Isaiah 36: Summary and Commentary

Verse 1

36:1–39:8 Jerusalem’s rescue from King Sennacherib of Assyria is a focal point of chs 1–39. The Lord promised to rescue his people by remaining present with Jerusalem (see 7:14) and by maintaining a remnant (see study note on 10:20). Even though much of the country was desolate and the population decimated because of their foolish alliance with Assyria (chs 7–8), the Lord preserved his people from total conquest through Hezekiah, a godly king. Hezekiah faced the same test that Ahaz did, a test of trust (note the recurrence of words for trust in the Assyrian officer’s challenge in ch 36). But Hezekiah has learned the lessons taught in chs 13–35 and, at least initially, he passed the test. This narrative is duplicated in 2 Kgs 18:13–20:19.

36:1 King Sennacherib of Assyria ruled from 705–681 BC. Hezekiah, like many other kings under Assyrian vassalage, had reasserted his independence when Sennacherib came to the throne in troubled circumstances. By 701 BC, the Assyrian king was ready to punish Hezekiah. Sennacherib recorded having conquered forty-six fortified cities and many villages, and having taken 200,146 captives. Hezekiah responded by attempting to appease Sennacherib (see 2 Kgs 18:14-16), but it was too late.

Verse 2

36:2 Lachish was a city overlooking the low-lying hills to the west of Jerusalem. It had to be taken before the final attack on Jerusalem could be launched. • the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool: This was a pool on the north side of Jerusalem, not the Gihon Spring in the Kidron valley. • Isaiah had met Ahaz on this same road leading to the field where cloth is washed some thirty-three years earlier (see Isa 7:3). At that time he had challenged Ahaz to trust God. However, Ahaz trusted Assyria instead, and this desperate situation was a result. Now the challenge to trust God came from mocking, foreign lips (see 28:11-13).

Verse 3

36:3 Eliakim eventually advanced in rank, while Shebna was demoted (see 22:15-24).

Verse 4

36:4-22 The Assyrian chief of staff attempted to use intimidation to negotiate a settlement without bloodshed. In his first speech (36:4-10), he rightly argued against Egypt’s ability to rescue but wrongly charged Hezekiah with misplaced trust in the Lord. Strikingly, the Assyrian did not see the contest as being between the gods of Assyria and the Lord but rather between Sennacherib—the great king—and the Lord.

36:4 Great king is a title similar to emperor.

Verse 5

36:5 Who are you counting on: Judah had asked Egypt to help them (see 30:1-5).

Verse 6

36:6 Egypt . . . is completely unreliable: Isaiah argued the same case, pointing to the Lord as the only reliable source of help (31:1-3, 7; 39:7). • A kind of reed that breaks easily grows near the Nile (see Ezek 29:6-7).

Verse 7

36:7 We are trusting in the Lord our God: Ironically, the Assyrian chief of staff knew about and played on Isaiah’s message (26:4; 36:15; 37:10). • Hezekiah showed his zeal for the Lord by tearing down the pagan shrines and altars (2 Kgs 18:4), but the Assyrians mistakenly thought Hezekiah had angered God in the process.

Verse 8

36:8 At this time, cavalry mounted on horses was the newest military technology. The Assyrian chief of staff was mocking the Judeans because he knew that Judah had no trained men who knew how to ride.

Verse 10

36:10 The Lord himself told us: It was common for a king to claim the approval of a deity in destroying other kingdoms. This claim was consistent with Isaiah’s prophecy in 10:5-6.

Verse 11

36:11 Aramaic was the lingua franca used throughout the Assyrian Empire, understood by the elite but not by the common people of Judah.

Verse 13

36:13-20 In the Assyrian chief of staff’s second speech, he claimed that his nation’s gods were more powerful than the God of Judah (cp. 10:9-10). God’s ability to rescue his people was at stake. In the ensuing drama, the Lord shocked the Assyrian with his power (37:36-37).

Verse 14

36:14 Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you: This public accusation against Hezekiah was intended to undermine the people’s confidence in him.

Verse 15

36:15 Hezekiah demonstrated a strong faith in the Lord, unlike Ahaz (ch 7). Hezekiah’s faith would bring rescue, whereas Ahaz’s lack of faith brought him trouble (see 7:9).

