RABSHAKEH (Heb. rabh-šāqēh, Assyrian rab šāqē, according to the etymology "great cupbearer" of beer). - A name designating a high Assyrian official and officer of the kīṣir šurrāti, that is, of the king's guard, who not infrequently had to do with foreign relations.
A r. acts as the speaker, protagonist in the dramatic scene narrated in 2 Kings 18-19, almost identical to Isa. 36-37, briefly summarized in Sir. 48:20-24, which took place in the third year of Sennacherib (v.), that is, in 701 B.C. Having subdued all the cities of the Phoenician and Palestinian coast, fighting especially against Ashkelon and Ekron, Sennacherib sought to humiliate the "arrogant and proud" King Hezekiah of Judah, who had recently strengthened Yahwism by eliminating idolatry from his kingdom. Sennacherib invaded the country and took a great number of its fortresses (cf. the reliefs of Lachish [v.]). Terms were agreed upon; Hezekiah was to pay, among other things, a heavy tribute. The r.'s mission was an attempt to intimidate Hezekiah, to make him surrender unconditionally or else to dethrone him by means of his own people, which would have done away with the entire work of the Yahwistic reform of the pious king. The r., in his mission, shows himself by his speech to be a knower of languages, well instructed in the internal situation of the kingdom of Judah, a good orator, and, naturally, full of all the pride that a servant of the god Ashur (v.) could harbor toward the God of that region rebellious to the great empire. He emphasizes the weakness of Hezekiah, who lacks trained soldiers, especially horsemen, who has in Egypt "a support of a broken reed." Nor could Hezekiah have trust even in Yahweh, after having suppressed the sacrifices on the high places (v. BAMAH); and "what divinity in the west had been able to resist the strong hand of Ashur?" The r. succeeded in producing in Jerusalem a "fear like that of a woman in labor." But his true adversary was the prophet Isaiah (v.) who, against his blasphemous speeches, comforted Hezekiah and the people, announcing a plague in the Assyrian camp (an "angel" that struck down a great number of the enemy), which forced Sennacherib to return to Nineveh.