Isaiah 37:8

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸When the Rab-shakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah with the order: ¹⁰"Tell Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared? ¹²Did the gods of the nations my fathers destroyed rescue them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? ¹³Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'" ¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: ¹⁶"O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Rabshakeh: 2 Kings 19:8, 2 Kings 19:9, Numbers 33:20, Numbers 33:21

Libnah: Joshua 10:29, Joshua 10:31-34, Joshua 21:13, 2 Kings 8:22, 2 Chronicles 21:10

Lachish: Joshua 12:11, Joshua 15:39

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 32:9 - Lachish Nehemiah 11:30 - Lachish Micah 1:13 - Lachish

Cross-References

Genesis 37:3
Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

Genesis 37:4
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Genesis 37:6
He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:

Genesis 37:27
Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh." And they agreed.

Genesis 37:28
So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Genesis 49:26
The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers.

Exodus 2:14
But the man replied, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "This thing I have done has surely become known."

1 Samuel 10:27
But some worthless men said, "How can this man deliver us?" So they despised him and brought him no gifts; but Saul held his peace.

1 Samuel 17:28
Now when David's oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, his anger burned against David. "Why have you come down here?" he asked. "And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and wickedness of heart-you have come down to see the battle!"

Psalms 118:22
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So Rabshakeh returned,.... To the king of Assyria his master, to give him an account how things went at Jerusalem, and that he could get no direct answer from the king of Judah, and to consult with him what was proper to be done in the present situation of things; leaving the army before Jerusalem, under the command of the other two generals. For that he should take the army with him does not seem reasonable, when Hezekiah and his people were in such a panic on account of it; besides, the king of Assyria's letters to Hezekiah clearly suppose the army to be still at Jerusalem, or his menacing letters would have signified nothing; and after this the destruction of the Assyrian army before Jerusalem is related:

and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; a city in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 10:29, and lay nearer to Jerusalem than Lachish, where Rabshakeh left him; so that he seemed to be drawing his army towards that city, on which his heart was set. Josephus u makes him to be at this time besieging Pelusium, a city in Egypt, but wrongly; which has led some into a mistake that Libnah and Pelusium are the same:

for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish; where he was, when he sent him to Jerusalem, Isaiah 36:2, having very probably taken it.

u Antiqu. l. 10. c. 1. sect. 4.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So Rabshakeh returned - Returned from Jerusalem to the camp of his master. He had received no answer to his insulting message Isaiah 36:21; he saw there was no prospect that the city would surrender; and he therefore returned again to the camp.

And found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah - He had departed from Lachish. Why he had done this is unknown. It is possible that he had taken it, though this is not recorded anywhere in history. Or it is possible that he had found it impracticable to subdue it as speedily as he had desired; and had withdrawn from it for the purpose of subduing other places that would offer a more feeble resistance. Libnah was a city in the south of Judah Joshua 15:42, given to the priests, and declared a city of refuge 1Ch 6:54, 1 Chronicles 6:57. Eusebius and Jerome say it was in the district of Eleutheropolis (Calmet). It was about ten miles to the northwest of Lachish. This city was taken by Joshua, and all its inhabitants put to the sword After taking this. Joshua next assaulted and took Lachish Joshua 10:29-32.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 37:8. Rabshakeh returned — From Isaiah 36:2, we learn that the king of Assyria had sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem; now it is likely that Rabshakeh had besieged that place, and that the king of Assyria had taken his station before this city, and despatched Rabshakeh against Jerusalem. But, as in the verse above it is said, "he had departed from Lachish," probably he had been obliged to raise the siege, and sat down before Libnah, which promised an easier conquest.