Who is sennacherib king of assyria

In this weakened state, Sennacherib had no choice but to pull back 2 Kings I am sure the folks in the 46 conquered towns thought the fight was over and once Lachish fell everyone was sure Jerusalem was next.

I know I would have been tempted to think that the king was crazy to believe the only way out of this is to trust in God and I am sure that even after the Assyrians pulled out, some thought that the plague and retreat were nothing more than a happy coincidence.

Hezekiah was a godly king. He worked hard, prepared for the inevitable and trusted God. He prepared and he trusted. Then, even when all of his preparations and plans seemed to fall apart, he continued to trust God, laying out the need before the Lord.

What lessons does the Lord have for me in this? What lessons does He have for us? Oh Lord, open our eyes that we might see your work in our lives, our nation and our world, no matter what the circumstances might suggest. Hezekiah, Sennacherib and History. Looking expectantly with you, Rob. Bible Reading. Tags: Chronicles Old Testament. Sennacherib, now unhampered by any major opposing army, began his march against Judah and Jerusalem as recorded in his own royal annals and in the Bible [2 Kings —15; Isa.

The Assyrian advance had been predicted by Isaiah , who blamed the impending disaster on a lack of trust in God. It shall rise above all its channels, and flow over all its beds, and swirl through Judah like a flash flood reaching up to the neck'" Isa.

In an Assyrian royal inscription included in the Assyria to Iberia exhibition fig. I brought out of them , people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, oxen, and sheep and goats, which were without number, and I counted them as booty.

At this point Hezekiah, knowing that the Assyrian king had reached Lachish 2 Chr. Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was on hand in the House of the Lord and in the treasuries of the palace.

At that time Hezekiah cut down the doors and the doorposts of the Temple of the Lord, which King Hezekiah had overlaid [with gold], and gave them to the king of Assyria 2 Kings — It is not known why Hezekiah's tribute did not succeed in preventing further attacks. The Assyrians bore down on Lachish, battered down its walls, slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants, and impaled the bodies of its leaders on stakes outside of the city walls. Relief showing Sennacherib's siege of Lachish.

Gypsum alabaster. Assyria, Nineveh, Southwest Palace. Neo-Assyrian, — B. Jerusalem lay only 30 miles away. In advance of his forces, Sennacherib dispatched a delegation of high-level military and administrative officials to negotiate terms of surrender and remind Hezekiah that Egypt had been defeated and Judah's god would be of no help against the might of the "Great King of Assyria. The Assyrian army then advanced, surrounding the city.

I set up blockades against him and made him dread exiting his city gate. What actually happened that night is not clear. To consolidate his rule, Sennacherib went campaigning. First he secured his rear, vanquishing unrest. That done, in B. Sennacherib embarked on what he called his "third campaign. Most of the coastal cities surrendered at the mere sight of his forces. But not all kings surrendered and offered tribute.

We also have the annals of Sennacherib; reliefs found in the Assyrian city of Nineveh Iraq and remains of a siege found in Lachish Israel ; Herodotus, the Greek historian who lived in the 5th century B. A very badly frightened king.

The Assyrians describe Sennacherib's third campaign in the Annals of Sennacherib and the Rassam Cylinder, a ten-sided artifact 49 centimeters in height found in Nineveh and written in cuneiform, which among other things gloats about plunder taken during the campaign. The Assyrian sources are the oldest and most contemporary historical record of the campaign: the earliest, the Rassam cylinder dates to B.

There are some holes in the Assyrian tale. The Assyrians say Jaffa was part of the Ashkelon kingdom, but the two cities were far apart and Ashdod — run by a different king altogether - lay between them. Finally, the Assyrians claimed to have taken , captives from Judah, which sounds a tad far-fetched. Of course, the purpose of ancient record-keeping was not accuracy per se, but to convey a message.

In this case: Backed by the god Ashur, the Assyrian king overpowered rebels and subdued Judah Israel had already become part of the Assyrian provincial system under Sargon in BCE ; kings who refused to bow before them were ousted, and replaced with vassal kings. Rebellious leaders were punished horribly.

On the Judahite king:. The Assyrians portrayed King Hezekiah of Jerusalem, a principal enemy, as a coward quailing before the Assyrian might, as toothless as his god Yahweh , who failed to prevent the Assyrians from capturing 46 of his strongholds. Sennacherib sneered that Yahweh would prove to be as impotent as the gods of other lands that had already fallen 2 Kings , Isaiah Among Sennacherib's victories was the powerful Judahic city of Lachish.

In the terms of the time, that meant the gods of Assyria were mightier than the neighbors'. The Judahic version naturally cast the sparing of Jerusalem in a different light, as a proactive deed of the deity: Yahweh sent an angel who struck down , Assyrians in a single night, and Sennacherib fled 2 Kings Isaiah Up against god himself.

After the fall of Lachish, Hezekiah pays the tribute demanded by Sennacherib 2 Kings Ergo, Sennacherib continued to assail Judah after its king had capitulated 2 Kings Why would the Assyrian king do that?

The people of Judah angered Jehovah by worshipping Baal , bringing divine vengeance upon their heads 2 King Assyria was merely Yahweh's rod to administer that discipline:. And that, dear reader, could explain why Sennacherib, after taking the tribute from Hezekiah, continued to attack Judah. Yahweh made him do it. In that light, King Hezekiah's efforts to fight bolster Jerusalem's defenses, to forge military alliances against the Assyrians and finally, to buy them off, were foredoomed: only Yahweh could settle the score with the Assyrians.

But Yahweh did that very thing too, according to the Bible. Angel vs. The Bible also says , Assyrian soldiers died in one night while besieging Jerusalem. That decidedly beefy number could stem from misinterpretation of the original Hebrew. Or, did Yahweh get involved after all on the Judahic side as well?

Divine intervention in and of itself is a theme in the Old Testament Exodus , 2 Samuel The Prophet Samuel describes an angel bringing pestilence against the Israelites. Some scholars think "angel of god" is biblical euphemism for "epidemic". Others simply dismiss the verse as purely theological, and unhistorical. Alan Millard, emeritus professor of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic languages at Liverpool University, thinks that scholars who simply dismiss the account as purely theological, are simply ignorant of the attitudes of ancient people.

An Egyptian pharaoh said the god Amun overruled the winter weather that might have prevented a princess from the Hittites in Turkey from reaching Egypt. By and large the biblical and Assyrian accounts harmonize on many core events. Crucially, both accounts agree that Sennacherib did conquer Lachish, and overran almost all of Judah but not Jerusalem. Leaving gods out of it, there could be other explanations for Jerusalem and Hezekiah's survival.

Such as, mice. The Jewish historian, Josephus, writing in the 1st century C.