Sefer Yeshayahu, chapter 36. "In the fourteenth year of King Chizkiyahu, Sancheriv king of Ashur went up against all the fortified cities of Yehudah and captured them. And the king of Ashur sent Ravshakeh from Lachish to Yerushalayim, to King Chizkiyahu, with a mighty army, and he stood at the conduit of the upper pool on the road of the launderer's field." The Malbim notes that this account is mentioned three times in Tanach. Once it appears in Sefer Melachim, Melachim Bet chapter 18, a second time it appears in Sefer Divrei Hayamim Bet chapter 32, and a third time in Sefer Yeshayahu in chapter 36. But the Malbim says, when we follow the account, which is essentially Ravshakeh's approach to the people, the attempt to persuade them not to rely on Chizkiyahu, since Chizkiyahu rebelled against the king of Ashur, but rather to go out to him, make peace with him, and he will exile them to another land. That is the chapter as a whole. This idea appears, as I said, in three places, but the Malbim says that when we examine these three places we will see that there are differences between them.
The Malbim says, notice that when you look at what is recorded in Melachim Bet, it is written there that Chizkiyahu sent to Sancheriv and said to him, "I have sinned, withdraw from me, whatever you place upon me I will bear." In other words, he already came in submission. Whatever you tell me, whatever tax you place upon me, I am willing to accept. "And the king of Ashur imposed upon the king of Yehudah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold." Chizkiyahu accepted this tax, gave him everything he asked, and then he sends Ravshakeh. After Chizkiyahu is willing to accept the terms of the king of Ashur and submits himself before him, he sends Ravshakeh. When we look in Divrei Hayamim, the account appears differently. There it says that when Sancheriv arrived, Chizkiyahu stopped up the springs and the stream that flowed through the land, what is called stopping up the waters of Gichon. "And he made weapons and shields in abundance, and he gathered the people and strengthened their hearts, and he set military commanders over them" - in short, he prepared the people for war, and then Sancheriv sent Ravshakeh. So which is it, did Ravshakeh come in the wake of our submission or in the wake of our preparation for war? On the face of it these seem contradictory.
Therefore the Malbim says, in order to reconcile these accounts, the explanation we must give is that initially, indeed, when Sancheriv arrived, outwardly Chizkiyahu told him, I am willing to pay you tax, whatever you place upon me I will do. But this was merely a tactic to lull Sancheriv, the king of Ashur, into complacency. So that he would be confident: here Chizkiyahu is doing nothing, here Chizkiyahu has become submissive, from now on every month, every year he will pay me taxes, and therefore he will not muster an army against him, he will not sharpen the swords of war, because from this front, from this quarter, he has quiet. And in the meantime Chizkiyahu planned: I will prepare the army, arm them and array them for war, and then I will be able to wage war when Sancheriv king of Ashur is not ready. And this essentially resolves the contradiction between the two. For indeed he sent Ravshakeh after Chizkiyahu had paid tax, and after Chizkiyahu had prepared himself for war. Because Chizkiyahu, at the very same time that he was paying tax, was also preparing himself for war in order to take the king of Ashur by surprise.
And now let us explain. "And the king of Ashur sent Ravshakeh from Lachish to Yerushalayim." Does your text read "Yerushalmah" or "Yerushalimah"? Yerushalmah. Fine. "To King Chizkiyahu with a mighty army, and he stood at the conduit of the upper pool on the road of the launderer's field." First of all, this Ravshakeh was the one who did the dirty, black work on behalf of Sancheriv king of Ashur, and as usual Ravshakeh was an apostate Jew. They are the ones who do the dirty, black work for the gentiles. So sometimes it is apostate Jews, sometimes it is leftists, each time it changes but history simply repeats itself. And this same Ravshakeh comes to persuade the people to rebel against Chizkiyahu and to accept upon themselves the kingship of Sancheriv. Only, on the face of it, it is not understood: if you explain that Chizkiyahu was willing to pay tax and submitted himself before Sancheriv, why did he come against him to conquer him? The Malbim asks, this contradicts the accepted rules between nations. If a nation pays tax to another nation, then the second nation does not come to conquer it. On the contrary, it leaves it as it is and makes sure that it continues to pay tax. Why does he call him a rebel? Another thing the Malbim asks: what is the point of Ravshakeh coming to Chizkiyahu and standing at the conduit of the upper pool on the road of the launderer's field? Why is all this detail important to me? It says he laid siege to Yerushalayim. What does it matter to me at which corner and at what latitude and longitude? What does it matter to me? He came and laid siege to Yerushalayim.
