Sennacherib's campaign, in second Kings

that Hezekiah's army attacked Philistia, an ally of Assyria, and he rebelled against Sennacherib and did not serve him. Seeing his allies fall away in the Levant caused Hezekiah to attempt to buy off the Assyrians. "Withdraw from me." 2 Kings 18:13-16 begins with an overview of the invasion followed by the siege of Lachish. During the siege of Lachish, Hezekiah opened negotiations and agreed to pay tribute to the Assyrians. These verses imply that Sennacherib agreed to withdraw after payment was made. King Padi, king of Ekron would have been released by Hezekiah at this time. As said before, the Rassam Cylinder was probably massed produced when the Assyrian king needed to establish his version of events after the loss of his army. In Sennacherib's account he conveys the impression that Hezekiah gave the tribute at the conclusion of the campaign and after the subjugation of Jerusalem, which actually did not happen. The failure of Hezekiah's bribe was revealed in 2 Kings 18:17 with arrival of a large Assyrian Army headed by the three magnates, the Tartan, the Rabsaris and the Rabshakeh. Two of these men are shown in the Assyrian Lachish reliefs standing in front of Sennacherib at the siege only a few miles away from Jerusalem. (7) 2 KIngs 18:18-20 notes that King Hezekiah ordered his men not to speak to the Assyrians, probably because the Assyrian king had broken his promise to withdraw. At this point it is clear Jerusalem had not surrendered. An Assyrian palace relief from the time of Ashurbanipal shows a Calvary officer on horseback shouting or negotiating with the people of a walled city reflecting this exact scene. (8) Hezekiah's men, Eliakim, of the royal household, Shebna the scribe and Joah the recorder, Judah's highest civilian leaders stood on the wall to record what was said. The Rabshakeh spoke the words of Sennacherib, "Thus says the great king of Assyria, what is this confidence that you have?" The Rabshakeh gave the correct title of the Assyrian King and arrogantly refused to call Hezekiah king which adds authenticity to this account. " On whom do you rely?" In 2 Kings 18:19-21, Rabshakeh spoke of Egypt as weak and divided which was not true if this account was written a hundred years later when Egypt was stronger under the Saites. If the battle of Eltekeh had already happened, The Rabshakeh certainly would have mentioned it at this point. The book of Isaiah and Assyrian records are both agreed that Egypt would be no help to Judah. (9) In 2 Kings 18:22 the Rabshakeh spoke Hebrew, but he did not really understand the nuances of the religion of Judah. Not understanding the specifics of Judah's worship practices would likely be normal for a high official of the Assyrian Empire. In 2 Kings 18:23-24, the Rabshakeh mocked the size of Judah's army, stating that the Hebrews would be unable to man 2,000 Assyrian horses. Neither the Rabshakeh nor Sennacherib in his annals mention Assyrian war chariots in the Levant campaign. At that time Sennacherib 

     Notes: (7) Ta'mas Dezso, The Assyrian Army, (Infantry), p208; (8) Ta'mas Dezso, The Assyrian Army (Calvary and Chariotry, p39; (9) Isaiah 30:1-7                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2

Ivvah, are placed by scholars to be in Eastern Babylonia (21) and must be a reference to Sargon II and his campaign there in 710-709 B.C. "Who is the Lord?" In 2 Kings 18-35-37 the blasphemy of the Rabshakeh continued, and the Hebrew officials were distressed as they reported to Hezekiah. In 2 Kings 2 Kings 19:1, Hezekiah felt sorrow because of the blasphemy of Sennacherib and went to the temple to confess his own sins as shown by his wearing of sackcloth. In 2 Kings 19:2-3, Hezekiah sent a delegation also in morning, including Shebna the scribe to the prophet Isaiah, to report the words of the Assyrian king. Hezekiah used the metaphor of a woman in labor without the strength to deliver, which rings true as in Isaiah 66:7-10. In Oswalt's Commentary he states "Jerusalem must be delivered, but neither he, (Hezekiah) nor his government, or his people, have the strength to do it." (22) "The king of Assyria has sent a reproach to the living God." In 2 Kings 19, and in the corresponding verses in Isaiah 37, Oswalt says, these verses 1-7 are dealing with the blasphemy of Sennacherib and what will happen to him in the future. (23) In 2 Kings 19:6-7, Isaiah gave the second of three prophecies during the invasion of Sennacherib. The first prophecy in 2 Kings 20:6 alludes to the coming destruction of the Assyrian army. "I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My sake and for my servant David's sake." This second prophecy has two parts, that Sennacherib would hear a rumor and return to his own land, and that he would die by the sword there. In 2 Kings 19:8, the Rabshakeh returned to Sennacherib to report that Jerusalem had not surrendered. The siege of Lachish was over, and Sennacherib was then fighting at the city of Libnah. In 2 Kings 19:9a, the first part of Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled when Sennacherib heard the Egyptian army was coming out to face him. This rumor turned out to be true. Hoffmeier states that Sennacherib was caught off guard with the approach of Tirhakeh. (24) The 20-year-old Tirhakeh was not yet king at this time, but a Hebrew scribe updated the text at some point after he became king. 2 Kings 19:9b-13 concerned the new message Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah. The Rabshakeh, the Tartan and the Rab-saris were gathering the scattered Assyrian army together the face the threat from Tirhakeh and the Egyptian 

