RAB-SHAKEH, or Rab-saces, that is, the chief Butler, or Cup-bearer. This is a Term of Dignity, and not a proper Name. Rab-shakeh was sent by Sennacherib King of Assyria to summon Hezekiah to surrender to him.1 He made a Halt in the Fuller’s Field, and sent to speak with Hezekiah. This Prince sent out to him Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, three of the chief Officers of his Court. Rab-shakeh spoke to ‘em in a very haughty and insolent manner, and told them in Hebrew, that they ought not to put any Confidence, either in the King of Egypt, who was not able to assist them, or in the Lord, whose Altars upon the high Places Hezekiah had destroy’d, and who had order’d Sennacherib to march against Judea. Then Hezekiah’s Commissioners desir’d him to speak in the Chaldee Language, and not in the Hebrew, that the People upon the Walls might not hear their Conversation. But Rab-shakeh raised his Voice so much the more, and address’d his Discourse to the People, persuading them to surrender themselves to Sennacherib; adding such blasphemous Expressions as these, That as the Gods of the Nations were not able to secure their Worshippers from the Power of Sennacherib, so neither could the God of Israel protect them from the Force of his Arms.
Isa. xxxvii. 36, 37, &c. 2 Kings xix. 35, 36, 37.After this Rab-shakeh return’d towards his Master, who had quitted the Siege of Lachish to meet the King of Egypt, who was then come forth to the Assistance of Hezekiah. But in this March the destroying Angel slew an hundred and eighty-five thousand Men of the Army of Sennacherib, so that he was obliged to hasten back to Niniveh, where he was put to death by his own Sons. See HEZEKIAH and ISAIAH.
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Footnotes
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In the Year of the World 3292, before Christ 708, before the vulgar Era 712. See 2 Kings xviii. 17, 18, &c. Isai. xxxvi. 1, 2, 3. ↩