The Malbim says, based on what we understood and explained earlier, now this is clear. Because when Chizkiyahu stops up the waters of Gichon, Sancheriv understands that there is actually a trap here. Sancheriv understands that Chizkiyahu's submission is only outward, it is lip service. He is not truly submitting to him. And the proof: he is preparing himself for battle. He stops up the waters of Gichon so that if Sancheriv comes to besiege Yerushalayim, there will be no water for his soldiers. He prepares weapons and shields for himself, as recorded in Divrei Hayamim. Sancheriv king of Ashur picked up on this, for he was without doubt a warrior and a strategist, look how many conquests he made. He already understood this, and therefore he now sends Ravshakeh. Do not play innocent, Chizkiyahu, that you came to make peace with me and here you are paying me tax, I know what your plans are. And for this reason he stands at the conduit of the upper pool. Where? That very conduit that Chizkiyahu closed and stopped up. This was meant to make clear to Chizkiyahu, your intentions are clear to us. You stopped up the waters of Gichon with the aim of coming to fight against us.
"And Elyakim son of Chilkiyahu who was over the household went out to him, along with Shevna the scribe and Yoach son of Asaf the recorder." Elyakim son of Chilkiyahu who was over the household, meaning over the king's household, he was the one appointed. Shevna the scribe, this is a man who would write the chronicles of the king. Asaf the recorder, he was the one who would announce before the king who came before him first for judgment or which request was presented before him. "And Ravshakeh said to them, say now to Chizkiyahu: Thus says the great king, the king of Ashur: What is this confidence in which you have trusted?" What is this "What is this confidence in which you have trusted"? After all, as we saw, he sent him tax, so what confidence is he talking about? And what is "What is this confidence in which you have trusted"? "I said it was only lip service," and so on, "on whom did you trust that you rebelled against me?" And afterward, "behold, you have trusted on the support of a splintered reed." "And if you say to me, in Hashem our God we trust." How much he mentions the matter of trust and confidence, what does he actually want? What is the central point of his words?
The Malbim says, according to what we explained it is understood. Because essentially you, Chizkiyahu, rebelled once, and you were already willing to make peace and paid tax. So on what did you trust to rebel a second time? That is "What is this confidence in which you have trusted." For this you truly need to have some sort of plans, something you are relying on, something you are trusting in. Because someone who rebelled once and was ultimately forced to pay tax, that means he understood: I do not have the strength to fight. So if you have now changed your strategy and you decide that you are indeed going to come and fight against us, that means you have something to rely on. So tell me, on whom did you trust? And now, one by one he will lay out before him the possible plans upon which you might be trusting and relying, and he will prove to you that you have nothing to rely upon. "I said it was only lip service, counsel and might for war; now, on whom did you trust that you rebelled against me?" In Sefer Melachim this appears slightly differently, something that seemingly changes the entire understanding. There it is written "you said it was only lip service, counsel and might for war." That is, what you, Chizkiyahu, said. Here it is written "I said," that is, what Ravshakeh is saying. And this completely changes the picture. So who is the speaker here?
The Malbim says, there is no difficulty here. Because essentially Ravshakeh, as it were, steps into Chizkiyahu's persona and speaks in his place. He says, I will tell you what you are saying. "I said it was only lip service, counsel and might for war." He says, I know what is going through your head. You think in your heart: everything I sent to Sancheriv, as though I intend to make peace with him and I will pay him tax and bribe, the main thing is that he withdraws from me - you think to yourself it is lip service. All of this is lip service. It is only lip service, I do not truly intend to abandon my plans. That is what you think to yourself. And what are you actually planning? "Counsel and might for war." During this time that you are sending lip service, buying off Sancheriv with words, you are meanwhile preparing yourself an arsenal of weapons and preparing for war. What is "counsel and might for war"? The Malbim explains, the counsel was the plan when he stopped up the waters of Gichon, so that the water would flow into the city and thereby the enemy forces would not be well supplied with water outside the city when they lay siege. That is the counsel. And the second thing is might for war, as we saw that in Divrei Hayamim it appears that he prepared weapons and shields and appointed army commanders over the people. That is the might for war. And about this I ask you, now, on whom did you trust that you rebelled against me?