    Notes: (21) Nadiv Na'Amon, New Light on Hezekiah's Second Prophetic Story, 2 Kings 19,9b-35, p395; (22) and (23) John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39, (22) p645 and (23) p648, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; (24) James K. Hoffmeier, Egypt's Role in the Events of 701 B.C. in Jerusalem p232.

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 sense. This phrase is referring to Sargon II and his campaigns against Hamath and Arpad. These cities had been Assyrian lands for more than a hundred years with Assyrian governors. Apparently, Sargon II had devastated Assyrian lands "their lands" after a rebellion at that time in 720 B.C. (31) In 2 Kings 19:18-19, critics also say the phrase, "and have cast their gods into the fire" is not true but that the Assyrians respected the gods of other nations and did not destroy them. Natalie Naomi May states, "it was common to destroy gods but rarely admitted" (32) Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal are the most famous examples of kings who admitted to destroying gods. (33) Sargon II also stated, "I set fire to the temple of his god Haldi and desecrated his shrines." (34) Oswalt says Hezekiah's prayer is like other kings who were in deep distress such as Pharoah Sethos against Assyria and Ashurbanipal in the Elamite crises. He states the only real difference is that Hezekiah does not claim he deserves to be helped. (35) In 2 Kings 19:20-28 the prophet Isaiah gave God's response to Sennacherib. In verse 22 Sennacherib is charged with blasphemy against the Holy One of Israel. In verses 23-24 Isaiah wrote motifs from the annals of Assyrian Kings, such as "With my many chariots I came up to the highest mountains, to the remote parts of Lebanon, and cut down its forest." Also "I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and with the sole of my feet I dried up all the rivers of Egypt (Masor)." According to Josette Elayi, Egypt is a mistranslation and not a reference to the Nile at all. (36) This would mean these verses were not written after the Assyrian conquest of Egypt as some have said. Turning fortified cities into ruinous heaps is also a motif from the royal Assyrian annals. There has been much discussion by scholars about how these Assyrian phrases were transmitted to Isaiah, but that is not the focus of this paper. (37) In Isaiah 10:5-12 his God states Assyria is the rod of his anger to punish the nations for their idolatry but now that nation has gone too far with their blasphemy. In Isaiah 8:7 he predicted God will punish the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and his God repeated "Your arrogance has come up to my ears," in 2 Kings 19:28a. In 2 Kings 19:28b, Isaiah continues God's response, "I will put my hook in your nose, and I will turn you back the way which you came," (another Assyrian custom for defeated people). (38) In 2 kings 19:29-31 Isaiah prophesied three years after the invasion, life in Judah would return to normal. Despite Assyrian propaganda,

    Notes: (31) Nadav Na'Amon, A new Light on Hezekiah's Second Prophetic Story, p395; (32) Natalie Naomi May, In Order to Make Him Completely Dead, p723; (33) Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria part 2, p185 and p308; (34) Grant Frame, The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, p296, V279; (35) John Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, chapters 1-39, p652, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; (36) Josette Elayi, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, p86; (37) Shawn Z. Aster, The Transmission of the Neo-Assyrian Claims of Empire to Judah in the Late Eighth Century and Peter Machinist, Assyria and its image in First Isaiah; (38) Erie Leichty, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, p184.

