And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
When he heard say of Tirkakah ... This was the "rumour" to which Isaiah referred. Tirhakah reigned in Upper Egypt, while So, or Sabaco, ruled in Lower Egypt. He was a powerful monarch-another Sesostris; and both he and Sabaco have left many monuments of their greatness. The name and figure of Tirhakah receiving war-captives are still seen in the Egyptian temple of Medinet 'Abou. This was the expected succour which was sneered at (2 Kings 18:21) by Rab-shakeh as a "bruised reed." Rage against Hezekiah for allying himself with Egypt, or the hope of being better able to meet this attack from the south, induced him, after hearing the rumour of Tirhakah's advance, to send a menacing letter to Hezekiah, in order that he might force the king of Judah to an immediate surrender of his capital. This letter, couched in the same vaunting and imperious style us the speech of Rab-shakeh, exceeded it in blasphemy, and contained a larger enumeration of conquered places, with the view of terrifying Hezekiah, and showing him the utter hopelessness of all attempts at resistance. Tirhakah's name appears on the monuments of Egypt (Loftus, p. 336; Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,' 1:,
p. 436; Wilson's 'Lands of the Bible,' 1:, p. 91).