In other words, before you sent tax, then what? If I had come and conquered you, I would not have punished you by exiling you into exile, but rather I would have imposed a tax upon you. But since you already rebelled once and I imposed a tax upon you, and now you are preparing an army for war, that means you are rebelling a second time. With Sancheriv there is no second time. There is no second time. After a second time, we are finished. That is it, from here it is exile. There is no possibility of "all right, forgiven, now that is it from now on," there is no such thing. A third time will not happen. After you have rebelled once more, he says, your story with Sancheriv is over, you will have to be exiled. This is my whole difficulty, on whom did you trust that you rebelled? Where did you get the audacity to trust, when you know that with Sancheriv one cannot get entangled, and after one rebellion he still gives a chance to come and impose a tax upon you, but if you do it again then there is no chance. So tell me, on whom did you trust to come and rebel once more, when you actually understand that in doing so you are cutting off the branch on which you sit? And therefore notice the emphasis on "on whom did you trust that you rebelled against me." The word "rebel," says the Malbim, always expresses only the case where a person was already subordinate to someone and cast off his yoke. Only that is called rebellion. In contrast, if a nation wants to conquer another nation and the other resists, I do not say it rebels against it. Am I rebelling against you? What connection do I have to you? But if I was subordinate to you and ultimately I decide to throw off your yoke from upon me, then I am called a rebel. He says, therefore understand the meaning of "that you rebelled against me," for Chizkiyahu, as we said, already told him I will pay you tax and already paid him and was already willing to be under him, so now to come and break the covenant with me, that is already called rebellion.
And if so, there will be no choice but that I conquer you and punish you as one punishes a servant who rebels against his master. And if the danger is so great, then tell me, on whom did you trust? And Ravshakeh says to him, I can imagine what this stems from. "Behold, you have trusted on the support of this splintered reed, on Egypt, which, if a man leans upon it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him." I have two possibilities to say regarding whom you trusted. Either you trusted in the help of flesh and blood, or you trusted in the help of God. And at first he will address the possibility of the help of flesh and blood, and afterward he will address the possibility of whether you trusted in God, and he will show him, as it were, that you have nothing to rely on, neither this nor that. First he speaks about the help of flesh and blood. On whom do you have to trust? Well, from past experience, when Israel would trust, on whom would they trust? On Egypt. As we see in the prophets that several times the prophet speaks with them about their reliance on Egypt.
He says to him, on Egypt you trust? This is a support of a splintered reed. First, a support of a reed; second, splintered. The Malbim explains, Egypt has two shortcomings. First, "which if a man leans upon it." It is a support, it seems to you that you are leaning upon it, but what is a reed? It is weak. You lean upon it, you fall, it bends, it breaks. The second thing is that it is also splintered. Do you know what splintered means? Take a stalk of reed and break it from the top, you will get a point, points that will go into your hand. So not only is it not a reed one can lean upon, since it is merely a reed, this reed is also splintered. It is broken, and when one leans upon such a reed, consequently "it goes into his hand and pierces it." It pierces the hand, it wounds the hand. "So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him." What does he want to say? He says, first, you cannot lean on a reed because it is weak. What does he want to say? Why is this harmful to us? Fine, so it is weak, why is that harmful? "Which if a man leans upon it," why is this bad for us? When you have no one to lean on, then you prepare the army for war, you know I have no choice but to rely on myself, you prepare properly. But when you have someone to lean on, they ask you, so what are you doing? He said he would help me. So you do not prepare at all. So first he says, know that this is a support of a reed, and you lose by relying on it, because through this you yourself do not prepare properly. You are confident that there is someone who will help you.
Another thing he says: know that it is not only that you lose, but this will also splinter you. It will also pierce your hand. And why? Because Pharaoh king of Egypt always used to promise to come and help, and as we saw in the past he would not keep his promise, but to come and take tax, that he would do. To come and take what they told him was promised to him, the payment, the tribute, that he would indeed demand. So he says to him, if so this is not merely a support of a reed on which there is nothing to lean, it is also splintered, it will further splinter you. This is regarding the first possibility, that you trusted in flesh and blood. "And if you say to me, in Hashem our God we trust: is He not the one whose high places and altars Chizkiyahu removed, and said to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, before this altar you shall bow down?"