Verse 16

36:16-17 The Assyrian was tempting the people of Jerusalem with provisions that the Lord had promised to provide his obedient people (see 1:19; 37:30-35; Deut 8:7-9). It was a tempting offer, but a counterfeit. And it covered up the reality of exile that would have followed (Isa 36:17).

Verse 19

36:19 The populations of Hamath and Arpad had been relocated to Samaria, where the new local deities were the gods of Sepharvaim (2 Kgs 17:24). The logic of the argument made sense to an Assyrian. If the Assyrian gods defeated all the gods of the other nations and the God of the Israelite nation of Samaria, would they not also defeat the God of Judah?

Verse 1

We shall here only observe some practical lessons. 1. A people may be in the way of their duty and yet meet with trouble and distress. Hezekiah was reforming, and his people were in some measure reformed; and yet their country is at that time invaded and a great part of it laid waste. Perhaps they began to grow remiss and cool in the work of reformation, were doing it by halves, and ready to sit down short of a thorough reformation; and then God visited them with this judgment, to put life into them and that good cause. We must not wonder if, when we are doing well, God sends afflictions to quicken us to do better, to do our best, and to press forward towards perfection. 2. That we must never be secure of the continuance of our peace in this world, nor think our mountain stands so strong that it cannot be moved. Hezekiah was not only a pious king, but prudent, both in his administration at home and in his treaties abroad. His affairs were in a good posture, and he seemed particularly to be upon good terms with the king of Assyria, for he had lately made his peace with him by a rich present (Kg2 18:14), and yet that perfidious prince pours an army into his country all of a sudden and lays it waste. It is good for us therefore always to keep up an expectation of trouble, that, when it comes, it may be no surprise to us, and then it will be the less a terror. 3. God sometimes permits the enemies of his people, even those that are most impious and treacherous, to prevail far against them. The king of Assyria took all, or most, of the defenced cities of Judah, and then the country would of course be an easy prey to him. Wickedness may prosper awhile, but cannot prosper always. 4. Proud men love to talk big, to boast of what they are, and have, and have done, nay and of what they will do, to insult over others, and set all mankind at defiance, though thereby they render themselves ridiculous to all wise men and obnoxious to the wrath of that God who resists the proud. But thus they think to make themselves feared, though they make themselves hated, and to carry their point by great swelling words of vanity, Jde 1:16. 5. The enemies of God's people endeavour to conquer them by frightening them, especially by frightening them from their confidence in God. Thus Rabshakeh here, with noise and banter, runs down Hezekiah as utterly unable to cope with his master, or in the least to make head against him. It concerns us therefore, that we may keep our ground against the enemies of our souls, to keep up our spirits by keeping up our hope in God. 6. It is acknowledged, on all hands, that those who forsake God's service forfeit his protection. If that had been true which Rabshakeh alleged, that Hezekiah had thrown down God's altars, he might justly infer that he could not with any assurance trust in him for succour and relief, Isa 36:7, We may say thus to presuming sinners, who say that they trust in the Lord and in his mercy. Is not this he whose commandments they have lived in the contempt of, whose name they have dishonoured, and whose ordinances they have slighted? How then can they expect to find favour with him? 7. It is an easy thing, and very common, for those that persecute the church and people of God to pretend a commission from him for so doing. Rabshakeh could say, Have I now come up without the Lord? when really he had come up against the Lord, Isa 37:28. Those that kill the servants of the Lord think they do him service and say, Let the Lord be glorified. But, sooner or later, they will be made to know their error to their cost, to their confusion.

