Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, [even] unto Shebna, which [is] over the house, [and say],
Ver. 15. Go, get thee unto this treasurer.] This is Actio Iesaiae in Shebnam, sicut Ciceronis in verrem. Shebna was a great courtier and an ill member, advanced likely by King Ahaz, and tolerated for a time by good Hezekiah, as Joab was by David, because he could neither will nor choose; or as Stephanus the Persian was by Justinian, the second emperor of Constantinople; who, being praefectus aulae likewise, set over the house, grew so insolent that he spared not the emperor's mother, though she were Augusta, but whipped her as if she had been his bond slave. a This Shebna is thought to have been an Egyptian, a Sochite, and of mean parentage.
“ Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum. ”
Shebna likely was one of those jeering epicures above taxed, and now particularly threatened. Some for treasurer render fautor, adiutor, a favourer and helper, sc., of those profane scoffers, Isa 22:13 or of the enemies, with whom he underhand dealt and packed; he is therefore threatened to be ex-officed and sent packing into a strange country.
a Funccius.