This verse can be understood in two ways. When we studied this in Sefer Melachim, whoever wants can listen to it on the recording, we explained one possibility that is not according to the Malbim, that essentially he says to him, on whom do you trust? On Hashem our God, whose high places Chizkiyahu removed. This comes to say what merits Chizkiyahu has before the Creator of the world. Why do we trust in Hashem? Because Chizkiyahu removed His high places and His altars, and said to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, before this altar you shall bow down. And do not offer incense on high places, something that is disqualified according to halachah. So Chizkiyahu has merits. In contrast, the Malbim and other commentators do not follow this line, but they say, on the contrary, he comes to enumerate the shortcomings. "And if you say to me, in Hashem our God we trust"? You have nothing to rely on Him for. "Is He not the one whose high places and altars Chizkiyahu removed, and said to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, before this altar you shall bow down?" You have nothing to rely on Him for, because Chizkiyahu got entangled with the Creator of the world. And why? Because Chizkiyahu removed His altars. After all, in every single city there was an altar to Hashem, and Chizkiyahu came and abolished all these altars and demanded that they come to slaughter and offer only in Yerushalayim. And why did he do this? For his own benefit, for his own honor, that they not offer everywhere, that whoever wants to offer a sacrifice should come to Yerushalayim. So the Holy One, blessed be He, has an open account with Chizkiyahu. So how do you rely on the Creator of the world? The Creator of the world holds a grievance against him. Chizkiyahu banned all the high places everywhere and demanded that they come only to Yerushalayim for his own honor, that they come and arrive at the royal city, perhaps there too they would pay taxes. So you see that Chizkiyahu has nothing to rely on the Creator of the world for, because in his reliance on the Creator of the world he is essentially leaning on someone who holds a grievance against him. The Creator of the world holds a grievance against Chizkiyahu over his abolishing His altars.
"And now, make a wager with my master the king of Ashur, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to provide riders for them." And now he begins with insults. He says to him, make a wager. Just as we today say to bet. Why is it called a wager? Because when I bet you a hundred thousand shekel, and if I am right then I receive from you and if you are right you give to me. Who says you will give to me? Who says I will give to you? How can we guarantee that this wager will ultimately be carried out? We take a third party and tell him, you will be the guarantor. I place a hundred thousand shekel with you, he places a hundred thousand shekel with you, whoever ultimately wins, you give him his money and the money of the one who lost. That is the concept of a wager. So "make a wager" means, come with a deposit, deposit money in the hand of a third party so that it will serve as a guarantee to secure the wager between us.
Now he comes to refute both of his claims. He says to him, if you trust in Egypt, well, what will Egypt give you? Will they give you fighters? By no means. At most Egypt will give you chariots and horses. Chariots and horsemen. In the Malbim's language, "horsemen" means horses. There are those who explain that "horsemen" means men, but the Malbim always explains that "horsemen" means horses. What will Egypt give you? Chariots and horses. Now tell me, chariots and horses, how many will they give you? Two thousand chariots and horses. He says, tell me, do you need Egypt for this? I am willing to wager with you right now. Let us do a bit of sport, as they say today. I will give you two thousand chariots and horses. Do you have horse handlers who can ride them? Do you have men who are warriors who could come and sit upon the chariots and the horses, who would know how to drive them so as to come and fight? So if that is the case, what do you need Egypt for if you do not even have men who would know how to operate the chariots that Egypt would give you? You do not even have two thousand riders in your army. So here he essentially returns to the first claim. For we said there were two claims. The first claim relies on Egypt, the second claim relies on the Creator of the world. Regarding the side of relying on Egypt, he told him it is a splintered reed, you will yet suffer from it.
The second thing he now says to him: even if they give you, that is the maximum, they will give you chariots and horsemen, they will give you chariots and horses. You need men to ride upon them. And he says to him, I will give you two thousand horses, will you be able to provide riders for them? "And how will you turn back the face of one governor, one of the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?" So he says to him, after all, you do not even have, as we said, two thousand riders. So how do you want to turn back the face of a governor? "Pachat" means an officer, like "pechah" and "hapachot." How do you want, as it were, to face one of the least of my master's servants, of whom the least is a commander of thousands. The least of them is a commander over thousands, over thousands of riders. And you, even if you receive it, it will be two thousand horses, and for these two thousand horses you do not even have riders. So tell me, how did you rely on Egypt? "And now, is it without Hashem that I have come up against this land to destroy it? Hashem said to me: Go up against this land and destroy it."
