2 Kings 18:17

Contextual Overview

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent the field marshal, the chief of staff, and his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced and came to Jerusalem, and they took their position by the aqueduct of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field. ¹⁷ The king of Ashshur sent Tartan and Rav-Saris and Ravshakeh from Lakhish to king Hizkiyahu with a great army to Yerushalayim. They went up and came to Yerushalayim. 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. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁷ And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field. ¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent out his supreme commander, his chief officer, and his field commander. They went with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. When they came near the waterway from the upper pool on the road where people do their laundry, they stopped. ¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris and the Rabshakeh [his highest officials] with a large army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem, and when they went up and arrived, they stood by the aqueduct of the upper pool, which is on the road of the Fuller's Field. ¹⁷ Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller's field.¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. 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. ¹⁷ And the King of Asshur sent Tartan, and Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great hoste against Ierusalem. And they went vp, and came to Ierusalem, and when they were come vp, they stood by the conduite of the vpper poole, which is by the path of the fullers fielde,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

am 3294, bc 710

the king: 2 Chronicles 32:9, Isaiah 20:1, Isaiah 36:2

Tartan: Calmet remarks, that these are not the names of persons, but of offices: Tartan signifies "he who presides over gifts or tribute;" Rabsaris, "the chief of the eunuchs;" and Rabshakeh, "the chief cup-bearer."

great: Heb. heavy

the conduit of the upper pool: If the Fuller's field were near En-Rogel, or the Fuller's fountain, east of Jerusalem, as is generally supposed, then the conduit of the upper pool may been an aqueduct that brought the water from the upper or eastern reservoir of that fountain, which had been seized in order to distress the city. 2 Kings 20:20, Isaiah 7:3, Isaiah 22:9-11, Isaiah 36:2

Reciprocal: Joshua 10:3 - Lachish Joshua 15:39 - Lachish 2 Samuel 20:13 - the highway 2 Kings 6:14 - great 2 Kings 19:4 - whom the king 2 Kings 19:6 - the servants 2 Kings 19:9 - sent 2 Kings 19:23 - messengers 2 Chronicles 12:4 - came Nehemiah 2:14 - the gate of the fountain Isaiah 29:3 - General Isaiah 36:1 - it came Micah 1:13 - Lachish Nahum 2:13 - the voice

Cross-References

Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained on Sedom and on `Amorah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky.

Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;

Genesis 19:24
Yahweh rained down from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh.

Genesis 19:24
The Lord sent a rain of burning sulfur down from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. It was sent down from the sky by the Lord .

Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down brimstone (flaming sulfur) and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven,

Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven,

Genesis 19:24
Then the Lord rained vpon Sodom and vpon Gomorah brimstone, & fire from the Lord out of heauen,

Genesis 19:24
And Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven,

Genesis 19:24
and the Lord sent burning sulfur down like rain on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem,.... Notwithstanding he took the above large sum of money of him, so false and deceitful was he: these were three generals of his army, whom he sent to besiege Jerusalem, while he continued the siege of Lachish; only Rabshakeh is mentioned in Isaiah 36:2 he being perhaps chief general, and the principal speaker; whose speech, to the end of this chapter, intended to intimidate Hezekiah, and dishearten his people, with some circumstances which attended it, are recorded word for word in Isaiah 36:1 throughout;

Isaiah 36:1- : and notes on that chapter.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

An interval of time must be placed between this verse and the last. Sennacherib, content with his successes, had returned to Nineveh with his spoil and his numerous captives. Hezekiah, left to himself, repented of his submission, and commenced negotiations with Egypt 2Ki 18:21, 2 Kings 18:24; Isaiah 30:2-6; Isaiah 31:1, which implied treason against his Assyrian suzerain. It was under these circumstances that Sennacherib appears to have made his second expedition into Palestine very soon after the first. Following the usual coast route he passed through Philistia on his way to Egypt, leaving Jerusalem on one side, despising so irony a state, and knowing that the submission of Egypt would involve that of her hangers-on. While, however, he was besieging Lachish on his way to encounter his main enemy, he determined to try the temper of the Jews by means of an embassy, which he accordingly sent.

Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh - None of these are proper names. “Tartan” was the ordinary title of an Assyrian general; “Rab-saris” is “chief eunuch,” always a high officer of the Assyrian court; Rab-shakeh is probably “chief cup-bearer.”

By the conduit of the upper pool - Possibly a conduit on the north side of the city near the “camp of the Assyrians.” The spot was the same as that on which Isaiah had met Ahaz Isaiah 7:3.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 18:17. The king of Assyria sent Tartan, c. — Calmet has very justly remarked that these are not the names of persons, but of offices. Tartan, תרתן tartan or tantan, as in the parallel place in Isaiah, in the Greek version, signifies he who presides over the gifts or tribute chancellor of the exchequer.

Rabsaris — רב סריס, the chief of the eunuchs. Rab-shakeh, רב שקה master or chief over the wine cellar; or he who had the care of the king's drink.

From Lachish — It seems as if the Assyrian troops had been worsted before Lachish, and were obliged to raise the siege, from which they went and sat down before Libnah. While Sennacherib was there with the Assyrian army, he heard that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had invaded the Assyrian territories. Being obliged therefore to hasten, in order to succour his own dominions, he sent a considerable force under the aforementioned officers against Jerusalem, with a most fearful and bloody manifesto, commanding Hezekiah to pay him tribute, to deliver up his kingdom to him, and to submit, he and his people, to be carried away captives into Assyria! This manifesto was accompanied with the vilest insults, and the highest blasphemies. God interposed and the evils threatened against others fell upon himself.

Manifestoes of this kind have seldom been honourable to the senders. The conduct of Rab-shakeh was unfortunately copied by the Duke of Brunswick, commander-in-chief of the allied army of the centre, in the French revolution, who was then in the plains of Champagne, August 27,1792, at the head of ninety thousand men, Prussians, Austrians, and emigrants, on his way to Paris, which in his manifesto he threatened to reduce to ashes! This was the cause of the dreadful massacres which immediately took place. And shortly after this time the blast of God fell upon him, for in Sept. 20 of the same year, (three weeks after issuing the manifesto,) almost all his army was destroyed by a fatal disease, and himself obliged to retreat from the French territories with shame and confusion. This, and some other injudicious steps taken by the allies, were the cause of the ruin of the royal family of France, and of enormities and calamities the most extensive, disgraceful, and ruinous, that ever stained the page of history. From all such revolutions God in mercy save mankind!

Conduit of the upper pool — The aqueduct that brought the water from the upper or eastern reservoir, near to the valley of Kidron, into the city. Probably they had seized on this in order to distress the city.

The fuller's field. — The place where the washermen stretched out their clothes to dry.