Isaiah 22: The Predicted Siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib
Sennacherib recorded his military 8 campaigns on what is known as Sennacherib's prism and the section about Hezekiah is quoted beneath the picture of the prism. Click here to see it.
From verse 15 to the end of the chapter concerning Shebna, who was the chief ruler in the King's household, a high position indeed, is a prediction that he would be demoted from that office and disgrace his whole household. In verse 17 he is said to be destined to go into captivity. In Isaiah 36 he is seen in a new position. In this chapter Eliakim the son of Hilkiah is extolled and said to be the one who will be in Shebna's office. In chapter 36:3 which describes the preliminary events just before the siege that relationship is the reality. Eliakim is the head of the king's household and Shebna, though still an officer, is seen as demoted to the position of scribe or "recorder." Thus, this prophecy of the siege which he seems to have held in contempt at the time it was given did come to pass and he was demoted by the time it happened. The leaders of the city who fled during the siege were captured and led to Assyria. Those who remained in the city survived and enjoyed the blessing of God after God had "lopped off the high bough" of the King of Assyria.
Since only those who abandoned the city by fleeing were taken captive and Shebna was destined to captivity and also to bring disgrace on his whole family, he therefore must have been among those who shamelessly abandoned the city after the visit of Rabbi Shakah and Tartan but before the destruction of the besieging armies of the Assyrians.
The last verse of the chapter is out of harmony with the conclusion that Eliakim would also be disgraced later. It is not out of harmony with Isaiah continuing the analogy of the peg (Shebna) that had been hammered into a secure place and had been a support for all those related to it to hang on. Shebna suffered just such a disgrace when he ran away and treacherously fled his people whom he was committed to serve, Such desertion has always been considered a disgrace and those who are related suffer. The last verse therefore describes the fall of Shebna and his disgrace.
1. The burden of the valley of vision. How is it that you have all gone up to the housetops?
Chapter 22:1 House tops: The events prefigured in this chapter have already been the subject of a preliminary vision in 10:28-34. Rawlinson is correct at seeing the same thing. But some have missed the meaning of this chapter, ascribing it to the later siege by the Babylonians although it was obvious to them that the historical notes of second part of the chapter about the demotion of Shebna are related to the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib. The events of the siege are described here in this chapter in a vision while chapters 36-38 describe the events historically, after they had happened. The scheme seems to be that Isaiah knew he had given the visions which predicted just such events so the historical portions in 36-38 are added to the book after the fact to give verification to those living near Isaiah's time that he was confirmed by history to be a prophet indeed.
Verse 1: "Valley of Vision and Housetops:" This describes the "lay of the land" in Jerusalem which lies in a valley compared to the mountains about it. Although Jerusalem is actually on top of two of the mountains or hills in the mountain highlands,--Mount Moriah and Mount Zion--the rest of the mountains round about Jerusalem are all higher. This is described in Psalms 125:2 "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." The description of Sennacherib approaching from the higher ground of the north by way of Samaria is described in detail in notes under 10:28-34. and in 37:34. The city of Jerusalem has rolling hills going toward the high ground to the north that was occupied by Sennacherib. Jerusalem was in a depression of ground and the need to ascend the house tops to see the enemy is a perfect picture of what would happen under the conditions described.
2 You that are full of stirring, a tumultuous city, a joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
Verse 2: Tumult and joy: This paradox is described in verses 12-14 below.
3 All your rulers have fled together, they are captive by the archers: all that are found in you, which have fled from far are captives together.
Verse 3: All the rulers: This is a good example of prophetic hyperbole which is an exaggerated statement which emphasizes that a large number of the people on whom the inhabitants depended deserted in the time of trouble, to their own disgrace and ultimate captivity. All of those who fled were bound and led captive. It is likely that Shebna was one of these, hence his disgrace mentioned below.
4 Therefore I said, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
Verses 2-5: Perplexity: The descriptions here are all of a confused city under siege. The men are not killed in battle, there is trouble, crying, leaders fleeing away only to be caught and gathered together, the walls are being undermined, the gates are under attack and the fortress cities of Judah have already fallen.
6 And Elam bore the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. 7 And it shall be, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. 8. And he shall uncover the covering of Judah, and you shall look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.
. Verse 8: Covering: This word, "masak", 
is used
in the scriptures 14 times and is always translated hangings or
curtain
but coverings only here in Isaiah. It is most often used for the
curtain
which is the doorway of the tabernacle or the entrance to the
court of
the tabernacle. In Hebrew "uncover" is the word for rolling
aside. The
most likely meaning is that God is going to open the door of
Judah to the
enemy as one would roll aside a curtain over a doorway so there
is no obstacle
to entrance. The taking of the fortress cities of Judah which
were a "covering"
or shield to Jerusalem had already fallen when Sennacherib began
the siege
of Jerusalem.