What is "Hashem said"? Where did Hashem speak with him? When did Hashem ask such a thing of him? Here he moves to the other side. He told him the second possibility was that you relied on the Creator of the world. So he already told him earlier, you got entangled with the Creator of the world, you abolished His altars. The second thing he says: you come in the name of Hashem? I too come in the name of Hashem. He says, you say that you are in the name of Hashem guarding His city? After all, Hashem said to me, go up against this land and destroy it. He does not mean to say that Hashem explicitly told him, but rather that in your defying the word of Hashem, when you went and abolished all the altars, I have, as it were, come to fight His fight. I came to wage the war of Hashem. As though Hashem told me, go up against him, against Chizkiyahu. Did you see how he abolished all My altars and demanded that they come only to Yerushalayim? According to Ravshakeh's perception this is a minus for Chizkiyahu. According to Chazal it is certainly Chizkiyahu's great merit, for after all, under all the kings before him the people still slaughtered and offered incense on high places, and there was in this the prohibition of slaughtering outside. Chizkiyahu had a great merit in this. But according to Ravshakeh's perception, it is as though Hashem sent me to take revenge on Chizkiyahu for abolishing His altars.
"And Elyakim and Shevna and Yoach said to Ravshakeh: Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it, and do not speak with us in Judean in the ears of the people who are on the wall." Elyakim and Shevna and Yoach, those whom we saw at the beginning of the account, say to Ravshakeh, speak now to your servants in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the monarchy. We spoke previously that they had two languages. There was the language of the more educated, and there was the popular language. In almost every language there is this distinction. You can see this in the Hebrew language as well. Give a man off the street today to read chapters in Sefer Yeshayahu, in Sefer Yirmiyahu, he does not understand who is against whom or the score. He does not even know what these words are. He says to you, are you sure these words are Hebrew? Many words are entirely incomprehensible. There is the more elevated language. In English it is the same. There is the spoken language and there is the Shakespearean language, what the more distinguished people would speak, the language in which plays are written and the like. So too here, the language of the aristocracy was the Aramaic language. That is what is called the language of the royal palace. In contrast, the Hebrew language was the language spoken among the people. They say to him, speak with us in our language. Speak with us in Aramaic. Why are you speaking in Hebrew? Only, on the face of it, this is astonishing. What is astonishing here? After all, do you not understand that I came to speak with the people? I want the people to hear, as we will see shortly. He came to speak with the people. So what do you mean, telling him not to make propaganda with the people? What is this - I came to conquer you, and you are going to tell me to whom to make propaganda? I want to speak with the people. What kind of demand is this, speak with us in our language? I came to frighten the people, and you are going to tell me in which language to speak?
The Malbim explains, they thought that the aim, the purpose for which Ravshakeh came, was to persuade Chizkiyahu: abandon your idea of fighting against Sancheriv, put down the weapons and shields, put down the instruments of war, open the waters of Gichon, return to the rule of Sancheriv. That is what they were certain of. For this purpose Ravshakeh came. And therefore they come and say to him, if that is so, and the main aim is to appeal to Chizkiyahu, to persuade Chizkiyahu to return and submit before the king, before the king of Ashur, then if so speak with us in the language of the king. Why do you need to speak in the language of the people? After all, everything you want to say concerns the king; you are after all interested that the king himself submit before Sancheriv king of Ashur. So why do you speak in the Judean language, meaning in the language of the people of the tribe of Yehudah, the Hebrew language? Why do you speak in this language? There is a note and addition in Rashi, and I am not sure it is from Rashi himself, because usually the parentheses in Rashi are from an addition of later commentators. There is here an addition of explanation: after all, Ravshakeh was an apostate Jew, as we said. So they thought, even though his master compelled him, meaning why did he come here? Because Sancheriv forces him. You will go now and speak with them, you know the language, you - Sancheriv forces him. But perhaps his heart is still drawn to his family, perhaps his mercy is still stirred toward his relatives. So they, as it were, try to appeal to the Jewish emotion within him. They still thought that perhaps something like that remained in him. And they told him, speak with the king. Why do you need to speak and frighten and terrify all the people?