Verse 11

We may hence learn these lessons: - 1. That, while princes and counsellors have public matters under debate, it is not fair to appeal to the people. It was a reasonable motion which Hezekiah's plenipotentiaries made, that this parley should be held in a language which the people did not understand (Isa 36:11), because reasons of state are secret things and ought to be kept secret, the vulgar being incompetent judges of them. It is therefore an unfair practice, and not doing as men would be done by, to incense subjects against their rulers by base insinuations. 2. Proud and haughty scorners, the fairer they are spoken to, commonly speak the fouler. Nothing could be said more mildly and respectfully than that which Hezekiah's agents said to Rabshakeh. Besides that the thing itself was just which they desired, they called themselves his servants, they petitioned for it: Speak, we pray thee; but this made him the more spiteful and imperious. To give rough answers to those who give us soft answers is one way of rendering evil for good; and those are wicked indeed, and it is to be feared incurable, with whom that which usually turns away wrath does but make bad worse. 3. When Satan would tempt men from trusting in God, and cleaving to him, he does so by insinuating that in yielding to him they may better their condition; but it is a false suggestion, and grossly absurd, and therefore to be rejected with the utmost abhorrence. When the world and the flesh say to us, "Make an agreement with us and come out to us, submit to our dominion and come into our interests, and you shall eat every one of his own vine," they do but deceive us, promising liberty when they would lead us into the basest captivity and slavery. One might as well take Rabshakeh's word as theirs for kind usage and fair quarter; therefore, when they speak fair, believe them not. Let them say what they will, there is no land like the land of promise, the holy land. 4. Nothing can be more absurd in itself, nor a greater affront to the true and living God, than to compare him with the gods of the heathen; as if he could do no more for the protection of his worshippers than they can for the protection of theirs, and as if the God of Israel could as easily be mastered as the gods of Hamath and Arphad, whereas they are vanity and a lie. They are nothing; he is the great I AM: they are the creatures of men's fancy and the works of men's hands; he is the Creator of all things. 5. Presumptuous sinners are ready to think that, because they have been too hard for their fellow-creatures, they are therefore a match for their Creator. This and the other nation they have subdued, and therefore the Lord himself shall not deliver Jerusalem out of their hand. But, though the potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth, let them not strive with the potter. 6. It is sometimes prudent not to answer a fool according to his folly. Hezekiah's command was, "Answer him not; it will but provoke him to rail and blaspheme yet more and more; leave it to God to stop his mouth, for you cannot." They had reason enough on their side, but it would be hard to speak it to such an unreasonable adversary without a mixture of passion; and, if they should fall a railing like him, Rabshakeh would be much too hard for them at that weapon. 7. It becomes the people of God to lay to heart the dishonour done to God by the blasphemies of wicked men, though they do not think it prudent to reply to those blasphemies. Though they answered him not a word, yet they rent their clothes, in a holy zeal for the glory of God's name and a holy indignation at the contempt put upon it. They tore their garments when they heard blasphemy, as taking no pleasure in their own ornaments when God's honour suffered.

Verse 2

Rab-shakeh—In Kg2 18:17, Tartan and Rab-saris are joined with him. Rab-shakeh was probably the chief leader; Rab is a title of authority, "chief-cup-bearer."

Lachish—a frontier town southwest of Jerusalem, in Judah; represented as a great fortified city in a hilly and fruitful country in the Koyunjik bas-reliefs, now in the British Museum; also, its name is found on a slab over a figure of Sennacherib on his throne.

upper pool—the side on which the Assyrians would approach Jerusalem coming from the southwest (see on Isa 7:3).

Verse 3

Eliakim—successor to Shebna, who had been "over the household," that is, chief minister of the king; in Isa 22:15-20, this was foretold.

scribe—secretary, recorder—literally, "one who reminds"; a remembrancer to keep the king informed on important facts, and to act as historiographer. In Kg2 18:18, the additional fact is given that the Assyrian envoys "called to the king," in consequence of which Eliakim, &c., "came out to them."

Verse 4

great king—the usual title of the Persian and Assyrian kings, as they had many subordinate princes or kings under them over provinces (Isa 10:8).

Verse 5

counsel—Egypt was famed for its wisdom.

Verse 6

It was a similar alliance with So (that is, Sabacho, or else Sevechus), the Ethiopian king of Egypt, which provoked the Assyrian to invade and destroy Israel, the northern kingdom, under Hoshea.

Verse 7

The Assyrian mistakes Hezekiah's religious reforms whereby he took away the high places (Kg2 18:4) as directed against Jehovah. Some of the high places may have been dedicated to Jehovah, but worshipped under the form of an image in violation of the second commandment: the "brazen serpent," also (broken in pieces by Hezekiah, and called Nehushtan, "a piece of brass," because it was worshipped by Israel) was originally set up by God's command. Hence the Assyrian's allegation has a specious color: you cannot look for help from Jehovah, for your king has "taken away His altars."

to Jerusalem— (Deu 12:5, Deu 12:11; Joh 4:20).

