2 Kings 18:17

RAB-SHAKEH’S INSULTING MESSAGE TO HEZEKIAH, 2 Kings 18:17-37.

17. The king of Assyria sent… from Lachish According to Josephus ( Antiq., 2 Kings 10:1 ; 2 Kings 10:1) Sennacherib bound himself to depart from Jerusalem upon receiving the three hundred silver and thirty gold talents mentioned above, but having received it, “had no regard to what he had promised; but while he himself went to the war against the Egyptians and Ethiopians, he left his general Rab-shakeh and two others of his principal commanders, with great forces, to destroy Jerusalem.” But it seems better to refer this siege of Jerusalem to a second invasion of Sennacherib, made a year or more after he had received Hezekiah’s submission and tribute of gold and silver, for it appears from 2 Kings 18:21 that Hezekiah had formed some alliance with Egypt, and so, like Hoshea, (compare 2 Kings 17:4,) “brought no present to the king of Assyria.” This is the view of Rawlinson, who describes the matter thus: “Sennacherib, understanding that the real enemy whom he had to fear on his southwestern frontier was not Judea but Egypt, marched his army through Palestine probably by the coast route and without stopping to chastise Jerusalem, pressed south-wards to Libnah and Lachish, which were at the extreme verge of the Holy Land, and probably at this time subject to Egypt. He first commenced the siege of Lachish ‘ with all his power,’ (2 Chronicles 32:9;) and while engaged in this operation, finding that Hezekiah was not alarmed by his proximity, and did not send in his submission, he detached a body of troops from his main force, and sent it under a Tartan, or general, supported by two high officers of the court the Rab-shakeh, or chief cupbearer, and the Rabsaris, or chief eunuch to summon the rebellious city to surrender.” Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii, p. 165.

Tartan… Rabsaris… Rab-shakeh These words have, respectively, the meaning given them by Rawlinson in the note just quoted, and from being common official titles came to be used as proper names. The etymology of Tartan is uncertain. “The name is said to be derived from the Persian tar, summit, and tan, person; that is, high personage; or from the Persian tara, Sanscrit tara, a star, and tan; consequently, star-form.” Furst. The office of chief cupbearer is common in the East. In Genesis 40:2; Genesis 40:21, he is called “chief of the butlers.” Nehemiah held this office at the Persian court. Nehemiah 1:11; Nehemiah 2:1. It seems to have been a custom for high officers of the court to accompany the king to battle; and very probably the most loyal and successful generals or captains were rewarded with offices and titles of this kind in the royal court, so that we need not wonder that a royal cupbearer should also be a high military officer. The same may be said of the chief of the eunuchs. “In the Ottoman Porte,” says Kitto, “the Kislar Aga, or chief of the black eunuchs, is one of the principal personages in the empire, and in an official paper of great solemnity is styled by the Sultan the most illustrious of the officers who approach his august person, and worthy of the confidence of monarchs and of sovereigns. It is, therefore, by no means improbable that such an office should be associated with such a military commission; perhaps not for directly military duties, but to take charge of the treasure, and to select from the female captives such as might seem worthy of the royal harem.”

The conduit of the upper pool The upper pool is undoubtedly Gihon, at the head of the Hinnom valley, described in note on 1 Kings 1:33. Its conduit, or aqueduct, would naturally have been a canal running from it in a southeasterly direction down the valley of Hinnom to the west side of the city. It was, perhaps, identical with the subterranean aqueduct by which Hezekiah himself brought down the waters of this pool “on the west to the city of David.” 2 Chronicles 32:30. Consequently the highway of the fuller’s field must have been the road leading from the west side of the city northward, and so called because here was a common resort of the fullers of the city, who, on account of the offensive smells and uncleanliness of their work, and also for the sake of room to dry cloths, would require a field outside the city limits. The approach of the Assyrian host would, therefore, have been from the north, and the commanders stood sufficiently near the city to address the people on the wall. 2 Kings 18:26 Here, for the first time, we meet with a biblical notice of fullers, whose art is of great antiquity. “Of the processes followed in the art of cleaning cloth, and the various kinds of stuff among the Jews, we have no direct knowledge. In an early part of the operation they seem to have trod the cloths with their feet, as the Hebrew Ain-Rogel, or En-Rogel, (literally, foot-fountain,) has been rendered on rabbinical authority, ‘Fuller’s Fountain,’ on the ground that fullers trod the cloths there with their feet. They were also rubbed with the knuckles, as in modern washing. A subsequent operation was probably that of rubbing the cloth on an inclined plane, in a mode which is figured in the Egyptian paintings, and still preserved in the East.” M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia.