The book of 2 Kings also speaks of this event.^[1] Isaiah has included it to his prophecy in order to show that his prophecy is true. Previously the prophet has made announcements concerning Babylon, Tyre, Egypt and other nations, but he is mostly concerned with the incarnation of our Savior, the unbelief and resultant judgment of Israel, and the call and salvation of the Gentiles. He has also announced Assyria’s attack and their ultimate destruction. It follows that he would include this event here to demonstrate that his prophecies are true. By showing that the announcement related to Sennacherib is true, he can show that all his other prophecies will be fulfilled in the same way.

I read in the commentary of a certain man that it was the same Sennacherib who also captured Samaria, which is altogether false. For sacred history reports that Pul, under Menahem the king of Israel, was the first king of the Assyrians to have plundered the ten tribes.^[1] Second, Tiglath-pileser came to Samaria under Pekah the son of Remaliah.^[2] Shalmaneser was then the third to have taken all of Samaria.^[3] Fourth came Sargon, who fought against Ashdod,^[4] and the fifth was Essarhadon, who held the Samaritans captive in the land of Judea. Sennacherib was the sixth who, under Hezekiah king of Israel, laid siege to Jerusalem after he had captured Lachish and other cities of Judea.^[5] But others think that these many names apply to one and the same person.

But the Jews claim that the Rabshakeh, who spoke the Hebrew language, was the son of the prophet Isaiah and was himself a betrayer, and that another remaining son of Isaiah was called Jashub, who also spoke our tongue. Others, moreover, believe that he was a Samaritan and that this is why he knew the Hebrew language and why he blasphemed the Lord with such audacity and impiety. We should therefore regard the words of the Rabshakeh to be false, first of all this: You trust in that broken staff of a reed, in Egypt. For there is no history that sends Hezekiah to Egypt and makes Pharoah his assistant. But what he infers, If you respond to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is true. Yet again he joins this truth to a lie, saying that Hezekiah removed God’s high places and altars. For he did not do this against God but on behalf of God, so that with idolatry and the old error destroyed, he could command God to be worshiped in Jerusalem where his temple was located, although we observe the terrible custom of appointing people to sacrifice victims to God in the mountains and hills, where altars are already built. And wishing to demonstrate the paucity of hostages, the Rabshakeh promises two thousand horses, riders for whom Hezekiah is unable to produce. Thus it was not out of stupidity that he approached the Jewish people, who lacked a knowledge of horsemanship, but due to his observation of the commandments of God, who had enjoined through Moses on the king of Israel, He will not multiply horses for himself, and he will not have many wives.^[1] But, the Rabshakeh said, if you are unable to withstand me, a servant of Sennacherib—even the least of his servants—how will you withstand such great power of the king? But to the possibility of Hezekiah responding We trust in the Lord our God the Rabshakeh replies cleverly and with prudence that he had not come on his own initiative, but at the request of the Lord. The Lord said to me, ‘Go up to that land and destroy it.’ This in short is his argument: Surely I would not have been able to come if it were not the will of the Lord. But since I came and captured many cities, with Jerusalem remaining intact, it is manifestly his will that I came.

Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was leader of the house, went out to him, as well as Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph from the commentaries. This is the same Elakim, son of Hilkiah, about whom we read above in the vision of the valley of Zion: I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him in your tunic, and I will strengthen him with your girdle, and I will give your power into his hand, and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.^[1]

But these things were said to Shebna, who was leader of the temple before Eliakim, about whom it is written, Go, approach him who lives in the tabernacle, Shebna the leader of the temple.^[1] Acting under the threat of the Rabshakeh, the Hebrews betrayed him to the Assyrians and handed over the lower part of Jerusalem to the enemies, and nothing remained of what the Assyrians had left behind except for the temple and the ark of Zion. Hence they err who think that the Shebna who now goes out with Eliakim and Joah to the Rabshakeh is the same as the one above. For that Shebna was made leader of the temple which, it is said, was to be taken by the Assyrians. But this Shebna is a scribe, that is, a grammateis [Greek], which is called sofēr in Hebrew, and is homōnymos [Greek] to the one above.

