise.iah had long been encouraging Hezekiah to afl"eot the minds of the common people, to resist Sennacherib by promises of Divine aud to sha.ke their all('giance to Hezekiah. aid (eh. xx.x. 31; :r::r:xi. 4-9). Hezekiah The envoys, therefore, requested him to em- would naturally repee.t these promises to ploy a foreign tongue, e.nd suggested Ara- the people, and could not give their effect mnic as one which was familiar to them, in simpler words the.n by se.ying, "Jehovah and which they supposed that he would will surely deliver us: this city shall not understand. His employment of Hebrew be delivered into the he.nd of the King of had shown them that he was a linguist. Assyria.." Spies e.nd deserters would natu- In the Jews' language. There was no lan- rally tell the Assyrian envoys what he guage peculiar to the Jews as Jews, that is had said. t.o say, di1ferent from the ordinary speech of Ver. 16.-]l[ake an agreement with me by the Israelites. Both alike spoke Hebrew. a present; literally, make a blessing with me. In the Old Testament, however, this com- Delitzsch pe.rapLrases, "Enter into a con- mon language is never <'alled "Hebrew," nection of mutual good wishes with me." but either "the t.ongue of C,maan" ( eh. xi.x. Ve.nee Smith translates boldly," Make peace 18) or "the Jewish langue.ge" (2 Kings with me;" and Mr. Oheyne," Me.ke a treaty xviii 26, 28; 2 Chron. :u:r:ii. 18; Neh. xiii. with me." There seems to be no doubt th11t 24 ). Similarly, our own tongue is called b'rakah, besides its primary sense of "bless- "English," though spoken also in Scotle.nd, ing,'' had two secondary senses, "present" Wales, Ireland, America, e.nd Australia. In e.nd "treaty." Here "treaty" is no doubt the eB.rll of the people that ure on the wall ; intended. Come out to me; i.e. "come out i.£. of the soldiers pie.coo on the we.11 t.o of Jerusalem, and surrender yourselves" defeud it, We must suppo110 thu.t the con- (comp. l Sam. xi. 3 ; J er. xx.xviii. 17). And ference took place immediately outside the eat ye , , , drink ye. Pee.ce being made, fortifications, so that some of those on the the Jews could lc11ve the protection of their wall could hee.r. walled cities, and diep~rse themselves over Ver. 12.-H.e.th he not sent me to the men their lands, whcrn they could live in plenty that lit upon the wall 1 Rabshakllh was con- and &:curity (comp. I Kings iv. 25), at any travening all diploma.tic usage, and no rate for e. time. '!'hey would be eafo from doubt w&.8 conscious of it. Hut the pride the terrible extremities hinted at in ver. 12, o.nd anogance of the Assyrians rendered and might confidently await the gre11t king's them as careless of diplomatic etiquette as, ultimate diijposal of them, which would lie e.t a later date, were the Romans (see Poly- determined when the war in these pa.rte bius, :nix. 11, § 6; Liv., xiv, 12). That wae over. The we.tare of h.il own oistem; they may eat, etc. ; rather, to !<'.d. Th.at is, rather, o/ his 01.0n u,ell. All culti ve.tors had 011. xit:r.vi.1-22,] THE BOOK OF 'rHE PROPHET ISAIAH.