to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
found
וַיִּמְצָא֙vai.yim.Tza'
H4672
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
king
מֶ֣לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Assyria
אַשּׁ֔וּר'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · proper noun, a place name
warring
נִלְחָ֖םnil.Cham
H3898
to feed on · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Libnah
לִבְנָ֑הliv.Nah
H3841
Libnah · proper noun, a place name
heard
שָׁמַ֔עsha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
departed
נָסַ֖עna.Sa'
H5265
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Lachish
מִלָּכִֽישׁmi.la.Khish
H3923
Lakish · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 10:29 Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:
Numbers 33:20-21 And they departed from Rimmon-parez, and pitched in Libnah.
Joshua 10:31-34 And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:
Joshua 12:11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;
Joshua 21:13 Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her subur…
2 Kings 8:22 Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.
2 Kings 19:8-9 So Rab-shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 37:8-20
We may observe here, 1. That, if God give us inward satisfaction in his promise, this may confirm us in our silently bearing reproaches. God answered Hezekiah, but it does not appear that he, after deliberation, sent any answer to Rabshakeh; but, God having taken the work into his own hands, he quietly left the matter with him. So Rabshakeh returned to the king his master for fresh instructions. 2. Those that delight in war shall have enough of it. Sennacherib, without provocation given to him or warning given by him, went forth to war against Judah; and now with as little ceremony the king of Ethiopia goes forth to war against him, Isa 37:9. Those that are quarrelsome may expect to be quarr…
returned--to the camp of his master.
Libnah--meaning "whiteness," the Blanche-garde of the Crusaders [STANLEY]. EUSEBIUS and JEROME place it more south, in the district of Eleutheropolis, ten miles northwest of Lachish, which Sennacherib had captured (see on Isa 36:2). Libnah was in Judea and given to the priests (Ch1 6:54, Ch1 6:57).
John Gill on Isaiah 37:8
So Rabshakeh returned,.... To the king of Assyria his master, to give him an account how things went at Jerusalem, and that he could get no direct answer from the king of Judah, and to consult with him what was proper to be done in the present situation of things; leaving the army before Jerusalem, under the command of the other two generals. For that he should take the army with him does not seem reasonable, when Hezekiah and his people were in such a panic on account of it; besides, the king of Assyria's letters to Hezekiah clearly suppose the army to be still at Jerusalem, or his menacing letters would have signified nothing; and after this the destruction of the Assyrian army before Jeru…
And Rabshakeh having returned. He now declares how Rabshakeh, without doing anything, returned to his king, not to the same place where he had left him; for he understood that he had raised the siege of Lachish, and had departed into Egypt for the purpose of attacking Libnah. Some think that this city is Pelusium, others choose rather to assign it to Judea. It is, indeed, probable that, in consequence of a report that reached him about the approach of enemies, he moved his camp towards Egypt, that by meeting them he might prevent them from advancing. Though God restrained the violence of the tyrant by a new war, in order to give some relief to the Jews, yet he did not wish to conquer the tyr…
The Church Fathers
If someone asks why the book of Prophecies, which is written in the volumes of Kings and Chronicles, seems mixed, let them consider that the prophecy of history is linked, both concerning the liberation of the city and the destruction of Assyria, and concerning the return of the sun with ten and fifteen years elapsed, which is both prophecy and history.
(Verse 8 and following) But when Rabshakeh returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. And he heard that Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, had come out to fight against him. When he heard this, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying: 'Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying: Do not let your God deceive you, in whom you trust, saying: Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' Behold, you have heard about all that the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands they have devastated, and can you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed: Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena, or of Ivvah? These words were written in the Book of Kings and Chronicles, that the commander Rabshekah had left the siege of Jerusalem according to the will of the Lord, and went to his master, who he had learned was besieging Lachish, having either abandoned or captured it, to attack Libnah. He also, upon hearing that Tarachamregem, the king of the Ethiopians, was preparing to make war against him, went out to meet him, and yet sent messengers to Hezekiah and letters, in order to frighten those whom he had not yet conquered by force. And just as he had said to the people, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you' (2 Kings 18:29), he speaks the same blasphemy to the king, saying, 'Do not let your God deceive you' (2 Kings 19:10). And he gives examples from the past, how their gods were unable to deliver other lands from their hands, and therefore Jerusalem will not be able to be delivered either. In his enumeration of the other nations, Ana () and Ava () are mentioned, which the Seventy mixed, saying, anavegava, and they called it a conjunction, that is, vau, between the two nations Ana and Ava, in the Hebrew language, so that to those unaware it seems one nation or city. We pass over what is clear, so that we may dwell on uncertainties. Herodotus relates that Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, fought against the Egyptians and besieged Pelusium. And when the mounds for capturing the city had been built, Taracham, the king of the Ethiopians, came to their aid, and in one night, near Jerusalem, 185,000 of the Assyrian…
Dictionary and topics
Egypt — The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. The Egyptians belonged to the white race, and their original…
Isaiah — (Heb. Yesh’yahu, i.e., “the salvation of Jehovah”). (1.) The son of Amoz (Isa. 1:1; 2:1), who was apparently a man of humble rank. His wife was called “the prophetess” (8:3), either because she was…
Libnah — Transparency; whiteness. (1.) One of the stations of the Israelites in the wilderness (Num. 33:20, 21). (2.) One of the royal cities of the Canaanites taken by Joshua (Josh. 10:29-32; 12:15). It…
Libnah · .Sennacherib besieged; his army — .Sennacherib besieged; his army
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Rabshakeh, who is mentioned alone in both texts as the leading person engaged, returns to Sennacherib, who is induced to make a second attempt to obtain possession of Jerusalem, as a position of great strength and decisive importance. "Rabshakeh thereupon returned, and found the king of Asshur warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he had withdrawn from Lachish. And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, (K. Behold), he has come out to make war with thee; and heard, and sent (K. and repeated, and sent) messengers to Hizkiyahu, saying." Tirhakah was cursorily referred to in Isa 18:1-7. The twenty-fifth dynasty of Manetho contained three Ethiopian rulers: Sabakon, Sebichōs…
Libnah was a city on the Philistine plain near Lachish. Sennacherib was preparing to fight both Egypt and Jerusalem when he sent word to Hezekiah.
Rashi on Isaiah 37:7
and he will hear a rumor immediately. This is the rumor of Tirhakah, king of Cush, because of which he will leave you this time to battle with Tirhakah, but this is not the return to his land. Afterwards he will return here, and I am destined to return him to his land and to cause him to fall there by the sword.
