Eliakim: the Nail and the Throne
Isaiah 22:20-25
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:…


A nation's rulers (Zechariah 10:4) stand in the same relation to the community as a tent peg to the tent which it holds firmly and keeps up. As the tent peg is driven into the ground in such a way that a person can, if necessary, sit on it, so by development of the metaphor the peg is changed into a seat of honour. As a splendid chair adorns a room, so Eliakim graces his hitherto undistinguished family. The closely connected thought, that the members of his family in order to attain to honours would sit on this chair, is expressed by a different figure. Eliakim is once more presented to us as a "nail," now, however, as a high one, somewhat like a pole on which coats are hung up, or as a peg driven into the wall at a distance from the ground. On this pole or peg they hang — i.e., one hangs or there hangs — the whole heavy lot (as in chap. 8:7) of the family of Eliakim. The prophet proceeds to split up this family into its male and female components, as the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine nouns shows.

(F. Delitzsch.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

WEB: It will happen in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,




Eliakim and Christ
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