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army was still intact. However, in Neo-Assyrian ideology it was important for the king to be successful in war and failure meant the king had lost the favor of the gods. (44) It would have been necessary for the king to gather what forces he could and launch a swift attack after a severe loss. This is seen in Esarhaddon's first attack against Egypt in 675-674 B.C. which failed. The Babylonian Chronicle mentioned his defeat but not his royal annals. His casualties must have been heavy but within a few months of this attack against Egypt, he successfully invaded a small country called Shubra. (45) His victory there meant to the people of Assyria that he was still the king chosen by their gods. Sennacherib achieved his quick victory over Babylon, which he must have known was unprepared for war through the Assyrian intelligence service. Sennacherib as crown prince oversaw military intelligence showing it had the highest priority to the Assyrians. (46) This sophisticated intelligence service also helped remove Hoshea last king of Israel, and almost deposed Manasseh, Hezekiah's son as well, according to 2 Kings 17:4 and 2 Chronicles 33:11. Sennacherib's enemies fled before him without putting up much of a fight, and Elayi says the results of this campaign against Babylon "were quite meager and not a great success" (47) 2 Kings 19:36 says Sennacherib king of Assyria returned home and lived at Nineveh. This verse seems to indicate that some time passed before he was killed by his sons. 2 Chronicles 32:21 adds "he returned in shame to his own land." He then began mass producing his version of events, giving the impression that both Tyre (48) and Jerusalem were conquered when in fact neither were. After Sennacherib's attack against Babylon in 700 B.C. there were no campaigns for two years. In 699-698 B.C. the Assyrians stayed home. In 697 B.C. Sennacherib claimed to have led an offensive against Mount Nipur and Ukku, but this again was only a minor campaign says Elayi. (49) In 696 B.C. his generals led a campaign against Cilicia, but Cilicia was not a major operation either. (50) However, Elayi like most scholars. does not accept the Hebrew 

    Notes: (44) Seth Richardson, Mesopotamia and the New Military History, p39-40; (45) Israel Ephal, The Stages and Aims of the Royal Historiography of Esarhaddon, p58-59; (46) Echart Frahm, Revolts in the Neo-Assyrian Period, A Preliminary Discouse Analysis, p86; (47) Josette Elayi, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, p92-93; (48) Oded Tammuz, Disintegration from Above, A Case Study of History of Southern Phoenicia and Philistia, p190; (49) and (50) Josette Elayi, Sennacherib King of Assyria, (49) p99, (50) p104.                                                                                                                                         

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 them back into the empire at the death of Hezekiah. (60) It is certain that the 12-year-old Manasseh quickly capitulated after the death of his father. This most likely happened in Esarhaddon's second year with his invasion of Philistia in 679-78 B.C. Grant Frame says it was not possible for the Babylonians to believe that Babylon could have been destroyed without the consent of the gods. (61) I believe the Babylonians were unable to process in their theology why Jerusalem was saved, and Babylon was destroyed. Because of this, they left both events out of their chronicle. Sennacherib did to Babylon what he wanted to do to Jerusalem, and in 2 Kings he undeniably wanted to make an example of Hezekiah one of his main opponents in the Levant campaign. Sennacherib destroyed the city, temples and gods of Babylon. He then refashioned the statue of the god Marduk and placed it in the temple of his god Assur in a subservient position. (62) Sennacherib attributed his greatness to the god Assur alone, and he wanted his god to be supreme god of the world. (63) The Levant operation was particularly important to him. and shortly after its conclusion, Sennacherib had the highlights of that campaign prominently carved onto the walls of his throne room and palace in 700 B.C. (64) It was Important to show his people after the loss of his army, that the Jerusalem campaign had been a success. His defeat of Egypt, the siege of Lachish and his attack on Phoenicia were all displayed there. This Assyrian king did not obey the ancient command to expand the Assyrian empire. (65) Some scholars believe he was a conservative king more interested in his building projects than enlarging the empire. I believe his army was shattered in the Jerusalem campaign and it was with great difficulty that he held his empire together. The Assyrian army was not the same after 701 B.C. and it took some years to find its footing again. The desertion rate must have been high with its mass conscription of foreign troops, and it took time to rebuild the royal army. Late in Sennacherib's reign he completely reorganized the royal army and called it the "New Corps of Sennacherib," but the reason for this change is not known. (66) He left it to his son to expand the empire. It is likely that the tomb of Shebna the scribe has been found, as mentioned in Isaiah 22:15-21. This tomb is known as the tomb of the royal steward, a position Shebna held under Hezekiah. (67) 2 Kings chapters 18-20 reads like a firsthand account because it is an 

