Thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Go,.... These words are spoken to the prophet, bidding him go to Shebna's house; so the Arabic version, "go to the house"; or however, by some means or other, let him know that he should be displaced, and turned out of his office, and another put in his room:
get thee unto this treasurer; or governor, as the Targum; treasurer in the house of King Hezekiah, as Kimchi: the word has the signification of profit; and Jarchi, from the Talmud s, calls him master of the profits; that is, of the profits and revenues belonging to the king; though, perhaps, he sought more his own profit and advantage than the king's: it has also the signification of danger, and so may be rendered, "this dangerous" man to the king and state. The Jews say t he entered into conspiracy with some others in Jerusalem, to deliver up the city and king into the hands of Sennacherib. It is also used for a cherisher or nourisher, 1 Kings 1:2 and may be understood of him, as a cherisher and encourager of the scoffers before mentioned, and a fomenter of secret conspiracies against the king and the city. Some render it, "this Sochenite", so called from the place of his birth, or from whence he came; and the Jews u say he came from Sochen, a place in Egypt; and he seems by what follows to have been a foreigner, and not an inhabitant of Jerusalem; nor is it likely that he should be twice described by his office:
[even] unto Shebna, which [is] over the house; that is, over the king's house, so Kimchi; the steward, that had the ordering of all the affairs civil and domestic in it, which was a very high post; he had the keys of the money, stores, and provisions in it; see
Isaiah 22:22. The Vulgate Latin version calls him the governor of the temple; so Jarchi understands it, that he was over the house of the sanctuary, the temple; some Jewish writers say he was a high priest; and others that he was an "amarcal" w, which was a name of office in the temple, a governor there, that had the keys of the stores in it:
[and say]; this is not in the text, but is supplied; the message to him follows.
s T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 26. 2. t Jarchi & Kimchi in loc. & Sanhedrin, ib. col. 1. u Vajikra Rabba, sect. 5. fol. 150. 2. w Ibid.