And the Rabshakeh told them: Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians,’ and other things that are contained in the history. In this, the Rabshakeh is to be regarded as presumptuous because, like some sort of contrary power, he is imitating the habit of the prophets, inasmuch as they customarily use Thus says the Lord as a preface to display the authority and greatness of the speaker, whereas he now says, Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians.

The accusation of the Rabshakeh against Hezekiah is evidence that with all the cities of Judah taken captive he would still be confident in the Lord, as he said to the people: Do not be afraid, nor quake at the king of the Assyrians and all the great multitude that he has with him. For we have a great deal more with us than he has with him. With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, our help, who will fight for us. And the people were encouraged, it says, by these words of Hezekiah the king of Judah, which is why the Rabshakeh wanted to destroy what Hezekiah had created, so he said to the people, Do not let Hezekiah seduce you, and Do not let him cause you to rely upon the Lord God.

But what Eliakim and Shebna and Joah humbly requested, namely, Speak to your servants in the Syrian language [Aramaic], for we understand it, and do not speak to us in Hebrew within the hearing of the people on the wall, has this sense: Is it really necessary to fill the people with unjustified terror and to spread panic? Speak a language that these people do not understand, for we have knowledge of your tongue and are familiar with the Syrian dialect, which is common to us both. To this the Rabshakeh replied arrogantly: Did my master send me, he said, to your master rather than to the men who sit on the wall? Then he added, to supply the threat of terror by showing that they would be overtaken by hunger, poverty and thirst: that they would eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?

In order . . . that both our houses may be continually open to [the poor] and our ears to [the apostles], we should purge away the filth from the ears of our soul. For as filth and mud close up our fleshly ears, so do the prostitute’s songs, worldly talking, debts and the business of borrowing and paying interest close up the mind’s ear even worse than dirt. Not only do these things close up the ear, but also they make it unclean. Those who cause you to listen to the prostitute’s songs^[1] put dung in your ears. They make you endure not just in word but in deeds, what the barbarian threatened: You shall eat your own dung, and what follows.

Immediately then, he supplemented this threat with an enticement in order to deceive with counterpromises and temptations those whom he had not conquered with terror, saying on behalf of the king of the Assyrians: Make peace with me and come to me, or as we read in the book of Kings: Do with me what is useful and come to me.^[1] Both have the same meaning. Do, he said, what is to your own advantage and it will accrue to your blessing. In other words: Bless the king of Assyria and praise him, and confess him to be your lord that you might receive a reward. Also, live in your cities and enjoy your crops until I return from Egypt or until I restore captured Libnah. After I come, I will take you to a land much like your own, with grain and wine and oil. But he did not give a name for this land because he could not find an equal to the Promised Land. Yet he promised it nevertheless, for everyone desires to be in the land of his birth. Some think the land that he promised was Media, which has terrain similar in both location and foliage to that of Judea. Then he added: Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad and of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? This shows that Samaria will be subject to them for all of its days and therefore that it should be taken. If, he said, we were easily victorious over the ten tribes who had the protection of so many gods, how much more easily will we conquer you, even lonely Jerusalem, which has the protection of only one God?

All of the people remained silent and no one said anything to him, because they had accepted the instruction of the king not to respond to him. For because Hezekiah was a truly righteous man, acting in complete fidelity and with all counsel, he had asked that no response be made to the blaspheming Assyrian, lest it provoke him to even greater blasphemy. Hence it is written: Do not ignite the coals of a sinner.^[1] We also read in the Psalms: When the sinner stood against me, I was mute and I was humbled and I was silent concerning the good.^[2] And again, Place a guard at my mouth, Lord, and a fortified door over my lips; do not incline my heart toward evil words.^[3]