Isaiah 22:16

22:15-25 This message to Shebna is a reproof of his pride, vanity, and security; what vanity is all earthly grandeur, which death will so soon end! What will it avail, whether we are laid in a magnificent tomb, or covered with the green sod? Those who, when in power, turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves. Eliakim should be put into Shebna's place. Those called to places of trust and power, should seek to God for grace to enable them to do their duty. Eliakim's advancement is described. Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as Mediator, Re 3:7, that he has the key of David. His power in the kingdom of heaven, and in ordering all the affairs of that kingdom, is absolute. Rulers should be fathers to those under their government; and the honour men bring unto their families, by their piety and usefulness, is more to be valued than what they derive from them by their names and titles. The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence; it is but hung upon him, and it will soon drop from him. Eliakim was compared to a nail in a sure place; all his family are said to depend upon him. In eastern houses, rows of large spikes were built up in the walls. Upon these the moveables and utensils were hung. Our Lord Jesus is as a nail in a sure place. That soul cannot perish, nor that concern fall to the ground, which is by faith hung upon Christ.

Isaiah 22:16-19 . What hast thou here? — Or, What dost thou here? What right hast thou to this place and office? And whom hast thou here? — What relations or family? That thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre — That thou art ambitious of raising a stately sepulchre for thyself and thine heirs? As he that heweth out a sepulchre on high — In a high and eminent place; a habitation for himself in a rock — A monument that shall preserve his memory to all succeeding times. The Lord will carry thee away with a mighty captivity — Will cause thee to be carried into captivity by a strong hand, or by the hand of a mighty man, from which, therefore, thou shalt not be able to escape. The Hebrew, משׂלשׂלן שׂלשׂלה גבר , is rendered by Dr. Waterland, will throw thee out hence with a mighty throw, and may also be rendered, will cast thee away with the casting of a mighty man, that is, with great force; and will surely cover thee — Namely, with confusion, as is here implied, and as this phrase is more fully expressed Psalm 109:29 . Or, this may be an allusion to the condition of mourners in general, and particularly of condemned persons, whose faces were wont to be covered. He will violently turn and toss thee like a ball — Hebrew, צנו Š יצנפן צנפה כדור , rolling he will roll thee with the rolling of a ball; into a large country — Like a ball which is cast into a large and plain spot of ground, where, being thrown with great force, it runs far and wide.

Or, to a far country, meaning probably Assyria. There shalt thou die — After having lived in obscurity. And the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house — The honour thou didst arrive at, and the chariots in which thou didst ride with so much state at Jerusalem, shall turn to thy shame, and to the reproach of those who preferred so unworthy a person. Dr. Waterland translates the verse, He will toss and whirl thee, as he were whirling a ball, &c., and there shall be thy glorious chariots, O thou shame of thy lord’s house. And I will drive thee, &c. — These are the Lord’s words; and from thy state shall he pull thee down — Namely, the Lord shall; such sudden changes of persons being very usual in these writings.

What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre {r} here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that cut out an habitation {s} for himself in a rock? (r) Meaning, that he was a stranger, and came up of nothing. (s) While he thought to make his name immortal by his famous sepulchre, he died most miserably among the Assyrians.

What hast thou here? or, What dost thou here ? what right hast thou to this place and office? Whom ; either, 1. What friends, in whom thou canst confide? Thou hast so ill managed thyself and thy affairs, that thou art universally hated. Or, 2. What kindred or relations? For the Jews say he was a stranger by birth; which is the more probable, because his pedigree is not mentioned in any of those places of Scripture where he is named. Hewed thee out a sepulchre, as great and ambitious men used to do. Here ; not in thine own country, the proper place for such a monument; but in Jerusalem, which should not be defiled nor disparaged with it. On high; in a high and eminent place, as Isaiah 57:7 . An habitation ; either, 1. A sepulchre, which is called a man’s house, Job 30:23 ; or, 2. A dwelling-house. He erected, or is compared to one that doth erect, a stately house to live in, and a stately sepulchre to receive him when he dies. And these two are fitly joined together, because their sepulchres were commonly built in or near their houses. See Isaiah 14:18 John 19:41 . In a rock ; a fit place both for strength and state. Thus we read of a sepulchre hewed out of a rock, Matthew 27:60 .

