(6) The servants of the king of Assyria.--Not the usual word for "servants," which might include high officers of state, but a less honourable one (na'ara), like puer in Latin, or garcon in French. He speaks of Rabshakeh (probably the king's cup-bearer) as though he were only, after all, a valet.

Verse 6. - The servants of the King of Assyria. Mr. Cheyne translates, "the minions of the King of Assyria," remarking truly that the word used is not the ordinary one for "servants," but "a disparaging expression." Perhaps the best translation would be lackeys.

37:1-38 This chapter is the same as 2Ki 19And Isaiah said unto them, thus shall you say unto your master,.... Or, "your lord" (q); King Hezekiah, whose ministers and messengers they were:

thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words thou hast heard; be not not terrified by them, they are but words, and no more, and will never become facts:

wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me; by representing him as no better than the gods of the Gentiles, and as unable to deliver out of the hands of the king of Assyria the city of Jerusalem, when he had said he would. The word (r) for "servants" signifies boys, lads, young men; so Rabshakeh and his two companions, Rabsaris and Tartan, are called, by way of contempt, they acting a weak and childish part as well as a wicked one.

(q) "ad dominum vestrum", Montanus. (r) "pueri recens nati, infantes, pueri judicio", Gusset.