And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.
And the king of Assyria sent. The Hebrew copulative does not always indicate that the sentence which it commences records events that follow in immediate succession. There is sometimes a long interval of time between the subjects described in verses connected by this conjunction (see the notes at Genesis 1:2; Exodus 3:1, etc.) Here it serves to introduce the expedition of Sennacherib into Syria, which took place some years-two or more-after the first. It is, indeed, denied (Vance Smith, 'Prophecies on Nineveh and the Assyrians,' General Introduction, sec. 4) that there were two invasions; and the theory has been pronounced inconsistent with the sacred narrative. But the first expedition was marked by circumstances special and distinctive.
(1) Hezekiah was sore pressed, and prompted by overwhelming fears to make his submission.
(2) He sent an embassy to Lachish to Sennacherib, to solicit terms of forgiveness; and on promise of paying a largely increased tribute to the Assyrian monarch as his lord-paramount, he was received as a dependent vassal. (3) It cannot be supposed that immediately after having publicly condoned the king of Judah, Sennacherib could be so base and perfidious as to invest Jerusalem with an army.
(4) Sennacherib himself says in his record of this campaign, that the tribute was sent by Hezekiah to him at Nineveh. To that city, therefore, he had returned.
In the second expedition there was no collision between the Assyrians and the Jews. The events related in the following verses took place during Sennacherib's second campaign in Syria. Intelligence having reached him that Hezekiah had negotiated a new league with Egypt, he determined to treat Jerusalem as his father had done to Samaria. But his principal object was to weaken or crush Egypt, as the more formidable enemy (Herodotus, b. 2:, ch. 141:), and therefore he marched directly southward through Palestine, along the coast route, without turning aside to attack Jerusalem, to Lachish and Libnah, which belonged apparently at that time to Egypt.
Lachish - (see the notes at 2 Kings 18:14.) It was a town in Judah (2 Kings 10:3), and strongly fortified (2 Chronicles 11:5-9; Jeremiah 34:7). Its site has not been ascertained; but assuming it to have been near Libnah, it was at the southwestern extremity of Palestine. Sennacherib himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him (2 Chronicles 32:9). He had probably lain encamped there with his army for a considerable time, and had made advanced progress with the works, preparatory to the regular siege of that fortress (see reference to the operations on Ninevite slab, 2 Kings 18:14), when, finding that Hezekiah did not send to tender his homage as formerly, he despatched a large force (cf. Isaiah 36:2), under the command of three superior officers, against Jerusalem and its rebellious sovereign.
Tartan - general (Isaiah 20:1).
Rabsaris - chief of the eunuchs.
Rab-shakeh - chief cup-bearer. The office of cup-bearer is one of great dignity, and according to Oriental usages, has often been held by a person of high military command. х Rabshaaqeeh (H7262), chief butler; Sakas, the Persian name for butler, adopted by Xenophon; Septuagint, Rapsakees. He is the only Assyrian officer mentioned by Isaiah (Isaiah 36:2), because he was the only speaker. So Rab-Maag (H7248), chief of the Magi (Jeremiah 39:3).]
These were the great officers employed in delivering Sennacherib's insulting message to Hezekiah. On the walls of the palace of Sennacherib, at Khorsabad, certain figures have been identified with the officers of that sovereign mentioned in Scripture. In particular, the figures of Rab-shakeh, Rabsaris, and Tartan appear as full-length portraits of the persons holding those offices in the reign of Sennacherib, and probably the very individuals sent on this embassy.
With a great host against Jerusalem. Engaged in a campaign of three years in Egypt, Sennacherib was forced by the king of Ethiopia to retreat, and discharging his rage against Jerusalem, sent an immense army to summon it to surrender (see the notes at 2 Chronicles 32:3)).
They went up, and came to Jerusalem. From the southern boundary of the Holy Land the march to Jerusalem must have been a continuous ascent.
They came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool ... - the conduit which went from the reservoir of the Upper Gihon (Birket el-Mamilla) to the lower pool-the Birket es-Sultan.
The high way of the fuller's field - the public road which passed by that district which had been assigned them for carrying on their business without the city, on account of the unpleasant smell. The Assyrian troops, having come from the southwest, would approach Jerusalem by the upper pool (cf. Isaiah 7:3).