In the late eighth century B.C.E., the Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681 B.C.E.) dispatched the “Rabshakeh”—a high-ranking, Hebrew speaking royal official, possibly of Israelite descent—to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. There the Rabshakeh met officials from the court of King Hezekiah (727–698 B.C.E.) and tried to coerce them to submit to Assyrian rule.
The king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh [Assyrian officials] with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. When they called for the king, there came out to them Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.
The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, now that you have rebelled against me? See, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it…Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.”…
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah [Hebrew] within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”
Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ’Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.’…Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ’Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree, and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey, that you may live and not die.’”
But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebnah the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
According to 2 Kings 19, Hezekiah then prayed to the Lord to save his people from the destructive hand of Assyria. The prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah that the Lord had heard his prayer and would defend Jerusalem. On the same night “the angel of the Lord” came down and killed 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian camp. Sennacherib returned home to Nineveh, only to be murdered by two of his sons in 681 B.C.E.
