ACHERIB RECEIVING THE SUBMISSIONS OF THE
JEWS]

In those days, therefore, Jahveh, without pity for His people, called
them to "weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with
sackcloth: 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 the Lord of hosts revealed Himself in mine ears, Surely
this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the
Lord, the Lord of Hosts."* The prophet threw the blame on the courtiers
especially Shebna, who still hoped for succour from the Egyptians, and
kept up the king's illusions on this point. He threatened him with the
divine anger; he depicted him as seized by Jahveh, rolled and kneaded
into a lump, "and tossed like a ball into a large country: there shalt
thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of
thy lord's house. And I will thrust thee from thy office, and from thy
station he shall pull thee down!"** Meanwhile, day after day elapsed,
and Pharaoh did not hasten to the rescue. Hezekiah's eyes were opened;
he dismissed Shebna, and degraded him to the position of scribe, and set
Eliakim in his place in the Council of State.***

* Isa. xxii. 1-14.

** Isa. xxii. 15-19.

***In the duplicate narrative of these negotiations with the
Assyrian generals, Shebna is in fact considered as a mere
scribe, while Eliakim is the prefect of the king's house (2
Kings xviii. 18, 37; xix. 2: Isa. xxxvi. 3, 22; xxxvii. 2).

Isaiah's influence revived, and he persuaded the king to sue for peace
while yet there was time.

Sennacherib was encamped at Lachish; but the Tartan and his two
lieutenants received the overtures of peace, and proposed a parley near
the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field.
Hezekiah did not venture to go in person to the meeting-place; he sent
Eliakirn, the new prefect of the palace, Shebna, and the chancellor
Joah, the chief cupbearer, and tradition relates that the Assyrian
addressed them in severe terms in his master's name: "Now on whom dost
thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Behold, thou trustest upon
the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt; whereon if a man lean,
it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh, King of Egypt,
to all that trust on him." Then, as he continued to declaim in a loud
voice, so that the crowds gathered on the wall cou