* * * * * King Hezekiah can have no finer panegyric than that of the son of Sirach: "Even the kings of Judah failed, for they forsook the law of the Most High: all except David, and Ezekias, and Josias failed."[623] FOOTNOTES: [560] Isa. xxxiii. 8. [561] Isa. xx. 1. [562] Jer. xxxix. 3. The meaning of the name is not certain. _Sarîs_, in Hebrew, is "eunuch"; but the word is not known in Assyrian records, and we should expect _Rabsarîsîm_, as in Dan. i. 3. [563] Rabsak perhaps means _chief officer_ or vizier, and is Hebraised into Rabshakeh. Prof. G. A. Smith (_Isaiah_, p. 345) calls him "Sennacherib's Bismarck." Rabshakeh, usually rendered "chief cupbearer," is an Aramaised form of Rabsak (great chief); but we know of no chief cupbearer at the Assyrian court (Schrader, _K. A. T._, 199 f.). [564] From an Apis-stêlê he seems to have reigned twenty-six years (B.C. 694-668?). [565] Isa. xxii. 1-13. [566] Eliakim. See Isa. xxii. 21, 22. [567] "Vain words"; lit., "a word of the lips." LXX., λόγοι χειλέων. [568] Comp. Isa. xxx. 1-7; Ezek. xxix. 6. It seems to be an over-refinement to suppose that Sennacherib refers to the divisions between Egypt and Ethiopia. [569] 2 Kings xviii. 23, A.V.: "Let Hezekiah give pledges." [570] Heb., _Arâmîth_. [571] 2 Kings xviii. 28, where _stood_ should be rendered _came forward_. [572] The coarse expression is softened down by the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxxii. 18). [573] The kings of Assyria usually called themselves "great king, mighty king, king of the multitude, king of the land Assur." [574] Every one must notice the glaring inconsistency between this _defiance_ of Jehovah and the previous claim to the possession of His sanction. On Hamath, Arpad, etc., see Schrader, ii. 7-10. [575] Isa. xxxiii. 8: "He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man." [576] 1 Kings xx. 32; 2 Kings vi. 30. [577] Sennacherib had already carried off vast numbers. See Isa. xxiv. 1-12; Demetrius _ap._ Clem. Alex., _Strom._, i. 403. [578] Isaiah's phrase, _na'arî melek_, "lads of the king," is contemptuous. LXX., παιδάρια. [579] Heb., _ruach_; LXX., δίδωμι ἐν αὐτῷ πνεῦμα. Theodoret calls this "spirit" _cowardice_ (τὴν δειλίαν οἶμαι δηλοῦν). [580] Libnah means "whiteness." Dean Stanley (_S. and P._, 207, 258) identifies it with a white-faced hill, the Blanchegarde of the Crusaders. [581] The dates usually given are Sabaco, B.C. 725-712; Shabatok, 712-698; Tirhakah, 698-672. Manetho, Τάραχος; Strabo, Τεράκων, ὁ Αἰθιώψ. He was third king of the twenty-fifth dynasty, and the greatest of the Egyptian sovereigns who came from Ethiopia. He reigned gloriously for many years. We see his figure at Medinet Abou, smiting ten captive princes with an iron mace; but he was finally defeated by Esarhaddon, and in 668 by Assurbanipal at Karbanit (Canopus). He is called by his conqueror "Tar-ku-u, King of Egypt and Cush" (Schrader, _K. A. T._, 336 ff.).