Although the city had been refortified by the king, and supplied with water, the hearts of the inhabitants must have sunk within them when they saw the Assyrian army investing the walls, and when the three commissioners--taking their station "by the conduit of the upper pool which is in the highway of the fuller's field"--summoned the king to hear the ultimatum of Sennacherib.
The king did not in person obey the summons; but he, too, sent out his three chief officers. They were Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who, as the chamberlain (_al-hab-baîth_), was a great prince (_nagîd_); Shebna, who had been degraded, perhaps at the instance of Isaiah, from the higher post, and was now secretary (_sopher_); and Joah, son of Asaph, the chronicler (_mazkîr_), to whom we probably owe the minute report of the memorable scene. No doubt they went forth in the pomp of office--Eliakim with his robe, and girdle, and key.[566] The Rabshakeh proved himself, indeed, "an affluent orator," and evinced such familiarity with the religious politics of Judah and Jerusalem, that this, in conjunction with his perfect mastery of Hebrew, gives colour to the belief that he was an apostate Jew. He began by challenging the idle confidence of Hezekiah, and his vain words[567] that he had counsel and strength for the war. Upon what did he rely? On the broken and dangerous bulrush of Egypt?[568] It would but pierce his hand! On Jehovah? But Hezekiah had forfeited his protection by sweeping away His _bamoth_ and His altars! Why, let Hezekiah make a wager;[569] and if Sennacherib furnished him with two thousand horses, he would be unable to find riders for them! How, then, could he drive back even the lowest of the Assyrian captains? And was not Jehovah on their side? It was He who had bidden them destroy Jerusalem!
That last bold assertion, appealing as it did to all that was erroneous and abject in the minds of the superstitious, and backed, as it was, by the undeniable force of the envoy's argument, smote so bitterly on the ear of Hezekiah's courtiers, that they feared it would render negotiation impossible. They humbly entreated the orator to speak to "his servants" in the Aramaic language of Assyria, which they understood,[570] and not in Hebrew, which was the language of all the Jews who stood in crowds on the walls. Surely this was a diplomatic embassy to their king, not an incitement to popular sedition?