What does Rabsaces tell Jerusalem’s people after Ezechias pays the Assyrian king, and why do they give no answer?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Rabsaces tells them not to trust Ezechias or his promise of the Lord’s rescue. He offers food and water before removal to another land and argues that other nations’ gods have not saved them. The people answer nothing because the king has commanded them not to answer him.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechias, son of Achaz and king of Juda, begins to reign in the third year of Osee, son of Ela and king of Israel. He is twenty-five years old and reigns twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother is Abi, daughter of Zacharias. He does what is good before the Lord according to all that David his father had done.

Ezechias destroys the high places, breaks the statues into pieces and cuts down the groves. He also breaks the brass serpent Moses had made, because the children of Israel have been burning incense to it up to that time. He calls its name Nohestan.

Challoner’s note uses the spelling Noheston and explains it as their brass or a little brass. It says Ezechias used the name in contempt because they had made an idol of the serpent. This explanation belongs to the note, separate from the verse.

Ezechias trusts in the Lord, the God of Israel. The account says none of Juda’s kings before or after him is like him in this. He stays with the Lord, does not depart from his steps and keeps the commandments the Lord commanded Moses. Therefore the Lord is with him, and in all things to which he goes forth he behaves wisely. He rebels against the Assyrian king and does not serve him. He strikes the Philistines as far as Gaza and all their borders, from the watchmen’s tower to the fenced city.

In Ezechias’s fourth year, which is Osee son of Ela’s seventh year as king of Israel, Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, comes to Samaria and besieges it. After three years it is taken in Ezechias’s sixth year, Osee’s ninth. The Assyrian king carries Israel to Assyria and places them in Hala and Habor, by the rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes. The account gives the reason: they did not listen to the Lord their God’s voice but broke his covenant. They would neither hear nor do all that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had commanded.

In Ezechias’s fourteenth year Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, comes against Juda’s fenced cities and takes them. Ezechias sends messengers to him at Lachis, saying he has offended, asking him to depart and saying he will bear all that the king puts upon him. The Assyrian king imposes a tax of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Ezechias gives all the silver found in the Lord’s house and the king’s treasures. At that time he breaks the doors of the Lord’s temple and the gold plates he had fastened on them and gives them to the Assyrian king.

The Assyrian king sends Tharthan, Rabsaris and Rabsaces from Lachis to Ezechias with a strong army at Jerusalem. They come to Jerusalem and stand by the conduit of the upper pool on the way to the fuller’s field. They call for the king. Eliacim, son of Helcias and the man over the house, goes out to them with Sobna the scribe and Joahe, son of Asaph, the recorder.

Rabsaces tells the officials to speak to Ezechias with the words of the great king, the Assyrian king. He asks what confidence Ezechias trusts in, whether he has taken counsel to prepare for battle, and whom he trusts that he dares to rebel. He compares Egypt to a staff made of a broken reed: if a man leans on it, it breaks, enters his hand and pierces it. He says Pharao, king of Egypt, is like this to all who trust in him.

Rabsaces then addresses the answer that they trust in the Lord their God. He asks whether this is the one whose high places and altars Ezechias removed and whose worship Ezechias directed Juda and Jerusalem to offer before the altar in Jerusalem. He tells them to come over to his master, the Assyrian king, and offers two thousand horses, asking whether they can supply riders for them. He asks how they could stand against one lord of the least of his master’s servants, and whether they trust Egypt for chariots and horsemen.

Rabsaces asks whether he has come to destroy this place without the Lord’s will. He claims the Lord told him to go up to the land and destroy it. The command is part of Rabsaces’s speech.

Eliacim, son of Helcias, Sobna and Joahe ask Rabsaces to speak to them, his servants, in Syriac because they understand it, rather than in the Jews’ language within hearing of the people on the wall. Rabsaces replies by asking whether his master sent him to their master and to them, rather than to the men on the wall, who may eat their own dung and drink their urine with them.

Rabsaces stands and cries loudly in the Jews’ language, telling them to hear the great Assyrian king’s word. He says the king tells them not to let Ezechias deceive them because Ezechias cannot deliver them from his hand. He also tells them not to let Ezechias make them trust in the Lord by saying the Lord will surely deliver them and the city will not be given into the Assyrian king’s hand.

