Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Isaiah confirms his prophecy about Sennacherib with the history of the same, by which he narrates in this chapter and the next that all things happened just as he himself had predicted. The same is recounted in IV Kings chapter 18, and in the two following chapters. In this chapter therefore Rabshakeh, sent by Sennacherib to Hezekiah, urges him to surrender, since he cannot resist: and not to trust in the help of the Egyptians, since they are a broken reed; nor in the help of God, since he has overthrown His altars. Secondly, at verse 11, when the envoys of Hezekiah asked Rabshakeh not to speak in Hebrew to the people but in Syriac to the envoys, the proud Rabshakeh persists, and insulting the people, he tries to draw them from Hezekiah to Sennacherib, saying that God cannot protect them, just as the gods of other nations could not protect them from the hand of Sennacherib.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 36:1-22
1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 2. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah with a heavy force, and he stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool in the way of the Fuller's Field. 3. And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder. 4. And Rabshakeh said to them: Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence in which you trust? 5. Or by what counsel or strength do you prepare to rebel? On whom do you trust, that you have departed from me? 6. Behold, you trust upon this broken staff of reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if you answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar? 8. And now surrender yourself to my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and you will not be able from yourself to furnish riders for them. 9. And how will you withstand the face of one judge of a single place among the lesser servants of my lord? But if you trust in Egypt, in chariots and horsemen: 10. and now have I come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it. 11. And Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh: Speak to your servants in the Syrian tongue, for we understand it: do not speak to us in the Jewish tongue in the hearing of the people who are upon the wall. 12. And Rabshakeh said to them: Has my lord sent me to your lord and to you to speak all these words, and not rather to the men who sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink the urine of their feet with you? 13. And Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish tongue, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. 14. Thus says the king: Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. 15. And let not Hezekiah give you confidence in the Lord, saying: The Lord delivering will deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians. 16. Do not listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of the Assyrians: Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and eat every man his own vine, and every man his own fig tree, and drink every man the water of his own cistern, 17. until I come, and take you away to a land like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18. And let not Hezekiah trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have the gods of the nations each delivered his own land from the hand of the king of the Assyrians? 19. Where is the god of Hamath and Arpad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20. Who is there among all the gods of these lands who has delivered his land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? 21. And they were silent, and did not answer him a word. For the king had commanded, saying: Do not answer him. 22. And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, went in to Hezekiah with their garments torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
1. Against all the cities. — "Super" (upon), that is, against: for this is the Hebrew על al.
The king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh. — The Jews fabulously claim that this Rabshakeh was a son of Isaiah, because he spoke in Hebrew, verse 13, and because Isaiah's other son who remained was called, at chapter 7:3, Jashub, as if the other had deserted to the Assyrians. This tale is reported here by St. Jerome and the Author of On the Wonders of Sacred Scripture in St. Augustine, book II, chapter 27.
Verse 2: With a heavy force. — That is, with a great retinue, with many soldiers, to display the...
2. With a heavy force. — That is, with a great retinue, with many soldiers, to display the power of the Assyrians. For although Sennacherib kept his army with him, nevertheless he sent a notable force of soldiers with Rabshakeh to terrify the Jews. It is an enallage of continuous quantity for discrete: for "heavy" is taken for "much" here, as often elsewhere. See what was said on Exodus 8:24.
Otherwise Sanchez: "With a heavy hand," that is, with great power, with the ample authority which Sennacherib gave him, so that whatever he himself transacted with Hezekiah, the king would ratify: or "with a heavy hand," that is, with a weighty embassy, that is, full of threats and insults.
Eliakim. — Concerning Eliakim and Shebna I spoke at chapter 22, verses 15 and 20.
Verse 3: The recorder. — Vatablus translates: historiographer; Lyranus: chancellor; in Hebrew it...
3. The recorder. — Vatablus translates: historiographer; Lyranus: chancellor; in Hebrew it is מזכיר mazkir, that is, commentator, one who remembers, who calls a matter back to mind and memory. It was a duty among the kings of the Jews and Persians, as is clear from Esther 6:1, by which someone would record in tablets or diaries the king's deeds, merits, actions, public necessities, and whatever the king needed to remember, and would read them to him at the proper time, or recall them to his memory. So Forerius. He was therefore not the king's scribe: for the scribe was Shebna, as was previously stated.
Verse 5: You have departed from me. — For Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, had surrendered himself ...
5. You have departed from me. — For Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, had surrendered himself to the king of the Assyrians, IV Kings 16:7. But Hezekiah, relying on God, shook off this yoke and rebelled, as it says in IV Kings 18:7.
Verse 6: You trust upon a staff of reed — upon Egypt. He alludes to the reeds which abound there...
