thy lord's house. And I will thrust thee from thy office, and from thy
station he shall pull thee down!"** Meanwhile, day after day elapsed,
and Pharaoh did not hasten to the rescue. Hezekiah's eyes were opened;
he dismissed Shebna, and degraded him to the position of scribe, and set
Eliakim in his place in the Council of State.***

* Isa. xxii. 1-14.

** Isa. xxii. 15-19.

***In the duplicate narrative of these negotiations with the
Assyrian generals, Shebna is in fact considered as a mere
scribe, while Eliakim is the prefect of the king's house (2
Kings xviii. 18, 37; xix. 2: Isa. xxxvi. 3, 22; xxxvii. 2).

Isaiah's influence revived, and he persuaded the king to sue for peace
while yet there was time.

Sennacherib was encamped at Lachish; but the Tartan and his two
lieutenants received the overtures of peace, and proposed a parley near
the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field.
Hezekiah did not venture to go in person to the meeting-place; he sent
Eliakirn, the new prefect of the palace, Shebna, and the chancellor
Joah, the chief cupbearer, and tradition relates that the Assyrian
addressed them in severe terms in his master's name: "Now on whom dost
thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Behold, thou trustest upon
the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt; whereon if a man lean,
it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh, King of Egypt,
to all that trust on him." Then, as he continued to declaim in a loud
voice, so that the crowds gathered on the wall could hear him, the