The Rabshakeh Comes to Jerusalem

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.”…