Hezekiah and Sennacherib #65

In 701 BC, the Assyrian king Sennacherib invaded Judah, captured many fortified cities, and threatened Jerusalem itself. The confrontation with King Hezekiah is told in 2 Kings 18 and 19, in Isaiah 36 and 37, and in 2 Chronicles 32, and it ends with Jerusalem unexpectedly spared. It is one of the best documented episodes of the Old Testament, appearing in both biblical and Assyrian sources.

Biblical Account

Sennacherib attacked the fortified cities of Judah, and Hezekiah at first tried to buy him off by sending silver and gold, even stripping the temple doors (2 Kings 18:13-16). Nevertheless, the Assyrian sent a large force and an envoy known as the Rabshakeh to the conduit of the upper pool in Jerusalem. He shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, mocking Egypt as a broken reed, dismissing Hezekiah’s reliance on the LORD, and telling the people not to be deceived into trusting in God (2 Kings 18:17-19:7).

Hezekiah had already strengthened the city’s defenses and directed water into the city through a tunnel (2 Chronicles 32:1-8). When he received a threatening letter from Sennacherib, he took it into the temple, spread it before the LORD, and prayed for deliverance so that all the kingdoms of the earth might know that the LORD alone is God (2 Kings 19:14-19; Isaiah 37:14-20). The prophet Isaiah answered that Sennacherib would not enter the city or shoot an arrow there. That night the angel of the LORD struck down 185,000 in the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib withdrew to Nineveh, where he was later killed by his sons (2 Kings 19:32-37).

Theological Significance

The narrative contrasts two ways of facing overwhelming power: the boasting of an empire that measures the LORD by the gods of defeated nations, and the prayer of a king who brings the threat to God. Deliverance is credited to God rather than to walls or alliances, though Hezekiah’s preparations are also described approvingly. The account is also a reminder that Jerusalem’s survival was a matter of grace, which contrasts with its later fall in 586 BC.

Historical and Archaeological Notes

Sennacherib’s own prism inscription claims that he shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage and received heavy tribute, but it never claims to have captured the city. The Assyrian reliefs from Nineveh depict the siege of the Judean city of Lachish, and the Siloam inscription in Hezekiah’s water tunnel survives in Jerusalem. Scholars debate how the sources fit together, and some propose more than one campaign, but the general framework is well attested.