Commentaria in Isaiam
Chapter Thirty-six
Isaias confirms his prophecy about Sennacherib. The history of the same, which he narrates in this chapter and the next, shows that these things came to pass as he himself had foretold. The same is recounted in 4 Kings, chapter 18 and the two following. In this chapter, therefore, Rabsaces, sent by Sennacherib to Ezechias, exhorts him to surrender, since he cannot resist, and not to trust in the help of the Egyptians, since they are a staff of reed, nor in the help of God, since he has overthrown his altars. Secondly, at verse 11, when the ambassadors of Ezechias asked Rabsaces not to speak Hebrew to the people but Syriac to the ambassadors, the proud Rabsaces persists, and insulting the people tries to draw them away from Ezechias to Sennacherib.
1. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them. 2. And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the way of the fuller’s field. 3. And there went out to him Eliacim the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder. 4. And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence wherein thou trustest? 5. Or with what counsel or strength dost thou purpose to rebel? On whom dost thou trust, that thou hast revolted from me? 6. Behold, thou trustest in this broken staff of a reed, Egypt, upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharao king of Egypt to all that trust in him. 7. But if thou answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and to Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar? 8. And now deliver thyself to my master the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able on thy part to furnish riders for them. 9. And how canst thou stand against the face of the judge of one place of the least of my master’s servants? But if thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen: 10. And am I now come up without the Lord to this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up to this land, and destroy it. 11. And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe said to Rabsaces: Speak to thy servants in Syriac, for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language in the ears of the people that are upon the wall. 12. And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my lord sent me to thy lord and to thee, to speak all these words, and not rather to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you? 13. And Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. 14. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you. 15. And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians. 16. Do not hearken to Ezechias. For thus saith the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me: and eat ye every man of his vineyard, and every man of his fig tree: and drink ye every man the water of his cistern, 17. Till I come and take you away to a land that is like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18. Let not Ezechias deceive you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Have the gods of the nations delivered every man his land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians? 19. Where is the god of Emath and Arphad? Where is the god of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 20. Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his land out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? 21. And they held their peace, and answered him not a word.
For the king had commanded, saying: Do not answer him. 22. Then Eliacim the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna the scribe, and Joahe the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Ezechias with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.
1. UPON ALL THE CITIES. “Upon” means against: for this is the Hebrew al.
THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS SENT RABSACES. The Hebrews fable that this Rabsaces was the son of Isaias, because he spoke Hebrew, verse 13, and because the other son of Isaias who was left behind was called Jasub, chapter 7, verse 3, as though another had deserted to the Assyrians. This little fable is reported here by St. Jerome and the author of On Wonders.
2. WITH A HEAVY HAND. That is, with a great retinue, with many soldiers, to show the power of the Assyrians. For although Sennacherib kept his army with himself, he nevertheless sent a notable band of soldiers with Rabsaces to strike terror into the Jews. It is an enallage of continuous quantity for discrete: for “heavy” is here taken for “many,” as also often elsewhere. See what was said on Exodus 7:24.
Otherwise Sanchez: “With a heavy hand,” that is, with great power, with ample authority which Sennacherib gave him, so that whatever he should transact with Ezechias the king would hold ratified; or “with a heavy hand,” that is, with a weighty embassy, that is, one full of threats and insults.
ELIACIM. Of Eliacim and Sobna I spoke in chapter 22.
3. THE RECORDER. Vatablus translates, historiographer; Lyranus, chancellor; in Hebrew it is mazkir, that is, commentator, remembrancer, one who recalls a thing to mind and memory. This was an office among the kings of the Jews and of the Persians, as is plain from Esther 6:1, by which a man recorded in tablets or journals the king’s own deeds, merits, achievements, public needs, and whatever the king ought to remember, and read it to him in due time or called it to his memory. So Forerius. This man, therefore, was not the king’s scribe: for the scribe was Sobna, as has gone before.
