And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?
Read Chapter 36
Jerome
AD 420
But what Eliakim and Shebna and Joah humbly requested, namely, “Speak to your servants in the Syrian language [Aramaic], for we understand it, and do not speak to us in Hebrew within the hearing of the people on the wall,” has this sense: Is it really necessary to fill the people with unjustified terror and to spread panic? Speak a language that these people do not understand, for we have knowledge of your tongue and are familiar with the Syrian dialect, which is common to us both. To this the Rabshakeh replied arrogantly: “Did my master send me,” he said, “to your master rather than to the men who sit on the wall?” Then he added, to supply the threat of terror by showing that they would be overtaken by hunger, poverty and thirst: “that they would eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” - "Commentary on Isaiah 11.36.11–21"
The accusation of the Rabshakeh against Hezekiah is evidence that with all the cities of Judah taken captive he would still be confident in the Lord, as he said to the people: “Do not be afraid, nor quake at the king of the Assyrians and all the great multitude that he has with him. For we have a great deal more with us than he has with him. With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, our help, who will fight for us.” And the people were encouraged, it says, by these words of Hezekiah the king of Judah, which is why the Rabshakeh wanted to destroy what Hezekiah had created, so he said to the people, “Do not let Hezekiah seduce you,” and “Do not let him cause you to rely upon the Lord God.” - "Commentary on Isaiah 11.36.11–21"
And the Rabshakeh told them: “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians,’ ” and other things that are contained in the history. In this, the Rabshakeh is to be regarded as presumptuous because, like some sort of contrary power, he is imitating the habit of the prophets, inasmuch as they customarily use “Thus says the Lord” as a preface to display the authority and greatness of the speaker, whereas he now says, “Thus says the great king, the king of the Assyrians.” - "Commentary on Isaiah 11.36.1–10"
