36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
The first 35 chapters of Isaiah were written in Hebrew poetry. Chapters 36-39 will be written in historical prose.
In Isaiah 7, King Ahaz refused to believe that God could deliver Judah from Assyria. He was given a choice to either trust in God or trust in Assyria, King Ahaz foolishly chose the latter. He chose to reject the help of Jehovah and accept help from Assyria. Therefore, Judah had been paying tribute to Assyria for the rest of King Ahaz's reign, plus the first 14 years of King Hezekiah's reign.
In the first 35 chapters, Isaiah prophesied to the people that Judah was going to be punished for her sin by the Assyrian invasion. God would allow Assyria to take all of the cities of Judah, except for Jerusalem. King Sennacherib destroyed 46 cities of Judah. He then brought his Assyrian army into Jerusalem, in spite of Isaiah’s warnings. It is important to note that the Egyptian records, Assyrian records, and biblical records recorded that something happened to halt the Assyrian invasion against Jerusalem. The Assyrian and Egyptian court reporters spun their historical documents to appease their kings. The true historical record of the Assyrian destruction was recorded without error or spin in the Bible. The reason is that the Holy Spirit is not biased. He does not spin history. He recorded the historical incidents of the Bible as examples for future readers to study and learn the mind of God. Biblical history is God's love letter to man. Biblical history reveals the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ.
36:2 The king of Assyria sent his chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. The chief adviser stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.
Lachish stood on the conduit of the upper pool. This was the same location where Isaiah had told King Ahaz that Jehovah would deliver him from his enemy.
36:3 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet him.
Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah were three trusted men of King Hezekiah. They were chosen to negotiate with the Assyrians.
36:4 The chief adviser said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: “What is your source of confidence?
Notice that the Assyrian ambassador did not address Hezekiah as king. This lack of protocol was an insult to the King of Judah.
36:5 Your claim to have a strategy and military strength is just empty talk. In whom are you trusting, that you would dare to rebel against me?
It was true that Jerusalem did not have the military strength to oppose the Assyrians.
36:6 Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him!
Assyria knew about Judah’s treaty with Egypt. Egypt was a waning world power that would not be able to help Judah. Isaiah had already predicted that Assyria would be a hippopotamus in the Nile River that would do nothing.
36:7 Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar.’
The Assyrian ambassador does not know biblical theology. King Hezekiah removed the high places, because they were idolatrous centers of syncretism. Judah was worshiping Jehovah along side of demonic gods. The Assyrian ambassador wrongly figured that these high places were used to worship Jehovah only.
36:8 Now make a deal with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, provided you can find enough riders for them.
The Assyrian ambassador was mocking King Hezekiah. He offered him 2,000 horses to fight him, but adds that Jerusalem does not have enough soldiers to ride them. The Assyrians were camping 185,000 soldiers around the city of Jerusalem, so this was a big mismatch.
36:9 Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
The mockery continued. The Assyrian ambassador was just a minor official, yet he was insulting the King of Judah in front of his own soldiers. The Assyrian ambassador reminded King Hezekiah that he would not receive any help from Egypt.
36:10 Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’ ” ’ ”
The ambassador adds that Jehovah told him to march against Judah. This may be more true than it sounds. The ambassador knew about Isaiah’s prophecies. However, Assyria was not to attack Jerusalem. God had promised to protect Jerusalem. Assyria made the mistake of adding to their commission. They were about to go one city too far.
36:11 Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
The Assyrian commander had been speaking in Hebrew. The three Jewish advisors asked the Assyrian commander to speak in Aramaic and not Hebrew.
36:12 But the chief adviser said, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you!”
The Assyrian commander was attempting to lower the morale of the troops behind the wall and force them to surrender. This strategy was an attempt of psychological warfare. The Assyrian commander was so confident of victory, that he claimed that Jerusalem would be forced to eat and drink her own body waste in order to survive in the siege.
36:13 The chief adviser then stood there and called out loudly in the Judahite dialect, “Listen to the message of the great king, the king of Assyria.
The Assyrian ambassador stood up and yelled his reply to the Jewish soldiers who were standing behind the wall.
36:14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!
The Assyrian commander attempted to diminish the faith of the soldiers in King Hezekiah. It was true that Hezekiah could not save Jerusalem.