"And Ravshakeh said: Was it to your master and to you that my master sent me to speak these words? Was it not to the men sitting on the wall, that they must eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?" Ravshakeh corrects them. He tells them, I was not sent to Chizkiyahu at all. For we already explained that with Sancheriv there was no additional chance, there is no such concept. So Chizkiyahu, without any doubt, his sentence is death. Nothing will help him, there is no remedy for him, I will remove him from his kingship, I have nothing to discuss with him. I speak only with someone with whom I have some negotiation, someone with whom I have some chance to change something. With Chizkiyahu nothing will help, even if he comes and pleads, does whatever he does, we are finished. After I made peace with him once and he has now rebelled, he has no more remedy with me. He is erased from my perspective. But what? I am now going to speak with the people. Do the people have a remedy? The people too have no remedy. And why? Because there is nothing to be done, the people will be exiled. There is no additional chance with Sancheriv, so the people will be exiled. So what is the remedy? He says to them, look, you have two possibilities. You have the possibility of being exiled in a pleasant manner, and you have the possibility of being exiled in a harsh manner. And now this he comes to say to the people. And he says to them, behold, look, now we can besiege here for a long time. And if we remain here a long time under siege, what will you have to eat? You will eat your own dung and your own urine. Rashi explains what "their own urine" is; it is not what we understand "urine" to mean. Rashi explains it as moist excrement, the residue of the intestine. This is the meaning of "their own urine." In any case, he essentially wants to say to them: look, the siege here will continue a long time until you have nothing to eat. You will be forced, as it were, to eat your own dung from having nothing to eat. And if so, I have now come to persuade you, come out to me, and then you will spare yourselves all this suffering. That is what he wants. Exiled you will be exiled. Only I have an offer that will be hard to refuse. After all, no one stood against me, so exiled you will be exiled. So first of all you will die and suffer until you are exiled. Second, you have the possibility of upgrading the country to which you will be exiled. If you come out now, you will be exiled to a good place. If you do not come out and it happens only after war, you will be exiled to such a bad place that you will yet die there too. So is it not worthwhile for you to heed the advice I am advising you? And this he will now say to them in more explicit terms.
"And Ravshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in Judean, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of Ashur." Why the emphasis "the great king"? That is, you have a small king, this is little Chizkiyahu, but come, come and see, we have a great one, this is the king of Ashur. "Thus says the king: Do not let Chizkiyahu deceive you, for he will not be able to save you." "Do not let Chizkiyahu deceive you" - later we see that he warns them and says, "do not let King Chizkiyahu incite you." The Malbim asks, what is the difference between "deceive" and "incite"? Both have the meaning of inducement. What is the difference between "deceive" and "incite"? The Malbim says, behold, look, he says to them like this: do not trust in the two things you might trust in, as we saw in the past. First, in the might of Egypt, in your own might, in war. The second thing, to trust in Hashem. The Malbim says, there is a difference between one who deceives and one who incites. The one who deceives calms the fearful. You are afraid to do something, "the serpent deceived me." What did the serpent say? "You shall surely not die." I know that you are afraid to die, I am calming you. "You shall surely not die." To deceive is always to calm a fear. The Malbim brings several more examples of this; we see, as it is written, "the arrogance of your heart deceived you: who will bring me down to the ground?" He was afraid of being brought down to the ground, but the arrogance of his heart deceived him: do not be afraid. "Surely you have deceived this people, saying, you shall have peace." They feared war and he deceived them and told them you shall have peace. The one who deceives always removes fear. In contrast, the one who incites shows reasons and logic why to do as he says. There is nothing frightening, but I want to incite you to do something not good, I come and give you advice and give you ideas as to why this thing will be good for you, why it is worthwhile for you to do it. That is the meaning, that is always the expression "to incite." Like "and she incited him to ask for a field from her father." She says, it would be worthwhile for us if we had the field, she persuades him with words. Why should you ask a field from my father? "And he incited him to go up to Ramot Gilad." "For your brother has incited you, saying, let us serve other gods." The meaning is to persuade someone to do something by way of proofs, in a logical manner. In contrast, enticement differs from deception and incitement, for enticement speaks to the emotion. Enticement speaks to the emotion. "Like a dove, enticed, without understanding." "When a man entices a virgin." Enticement speaks to the emotion, to the simple one, to the one who believes everything.
