Isaiah 36

Assyria’s king Sennacherib has taken Judah’s fortified cities and now threatens Jerusalem. His spokesman, the Rabshakeh, tries to break the people’s trust in Hezekiah, in Egypt, and above all in the LORD. The chapter sets the question of the whole story: whom will Jerusalem trust when the greatest power on earth stands at the gate?

Isaiah 36:1

Sennacherib’s army swept through Judah and took its walled cities one by one. Only Jerusalem remained. The chapter begins with Judah’s defenses collapsing, so that whatever happens next cannot be credited to Hezekiah’s strength.

BSA: fortified (“strong, fenced”): These were the cities Judah counted on for safety, and they fell anyway.

Isaiah 36:2

The king sent his spokesman with a large force from Lachish. He took his stand at the aqueduct of the upper pool, the very spot where Isaiah had once met Ahaz and told him to trust God (Isaiah 7:3). Once again a king of Judah is tested at the same place.

BSA: Rabshakeh (“chief cupbearer”): This is a title, not a name. It marks him as a high official speaking with the king’s authority.

See also: Isaiah 7:3.

Isaiah 36:3

Hezekiah did not go out himself. He sent three senior officers: the head of the palace, the royal secretary and the recorder. They stand between the frightened city and the arrogant messenger.

BSA: recorder (“who marks or recalls events”): He kept the royal records, so he was an official who knew the kingdom’s affairs well.

Isaiah 36:4-5

The Rabshakeh opens with a challenge: what is your confidence built on? He calls Hezekiah’s plans and strength mere talk. The word ’trust’ runs through his whole speech. He wants Judah to feel that nothing underneath them will hold.

BSA: confidence (“trust, faith”): He is attacking the very thing Judah leans on, and he hopes to make that trust look foolish. empty (“vain and meaningless”): He says Judah’s war plans are only breath, with no substance behind them.

Hebrew: בָּטַח (batach, H982) — “to trust, to feel secure.” This Hebrew verb is used again and again in the chapter. It pictures leaning your whole weight on something, so the real question is what will bear the weight.

Isaiah 36:6

He mocks the hope of help from Egypt. Egypt is like a cracked reed: lean on it and it breaks and stabs your hand. Isaiah had said much the same thing himself, so the enemy is partly right here. Human alliances fail those who rest on them.

BSA: splintered (“broken, shattered”): A reed already cracked gives way and injures the person leaning on it.

See also: Isaiah 30:1-3; Isaiah 31:1.

Isaiah 36:7

Next he twists the truth about faith in the LORD. He says Hezekiah offended God by removing the high places. In fact Hezekiah had cleansed worship and centered it on the one altar in Jerusalem. The Rabshakeh judges the LORD by pagan ideas, in which more shrines meant more favor.

BSA: high places (“cultic platforms, idolatrous shrines”): These were local hilltop sites of worship, often mixed with idolatry, which Hezekiah removed as an act of faithfulness.

See also: 2 Kings 18:4.

Isaiah 36:8-9

He offers a sneering wager: two thousand horses, if Judah could find riders for them. His point is that Judah is too weak to field even that many. Even the least Assyrian officer could beat them, and Egypt’s chariots could not change that.

BSA: least (“smallest, most insignificant”): He is boasting that even Assyria’s lowest-ranking commander would defeat Judah.

Isaiah 36:10

His boldest claim is that the LORD himself sent him. He may be borrowing the truth that God had used Assyria as a rod of judgment (Isaiah 10:5-6), but he uses it as a lie to break their hope. He presents himself as God’s agent while he is really God’s enemy.

BSA: destroy (“lay waste, devastate”): He claims a divine order to ruin the land, which is meant to leave Judah with no hope of God’s help.

See also: Isaiah 10:5-6.

Isaiah 36:11

Hezekiah’s officers ask him to speak Aramaic, the common language of diplomacy, so the people on the wall will not understand. They want the negotiating done in private. They are trying to protect the people’s courage.

BSA: Aramaic (“the Syrian language, a tongue of the people from Aram”): It was the language of official dealings between nations, not of the ordinary people of Judah.

Isaiah 36:12

He refuses and says his words are meant precisely for the ordinary people on the wall. He crudely threatens them with starvation in a long siege. His aim is to turn the people against their leaders by frightening them directly.

BSA: destined (“appointed, ordained”): He speaks as though their suffering is already settled, so as to crush hope.

Isaiah 36:13-15

He now shouts in Hebrew so everyone can hear. He tells them not to let Hezekiah deceive them, because he cannot rescue them, and not to be persuaded to trust the LORD. The attack on the king becomes an attack on faith in God himself.

BSA: deceive (“lead astray, mislead”): He calls Hezekiah’s faith a trick, hoping to make trusting God look like a trap.

Isaiah 36:16-17

Now comes the sweet offer: make peace, surrender, and enjoy your own vine, fig tree and cistern. That sounds like safety. But it ends in being taken away to another land. The offer sounds kind, yet it means exile.

BSA: peace (“a covenant, agreement”): He is offering a treaty on his own terms, which means submission rather than true peace. take you away (“to capture, to remove”): The comfort he promises ends in deportation from the land God gave them.

See also: 1 Kings 4:25.

Isaiah 36:18-20

He lists the gods of conquered cities that failed to save them, and puts the LORD on the same list. His mistake is to treat the living God as one idol among many. The question he asks is answered in the next chapters.

BSA: gods (“divine beings, deities”): To him they are only local powers that Assyria has beaten, and he classes the LORD among them.

See also: Isaiah 37:18-20.

Isaiah 36:21

The people said nothing, obeying Hezekiah’s order. Sometimes the wisest answer to mockery is silence. They would not argue with a blasphemer, but would take the matter to God.

BSA: remained silent (“held their peace”): They held back as a united act of obedience, without panic or angry replies.

Isaiah 36:22

The three officers return to Hezekiah with torn clothes, a sign of grief and distress, and report all the Rabshakeh said. The chapter ends in deep trouble. Hezekiah’s response, in the next chapter, is to go into the LORD’s house.

BSA: torn (“rent, as a sign of grief”): Tearing clothes was an open sign of anguish, usually at death or at blasphemy.

See also: Isaiah 37:1.