Rabsaces tells them not to listen to Ezechias. Speaking for the Assyrian king, he tells them to do what is for their advantage and come out to him. He promises that each man will eat from his own vineyard and fig tree and drink from his own cistern until the king comes and takes them away to a land like their own: fruitful and plentiful in wine, with bread, vineyards, olives, oil and honey. He promises they will live and not die, and repeats that they should not listen to Ezechias’s statement that the Lord will deliver them.

Rabsaces asks whether any nation’s gods have delivered its land from the Assyrian king. He asks where the gods of Emath, Arphad, Sepharvaim, Ana and Ava are, and whether they have delivered Samaria from his hand. He then asks which gods among all the nations have delivered their country from his hand, that the Lord could deliver Jerusalem from his hand.

The people keep silent and do not answer him a word, because they have received the king’s command not to answer him. Eliacim, son of Helcias and the man over the house, Sobna the scribe and Joahe, son of Asaph, the recorder, come to Ezechias with torn garments and tell him Rabsaces’s words.

The story inside

The account opens with Ezechias’s family, reign and good conduct. His destruction of the brass serpent has a stated reason: Israel has burned incense to it. Challoner separately explains the name Noheston and its use in contempt. Ezechias’s trust and obedience are followed by the statement that the Lord is with him and he acts wisely; he refuses Assyrian service and strikes the Philistines to the stated borders. Samaria’s fall is dated to the paired years of Ezechias and Osee, with refusal to hear or do the Lord’s commands given as its reason. Sennacherib then takes Juda’s fenced cities in Ezechias’s fourteenth year. Ezechias’s message asks him to depart and offers to bear what he imposes; the resulting tax is three hundred silver talents and thirty gold talents. Silver from the temple and royal treasures and the temple doors and their gold plates go to the Assyrian king. The king next sends three named men with an army to Jerusalem, where three named officials answer their call. Rabsaces’s speech questions trust in Egypt, trust in the Lord after the altar changes, and the ability to use two thousand horses or stand against a least servant. His claimed command from the Lord remains his claim. The officials ask for Syriac so the people on the wall will not hear the Jews’ language; he answers with the dung and urine threat and cries loudly in that language. His public message urges rejection of Ezechias’s promise of rescue and offers each man’s own food and water only until removal to another land. He challenges the Lord’s ability to rescue Jerusalem by naming other gods and Samaria. The people’s silence has an explicit cause: the king’s order. The officials then report his words with torn garments. The chapter ends with that report, leaving the threatened destruction and promised relocation without a narrated outcome here.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Ezechias’s action against the serpent has a particular reason. Moses made it, but the children of Israel have been burning incense to it, so Ezechias breaks it. Challoner separately explains the name as their brass or a little brass and says it is used in contempt because they made it an idol. The stated action and note explain this event without turning it into a rule about every historical object.
2
The payment and the speech are separate events with concrete details. Ezechias agrees to bear the imposed tax, supplies all the silver found in two places and gives temple doors and gold plates. An army and three named Assyrian men then come to Jerusalem. Rabsaces promises food, water and life, but also says the people will be taken away. Remembering the until clause keeps the whole offer in view.
3
The people’s silence follows a command. The officials first ask for Syriac because they understand it and do not want speech in the Jews’ language within the wall’s hearing. Rabsaces instead addresses those people loudly and urges them not to trust Ezechias’s promise of rescue. They give no answer because the king told them not to, while the officials return with torn garments and report the words. The chapter gives these actions without describing private feelings or a later rescue.