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
Verse 9: Lower pool: 2 Chron 32:30 "This same
Hezekiah
also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it
straight down
to the west side of the city of David." Hezekiah made a
number
of attempts to hide the water courses north of Jerusalem so the
Assyrians
could not make use of them. One of the most energetic projects
was the
digging of the Gihon spring tunnel through the solid rock of the
hill of
Ophel which resulted in the reservoir known as the pool of Siloam
inside
the lower city. The Gihon had formerly flowed out east into the
Kidron
Valley and from there down to the Dead Sea. Hezekiah brought the
waters
through the hill to the west side of the hill. He had also built
conduits
for the northern reservoirs and springs whose sources were
hidden. These
northern waters were conducted to the Gihon cave whose entrance
was also
hidden and the waters were then diverted through the Gihon
tunnel. Most
books on archaeology give accounts of the tunnel and the
inscription from
inside the tunnel made in the days of Hezekiah which was removed
by the
Turks in 1881 to Constantinople which is a verification of the
accuracy
of the biblical record of the history of the tunnel and pools.
The tunnel
still carries water from the Gihon Spring to the pool of Siloam
and it
is possible for students to wade through the tunnel from Gihon to
Siloam,
an experience that this writer has enjoyed.
Following note under verse 10 is an entry from Harpers
Bible
Dictionary:
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.
Siloam-Gihon Tunnel: Siloam Inscription, a Hebrew inscription recovered from the Siloam tunnel in Jerusalem. The text commemorates the excavation of the tunnel, which connected the spring of Gihon, the principal source of water for ancient Jerusalem, with a reservoir within the city known as the pool of Siloam.
The Gihon arises on the eastern slope of the Ophel, the southeastern hill of Jerusalem, upon which the City of David was located. Originally, therefore, it emptied into the Kidron Valley. After the occupation of the site, however, an open basin was dug at the mouth of the spring to collect the waters. From this basin, known as the upper pool, the waters were conveyed south along the slope of the city mound by an aqueduct called ‘the conduit of the upper pool’ (2 Kings 18:17; Isa. 7:3). Recent excavation has shown that this aqueduct was in part a tunnel and in part an open canal, so that in addition to receiving the flow from the upper pool it collected rainwater from the slope of the mound. It contained a number of ‘windows,’ through which water could be released for the irrigation of the valley below. The reference in Isa. 8:6 to ‘the waters of Shiloah that flow gently’ probably reveals the name for this water system that was in use during the reign of Ahaz. ‘Siloam’ is a later, Greek form of ‘Shiloah.’ At the mouth of the aqueduct was another reservoir called ‘the lower pool’ (Isa. 22:9). ‘The Pool of Shelah’ (Neh. 3:15) and ‘King’s Pool’ (Neh. 2:14) are probably other names for this second reservoir.
Because the original Shiloah or Siloam channel lay outside the fortifications of the city, it was difficult to protect during a siege. As part of his preparations for Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem, therefore, Hezekiah sealed the old outlet of the upper pool (2 Chron. 32:2-4, and 32:30; cf. Isa. 22:8-11 on this page) and devised an underground passage to divert the flow of the Gihon to a reservoir within the fortified precincts of the city (2 Kings 20:20), evidently the ‘reservoir between the two walls’ of Isa. 22:11. The shaft of Hezekiah’s tunnel followed a sinuous path through 1,749 feet of bedrock under the City of David to a new pool on the western slope of the Ophel in the valley later known as Tyropeon. The name of the older aqueduct was transferred to the new system. The first century Jewish historian Josephus knew the western reservoir as Siloam, and in John 9:7 Jesus refers to it as ‘the pool of Siloam.’ However, the modern village of Silwan, which also preserves a form of the ancient name, is located across the Kidron to the east of the Gihon spring.
The Inscription, now in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul, was found in 1880 by two boys wading inside the tunnel some 20 feet above the western reservoir. It consists of six lines incised on the lower part of a prepared surface on the rock wall of the shaft. The blank upper surface has led some scholars to suppose that part of the inscription is missing; others believe that the text was originally intended to be surmounted by a relief. The Inscription cannot be dated long before 701 b.c., the year of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. The script is the Hebrew lapidary hand of the eighth century b.c., and the language is comparable to the standard Hebrew prose of the Bible. The text describes the completion of Hezekiah’s tunnel by two crews who, having set to work from opposite directions, dug until only three cubits (ca. 4.5 feet) of rock separated them at a point one hundred cubits (ca. 150 feet) beneath the streets of the city. From there they were able to guide each other through the remaining rock by shouting. This was possible, we are told, because of something extending north and south in the rock. Perhaps this was a fissure, as the translation below suggests, but the Hebrew word is obscure.
