Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 22:15

"Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the house, [and say]," — Isaiah 22:15 (ASV)

Go, get you to this treasurer, even to Shebna. —The section that follows opens a chapter in the internal politics of the reign of Hezekiah. The word for “treasurer” (literally, companion) implies a position like that of a vizier, identical, probably, with that of the “king’s friend” (Genesis 26:26; 2 Samuel 15:37; 1 Kings 4:5).

In addition to this office, Shebna held the position of being “over the house,” an office, like that of a Lord Chamberlain, of such importance that it was sometimes held by a king’s son (2 Chronicles 26:21). This position gave him supreme control over the king’s treasury and the internal affairs of his kingdom, making him almost like a maire du palais under the Merovingian kings.

It is obvious that his influence was exercised to thwart the prophet’s counsel; and the probable sequence of thought connecting the two sections is that he was prominent as the representative of the false security and luxury which the prophet had condemned, probably also of the party which rested its hope on an alliance with Egypt. What follows seems to show that he was a novus homo, with no ancestral dignities, possibly even a foreigner (the name is Aramaean in form), pushing himself forward with an obtrusive ambition. We note the touch of scorn in “this Shebna.”