[498] A.V., "treasurer" (soken; lit., "deputy" or "associate": Isa. xxii. 15). He was "over the household." The Egyptian alliance had for Judah, as Renan points out, some of the fascination that a Russian alliance has often had for troubled spirits in France (Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, iii. 12).
[499] Renan says that he may have been a Sebennyite, and his name Sebent.
[500] Isa. xxii. 17, 18: "Behold, the Lord shall sling and sling, and pack and pack, and toss and toss thee away like a ball into a distant land; and there thou shalt die" (Stanley). The versions vary considerably.
[501] Isa. xxxvii. 2. There can be little doubt that there were not two Shebnas.
[502] Mic. i. 10-16. See the writer's Minor Prophets ("Men of the Bible" Series), pp. 130-133, for an explanation of this enigmatic prophecy.
[503] Jer. xxvi. 8-24. He tells us that the prophecy was delivered in the reign of Hezekiah. See my Minor Prophets, pp. 123-140.
[504] Isa. x. 28-32. It would involve a cross-country route over several deep ravines—e.g., the Wady Suweinit, near Michmash. In 1 Sam. xiv. 2, Thenius, for "Migron," reads "the Precipice." Some take Aiath for Ai, three miles south of Bethel. Renan says (Hist. du Peuple d'Israel, iii.): "Nom d'Anathoth, arrangé symboliquement."
[505] Isa. x. 14. The metaphor of a bird's nest occurs more than once in the boastful Assyrian records.
[506] Isa. xxx. 1-7. Rahab means "fierceness," "insolence." For the various uses of the word, see Job xxvi. 12; Isa. li. 9, 10, 15; Psalm lxxxix. 9, 10, lxxxvii. 4, 5.
[507] See Dr. S. Cox (Expositor, i. 98-104) on Isa. xxviii. 7-13.