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SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 11

SENNACHERIB’S INVASION

KING SENNACHERIB’S MESSENGERS

From 2 Kings 18:17-37; 2 Chronicles 32:9-23

King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and conquered some of King Hezekiah’s fortified cities. In an effort to stop Sennacherib, Hezekiah gave him one and one-half million dollars in gold and silver, but it became clear that Sennacherib would try to conquer Jerusalem anyway. Sennacherib sent his field marshal, chief treasurer and chief of staff and they camped near Jerusalem in a field where cloth was bleached, along the highway near the conduit of the upper pool. They called for King Hezekiah to come out to see them, but instead the king sent his household steward Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, his secretary Shebnah and his recorder Asaph. [Give this message to King Hezekiah,] Sennacherib’s chief of staff told the men. [This is what the great king of Assyria says to your king, ‘Where do you get the confidence to rebel against me? Are mere promises of help enough to cause you to turn against me? If you are depending on Egypt, you will find her nothing but a stick which will break and pierce your hand. You can’t depend on Egypt’s Pharaoh. Or are you depending on your Adonai to help you? Don’t forget that He is the One Whose altars and high places you have destroyed in other places, so that everyone would come to worship in Jerusalem. I’ll make you an offer. Surrender to me and I’ll give you two thousand horses provided you can find that many men to ride on them! How can you stand against a single one of my captains, even the least important one, with such a weak force as you have? It will not help you either, to depend on Egypt for horses and chariots. And do you think I came against you in my own strength alone? No! Adonai Himself told me to come to your land and destroy it.’] Then Hezekiah’s officials said to the Assyrians, [Please speak to us in Aramaic instead of Hebrew, for we understand it. We would rather not have the people who are on the wall hear our conversation.] The Assyrian chief of staff answered, [Do you think I came here to speak only to you? My king has sent me to speak also to your people who are on the walls, for they are doomed with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine.] Then the Assyrian chief of staff stood up and called in a loud voice in Hebrew to the people on the wall. [Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria] he said. [Don’t let Hezekiah give you false confidence by telling you that Adonai will deliver you and your city from the king of Assyria. Don’t listen to Hezekiah. If you surrender, you may live here in peace in your own homes until the king of Assyria takes you to another land like this one, a land of grain and wine, food and vineyards, olive oil and honey. You will live there instead of dying here. Don’t listen to Hezekiah when he tells you that Adonai will deliver you. Where were the gods of other nations when the king of Assyria came? Did they deliver their people? Where were the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? Did any of the gods deliver Samaria? Has any god delivered its land from the power of the king of Assyria? How then can you expect Adonai to deliver Jerusalem from my hand?] But the people on the wall remained silent, for King Hezekiah had ordered them not to answer. Then Hezekiah’s officials, Eliakim, Shebna and Joah, brought the message from the Assyrian chief of staff, coming to him with their clothes torn in grief. The officers of the Assyrian king had insulted not only King Hezekiah; they had insulted Adonai as well.

COMMENTARY

SENNACHERIB’S CAMPAIGN TO PHOENICIA, PHILISTIA AND JUDAH

Soon after Sennacherib came to the throne of Assyria, he was threatened by an old enemy of his father. Merodach-baladan, a Chaldean from southern Babylonia, revolted and seized the throne of Babylon from Assyria. In 703 B.C. Sennacherib launched a campaign against Merodach-baladan and defeated him. In the meantime, Merodach-baladan’s revolt caused an anti-Assyrian alliance to form for the purpose of revolting also. This included Ammon, Moab, Edom, Tyre, Palestine and the Bedouin. The Assyrians arrived on the Mediterranean coast to crush the revolt early in 701 B.C. Sennacherib dethroned the king of the Sidonians, though he bypassed the region’s major city, Tyre, as he captured other Phoenician cities. The kings of Ammon, Moab, Edom and Phoenicia hastened to pay homage to the emperor. Proceeding through Phoenicia to Philistia, Sennacherib defeated the rebellious cities of Ashkelon, Beth-dagon and Joppa. On their way to Ekron, the Assyrians met Egyptian forces in the Valley of Eltekah. The Egyptian defeat there sounded an end to opposition on the coast. Sennacherib now turned his attention to Judah. Assyrian forces captured forty-six of Judah’s walled cities. Thousands of captives were deported. Lachish and Libnah in the south surrendered after cruel sieges and Jerusalem was surrounded. Hezekiah decided to submit. According to Assyrian records, Sennacherib demanded forty gold talents and eight hundred silver talents in tribute, as well as precious stones, ivory furniture, Hezekiah’s daughters and courtiers and the king of Ekron. The Bible mentions only three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. The tribute did not satisfy Sennacherib, who then demanded Jerusalem’s surrender. But the news that Merodach-baladan was back in Babylonia provoked Sennacherib’s decision to return east when a terrible disease attacked his army, killing one hundred and eighty-five thousand men. The Assyrians retreated, arriving in Nineveh still as victors, bringing spoil and promises of greater tribute. Assyrian records make no reference to the result of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. Sennacherib turned west only one more time - to quiet restless Arabians. Judah continued as an independent country for more than a century longer, having survived against all odds.

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