Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria"
Text: Isaiah 36:8
THE ARAMAIC LANGUAGE
This was an official language of the Assyrians. It was the “lingua franca” in the days of Isaiah. Those who were educated would be able to understand this language.
“Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh,
‘Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it;
and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.’
But the Rabshakeh said, ‘Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall,
who will eat and drink their own waste with you?'”
Isaiah 36:11-12
1. The request of the three advisors to King Hezekiah.
a) They were Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah.
b) They requested the Rabshakeh to speak to them in Aramaic.
c) The three advisors said that they were able to fully understand this language.
d) They did not want the Rabshakeh to speak in Hebrew.
e) They knew that the Rabshakeh was very effectively persuasive in speaking.
f) They were concerned that he would adversely affect the people in Jerusalem.
2. The response of the Rabshakeh.
a) He knew that what he was doing was shaking the confidence of the people.
b) He refused this request of the three advisors outright.
c) He spoke very strongly.
i) He called the king of Assyria his “master”.
ii) He had been sent by the King of Assyria to speak to all the people in Jerusalem.
d) “Eat and drink their own waste”
i) He was warning the people in Jerusalem about the effects of the siege that had been laid against Jerusalem.
ii) They may be sitting comfortably on the wall today.
iii) Things would not be the same in a long siege.
iv) The people would be so desperate they would resort to extreme measures to stay alive.
v) One of those measures would be to “eat and drink their own waste”.
vi) This was intended exaggeration and it was uttered to create fear of this siege laid by the Assyrians against Jerusalem.