Isaiah 22:18
in Isaiah 22roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He will surely wind thee round and round, and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of thy lord’s house.
KJV
He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country: there shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house.
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This verse in Isaiah 22
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 15, 16, etc.) Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Go, enter to him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna, the overseer of the temple, and say to him: What are you doing here? or who are you here? for you have carved out a sepulchre here for yourself. You have carved out a lofty memorial for yourself diligently in the rock for your tent. Behold, the Lord will cast you down as one is cast down, like a cockerel; and he will lift you up like a cloak.
This site's exposition
Go, get thee unto this treasurer
on Isaiah 22:15-19
Shebna held the highest civil office under the king, steward over the house, and used the position to carve himself a monument, a sepulchre hewn high in the rock like the tombs of greater men, which Isaiah reads as pride reaching for a permanence not given the office. The judgment matches the offense: the man who built himself a resting place will not rest there, the Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee, tossed like a ball into a large country to die away from the tomb he cut. Barnes and Gill both note that 2 Kings 18 shows a Shebna still active at the time of Sennacherib's embassy, but now only a scribe under Eliakim, which they read as this very demotion already underway. The office outlives the man who tried to make it his monument.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
For all these things will work for your destruction [i.e., Shebna's], since you have been deposed and rejected from the high priesthood, of which you showed yourself unworthy, God being a just judge who gives to each according to his worth. On you, then, he will bring these things; but on the other, Eliakim, whom he has assessed as his good servant and slave, he will invest with your robe and will honor by placing on him the crown of the high priesthood, whose ministry you had hitherto been entrusted with. For he is a man worthy of it.
(Verse 15 onward) Thus says the Lord God of hosts: Go, go into him who dwells in the tabernacle, to Shebna, the overseer of the Temple, and say to him: What are you doing here? Or who are you here, because you have dug for yourself here a tomb? You have dug your memorial on high, diligently in the rock you have made a dwelling for yourself. Behold, the Lord will carry you away: like the lifting of a rooster or like a garment he will lift you up. He will surely overthrow you and throw you into a wide and spacious land: there you shall die, and there shall be the chariots of your glory; the disgrace of your Lord's house. And I will drive you out from your office, and I will remove you from your position. And on that day, I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. And I will clothe him with your robe, and I will strengthen him with your sash, and I will give your authority into his hand. And he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder, and he will open, and no one shall shut; and he will shut, and no one shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the Lord hath spoken it. We have already mentioned that Shebna was a high priest who betrayed the city to the Assyrians. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, of confusion: he will crown you with a crown of tribulation, that is, in place of the crown which you used in pontifical worship, you will have tribulation; like a ball, which finds no high station; the chariot of your glory, which bore you …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He will surely violently turn and toss thee,....
Grotius thinks he was stricken with a leprosy, which was a disease commonly supposed to come from the immediate hand of God's displeasure, particularly for the punishment of the proud, as in the case of Miriam and Uzziah; and by reason of this disease he was tossed like a ball out of Jerusalem.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
He will surely violently turn - Lowth has well expressed the sense of this: He will whirl thee round and round, and cast thee away. Thus it refers to the action of throwing a stone with a “sling,” when the sling is whirled round and round several times before the string is let go, in order to increase the velocity of the stone.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The Jews say that he was tied to the tails of horses by the enemy, to whom he had designed to betray Jerusalem, as they thought he was mocking them; and so he died.
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| צָנ֤וֹף | tzanof | certainly <to wind up> | H6801 → | |
| יִצְנָפְךָ֙ | yitznafekha | he will wind up you | H6801 → | |
| צְנֵפָ֔ה | tzenefah | a winding | H6802 → | |
| כַּדּ֕וּר | kadur | a ball | H1754 → | |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| אֶ֖רֶץ | ʾeretz | a land | H776 → | 2504 times |
| רַחֲבַ֣ת | rachavat | broad of | H7342 → | |
| יָדָ֑יִם | yadayim | both hands | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| שָׁ֣מָּה | shamah | there <towards> | H8033 → | 834 times |
| תָמ֗וּת | tamut | you will die | H4191 → | 839 times |
| וְשָׁ֙מָּה֙ | veshamah | and there <towards> | H8033 → | 834 times |
| מַרְכְּב֣וֹת | markevot | [the] chariots of | H4818 → | 44 times |
| כְּבוֹדֶ֔ךָ | kevodekha | splendor your | H3519 → | 200 times |
| קְל֖וֹן | kelon | [will be] [the] disgrace of | H7036 → | |
| בֵּ֥ית | beit | [the] house of | H1004 → | 2046 times |
| אֲדֹנֶֽיךָ׃ | ʾadoneikha | master<s> your | H113 → | 333 times |
צָנ֤וֹףcertainly <to wind up>
tzanofH6801 →
יִצְנָפְךָ֙he will wind up you
yitznafekhaH6801 →
צְנֵפָ֔הa winding
tzenefahH6802 →
כַּדּ֕וּרa ball
kadurH1754 →
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
אֶ֖רֶץa land
ʾeretzH776 →2504 times
רַחֲבַ֣תbroad of
rachavatH7342 →
יָדָ֑יִםboth hands
yadayimH3027 →1618 times
שָׁ֣מָּהthere <towards>
shamahH8033 →834 times
תָמ֗וּתyou will die
tamutH4191 →839 times
וְשָׁ֙מָּה֙and there <towards>
veshamahH8033 →834 times
מַרְכְּב֣וֹת[the] chariots of
markevotH4818 →44 times
כְּבוֹדֶ֔ךָsplendor your
kevodekhaH3519 →200 times
קְל֖וֹן[will be] [the] disgrace of
kelonH7036 →
בֵּ֥ית[the] house of
beitH1004 →2046 times
אֲדֹנֶֽיךָ׃master<s> your
ʾadoneikhaH113 →333 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Amos 7:17Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring…
it leads to
- Hosea 9:3
They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
- 2 Kings 17:6
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the…
- Jeremiah 28:16
Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’”
- Ezekiel 4:13
Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”
- Hosea 4:13–14
They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
- Hosea 9:3
Through
Isaiah 17:13The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
it leads to
- Psalms 9:5
You have rebuked the nations; You have destroyed the wicked; You have erased their name forever and ever.
- Job 21:18
Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- Isaiah 41:15–16
Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
- Psalms 9:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Eusebius of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 148:6-20; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.