37:1-38 This chapter is the same as 2Ki 19

Verse 9. - Tirhakah, King of Ethopia. Tirhakah is among the most famous of the monarchs belonging to this period. The Greeks called him "Tearchon," the Assyrians "Tarku" or "Tarqu." His name, as represented on his own monuments, is "Tahark" or "Tahrak." According to the Egyptian remains, he had a reign of at least twenty-six years in Egypt - from B.C. 693 to B.C. 667. He would seem, however, to have been King of Ethiopia, and lord paramount of the lower valley of the Nile, from about B.C. 700, Shabatok for some years ruling Egypt, or a portion of it, as his deputy (Rawlinson, 'Hist. of Ancient Egypt,' vol. 2. p. 450). Hezekiah's negotiations had, it is probable, been with Tirhakah (ch. 19:13; 20:5; 30:1-6). This monarch, having engaged to help him, now put his forces in motion, and began to descend the Nile valley to his relief. His movement rather provoked than alarmed Sennacherib, who, having defeated one Egyptian army in B.C. 701 ('Eponym Canon,' pp. 133, 134), was confident of success against another. He sent messengers. It is not very clear what advantage Sennacherib expected from this second embassy. He had no fresh argument to bring forward, unless it were a suggestion that Hezekiah's God was endeavouring to deceive him. In the main, vers. 10-13 are a mere expansion of Isaiah 36:18-20.

And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia,.... Not Rabshakeh, but the king of Assyria heard a rumour of this Ethiopian king coming out to war against him: his name, in Josephus (w), is Tharsices; in the Septuagint version it is Tharaca; and by Africanus (x) he is called Taracus; and is the same, who, by Strabo (y), out of Megasthenes, is named Tearcon the Ethiopian: the Ethiopia of which he was king was either the upper Ethiopia or that beyond Egypt; to which agrees the Arabic version, which calls him Tharatha king of the Abyssines; but others take it for Cush, or rather Ethiopia in the land of Midian, or Arabia, as Bochart; which lay nearer to Judea than the other Ethiopia. Now the report that was brought to the king of Assyria of him was,

he is come forth to make war with thee; not by assisting the Egyptians, as Josephus, but rather the Jews; or by making an irruption into the king of Assyria's country in his absence: this some think to be the rumour predicted, Isaiah 37:7.

and when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah; with terrifying letters, to frighten him into an immediate surrender of the city, that he might withdraw his army, and meet the king of Ethiopia with the greater force; and the rather he dispatched these messengers in all haste to Hezekiah, that his letters might reach him before he had knowledge of the king of Ethiopia, asking a diversion in his favour, which would encourage him to hold out the siege the longer: saying; as follows:

(w) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 1. sect. 4. (x) Apud Euseb. Chron. (y) Geograph. l. 15. p. 472.

9. Tirhakah—(See on [767]Isa 17:12; [768]Isa 18:6). Egypt was in part governed by three successive Ethiopian monarchs, for forty or fifty years: Sabacho, Sevechus, and Tirhakah. Sevechus retired from Lower Egypt owing to the resistance of the priests, whereupon Sethos, a prince-priest, obtained supreme power with Tanis (Zoan in Scripture), or Memphis, as his capital. The Ethiopians retained Upper Egypt under Tirhakah, with Thebes as the capital. Tirhakah's fame as a conqueror rivalled that of Sesostris; he, and one at least, of the Pharaohs of Lower Egypt, were Hezekiah's allies against Assyria. The tidings of his approach made Sennacherib the more anxious to get possession of Jerusalem before his arrival.

sent—2Ki 19:9 more fully expresses Sennacherib's eagerness by adding "again."

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