16. What … whom—The prophet accosts Shebna at the very place where he was building a grand sepulcher for himself and his family (compare Isa 14:18; Ge 23:1-20; 49:29; 50:13). "What (business) hast thou here, and whom hast thou (of thy family, who is likely to be buried) here, that thou buildest," &c., seeing that thou art soon to be deposed from office and carried into captivity? [Maurer]. on high—Sepulchres were made in the highest rocks (2Ch 32:33, Margin). habitation for himself—compare "his own house" (Isa 14:18).

16 . We may imagine the meeting between Isaiah and the vizier to have taken place at the sepulchre which the latter, after the Eastern fashion, was having prepared in his lifetime. By this act the novus homo asserted his equality with the aristocracy of Jerusalem, a piece of presumption which evidently kindles the ire of the prophet. What hast thou (to do) here? and whom (as kindred or descendants) hast thou here? ] i.e. “Thou neither hast the rights of a citizen, nor canst claim to be the founder of a family.” Shebna’s grave was simply the monument of his own vulgar and ostentatious vanity. that thou hast hewed … here ] (see below)—in so conspicuous a position. That Shebna actually placed his tomb amongst those of the kings and princes of Judah is not to be assumed; but he had plainly chosen a pretentious situation. as he that heweth …] Render: Hewing out his sepulchre on high! Graving in the rock an habitation for him! Ejaculations of unutterable scorn. The use of the third person suggests that there were bystanders.

Verse 16. - What hast thou here ? i.e. what business , or what right? It seems, certainly, to be implied that Shebna was wholly unconnected with Jerusalem. Whom hast thou here ? i.e. what relations? what family? To be justified in hewing out a large tomb, Shebna should have had a numerous family for whom graves would be needed. Otherwise, his excavation of a grand sepulcher was merely selfish and ostentatious. As he that heweth him out a sepulcher on high. Jewish tombs of any pretension were generally excavations in the solid rock, on the side of some hill or mountain, and had often a very elevated position. Tombs exist on the slopes of all the hills about Jerusalem, but are most numerous on the eastern side of the temple mount, which slopes steeply to the Kedron valley. A square-topped doorway leads into a chamber, generally square, from which recesses, six or seven feet long, two broad, and three high, are carried into the rock horizontally, either on a level with the floor, or with a platform, or shelf, halfway up one of the walls. These recesses have been called loculi . After a body had been placed in one, it was commonly closed by a stone, which fitted into the end, and thus shut off the body from the chamber. Chambers had sometimes twelve such loculi . An habitation (comp. Ecclesiastes 12:5 ). We must not suppose, however, that the Jews, like the Egyptians and Etruscans, regarded the soul as inhabiting the tomb.

(16) What hast thou here? . . . —The prophet’s indignation is roused by Shebna’s last act of arrogance. He had no “sepulchre of his fathers” to deck with fresh stateliness, and, like the kings and great ones of the earth (the kings of Sidon, the Pharaohs of Egypt, the kings of Assyria), had built one for himself, hollowed out of the wells (probably on one of the hills of Jerusalem), to be his own everlasting “habitation,” his domus œterna. So in Ecclesiastes 12:5 , the grave is the “long home” of man. Rock-hewn sepulchres of this type are found on the slopes of all the hills in the neighbourhood of the holy city.

What hast thou here? - This verse contains a severe repoof of the pride and ostentation of Shebna, and of his expectation that he would be buried where be had built his own tomb. It also contains an "implied" declaration that he would not be permitted to lie there, but would be removed to a distant land to be buried in some less honorable manner. It is probable that Isaiah met him when he was at the sepulchre which he had made, and addressed this language to him there: 'What hast thou here? What right to expect that thou wilt be buried here, or why do you erect this splendid sepulchre, as if you were a holy man, and God would allow you to lie here?' Probably his sepulchre had been erected among the sepulchres of holy people, and perhaps in some part of the royal burying place in Jerusalem. And whom hast thou here? - Who among the dead that are entombed here are connected with you, that you should deem yourself entitled to lie with them? If this was the royal cemetery, these words might be designed to intimate that he had no connection with the royal family; and thus his building a tomb there was an evidence of vain glory, and of an attempt to occupy a place, even in death, to which he had no title. That thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here - Sepulchres were hewn or cut out of rocks (see the note at Isaiah 14:9). It was usual also for princes and rich people to have their sepulchres or tombs constructed while they were themselves alive (see Matthew 27:60).