Verse 8

give pledges—a taunting challenge. Only give the guarantee that you can supply as many as two thousand riders, and I will give thee two thousand horses. But seeing that you have not even this small number (see on Isa 2:7), how can you stand against the hosts of Assyrian cavalry? The Jews tried to supply their weakness in this "arm" from Egypt (Isa 31:1).

Verse 9

captain—a governor under a satrap; even he commands more horsemen than this.

Verse 10

A boastful inference from the past successes of Assyria, designed to influence the Jews to surrender; their own principles bound them to yield to Jehovah's will. He may have heard from partisans in Judah what Isaiah had foretold (Isa 10:5-6).

Verse 11

Syrian—rather, "Aramean": the language spoken north and east of Palestine, and understood by the Assyrians as belonging to the same family of languages as their own: nearly akin to Hebrew also, though not intelligible to the multitude (compare Kg2 5:5-7). "Aram" means a "high land," and includes parts of Assyria as well as Syria.

Jews' language—The men of Judah since the disruption of Israel, claimed the Hebrew as their own peculiarly, as if they were now the only true representatives of the whole Hebrew twelve tribes.

ears of . . . people on . . . wall—The interview is within hearing distance of the city. The people crowd on the wall, curious to hear the Assyrian message. The Jewish rulers fear that it will terrify the people and therefore beg Rab-shakeh to speak Aramean.

Verse 12

Is it to thy master and thee that I am sent? Nay, it is to the men on the wall, to let them know (so far am I from wishing them not to hear, as you would wish), that unless they surrender, they shall be reduced to the direst extremities of famine in the siege (Ch2 32:11, explains the word here), namely, to eat their own excrements: or, connecting, "that they may eat," &c., with "sit upon the wall"; who, as they hold the wall, are knowingly exposing themselves to the direst extremities [MAURER]. Isaiah, as a faithful historian, records the filthy and blasphemous language of the Assyrians to mark aright the true character of the attack on Jerusalem.

Verse 13

Rab-shakeh speaks louder and plainer than ever to the men on the wall.

Verse 15

The foes of God's people cannot succeed against them, unless they can shake their trust in Him (compare Isa 36:10).

Verse 16

agreement . . . by . . . present—rather, "make peace with me"; literally, "blessing" so called from the mutual congratulations attending the ratification of peace. So Chaldee. Or else, "Do homage to me" [HORSLEY].

come out—surrender to me; then you may remain in quiet possession of your lands till my return from Egypt, when I will lead you away to a land fruitful as your own. Rab-shakeh tries to soften, in the eyes of the Jews, the well-known Assyrian policy of weakening the vanquished by deporting them to other lands (Gen 47:21; Kg2 17:6).

Verse 19

Hamath . . . Arphad—(See on Isa 10:9).

Sepharvaim—literally, "the two scribes"; now Sipphara, on the east of Euphrates, above Babylon. It was a just retribution (Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19). Israel worshipped the gods of Sepharvaim, and so colonists of Sepharvaim were planted in the land of Israel (thenceforth called Samaria) by the Assyrian conqueror (Kg2 17:24; compare Kg2 18:34).

Samaria—Shalmaneser began the siege against Hoshea, because of his conspiring with So of Egypt (Kg2 17:4). Sargon finished it; and, in his palace at Khorsabad, he has mentioned the number of Israelites carried captive—27,280 [G. V. SMITH].

Verse 20

(Compare Isa 10:11; Ch2 32:19). Here he contradicts his own assertion (Isa 36:10), that he had "come up against the land with the Lord." Liars need good memories. He classes Jehovah with the idols of the other lands; nay, thinks Him inferior in proportion as Judah, under His tutelage, was less than the lands under the tutelage of the idols.

Verse 21

not a word—so as not to enter into a war of words with the blasphemer (Exo 14:14; Jde 1:9).

Verse 22

clothes rent—in grief and horror at the blasphemy (Mat 26:65).

Next: Isaiah Chapter 37