And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.
And behold (implying amazement at the people's infatuation) joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep. Notwithstanding Yahweh's call to "mourning" (Isaiah 22:12), many shall make the desperate state of affairs a reason for reckless revelry (Isaiah 5:11-12; Isaiah 5:14; Jeremiah 18:12; 1 Corinthians 15:32).
In Isaiah 36:3; Isaiah 36:22; Isaiah 37:2, we find Shebna 'a scribe,' and no longer prefect of the palace ('over the household'), and Eliakim in that office, as is here foretold. Shebna is singled out as the subject of prophecy (the only instance of an individual being so in Isaiah), as being one of the irreligious faction that set at nought the prophet's warnings, (Isaiah 28:1-29; Isaiah 29:1-24; Isaiah 30:1-33; Isaiah 31:1-9; Isaiah 32:1-20; Isaiah 33:1-24.) Perhaps it was he who advised the temporary ignominious submission of Hezekiah to Sennacherib. The un-Hebrew form of his name implies that he was an alien-perhaps introduced by Hezekiah's predecessor Ahaz. He made an ostentatious display of his rank (Isaiah 22:18: cf. 2 Samuel 15:1), and had hewn out for himself a tomb high in the cliffs, southwest of Jerusalem (cf. margin, 2 Chronicles 32:33).