The Book Of Isaiah. Day 155, The Assyrian Threat, Part Three

When we left off yesterday's study the field commander of the king of Assyria was standing outside the gates of Jerusalem relaying a message to King Hezekiah of Judah through three of his top officers. The field commander urged the king to surrender the city to him, for his master had already subdued several other cities whose citizens could not defend themselves against such a mighty army.

The field commander spoke some very demoralizing words. First he claimed that even if the people of Jerusalem had thousands of horses and chariots, they could not assemble enough able-bodied men to utilize them in battle. The second thing he said was that God Himself had given King Sennacherib orders to attack Jerusalem---that God was angry with the people. This is not true but, if he can get the people to believe it, they will give up. 

While Hezekiah's officers are speaking with this man, many of the citizens of Jerusalem are listening from the top of the city walls. City walls were quite thick in those days, with the walls around many ancient cities being wide enough to ride a chariot atop them. Hezekiah's officers are horrified when they hear this man claiming that the Lord wants the city to fall. "Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the field commander, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.'" (Isaiah 36:11)

Aramaic was a much older language than Hebrew. By Isaiah's day the average citizens of Judah and Israel did not use it. They spoke Hebrew. Those who could read and write did it in Hebrew. The exceptions were the wealthier and more educated people, and especially the government officials. It was typical for top government officials to be able to speak, read, and write in several languages in order to communicate with other heads of state.

Hezekiah's officers don't want the citizens of Jerusalem to understand what the field commander is saying. They ask him in a respectful manner (referring to themselves as his "servants") to use Aramaic. If the people should lose heart and revolt, they could end up surrendering the city to the enemy against Hezekiah's orders. They wouldn't be the first or last group of people in history to do such a thing. 

The field commander ignores the men's request because he wants the citizens to hear what he's saying. He continues shouting loudly in Hebrew so the people will understand what a long siege of the city will entail. "But the commander replied: 'Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall---who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?'" (Isaiah 36:12)

In our next study session this man will begin shouting even louder, looking up at the people on the wall and directing his words to them in Hebrew. He will warn them of the deprivations of siege and of the mass casualties that will occur once his men finally build a siege ramp big enough (which took time in pre-earthmoving equipment eras) to come over the walls and begin engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the people inside.

But for now we will stop to consider his graphic and disgusting description of what will happen during months of siege. He's not lying. A city under siege will run out of food eventually, for nothing can be brought in. An enemy army will block off any water sources coming into the city from the outside, reducing the water supply for people, animals, and vegetable gardens. Well water would presumably still be available but water would have to be severely rationed. People under siege actually did sometimes get so hungry and thirsty that they ate and drank their own bodily wastes. Not only that, but medicine and medical supplies could not be brought into a city under siege, causing deaths from illnesses and infections. In many ancient cities under siege (including on the pages of the Bible) citizens engaged in the cannibalism of their dead. They were so hungry that when their loved ones perished from hunger or thirst or untreated diseases or untreated injuries that they ate them instead of burying them.

The field commander wants to draw a horrifying picture in the people's minds. He wants them to think about the possibility of their children dying right before their eyes. He wants them to think about how hungry and thirsty and sick they will all become. He wants them to imagine having to eat their dead in spite of how abominable the idea is. In tomorrow's study we will find him trying to drive home his point and trying to persuade them not to trust their king's assurance that God will come through for them.