Rab-shakeh's Hebrew Speech: History vs. Rhetoric

The attack by Sennacherib king of Assyria on the kingdom of Judah is well-documented in the Bible, in Assyrian sources and in the archaeological record. Generally speaking, the biblical and Assyrian records concur, despite the differences in genre, in purpose and in their intended audience. The biblical version of the events recounts that three senior Assyrian officials made their way to Jerusalem, and that one of them, whose title was “Rab-shakeh”, made a speech in “Judahite”, the local dialect of Hebrew. This speech as recorded in the Bible, while clearly a part of the biblical narrative, is also very much like the type of speeches that Assyrian officials did deliver to the defenders of besieged cities. To at least some scholars, this similarity is proof of the basic historicity of the biblical speech as well, even if it did undergo a certain measure of editing. The fact that the speech was made in Hebrew is part of this historicity, since as a tool of propaganda or of psychological warfare it would naturally be aimed at the defenders and would be in their language. Several decades ago, Tadmor suggested that this “Rab-shakeh” knew Hebrew, because he was actually an Israelite, exiled from Samaria and risen in the ranks of the Assyrian court. While Tadmor's proposal did gain some support, it was never really discussed seriously by most scholars. This paper examines the Assyrian policies concerning deportation of conquered peoples and the fate of such deportees, Israelites and others, who were inducted into the imperial service. In light of this examination, we consider Tadmor's proposal to be well-founded. Finally, we analyze Rab-shakeh's speech as a speech delivered by such an Israelite exile who had become a senior Assyrian official, and who now wished to warn his Judahite brethren of their inevitable fate.