Isaiah 22:15-19

Shebna

Shebna

In the councils of Hezekiah there was a strong party favourable to an alliance between Judah and Egypt.

At the head of the party stood Shebna. He occupied a post corresponding to that of our prime minister, and was treasurer, or chief adviser of the king. His tenure of office bode no good to Jerusalem: his pro-Egyptian policy, like the pro-Assyrian policy of Ahaz, was utterly displeasing to Jehovah, and alien to the best traditions of David’s house. Against this policy Isaiah is specially commissioned to raise his voice. In the discharge of this mission he singles out Shebna, a stranger apparently, who had by ambition raised himself to high office, and was devoid of religious principle. He had been securing honour for himself, establishing his family in the land, as he thought, and, as the custom was, hewing out for himself a sepulchre. But from that high office he would soon be disgracefully ousted, when king and people would alike come to see the unworthy Character of an Egyptian alliance. And it is worthy of remark that this prophecy was speedily fulfilled. For when the Rabshakeh is met by Hezekiah’s messengers, Shebna does not occupy the first place. (B. Blake, B. D.)

The prophecy concerning Shebna

This prophecy illustrates the influence wielded by Isaiah in the domestic polities of Judah. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)

Shebna a foreigner

To judge from the form of his name he was probably a Syrian. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)

Shebna’s vain expectation

In the rock of [the east slope of Zion] from the top downwards, the tombs of the kings were hewn. So high a position, does Shebna occupy, and so great does he think himself, that he hopes after his death to be laid to rest among kings, and by no means far down. (F. Delitzsch.)

Shebna’s tomb

The mention of the height of Shebna’s new tomb is supposed to indicate his extreme pretension to pomp and dignity. The ancients, not excepting the Jews, attached much more importance than we do to everything connected with the burial of the dead, because they were so much less able to distinguish the human person from the earthly body, or to apprehend the substantial reality of the former a part from the latter. Our burials symbolise, and express our faith in, immortality and a resurrection; but the Jews shared more or less the common feeling of antiquity that there was some real connection between a man’s due obsequies and his state after death. Still their faith, though obscure, was in me main spiritual and elevating, when held as it was by David, Hezekiah, or Job. But the worldly and sense-bound man then, as indeed he does now, contemplated the costly preparations for his burial, and for the preservation of his embalmed and entombed body, as the last possible act of regard for that sensual existence which he alone cared for. It was but the consistent maintenance to the last of his sensual creed, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (Sir E. Strachey, Bart)