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to Rab-shakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in 'the Syriac language; for we understand it. And 'speak not to us in the Jewish language, in the ears of 'the people that are on the wall.' But Rab-shakeh 12 said, 'Hath my master sent me to thy master and to 'thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to 'the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their 'own dung, and drink their own urine with you ?' Then Rab-shakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jewish language, and said, 'Hear ye the words of 'the Great King, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the 'king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not 'be able to deliver you. Neither let Hezekiah make 'you trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely de'liver us; this city will not be delivered into the hand 'of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah. For thus saith the king of Assyria, Make peace with 16 'me, and come out to me; and eat ye every man of his own vine, and every man of his own fig tree, and 'drink ye every man the waters of his own cistern; ' until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and grape juice, a land of 'bread and vineyards. Let not Hezekiah persuade you, 'saying, Jehovah will deliver us.-Hath any of the gods 'of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of 'the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? 'And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 'Who are they among all the gods of these countries, 20 'that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?' But they held their peace, and answered him not a' word; for the king's command was, saying, ' Answer 'him not.'

11 The Syriac Language.] This was closely allied to Hebrew.

17 Until I come and take you away.] Thus captivity was already threatened. Hezekiah had twice broken his promise of a tribute, and the Assyrians would trust him no more.

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22 Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of -Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah, with their clothes 1 rent, and told him the words of Rab-shakeh. And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and 2 went into the House of Jehovah. And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to 3 Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. And they said to him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, 'and of rebuke, and of scoffing; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring 4' forth. It may be Jehovah thy God will hear the words ' of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master 'hath sent to defy the living God, and will reprove the 'words which Jehovah thy God hath heard. Therefore 'lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.'

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So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. • And Isaiah said to them, 'Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith Jehovah, Be not afraid of the words 'that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the 7king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will 'send a breath upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, ' and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'

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So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he

2 The elders of the priests. . . to Isaiah.] Thus at this time there was not that jealousy between the priests and the prophets which we meet with a century later.

7 He shall hear a rumour.] A report of troubles at home, which call for his immediate return, and caused him to withdraw his troops from Judea.

To fall by the sword.] It was not until thirty years after this time that Sennacherib was slain; that was sixty-eight years after Isaiah began to prophecy. Hence Isaiah could not have been alive at the time.

8 Warring against Libnah.] Sennacherib had moved

had moved his camp from Lachish. And he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, 'He is come out to fight ' against thee.' And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to 10 Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in 'whom thou trusteth, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem 'shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 'Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria 11 'have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and 'shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations 12 ' delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as 'Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of 'Eden who were in Telashar? Where is the king of13 Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the 'city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and of Avah ?'

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the 14 messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the House of Jehovah, and spread it before Jehovah. And 15 Hezekiah prayed to Jehovah, saying, 'O Jehovah of 16 'hosts, God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubs, 'thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms ' of the earth. Thou hast made the heavens and the ' earth. Bow down thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear. 17 Open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see. And hear all 'the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent to defy the living God. Of a truth, O Jehovah, the kings of 18

his army a few miles northward from Lachish. He was slowly retreating before the advancing Egyptian army. Hence this is not the hurried retreat mentioned in verse 7, and again in verse 37. The events of two different

years are here joined together.

12 The children of Eden.] These may possibly be the people of Chaldea, who had been conquered by one of Sennacherib's predecessors, probably by Pul. See chap. xxiii. 13, and Note p. 28.

14 Spread it before Jehovah.] King Uzziah was deposed for entering the Holy of Holies; so we must suppose that these words do not mean that Hezekiah approached the ark.

'Assyria have laid waste all the countries, and their 19lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they

were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and 20stone; therefore they have destroyed them. Now, therefore, O Jehovah our God, save us out of his hand, 'that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou 'art Jehovah, even thou only.'

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Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, 'Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of 22 6 Assyria; this is the word that Jehovah hath spoken 'concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth thee, she laugheth thee to scorn; the daugh23ter of Jerusalem shaketh her head after thee. Whom 'hast thou defied and blasphemed? and against whom 'hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. By 'the hand of thy servants thou hast defied the Lord, ' and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of 'Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its 'choice fir trees; and I will enter into its remotest height, into the thicket of its garden [or Carmel]. I 'have digged, and have drunk up the waters; and with 'the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of 26 Lower Egypt. Hast thou not heard long ago, how I did it, and of ancient times, that I purposed it? I have now brought it to pass, that it should be for thee to 27 lay waste fenced cities into heaps of ruins. But their 'inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed ' and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, 28 or as corn before it is grown to stalk. But thine abode, 'and thy going out, and thy coming in I know, and thy rage against me. Because thy rage against me, and 'thine insolence, are come up into mine ears, therefore

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25 All the rivers of Lower Egypt.] He boasts that his invasion of that country had been successful; but we have no history which confirms his boast.

'I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy 'lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which 'thou camest. And this shall be a sign unto thee; in 30 'this year shall be eaten what groweth of itself; and in 'the second year that which springeth from the same; and in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vine' yards, and eat the fruits thereof. And the escaped of 31 'the house of Judah shall increase, those left shall take 'root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of 32 Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that 'escape out of mount Zion. The zeal of Jehovah of 'hosts shall do this.

'Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the king of 33 'Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an · arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast up a siege-mound against it. By the way that he 34 came, by the same shall he return; and he shall not come into this city; Jehovah hath said it. For I will 35 'be a shield over this city to save it for mine own sake, 'and for my servant David's sake.' Then the angel of 36 Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty and five thousand; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. And Sennacherib king of Assy-3

30 In the third year sow ye.] The occupation of Judea by the Assyrians lasted about three years, as is again said in chap. xx. 3, where we read that Isaiah walked barefoot for three years.

32 Out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant.] Such had been the cruelty of the invaders that the land was unpeopled. Some had fled to Egypt and the desert, some had taken refuge in Jerusalem and one or two strong cities, but a large number had perished. 36 The camp of the Assyrians.] This was near to Pelusium in Egypt, which they were besieging, as we learn from Herodotus ii. 141. The Egyptians, like the Jews, thought that the Assyrians had been miraculously destroyed; so sudden was their retreat, and so large was the number of dead and dying left behind.

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