And then he comes and says to them, behold, look. Chizkiyahu says do not be afraid. Therefore "do not let Chizkiyahu deceive you." He is calming you. He tells you do not be afraid. He says to them, do not listen to the words of Chizkiyahu, for he cannot save you. For behold, look, "and do not let Chizkiyahu make you trust in Hashem, saying: Hashem will surely save us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Ashur." First he will say, Hashem will surely save us, by virtue of our merits. Or by virtue of the fact that this city will not be given up, this is Yerushalayim, this is the city of the Creator of the world; will Hashem give His city into the hand of enemies? So two persuasions. "Hashem will surely save us" is by virtue of our being worthy and righteous, and on the other hand also this city, which is the city of the Creator of the world, will not be given into the hand of the king of Ashur. And therefore he says to them, do not listen to Chizkiyahu, for thus says the king of Ashur: "Make a blessing with me and come out to me, and each man will eat of his vine and each man of his fig tree, and each man will drink the water of his own cistern." Do not listen to Chizkiyahu, and here he no longer needs to repeat what he said earlier, that Chizkiyahu got entangled with the Creator of the world and I, as it were, was sent by the Creator of the world to take revenge on Chizkiyahu. He does not repeat all these claims. Now he comes and tells them why it is worthwhile for you to listen to me. But on the face of it, what he proposes to them is somewhat astonishing, asks the Malbim. We already answered part of this earlier, but now we will see it more explicitly. For what does he tell them? You have vineyards, you have fields, come, I too will give you vineyards and fields. What will you give us? I am exchanging one donkey for another, what do I gain from this? I am here and I have it, so what are you saying, come to another place and there too I will have it? Shortly we will see that the Midrash asks this more explicitly.
He says to them, do not listen to Chizkiyahu, but rather rebel against him. And if you ask, what will we gain? I tell you, make a blessing with me, meaning make peace with me. And come out to me, meaning to greet me, open the gates of the city in order to come out to me. And then you will gain first: each man will eat of his vine and each man of his fig tree and drink the water of his own cistern. That is now. Right now you have no water, you have no vine, you have no fig tree, there is a siege, no one goes out and no one comes in. So first the hunger you have now will cease. You will be able to eat, to drink, I will open everything for you, you will not die of hunger under the siege. Good, that is it, we are done, will you free us completely? No, no, no, no, this is temporary. Until I come and take you to a land like your land. A land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. What is the cherry on the whipped cream here? He tells them, look, I will by no means cancel the decree, for Sancheriv, when he decreed a decree, we said it will be fulfilled. But you have the possibility of receiving benefits. What are the benefits? First, immediately there is food, that is the first thing. On the spot you are now sitting down to eat. Second, I will exile you to a good place. I will exile you to a place of a land of grain and wine, bread and vineyards. For after all, what would Sancheriv do? He takes a nation from here, exiles it to another place. Those who were now exiled left behind here vineyards and fields, their refrigerators are still full of food. So he took them as they were to another place. So I will take you as you are to that same place. There is food there, there are fields, there are vines, there are vineyards, everything is there. So what you have here you will also have there. If you ask, well, so what have you given me? What have I given you? I prevented war from you, I prevented from you a siege of dying of hunger, and I prevented from you the possibility, the most terrible of all, that if you do not accept my offer, I exile you to a parched land, to a desolate land, to a land where you would be buried in hunger. So is it not worthwhile for you? After all, in any case you will be exiled. Is it not worthwhile for you to at least be exiled to a place where you will not die of hunger? And already as a bonus I am giving you the possibility, right here now, to access the vineyards, the fields, you will be able to eat of your own produce, for inside Yerushalayim there were no vineyards and fields. The vineyards and fields were all outside Yerushalayim. I will let you access them and you will be able to live here in peace until Sancheriv king of Ashur comes and carries out the decree and exiles you.
Listen to what the Yalkut Shimoni in Sefer Bamidbar, chapter 13, remez 743, says about this. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says, this one was a fool who did not know how to entice. He says, what a fool this Ravshakeh was. What enticements does he present before them? They do not speak, they do not persuade. It is compared to a man who went to marry a woman. He says to her - he needs to persuade her why she should leave her father's house and go to marry him. What does he say to her? Your father is a king and I am a king. Your father is wealthy and I am wealthy. Your father feeds you meat and fish and gives you old wine to drink, and I too, with me as well you will be fed meat and fish and given old wine to drink. This is not enticement. I already have this now in the palace, why should I go to you? What is enticement? He says to her, your father is a commoner and I am a king. Your father is poor and I am wealthy. Your father feeds you vegetables and legumes, I will feed you meat and fish and give you old wine to drink. Your father leads you on foot, I will lead you in a carriage, in a Mercedes. They had such a palanquin in which they would lift up the... He says, behold, this is enticement. You were today in a state of zero, I will turn you into the state of a queen. And is this not a matter of kal vachomer, says Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. If one who comes to state the praise of his own land did not state the disgrace of the Land of Israel, how much more so the praise of the Land of Israel. After all, he wants to tell them, it is worthwhile for you, there is a very superior place. He says, look, this wicked one, even though he wants, as it were, to nullify the Land of Israel and to praise that place, he does not find fault with the Land of Israel. He does not say your place is zero. He says, you know what, I will give you a place of equal value to your place. That is the maximum he can say. But to say your place is not good, even one who wants to disgrace cannot say such a bad thing. All the more so, one who wants to praise the Land of Israel, it is without end and without limit. If the one who wants to disgrace cannot find words, then the one who wants to praise, all the more so. But according to the Malbim we have actually explained beautifully, that there is indeed here a method of persuasion. There is indeed here a logic to speak with them. For behold, you will gain, I take you to a place that is a good land, you will be able to eat and drink, you will not die of hunger, you will not die in war, and also right now I will open the siege for you so that you can go out to your fields, to your vineyards, to eat and drink. So there is indeed enticement here.
