Isaiah 36:9

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹In the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ²And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field. ³Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him. ⁴The Rab-shakeh said to them, "Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: 'What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ⁵You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. On whom are you now relying, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, "You must worship before this altar"? ⁸Now therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses-if you can put riders on them! ⁹For how can you repel a single officer among the weakest of my master's servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?¹⁰So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the least: Isaiah 10:8, 2 Kings 18:24

and put: Isaiah 36:6, Isaiah 30:16, Isaiah 30:17, Deuteronomy 17:16, Proverbs 21:31, Jeremiah 2:36

Reciprocal: Judges 9:29 - Increase thine army 1 Kings 10:28 - horses brought 2 Kings 7:6 - the kings of the Egyptians 2 Kings 18:23 - I will deliver 2 Chronicles 32:21 - the leaders 2 Chronicles 33:11 - the captains Isaiah 23:8 - merchants Isaiah 31:1 - stay on horses Isaiah 37:24 - By the Jeremiah 9:23 - neither

Cross-References

Genesis 19:37
The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants,.... Be able to resist him; or be a match for him; or cause him to flee; the least captain or general in the army having, as Kimchi says, two thousand men under him; and therefore, if Hezekiah could not produce two thousand men, to sit upon so many horses offered, he could not be a match for, or hope to conquer, or cause to flee, the least officer in the army, who had the fewest men under him, and much less conquer, or cause to flee, the whole Assyrian army. Some think Rabshakeh means himself, but that does not seem likely, that Sennacherib should send an inferior officer, or a person of a low character, and in a low station, or that such an one should be the principal speaker; nor does it suit with the imperious and haughty disposition of Rabshakeh to speak in such a manner of himself:

and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots, and for horsemen? for to what purpose was it to seek and send to Egypt for chariots and horses, since he had not a sufficient number of men to put upon them, but must be obliged to have men, as well as horses and chariots; and which, as before observed, it was a vain thing to trust to, and was quite needless, when he might have enough from his master, the Assyrian king, would he agree with him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

How then wilt thou turn away the face - The most unimportant captain in the army of Assyria commands more horsemen than this, and how can you expect to oppose even him, much more how can you be able to resist all the mighty army of the Assyrians?

One captain of the least - The word ‘captain’ here (פחת pachat, construct state from פחה pechâh) denotes a prefect or governor of a province less than a satrap, an officer who was under the satrap, and subject to him. It is applied to an officer in the Assyrian empire 2 Kings 18:24; in the Chaldean empire Jeremiah 51:23; the Persian Esther 8:9; Esther 9:3; and to the prefects of Judea in the time of Solomon 1 Kings 10:15. The word is of foreign origin.