Isaiah 22:18

(18) Like a ball into a large country.—The picture is that of a ball flung violently on a smooth, even plain where it bounds on and on with nothing to stay its progress. The “large country” is, probably, the plain of Mesopotamia, where Shebna is to end his days in exile.

There the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house.—Better, Thither shall go the chariots of thy glory, the shame of thy lord’s house. The words point to another form of Shebna’s ostentatious pride. Not content with riding on an ass or mule, as even judges and counsellors rode (Judges 5:10; Judges 10:4; Judges 12:14; 2 Samuel 17:23), he had appeared in public in stately chariots, such as were used by kings (Song Song of Solomon 1:9; Song of Solomon 3:9). These were to accompany him in his exile, but it would be as the spoil of the conqueror. There are no records of the fulfilment of the prediction, and the judgment may have been averted by repentance; but when we next meet with Shebna (Isaiah 36:22) he is in the inferior position of a scribe, and Eliakim occupies his place as being “over the household.”