ELIACIM. - Son of Hilkiah, chosen by God in place of the impious and proud Shebna, according to Is. 22:20-25. A faithful servant of Yahweh, he is worthy to serve as steward or prime minister in the house of David, under King Hezekiah. As harsh as Shebna had been, so was E. benign in the exercise of his very high dignity over the royal house and the nation. With an image corresponding to the customs of the East, God says of him: "I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house" (Is. 22:23). II Kings 18:18 presents him as prime minister of King Hezekiah.
These were the most sorrowful days (ca. 700 B.C.) in which the territory of Judah was for the most part conquered by Sennacherib and Jerusalem, pressed by a rigorous siege, was reduced to desperate conditions. E. appears when surrender is demanded (II Kings 18:17-37): with Shebna the scribe, "Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, was sent beneath the walls of the city to hear Sennacherib's proposals." Despite the threats of the Rabshakeh (a superior Assyrian officer), the people were not moved, and E. returned to the king with his garments torn as a sign of horror at the blasphemous language he had heard. Isaiah (22:25) concludes: "in that day... the peg fastened in a sure place shall be removed." Perhaps E., through weakness toward his own, lost his position. But it is better to refer these words to Shebna, of whom verse 10 speaks (with J. Knabenbauer), or rather to Jerusalem, against which Isaiah prophesies in chapter 22. A. Condamin and S. Minocchi believe that this is a later addition.
Vincenzo M. Iacono