The Siege of Jerusalem (1 of 2)

In context

About 701 BC Sennacherib of Assyria takes Judah’s fortified cities, and Hezekiah pays him silver and gold, even the gold from the temple doors (2 Kings 18:13–16); carvings of Sennacherib’s siege of Lachish, one of those cities, are in the British Museum today. Hezekiah stops up the springs outside the city and brings the water of Gihon down inside David’s city (2 Chronicles 32:3–4, 30; 2 Kings 20:20); a tunnel cut through the rock there, still walked through today, is thought to be his.

Sennacherib’s officer Rabshakeh shouts to the men on the wall in their own language, “Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh,” and the people answer not a word (2 Kings 18:26–36). Hezekiah spreads Sennacherib’s letter before the Lord and prays, “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Yahweh, are God alone” (19:14–19). That night the angel of the Lord strikes the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib goes home to Nineveh, where two of his sons kill him (19:35–37; Isaiah 37:38).

Then Hezekiah falls sick and is told he will die. He turns his face to the wall and weeps, and the Lord answers, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears,” and adds fifteen years to his life (20:1–6).