Test your recall

Why does Ezechias break Moses’ brass serpent, what payment follows Sennacherib’s tax, how does the Syriac request lead into Rabsaces’s public speech, and what command explains the people’s silence?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 40140–40155
4 Kings Chapter 18 The reign of Ezechias: he abolisheth idolatry and prospereth. Sennacherib cometh up against him: Rabsaces soliciteth the people to revolt; and blasphemeth the Lord. 18:1. In the third year of Osee, the son of Ela, king of Israel, reigned Ezechias, the son of Achaz, king of Juda. 18:2. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abi, the daughter of Zacharias. 18:3. And he did that which was good before the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done.
Lines 40156–40160
18:4. He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues in pieces, and cut down the groves, and broke the brazen serpent, which Moses had made: for till that time the children of Israel burnt incense to it: and he called its name Nohestan.
Lines 40161–40164
And he called its name Noheston.... That is, their brass; or a little brass. So he called it in contempt, because they had made an idol of it.
Lines 40165–40178
18:5. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel: so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Juda, nor any of them that were before him: 18:6. And he stuck to the Lord, and departed not from his steps, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 18:7. Wherefore the Lord also was with him, and in all things, to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely. And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians, and served him not. 18:8. He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza, and all their borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
Lines 40179–40194
18:9. In the fourth year of king Ezechias, which was the seventh year of Osee, the son of Ela, king of Israel, Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, came up to Samaria, and besieged it, 18:10. And took it. For after three years, in the sixth year of Ezechias, that is, in the ninth year of Osee, king of Israel, Samaria was taken: 18:11. And the king of the Assyrians carried away Israel into Assyria, and placed them in Hala, and in Habor, by the rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes. 18:12. Because they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord, their God, but transgressed his covenant: all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded, they would not hear, nor do.
Lines 40195–40211
18:13. In the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against the fenced cities of Juda, and took them. 18:14. Then Ezechias, king of Juda, sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians, to Lachis, saying: I have offended, depart from me: and all that thou shalt put upon me, I will bear. And the king of the Assyrians put a tax upon Ezechias, king of Juda, of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold. 18:15. And Ezechias gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the king’s treasures. 18:16. At that time Ezechias broke the doors of the temple of the Lord, and the plates of gold which he had fastened on them, and gave them to the king of the Assyrians.
Lines 40212–40221
18:17. And the king of the Assyrians sent Tharthan, and Rabsaris, and Rabsaces, from Lachis, to king Ezechias, with a strong army, to Jerusalem: and they went up and came to Jerusalem, and they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the way of the fuller’s field. 18:18. And they called for the king: and there went out to them Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder.
Lines 40222–40232
18:19. And Rabsaces said to them: Speak to Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence, wherein thou trustest? 18:20. Perhaps thou hast taken counsel, to prepare thyself for battle. On whom dost thou trust, that thou darest to rebel? 18:21. Dost thou trust in Egypt a staff of a broken reed, upon which if a man lean, it will break and go into his hand, and pierce it? so is Pharao, king of Egypt, to all that trust in him.
Lines 40233–40245
18:22. But if you say to me: We trust in the Lord, our God: is it not he, whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away: and hath commanded Juda and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? 18:23. Now therefore come over to my master, the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and see whether you be able to have riders for them. 18:24. And how can you stand against one lord of the least of my master’s servants? Dost thou trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
Lines 40246–40249
18:25. Is it without the will of the Lord that I am come up to this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up to this land, and destroy it.
Lines 40250–40259
18:26. Then Eliacim, the son of Helcias, and Sobna, and Joahe, said to Rabsaces: We pray thee, speak to us, thy servants, in Syriac: for we understand that tongue: and speak not to us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people that are upon the wall. 18:27. And Rabsaces answered them, saying: Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words, and not rather to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?
Lines 40260–40270
18:28. Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said: Hear the word of the great king, the king of the Assyrians. 18:29. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand. 18:30. Neither let him make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.
Lines 40271–40281
18:31. Do not hearken to Ezechias. For thus saith the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me: and every man of you shall eat of his own vineyard, and of his own fig tree: and you shall drink water of your own cisterns, 18:32. Till I come, and take you away, to a land, like to your own land, a fruitful land, and plentiful in wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, and oil, and honey, and you shall live, and not die. Hearken not to Ezechias, who deceiveth you, saying: The Lord will deliver us.
Lines 40282–40292
18:33. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 18:34. Where is the god of Emath, and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? 18:35. Who are they among all the gods of the nations that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
Lines 40293–40301
18:36. But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for they had received commandment from the king that they should not answer him. 18:37. And Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Ezechias, with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.