Only what is somewhat difficult here is "grain and wine, bread and vineyards"; notice what is written. Grain and wine, bread and vineyards. Does this combination make sense to you? There is a different difficulty here. What is wine? It is grape wine. What is grain? Produce. What is bread? Literally, bread. What are vineyards? Not yet. Vineyards are still in the ground. So if that is the case, it should have been written "grain and vineyards, bread and wine." For after all, you speak of the produce before it is processed, that is grain. Corresponding to it is vineyards. And afterward you speak of the processed, that is bread, and corresponding to bread is wine, the grape wine that is already ready. Why "grain and wine, bread and vineyards"? The Malbim explains that he took them to a place that is part of Africa. There he exiled them. And there, the Malbim says, it was customary that at the time still close to the days of the grape harvest, they sow the grain. And when they tread the wine, then the grain is standing in its stalks. The grain is exactly in the middle of its growth. Or he advances the sowing, and when he gathers the produce then there is yield on the vines. And then it turns out that at the time of grain there is already wine, and at the time of bread there are now vineyards. And then in fact the words are precise.
"Lest Chizkiyahu incite you, saying, Hashem will save us. Did the gods of the nations save each one his land from the hand of the king of Ashur?" He says, now Chizkiyahu will incite you. Now we spoke, incitement is with proofs. He will bring you proofs to say Hashem will save us. What does he say - do not trust in Hashem? Hashem will save us. He says, behold, look, after all, if Hashem wants to save you, even He cannot. And the proof, that there are many other deities in the world and they too did not succeed. "Where are the gods of Chamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sefarvayim? And did they save Shomron from my hand?" So first he says, behold, all these deities did not succeed in saving. Now what will you say? No, our God is something special. He can indeed. He says, your God, I have already seen His power when I conquered Shomron. And Shomron, after all, they too are Jews, and Shomron, after all, on the face of it they are the nation of the Creator of the world, of God. Behold, He could not save Shomron from my hand. Why do you think that Yerushalayim He will indeed be able to save from my hand? And this fool did not understand that our God delivered Shomron into his hand. Precisely because Shomron abandoned Hashem and worshiped idolatry, and precisely because they worshiped Chamat and Arpad and Sefarvayim and Nivchaz and Tartak and all these deities, precisely because of this they were delivered into his hand. But he did not understand, he thought this was due to a deficiency in the power of the Creator of the world. Now what will you say? These deities did not want to save, but if they had wanted, they could have. He continues and says, "who among all the gods of these lands saved their land from my hand, that Hashem should save Yerushalayim from my hand?" He says, after all, in all these lands it is not possible that there is not there at least one god who would want to save his land. And with all this, in all these lands they did not succeed in saving their land from my hand. So why do you think that Hashem will be able or want to save Yerushalayim from my hand? "And they were silent and did not answer him a word, for the king's command was, saying, do not answer him." And if the king had not commanded, asks the Malbim, what is there to answer to such things? What could they answer? The Malbim explains, it would have been fitting that they take revenge on him for the reviling and the blasphemy. For after all, he blasphemes the Name of Heaven. And as we will see later, they tear their garments. He says, even so, do not answer him. And they were silent and did not take revenge on him. "And Elyakim son of Chilkiyahu who was over the household, and Shevna the scribe, and Yoach son of Asaf the recorder, came to Chizkiyahu with torn garments, and told him the words of Ravshakeh." With torn garments, say Chazal, over the fact that they heard the blaspheming of the Name.