Every politician was expected to speak it, and Hezekiah's ministers take it for granted that the Rab-shakeh would be able to do so.
But as the Rab-shakeh walks to the gate of Shushan, on the day on which the story opens, he spies a caravan of travellers coming along the northern road.
The feast has begun, and it is time for the Rab-shakeh to present the wine to the king.
Turning to the Rab-shakeh he asks: 'Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?
The city through which the Rab-shakeh walks is very beautiful; it is the capital of the kingdom of Persia.
Then, attired in his official dress, the Rab-shakeh sets forth for the state apartments of the palace.
As the Rab-shakeh walks along the air is scented with their blossoms, and with the sweet fragrance of the countless Shushan lilies, growing beside the margin of the sparkling rivers.
He felt he could trust him fully, and he was not disappointed in his confidence, for the great Rab-shakeh served a higher Master than the King of Persia, he was a faithful servant of the God of Heaven.
As they walk together through Shushan to the palace, the Rab-shakeh asks anxiously after Jerusalem.
The palace in which the Rab-shakeh lives is not the old palace in which Daniel stayed when he visited Shushan; it is quite a new building, built only forty years before by the great Ahasuerus, the husband of Queen Esther.
Hence it was that, when the Rab-shakeh or Vizier of Sennacherib appeared before Jerusalem and summoned its inhabitants to submit to the Assyrian King, he was asked by the ministers of Hezekiah to speak in “Aramæan.
How exasperated the great sovereign must have been when Rab-shakeh reported to him the decision of Hezekiah!
Hezekiah then sent to Rab-shakeh a reply for which the latter was unprepared.
In order to win them to his side, Rab-shakeh called aloud to them that they should not be persuaded by Hezekiah into the belief that God would save them.
Rab-shakeh openly demanded of the Judaean warriors that they should desert their king and acknowledge Sennacherib, and he would then lead them into a land as fruitful as that of Judah.
Before Rab-shakeh could bring the answer to Sennacherib, a change had already taken place.
In order to daunt their courage, Rab-shakeh uttered his bold and daring speech in the Hebrew or Judaean tongue, in order that the listeners might understand him.
Rab-shakeh insisted on a decision, and the troops as well as the nation were disheartened.
Naturally words of Assyrian origin, like Rab-shakeh and Tartan, have first received their explanation from the decipherment of the Assyrian inscriptions.
But Rab-shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words?
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem.
And Rab-shakeh said unto them: Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this wherein thou trusteth?
And the king of Assyria sent Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army.
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "shakeh" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
