Rabshakeh's Propaganda in Isaiah 36-37
Rabshakeh was the chief cupbearer or vizier of the Assyrian court, sent by Sennacherib to Jerusalem during the siege of 713 BC [5, 7]. His title likely denotes an office rather than a personal name [5]. The narrative in Isaiah 36–37 records his speech as a calculated exercise in psychological warfare, designed to break Judean morale and compel surrender without a protracted siege.
The Setting and Strategy
Rabshakeh arrived with a large military force and positioned himself near the city wall on the north side, where he could address both Hezekiah's officials and the general population [7]. When Hezekiah's ministers requested that he speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew—so the common people would not understand—Rabshakeh refused, insisting on speaking "in the Jews' language" with a loud voice precisely so the people on the wall would hear [2, 13]. His goal was to bypass the king's representatives and incite rebellion among the populace, exploiting their fear of starvation and siege conditions [2].
The Content of the Propaganda
Rabshakeh's speech systematically attacked every potential source of Judean confidence. He mocked reliance on Egypt as trusting in "a broken reed" [8], dismissed military preparations as futile [6], and—most provocatively—argued that trust in Yahweh was misplaced. He claimed that Hezekiah's religious reforms, which removed high places and centralized worship in Jerusalem, had actually offended Yahweh [10]. He further asserted that Yahweh himself had commissioned the Assyrian invasion [10], and he compared Yahweh unfavorably to the gods of other nations that Assyria had conquered, asking, "Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand?" [4, 9].
Calvin observed that Rabshakeh's rhetoric, while acknowledging God's power in theory, sought to "reduce the power of God to nothing" by undermining faith in divine assistance [11]. The speech was designed to create despair and force submission to "a victorious tyrant" [11].
The Aftermath
Hezekiah's officials returned with torn clothes, a gesture expressing both grief over the blasphemies and fear of the threatened destruction [12, 14]. Hezekiah himself went to the temple and sent word to Isaiah, asking him to pray "for the remnant that is left," acknowledging that Rabshakeh had been sent "to defy the living God" [1]. Rabshakeh eventually withdrew to rejoin Sennacherib at Libnah [3], but the narrative demonstrates how imperial powers wielded propaganda as a weapon, exploiting religious doubt and material fear to achieve political ends.
Sources
- Isaiah “It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” -- Isaiah 37:4”
- Isaiah “But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” -- Isaiah 36:12”
- Isaiah “So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. -- Isaiah 37:8”
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge “Isaiah 36:18 cross-references: 2 Kings 18:33, 2 Kings 19:12, 2 Kings 19:17, 2 Chronicles 32:13, Psalms 12:4, Psalms 92:5, Psalms 115:2, Psalms 135:5, Psalms 135:15, Isaiah 10:7, Isaiah 10:11, Isaiah 36:7, Isaiah 36:10, Isaiah 36:15, Isaiah 37:4, Isaiah 37:10, Isaiah 37:12, Isaiah 37:17, Jeremiah 10:3, Jeremiah 10:10, Ezekiel 31:5, Daniel 3:15, Habakkuk 2:19”
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Rabshakeh — (chief cupbearer), (2 Kings 19:1; Isaiah 36:1; Isaiah 37:1) ... one of the officers of the king of Assyria sent against Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah. [[1007]Hezekiah] (B.C. 713.) The English version takes Rabshakeh as the name of a person; but it is more probably the name of the office which he held at the court, that of chief cupbearer.”
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge “Isaiah 36:5 cross-references: 2 Kings 18:7, 2 Kings 24:1, Nehemiah 2:19, Proverbs 21:30, Proverbs 24:5, Jeremiah 52:3, Ezekiel 17:15”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Rabshakeh — Chief of the princes, the name given to the chief cup-bearer or the vizier of the Assyrian court; one of Sennacherib's messengers to Hezekiah. See the speech he delivered, in the Hebrew language, in the hearing of all the people, as he stood near the wall on the north side of the city (2 Kings 18:17-37). He and the other envoys returned to their master and reported that Hezekiah and his people were obdurate, and would not submit.”
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge “Isaiah 36:6 cross-references: 2 Kings 17:4, 2 Kings 18:21, Isaiah 20:5, Isaiah 30:1, Isaiah 30:2, Isaiah 31:3, Jeremiah 37:5, Jeremiah 37:7, Ezekiel 17:17, Ezekiel 29:6, Ezekiel 29:16”
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge “Isaiah 37:10 cross-references: 2 Kings 18:5, 2 Kings 19:10, 2 Chronicles 32:7, 2 Chronicles 32:15, Psalms 22:8, Isaiah 36:4, Isaiah 36:15, Isaiah 36:20, Ezekiel 35:13, Matthew 27:43”
- Isaiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Isaiah 36:7: But if thou say to me, we trust in the Lord our God,.... In his promises, providence, power, and protection, and not in human counsels and strength; not in allies and auxiliaries, as Pharaoh king of Egypt; should this be replied, Rabshakeh has something to say to that; having shown the vanity of trusting in the above things, he now proceeds to beat them off of all trust in the Lord their God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away; the question might easily be answered in the negative; no, he has not; the high places and altars whi”
- CCEL (Reformed) “Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 3, section 4.19: and unfounded speech. Hence we see plainly that wicked men, though they assert the power of God, treat it with contempt; for although he does not openly deny that God can assist, if he choose, yet, by sapping the foundations of their faith, he does all that he can to reduce the power of God to nothing. His intention is, to discourage the hearts of the people in such a manner that they may be constrained, as if in despair, to submit and receive laws from a victorious tyrant. But in order to destroy their confidence in the assistance of God, he”
- Isaiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Isaiah 36:22: Then came Eliakim, that was over the household,.... The first of the commissioners sent to Rabshakeh: and Shebna the Scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah: by which it seems that he could not be with them on the wall, but was all the while in his own palace, whither they came to him, to report the issue of their conference with Rabshakeh: with their clothes rent; which was done perhaps not in the presence and within the sight of Rabshakeh, but as they came along; and that partly on account of the blasphemies they had heard, Mat 26:65, and ”
- Isaiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Isaiah 36:13: Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language,.... In which he spoke before; but now he raised up himself, and elevated his voice, and strained himself to the utmost, that all the people might hear, and that he might strike a terror into them, and stir them up to mutiny and rebellion, and oblige their governors to give up the city into the hands of the Assyrians; this use he made of the request of Hezekiah's ministers, perceiving hereby their fears, and the disposition of the people: and said, hear ye the words of the great king, the king ”
- Isaiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Isaiah 37:1: And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it,.... The report that his ministers made to him of the blasphemies and threatenings of Rabshakeh, the general of the Assyrian army: that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth; the one because of the blasphemies he heard; the other cause of the destruction he and his people were threatened with: and went into the house of the Lord; the temple, to pray to him there: he could have prayed in his own house, but he chose rather to go to the house of God, not so much on account of the holiness of the place”