And the king of Assyria sent... — Apparently in careless violation of his word, as Josephus states.
Tartan. — Rather, the commander-in-chief; called in Assyrian tur-ta-nu, a word of Sumerian origin, imitated in the Hebrew tartân here and in Isaiah 20:1.
Rabsaris and Rab-shaken. — Two other official titles. The Rabsaris has not been identified on the Assyrian monuments. The Hebrew word suggests “chief eunuch,” or “courtier.” (Comp. Jeremiah 39:3.) Such an official would accompany the tartan as scribe The term Rab-shakeh, as a Hebrew expression, signifies “chief cup-bearer;” but it is really only a Hebraised form of the Assyrian title rab-sak, “chief officer,” applied to superior military commanders or staff officers. In Isaiah 36:2 only the Rabshakeh is mentioned; in 2 Chronicles 33:9 the three foreign titles are naturally displaced by the general expression, “his servants.”
And they went up and came — i.e., the Assyrian army-corps under the tartan, &c.
And when they were come up, they came. — Literally, as before, And they went up and came. This is omitted in LXX., Syriac, Vulg., and Arabic, but the phrase refers this time specially to the three principals, who came within speaking distance of the walls.
The conduit ... field. — Isaiah 7:3. The upper pool (called Gihon in 1 Kings 1:33) on the “highway of the fuller’s field,” i.e., the Joppa road, on the west side of the city, is different from the upper pool in the Tyropœon, which is also called “the artificial pool” (Nehemiah 3:16), and “the old pool” (Isaiah 22:11). Below this latter was a pool, dug in Hezo-kiah’s time, called in Isaiah 22:9 “the lower pool,” and in Nehemiah 3:15 “the pool of Siloah.”