Sennacherib Besieges Jerusalem
Sennacherib takes the fortified cities of Judah one after another and sends his field commander to Jerusalem, who conducts the negotiation in Hebrew, deliberately, so the men on the wall can hear. The speech is skilled propaganda: your allies are useless, your God is no different from the gods of the cities I have already taken, and Hezekiah is deceiving you.
Hezekiah takes the letter into the temple and spreads it out, and Isaiah sends back an oracle of contempt for the Assyrian's boasting. The siege is lifted after a catastrophe in the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib is later murdered by two of his sons.
The episode is unusually well documented from the other side. Sennacherib's own annals, recorded on clay prisms, claim he shut Hezekiah up like a caged bird in Jerusalem — and conspicuously do not claim to have taken the city.
Where in scripture
[13] Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. [14] Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, “I have offended you. Return from me. That which you put on me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. [15] Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house. [16] At that time, Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of Yahweh’s temple, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. …
2 Kings 18:13–37 — opening verses
[1] When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. [2] He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. [3] They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them. [4] It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” [5] So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. …
2 Kings 19:1–37 — opening verses
[1] After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and intended to win them for himself. [2] When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that he was planning to fight against Jerusalem, [3] he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city, and they helped him. [4] So, many people gathered together and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the middle of the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find abundant water?” …
2 Chronicles 32:1–23 — opening verses
[1] Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. [2] The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. [3] Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. [4] Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust? [5] I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? …
Isaiah 36:1–22 — opening verses
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
