Isaiah 36:21

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall." ¹²But the Rab-shakeh replied, "Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?" ¹³Then the Rab-shakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you. ¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, 'The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own-a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, 'The LORD will deliver us.' Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

2 Kings 18:26, 2 Kings 18:37, Psalms 38:13-15, Psalms 39:1, Proverbs 9:7, Proverbs 26:4, Amos 5:13, Matthew 7:6

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 10:27 - he held his peace 1 Samuel 25:12 - came Proverbs 23:9 - Speak Ecclesiastes 3:7 - time to keep

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But they held their peace, and answered him not a word,.... The three ministers of Hezekiah; not as confounded, and unable to return an answer: they were capable of saying many things in proof that the Lord God was greater than the gods of the nations, and in favour of their king, Hezekiah, whom he had treated in a scurrilous manner; and could have objected to him the king of Assyria's breach of faith and honour, but these things they waved, and said nothing of; no doubt they said something to him, had some conference with him, or otherwise what were they sent as commissioners about? but they made no answer to his blasphemies and menaces:

for the king's commandment was, saying, answer him not: with respect to the above things; when he sent them, he might be aware that he would behave in such a rude, insolent, and blaspheming manner, and therefore the king gave them instructions how to conduct themselves, should this be the case. Musculus thinks the king was on the wall, and heard all himself, and gave orders to his ministers to make no reply; but this does not seem likely; what is here said of the ministers is also said of the people, 2 Kings 18:36.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But they held their peace - Hezekiah had commanded them not to answer. They were simply to hear what Rabshakeh had to propose, and to report to him, that he might decide on what course to pursue. It was a case also in which it was every way proper that they should be silent. There was so much insolence, self-confidence, blasphemy, the proposals were so degrading, and the claims were so arrogant, that it was not proper that they should enter into conference, or listen a moment to the terms proposed. Their minds also were so horror-stricken with the language of insolence and blasphemy, and their hearts so pained by the circumstances of the city, that they would not feel like replying to him. There are circumstances when it is proper to maintain a profound silence in the presence of revilers and blasphemers, and when we should withdraw from them, and go and spread the case before the Lord. This was done here Isaiah 37:1, and the result showed that this was the course of wisdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 36:21. But they held their peace - "But the people held their peace"] The word העם haam, the people, is supplied from the other copy, and is authorized by a MS. which inserts it after אתו otho.