36:15 Don’t let Hezekiah talk you into trusting in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will certainly rescue us; this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”
The Assyrian commander knew about Isaiah’s prophecy, but he did not believe it.
36:16 Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
The Assyrian commander promised to relocate the Jerusalem citizens to a favorable location if they surrendered.
36:17 until I come and take you to a land just like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
The Assyrian commander promised to give them land similar to that of their own. Adolph Hitler made a similar promise to the Jews during the Holocaust, but he sent them to concentration camps and ghettos.
36:18 Hezekiah is misleading you when he says, “The Lord will rescue us.” Has any of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?
The Assyrian commander made a mistake which would end the Assyrian empire. He publicly compared Jehovah to a demonic pagan god. Jehovah could and would rescue Judah.
36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, did any gods rescue Samaria from my power?
The Assyrian commander was claiming that Jehovah would not be strong enough to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrian gods. If Samaria (the capital of the Northern Kingdom) fell 21 years earlier, then what chance does Jerusalem have?
36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have rescued their lands from my power? So how can the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?’
The Assyrian commander insulted Jehovah publicly in front of all of Jerusalem. He publicly confessed that the gods of the other defeated cities were greater than Jehovah.
36:21 They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”
King Hezekiah would not allow his people to respond to this insult against Jehovah.
36:22 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.
The three Jewish advisors gave their unfavorable report to King Hezekiah.
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Appendix
Listed below is King Sennacherib's own report about the invasion of Jerusalem. Notice that by King Sennacherib's own report, King Hezekiah was "shut up like a bird in a cage," but he nor the city of Jerusalem were ever taken.
In the continuation of my campaign I besieged Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Banai-Barqa, Azuru, cities belonging to Sidqia who did not bow to my feet quickly enough; I conquered them and carried their spoils away. The officials, the patricians and the common people of Ekron—who had thrown Padi, their king, into fetters because he was loyal to his solemn oath sworn by the god Ashur, and had handed him over to [king] Hezekiah, the Jew—and he (Hezekiah) held him in prison, unlawfully, as if he (Padi) be an enemy—had become afraid and had called for help upon the kings of Egypt and the bowmen, the chariot-corps and the cavalry of the king of Ethiopia, an army beyond counting—and they had come to their assistance. In the plain of Eltekeh, their battle lines were drawn up against me and they sharpened their weapons. Upon a trust-inspiring oracle given by Ashur, my lord, I fought with them and inflicted a defeat upon them. In the mêlée of the battle, I personally captured alive the Egyptian charioteers with their princes and also the charioteers of the king of Ethiopia. I besieged Eltekeh and Timnah, conquered them and carried their spoils away. I assaulted Ekron and killed the officials and patricians who had committed the crime and hung their bodies on poles surrounding the city. The common citizens who were guilty of minor crimes, I considered prisoners of war. The rest of them, those who were not accused of crimes and misbehavior, I released. I made Padi, their king, come from Jerusalem and set him as their lord on the throne, imposing upon him the tribute due to me as overlord.
As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered them by means of well-stamped earth-ramps, and battering-rams brought thus near to the walls combined with the attack by foot soldiers, using mines, breeches as well as sapper work. I drove out of them 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered them booty. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest those who were leaving his city’s gate. His towns which I had plundered, I took away from his country and gave them over to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Sillibel, king of Gaza. Thus I reduced his country, but I still increased the tribute and the katrû-presents due to me as his overlord which I imposed later upon him beyond the former tribute, to be delivered annually. Hezekiah himself, whom the terror-inspiring splendor of my lordship had overwhelmed and whose irregular and elite troops which he had brought into Jerusalem, his royal residence, in order to strengthen it, had deserted him, did send me, later, to Nineveh, my lordly city, together with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, antimony, large cuts of red stone, couches inlaid with ivory, nîmedu-chairs inlaid with ivory, elephant-hides, ebony-wood, boxwood, and all kinds of valuable treasures, his own daughters, concubines, male and female musicians. In order to deliver the tribute and to do obeisance as a slave he sent his personal messenger.
from James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 2nd ed. (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1955), 287ff. Reprinted in The Ancient World to A.D. 300, 2nd ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968), 6–7.