Isaiah 36-39 are nearly identical to 2 Kings 18:13-20. It’s the Hezekiah narrative of destroying idols and instead focusing on YHWH. Then the invasion of Judah by Sennecherib occurs, Isaiah is called upon, Hezekiah falls ill and is cured, and Sennecherib eventually leaves, lives on in Assyria until his sons rise up and kill him. Which was written first? Is it in the voice of Isaiah or the voice of 2 Kings or is it like the theorized Q of the NT?

Jeremiah 25 and 2 Kings 22 are nearly identical. Is it in the voice of Jeremiah or the voice of 2 Kings?

Many scholars put the Hezekiah narrative in the voice of the Dtr. Historian, with the noted exception of the usage of the Hebrew root ‘batach’, translated as “trust” (“rely” in the NRSV) in the Hezekiah narrative. This root is found 20 times throughout Isaiah, including 8 times in the Hezekiah narrative. ITs found 9 times in the Hezekiah narrative in 2 Kings, but nowhere else in Kings is the root found. (It is found in the warnings in Deuteronomy, talking about how their high walls they trust in will fall). 

Perhaps though, it is its own independent story, one that was it’s own scroll but was lost to us, preserved only by this pasting into Isaiah, Kings, and Jeremiah. The characters are similar and with a few careful and justified tweaks, we see the same cast unfold.

It’s a story of two houses and their fortunes as they prospered then waned after Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem. The Houses of Shaphan and Hilkiah.

Hilkiah stands out as a link between the two stories, though since Eliakim is the son of a Hilkiah in the earlier Hezekiah narrative most simply assume this is a completely different Hilkiah than in the Josiah narrative. Shaphan, though, is hard to recognize in the Hezekiah narrative. While Shaphan is the secretary in the Josiah narrative, Shebna is the secretary in the Hezekiah narrative. 

Why is Shaphan actually Shebna? The words sound dissimilar in Hebrew or Greek. Isaiah, though, gives us an image of Shebna that reminds us what the name Shaphan means. Shaphan means “rock badger”. Proverbs 30 makes this fairly clear:

“the badgers (Shaphan) are a weak people, hiding among the rocks”

In Isaiah 22 we see similar imagery applied to Shebna (the house manager). “16 What right do you have here? Who are your relatives here that you have cut out a tomb here for yourself, cutting a tomb on the height, and carving for yourself a habitation in the rock? 17 Yahweh is about to hurl you away violently my fellow. He will seize firm hold on you. 18 whirl you round and round and throw you like a ball into a wide land …” 

This imagery sounds like a bit like it could be a rock badger. And indeed this Shebna finds himself in the same position for Hezekiah that Shaphan is in for Josiah, secretary. (In Isaiah 36-39 and 2 Kings he is secretary. In Isaiah 22 he is house manager).

Now for the House of Hilkiah. We see an Eliakim son of Hilkiah in the earlier Hezekiah episode, and a Hilkiah in the later Josiah episode. I have no clue why the author would have made the mistake and apply the son to the earlier episode in Kings, but since Isaiah doesn’t have the Josiah narrative and Jeremiah doesn’t have the Hezekiah narrative all I can say is it’s not obvious in those books. Perhaps it is some evidence that these stories were pasted onto the Kings scroll later, but got the characters switched. But the Kings order is still in the same chronology as Isaiah and Jeremiah have them, with Shebna and Eliakim son of Hilkiah early and Shaphan and Hilkiah late. 

There are reasons to think this one famous Hilkiah is misplaced in the chronologies rather than several people with a popular name that just happened to be named Hiilkiah. Again we return to Isaiah 22: 20 On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah… 24 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his ancestral house and they will hang on him the whole weight of his ancestral house the offspring and issue, every cup and flagon. On that day, says the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will fall, and the load that was on it will perish….” So this house of Hilkiah is already pretty important, and it has a bright future for a while until everything falls apart. 

There is another famous son of a Hilkiah, of course. Jeremiah! We know that this son of Hilkiah also worked closely with the house of Shaphan. Most famously Gedaliah son of Shaphan retrieves him from the cistern and protects him after the fall of Jerusalem. But there are other interactions showing the house of Shaphan’s appreciation for this son of a Hilkiah. Because of this close affinity and the small number of named top officials in the government, I would assume Jeremiah is a member of the great house of Hilkiah described above in Isaiah 22. 

Another example that points to a great house that the author assumes the reader is familiar with is written much later, the story of Susanna added to Daniel. She is a daughter or descendant of a Hilkiah. Again we are talking about people of royal patronage because that is who the author of Daniel is dealing with, for the sake of recognition. And while she only need be a descendant, not the first generation offspring, the author is projecting far back in time. After all, Daniel himself is among those taken by Nebuchadnezzar. Though of course Daniel stories have poor timeline value the further back they are projected. 

So these mentions of Hilkiah are from near the same time period and are intended to be recognized as a great house. It seems probable that a scroll existed about the houses of Shaphan and Hilkiah from which the Hezekiah and Josiah episodes are copied into Isaiah, Kings, and Jeremiah.  

Isaiah 22, however, stands apart from Isaiah 36-39 in its treatment of Shebna ( Shaphan). The whirling about and thrown down is not a simple demotion to secretary like we see in the Hezekiah and Josiah narratives. The house of Shaphan has its accusers and it’s defenders in the Bible. Not only does Isaiah 22 dislike Shaphan, but Ezekiel 8 describes the angel of the Lord destroying a son of Shaphan. I will leave the justification for Ezekiel’s Jaazariah son of Shaphan being a key member of the great house for later. 

In summation, I propose that there was a once well known scroll, a Q for the OT if you will, that was copied into these three books that later became canon.