Shebnah

Isai. xxii. 15.SHEBNAH, or Sebna: He exercised the Office of Secretary under King Hezechiah, 2 Kings xviii. 18. This Prince sent Shebnah, Joah, and Asaph, to hear what Rab-shakeh had to propose from King Sennacherib. Some have pretended, that Shebna had been High-priest; but the Scripture only gives him the Title of Treasurer, or Præpositus Templi, which is very different from the Dignity of High-priest. See the אל הסכן ad hunc Sochen.Prophecy that Isaiah pronounced against him: Go, says the Lord, get thee unto this Treasurer (Sochen), even unto Shebna, which is over the House, or the Temple. The Word Sochen, signifies one that has the Oversight of the King’s Magazines, a Treasurer.

What he is to say to him there, follows; What hast thou here; and whom hast thou here; that thou hast hewed thee out a Sepulchre here, as he that heweth him out a Sepulchre on high, and that graveth an Habitation for himself in a Rock? Behold, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty Captivity (as a Cock with the Feet tied together, says St. Jerom) and will surely cover thee¹: Or, He will fall upon you, as a Bird of Prey falls upon his Game. He will surely violently turn and toss thee, like a Ball, into a large Country; there shalt thou die, and there the Chariots of thy Glory shall be the Shame of thy Lord’s House: And I will drive thee from thy Station, and from thy State shall he pull thee down. And it shall come to pass in that Day, that I will call my Servant Eliakim the Son of Hilkiah. ‘Tis thought that all this happen’d to Shebna, under the Reign of Manasseh, and that he was taken Captive with this Prince to Babylon, in the Year of the World 3328, before Christ 672, before the Vulgar Era 676.

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