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Shebna

 

Harper’s Bible Dictionary

edited by Paul J. Achtemier (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985)

You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition [book review], edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Shebnah, the state secretary of King Hezekiah at the time of Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah (2 Kings 18:18-19:2; Isa. 36:3-37:2). Apparently he had been demoted to this position from the higher office of royal steward following a bitter critique of Isaiah (Isa. 22:15-25).


 

The New Bible Dictionary

Edited by J.D. Douglas (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 1962)

SHEBNA. A high official under Hezekiah, variously designated minister (‘which is over the house’, Is. 22:15), secretary (‘scribe’, 2 Ki. 18:18; 19:2; Is. 36:3), and state official (‘treasurer’, Is. 22:15). A man of wealth, he was rebuked by Isaiah for preparing a conspicuously monumental rock-hewn tomb and his downfall predicted (Is. 22:15-19). Part of the inscribed lintel from such a tomb has been recovered (N. Avigad, IEJ 3, 1953, pp. 137-152; D. J. Wiseman, IBA, 1958, p. 59).

 

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