Shebna

Shebna (also spelled Shebnah) is a Judahite official in the reign of Hezekiah. He appears in two distinct narrative roles. In the Sennacherib crisis he is one of the three royal officers who meet the Rabshakeh at the wall of Jerusalem and afterward stand in mourning before the king. In a separate Isaian oracle he is denounced by name as a treasurer "over the house" who has built himself a tomb among the great, and is told that Yahweh will hurl him away and replace him with Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

The royal delegation at the wall

Shebna's office in the Hezekian narrative is "the scribe." When the Rabshakeh of Sennacherib summoned the king, Hezekiah did not come; instead he sent his three senior officers: "And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder" (2Ki 18:18). Isaiah's parallel uses the spelling Shebna and is otherwise identical: "Then came forth to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder" (Isa 36:3).

Faced with the Rabshakeh's open taunts in the hearing of the people on the wall, the three asked him to switch languages. The Kings text records: "Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, to your slaves in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and don't speak with us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall" (2Ki 18:26). The Isaian parallel is essentially the same: "Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, to your slaves in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and don't speak to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall" (Isa 36:11).

When the Rabshakeh refused, the delegation withdrew in mourning. The Kings narrative places Shebna among those who returned in torn clothes: "Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah came, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh" (2Ki 18:37). The Isaian parallel says the same: "Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh" (Isa 36:22).

The mission to Isaiah

Hezekiah's response to the Rabshakeh's words was to send the same officers, joined now by the elders of the priests, to consult the prophet. Both Kings and Isaiah preserve Shebna's name in this delegation: "And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz" (2Ki 19:2; cf. Isa 37:2). In the wider topical tradition Shebna is therefore catalogued among the named persons spoken of as religious leaders alongside the priests and the prophet (2Ki 19:2).

The oracle against Shebna in Isaiah 22

Behind these crisis narratives stands an earlier Isaian oracle in which Shebna is denounced by name. The Lord directs Isaiah to confront him: "Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, [and say], What do you have here? And whom do you have here, that you have hewed yourself out here a tomb? Hewing himself out a tomb on high, graving a habitation for himself in the rock!" (Isa 22:15-16). The two charges are presumption of office and presumption in death — Shebna holds the title "over the house" and has cut for himself a rock-hewn tomb on high, the kind of monument fitting only to the great.

The sentence is announced in the same oracle: "Look, Yahweh will hurl you away violently, O [prominent] man, and he will wrap you up closely. He will surely wind you round and round, [and toss you] like a ball into a large country; there you will die, and there will be the chariots of your glory, you shame of your lord's house. And I will thrust you from your office; and from your station he will pull you down" (Isa 22:17-19). Shebna will not lie in the tomb he has carved; he will die abroad, and his office will be taken from him.

The transfer to Eliakim

The same oracle names Shebna's replacement. "And it will come to pass in that day, that I will call my slave Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; and he will open, and none will shut; and he will shut, and none will open" (Isa 22:20-22). The robe, the belt, and the government are taken from Shebna and put on Eliakim; the key of the house of David passes with them. The narrative material in 2 Kings 18-19 and Isaiah 36-37 then shows Eliakim already "over the household" and Shebna demoted to "the scribe," consistent with the oracle's reassignment of titles.

The oracle ends with a warning that even the new appointee is not absolute: "And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he will be for a throne of glory to his father's house. And they will hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flagons. In that day, says Yahweh of hosts, will the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it will be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was on it will be cut off; for the [Speech] of Yahweh has decreed it" (Isa 22:23-25). The closing word presents a divine decree by which the elevation can in turn be reversed.

Identity of the two Shebnas

The UPDV text does not explicitly equate the Shebna of Isa 22 with the Shebna of 2 Kings 18-19 and Isa 36-37, and it does not narrate his deportation. The two appearances are sometimes listed under one entry but in two paragraphs, "A scribe of Hezekiah" and "An official of the king." What the texts do show, taken together, is that the figure named in the oracle holds the office "over the house" (Isa 22:15), the same office held in the narrative by Eliakim (2Ki 18:18; Isa 36:3), while the narrative Shebna holds the lesser office of "scribe."