Isaiah 36:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

You lean on this frail reed of Egypt, which, if someone leans upon it, will pierce their hand; this is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, for all who rely on him. But if you reply to me that you trust in the Lord our God, is He not the same one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar'? Now, yield yourself to the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, though you will find no one to ride them. How can you face even the chief of a single district, one of my lord’s least servants? If you trust in Egypt, in horses and chariots, did I come to plunder this land without the Lord's command? The Lord instructed me to invade this land and devastate it."

The account is straightforward and verified by the annals of Days and Kings, which detail that in the third year of King Uzziah, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, ascended to the throne of Judah at twenty-five, ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. He was upright in the Lord’s sight, behaving as his ancestor David had done. In time, he placed his faith in the God of Israel, standing unmatched among Judah's kings, past or present. He remained loyal to the Lord, following His commandments as given to Moses. The Lord was with him, and He knew all his actions. He resisted the king of Assyria, proving himself brave.

In the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule, Salmanassar, king of Assyria, conquered Samaria, exiling the ten tribes known as Israelites to Assyria and settling them in Hal and Havar along the rivers Gozan and in the cities of the Medes. After seven years, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib invaded Judah, besieging its fortified cities. When he laid siege to Lachish, Hezekiah sent messengers to him, acknowledging their sin and offering to bear any charges against him. After paying three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, as required by the king, and dismantling the Lord’s temple doors to gather the gold he had crafted, Sennacherib sent Tartan and Rabsak to King Hezekiah with a great host. They arrived in Jerusalem, confronting him by the conduit of the upper pond near the whitewashing field, and summoned the king.

Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, along with Sobnah and Joach, came forth to meet them. Rabsak proclaimed, "Tell Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria." It’s essential to recognize the arrogance of Rabsak as he mimicked the prophets by claiming authority, saying, "Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria," in an effort to assert his power. Eliakim is the same servant referenced in the vision of Zion: "I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah; I will robe him in your garments, gird him with your sash, and hand your authority to him, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah." According to Jewish tradition, seeing the threat of Rabsak, Eliakim surrendered his forces to the Assyrians, leaving only the fortress of Zion and the temple unoccupied. Therefore, those who equate Sobnah with the earlier mentioned figure are mistaken; there it describes Sobnah, the captain of the temple, who was foretold to be captured by the Assyrians, while this Sobnah is a scribe.

Rabsak, fluent in Hebrew, is believed by the Jews to be the son of the prophet Isaiah, who they regard as a traitor, leaving behind a brother named Jasub, meaning forsaken in our language. Others speculate that Rabsak was a Samaritan, explaining his knowledge of Hebrew and his audacious blasphemy against the Lord. It is vital to scrutinize Rabsak's words. His claim that "You depend on this broken reed, Egypt," is a falsehood, as no records indicate that Hezekiah sought help from Pharaoh. Yet when he said, "If you respond, we trust in the Lord God of Heaven," he mingles truth with deception, wrongly asserting that Hezekiah destroyed God's high places and altars. Hezekiah’s actions were not in opposition to God but in adherence to Him, seeking to abolish idolatry and establish worship solely in Jerusalem, where God's temple was located—even though the people had, due to longstanding practices, constructed altars for sacrifice upon the hills.

Regarding Rabsak's assertion that Hezekiah could not muster riders for the promised two thousand horses, this was not due to a lack of capability among the people of Judah but was rather an observance of divine commandments stating that kings should not amass horses or take many wives. His argument suggested that if Hezekiah could not withstand the king's servants, how could he challenge the king himself? However, Rabsak's mention of a divine command highlighting his participation affirms his incredulous argument; he claimed he was sent by the Lord to destroy and pillage. He believed his success in taking many cities and leaving Jerusalem nearly intact confirmed the Lord’s directive.

While some interpretations state that Sennacherib conquered Samaria, that is incorrect, as sacred scripture recounts that Assyrian incursions began with Ful during the reign of Menahem king of Israel. Successive kings, including Pheglasphelasar and Salmanassar, faced Samaria before Sennacherib's campaign against Lachish and the rest of Judah. Acknowledgments of varied titles among these rulers further complicate the matter, but the historical context is rooted in the actions of the kings themselves.