    Notes: (60) Erie Leichty, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, p23, V54-73a; (61) Grant Frame , Babylon: A Political History 689-627 B.C, p55; (62) Hanspeter Shaudig, "Death of Statues and Rebirth of the Gods" Iconoclasm and Text Destruction in the Ancient Near East and Beyond,p134; (63) Richard Jude Thompson, Terror of the Radiance, Assur, Covenant to Yahweh Covenant, p138 and p140; (64) John Malcom Russell, Sennacherib's Palace Without Rival at Nineveh, p 256, and John Malcom Russel, The Final Sack of Nineveh, p37 and p43; (65) Richard Jude Thompson, Terror of Radiance, p139; (66) Ta'mas Dezso, The Assyrian Army, (Calvary and Chariotry) p158; (67) Ussishkin 188-202, Patterns of Evidence, "It Is Written' part 2, Ancient Inscriptions.                                                                                                                    

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    CONCLUSION  

     The Increase of augers during the reign of Sennacherib appears to indicate the Assyrians were having difficulty with epidemics or some sort of military disaster at that time. Sennacherib never mentioned his father or son again after their deaths and covered up the disaster in the Levant, like all Assyrian kings who faced unpleasant news in those days. The Hebrew record explains the extremely high numbers of troops recruited into the Assyrian army following the Levant campaign, its failures after 701 B.C. and its reorganization. It explains Assyria's greater reliance on specialists in the reign of Sennacherib and his successors, along with his failure to expand the empire. The Hebrew record also helps us to understand some of Sennacherib's psychological problems, and his motivation for giving prominence to the high points of the Levant campaign in his throne room and palace. Without a serious Assyrian reversal, it is difficult to see why Hezekiah was left in power at all. Hezekiah was not passive during the rebellion. Evidence shows that Hezekiah reconquered the city of Azekah from the Assyrians and captured the Philistine city of Timna, (76) which confirms Judah's attack on Philistia in 2 Kings 18:7-8. 2 Kings says Hezekiah captured Philistine territory as far as Gaza. After Judah's attack on Philistia, Assyria's ally, and subsequently holding hostage the king of Ekron, a loyal Assyrian vassal, it is clear from the ancient records of both countries that Hezekiah was considered one of the main leaders of the rebellion. He also had to be one of the primary targets of Assyria. Hezekiah underestimated Assyria's response, and the vast army that would soon be headed his way. "So will you be spared?" Sennacherib's letter in 2 Kings 19:10-13, shows the Assyrian king was intent on revenge against Hezekiah. This letter fits both the historical record and the Assyrian king's personality. Ultimately, Hezekiah managed to free his people from the grip of Assyria through the rest of his reign. Sennacherib left Hezekiah alone because he was unable to remove him due to circumstances beyond Assyria's control. Hezekiah of all the kings in his time, despite his mistakes, withstood Assyria at the height of her power. 2 Chronicles 32:23 states that Hezekiah "was exalted in the sight of all nations" and Jerusalem's successful resistance against the Assyrian war machine, "enhanced her status as Yahweh's chosen city." (77) Jerusalem's temporary independence from Assyria helps one to understand the reason the people of Babylon fought Sennacherib so hard, to the bitter end, to gain their freedom. It is also true the Assyrian kings destroyed the idols of Babylon and other nations, just as the prophet Isaiah seems to predict with his judgment against the nations for their idolatry in Isaiah chapter 10. Sennacherib encountered the unknown in the Levant and both he and the Babylonian priest Berossus categorized it an epidemic that stopped the Assyrian army. (78) Whatever editing that took place over time in 2 Kings 18, 19, and 20, it appears that neither the prophetic message nor the historical record, was compromised. 

     Notes: (76) Oded Tammuz, Disintegration from Above: A Case Study of History of Southern Phoenicia and Philistia, p201: (77) Elizabeth Block Smith, Assyrians Abet Israelite Cultic Reforms: Sennacherib and the Centralization of the Israelite Cult, p41; (78) Josephus, p213.   

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