5. THOU HAST REVOLTED FROM ME. For Achaz, the father of Ezechias, had given himself up to the king of the Assyrians, 4 Kings 16:7. But Ezechias, relying on God, shook off this yoke and rebelled, as is said in 4 Kings 18:7.
6. THOU TRUSTEST IN THIS STAFF OF A REED, upon Egypt. He alludes to the reeds that abound there on the bank of the Nile, as if to say: As a reed is too weak to support one leaning on it, so that it rather pricks and pierces the hand of the one who grasps it, so Egypt will be to Juda, and its forces and the help which it promises.
7. IS IT NOT HE WHOSE HIGH PLACES EZECHIAS HATH TAKEN AWAY? Rabsaces slanders Ezechias: for he counts as a fault in him what deserved praise; for God had commanded the high places to be taken away; but perhaps Rabsaces did not know this. If this is true, he himself, though an unbeliever, teaches us the same as Seneca, namely that God is present to those who invoke him with confidence.
8. AND NOW DELIVER THYSELF. Hebrew tareb, that is, as the Chaldee has it, to mingle, to join, to covenant and enter into a treaty, namely by handing yourself over as a vassal to the king of the Assyrians: so that your lord will protect you 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, be won over by gifts or hostages, or by handing yourself into his hands; or rather, lay a wager with my lord, as for example that he give two thousand horses if you give two thousand riders, so that there be a contest between Sennacherib and Ezechias.
9. AND THOU WILT NOT BE ABLE ON THY PART TO FURNISH RIDERS. Not that Jerusalem did not have two thousand citizens, but that it did not have two thousand horsemen, at least as Rabsaces supposed. For to the Jews cavalry and abundance of horses were forbidden by God, Deuteronomy 17:16. See what was said there.
10. OF THE JUDGE OF ONE PLACE, that is, of a satrap or prefect of one province, as is said in Esther, chapter 3, THE LORD SAID TO ME: GO UP TO THIS LAND, AND DESTROY IT. The proud man lies with royal license. For that God did not will to destroy Jerusalem by Sennacherib, but rather to destroy Sennacherib himself, is plain from the outcome; yet God could have willed that Sennacherib should invade, punish, and afflict them, and reveal this either of himself or by the prophecy of Isaias. See chapter 36.
12. THAT THEY EAT THEIR OWN DUNG. Namely, in a short time they will be so closely besieged and reduced to such want that they will be forced to feed on pigeons’ dung, and even on human excrement. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret.
AND DRINK THE URINE OF THEIR FEET. In Hebrew, the water of their feet. So the Hebrews modestly and honorably call urine, because it flows down to the feet: as the water of the head is tears, Jeremias 9:1. So the Hebrews say: He who came from between his feet, that is, from the genitals, which our version renders, “from his thigh,” namely as proceeding and begotten, Genesis 49:10. So Forerius.
16. MAKE WITH ME A BLESSING—not an active one (for the arrogant man despised this: he did not desire to be blessed by the Jews), but a passive one; as if to say: Give yourselves up to me, and so win my favor and kindness toward you, that I may be gracious and beneficent to you. Hence the Septuagint translate, if you wish to be blessed; and our version, 4 Kings 18:31, renders: “Do with me that which is for your advantage”; and Leo Castrius: Make, he says, a blessing with me, namely for yourselves, and to your advantage; as if to say: So deal with me, by submitting yourselves to me, that from it a blessing may come to you, that is, my beneficence. This is the genuine sense. He hides servitude, which of itself was odious, under the name of blessing, to allure them to himself. So also does the demon.
Secondly, Forerius says “blessing” means abundance, largesse; as if to say: Be not niggardly toward me, but deal with me magnificently and generously, that is, without fear come out to me with confidence, entrusting the care of yourselves to me and my good faith; and if you do so, every one will eat, and so on; that is, you will remain masters of your property, you will freely go to your fields and gather your figs, grapes and fruits, and find in me, instead of an enemy, a father and protector.
Thirdly, it is, as if to say: Gratify me in this of Rabsaces, that by this rite they might show that they detested it, and likewise bear witness to the sorrow and mourning at the ruin threatening the city.