![]() ![]() Shebna, in short, has not merely elevated himself to be the equal of the Davidic kings he should serve his ambition is to elevate himself nearly to godhood. He carves a dwelling-place or tabernacle in the “rock,” and in verse 18 Isaiah describes Shebna as the owner of “chariots of glory,” just like Yahweh. 16), and at the end of the verse the tomb is called a mishkan, a word normally used for the tent of Yahweh. Shebna wants not so much a tomb as a shrine.Īnd the rest of Isaiah’s description points in the same direction. Earlier in Scripture, the Gibeonites become hewers of wood in service to the tabernacle. ![]() Hewers of wood and of stone are the builders of temples (1 Kings 5:15 1 Chronicles 22:2, 15 2 Chronicles 2:2, 18). When Isaiah describes his ambition to “hew” a tomb in Jerusalem, he uses a word that is most prominent in temple texts. He is planning a tomb among the tombs of the kings, but he is only a steward.īut his arrogance is deeper even than this, rivaling the arrogance of the kings of Assyria (Isaiah 10) and Babylon (Isaiah 14). The repeated questions of Isaiah 22:16, and the emphatic locative (“what are you here? Why are you here? You hew a tomb here“) indicate that Shebna is presuming a higher position that he holds. Shebna is rebuked for wanting to carve a tomb in Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:16). He represents the arrogant complacency of the city as a whole. What happens to them exemplifies what Yahweh is doing to Judah and Jerusalem. The current royal steward, Shebna, has spent his tenure planning a monumental tomb so that he will be remembered after his death (v. The second half of Isaiah 22 focuses on two individuals, the current royal steward of the house of David and his eventual replacement, Shebna and Eliakim. ![]()
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