6. You trust upon a staff of reed — upon Egypt. He alludes to the reeds which abound there on the bank of the Nile, that is to say: Just as a reed is too weak to support the one leaning upon it, and rather pricks and pierces the hand of the one grasping it: so will Egypt be for Judaea, along with its forces and the help it promises.
Verse 7: Is it not He whose high places Hezekiah has taken away? — Rabshakeh slanders Hezekiah: ...
7. Is it not He whose high places Hezekiah has taken away? — Rabshakeh slanders Hezekiah: for he turns to his blame what ought to have been given as praise; for God had commanded the high places to be removed: but perhaps Rabshakeh did not know this. If this is true, he himself, though an unbeliever, teaches us the same thing as Seneca, namely: "God must be won over by obedience in prosperous times, not provoked by crimes, so that when invoked with confidence in adversity He may be willing to be present."
Verse 8: And now surrender yourself. — In Hebrew it is הערב hitareb, that is, as the Chaldean ha...
8. And now surrender yourself. — In Hebrew it is הערב hitareb, that is, as the Chaldean has, mingle, join, make a pact and enter an alliance, namely by surrendering yourself as a vassal to the king of the Assyrians: he in turn will protect you as a lord, and will give you two thousand horses.
Vatablus translates: give hostages to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses. Forerius translates: pledge yourself to my lord, that is, bind yourself to him by gifts, or hostages, or by surrendering yourself into his hands: or rather, wager something with my lord, for example, that he should give two thousand horses if you give two thousand riders, so that there may be a contest between Sennacherib and Hezekiah.
Verse 9: And you will not be able from yourself to furnish riders — not that there were not two ...
9. And you will not be able from yourself to furnish riders — not that there were not two thousand citizens in Jerusalem, but that there were not two thousand horsemen, at least as Rabshakeh supposed. For cavalry and an abundance of horses had been forbidden to the Jews by God, Deuteronomy 17:16. See what was said there.
Verse 10: Of one judge of a single place — that is, of a satrap or prefect of a single province, ...
10. Of one judge of a single place — that is, of a satrap or prefect of a single province, as is said in Esther chapter 3, verse 12.
The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it. — The proud man lies with royal license. For that God did not wish to destroy Jerusalem through Sennacherib, but rather to destroy Sennacherib himself, is clear from the outcome: yet God could have wished that Sennacherib invade, punish, and afflict them, and reveal this either by Himself or through the prophecy of Isaiah. See Canon XXXVI.
Verse 12: That they may eat dung. — That is to say: The Jews will shortly be so tightly besieged ...
12. That they may eat dung. — That is to say: The Jews will shortly be so tightly besieged by me, and reduced to such destitution, that they will be compelled to eat the droppings of pigeons, indeed even human excrement. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret.
And drink the urine of their feet. — In Hebrew, the water of their feet. Thus the Hebrews modestly and decently call urine, because it flows down to the feet: just as the water of the head is tears, Jeremiah 9:1. Thus the Hebrews say: A leader from between his feet, that is, from the genitals, which our translator renders "from his thigh," namely proceeding and begotten, Genesis 49:10. So Forerius.
Verse 16: Make a blessing with me — not an active blessing (for the arrogant man despised this: f...
16. Make a blessing with me — not an active blessing (for the arrogant man despised this: for he did not wish to be blessed by the Jews), but a passive one, that is to say: Surrender yourselves to me, and thus win for yourselves my grace and beneficence, so that I may be kind and generous to you. Whence the Septuagint translates: if you wish to be blessed; and our translator, IV Kings 18:31, translates: "Do with me what is useful for you;" and Leo Castrius: Make, he says, a blessing with me, namely for yourselves and for your advantage, that is to say: Act thus with me by subjecting yourselves to me, so that from this my blessing, that is, my beneficence, may come to you. This is the genuine sense. He covers the servitude, which in itself was hateful, with the name of blessing, to attract them more to himself. So also does the devil.
Secondly, Forerius says: "Blessing," that is, abundance, generosity, that is to say: Do not be stingy toward me, but deal magnificently and generously with me; namely, without fear, confidently come out to me; entrusting your care to me and to my good faith: and if you do this, each one will eat, etc., that is, you will remain masters of your possessions, you will freely go to your fields, and gather your figs, grapes, and fruits, and instead of finding me an enemy, you will find me a father and protector.
Thirdly, others, that is to say: Show me a favor in this matter.
Verse 22: With their garments torn — both on account of the blasphemy of Rabshakeh, to show by th...
22. With their garments torn — both on account of the blasphemy of Rabshakeh, to show by this rite that they detested it, and to attest their grief and mourning over the devastations of Rabshakeh and the danger threatening the city.