Hezekiah’s Rescue from Assyria

Text: Isaiah 36-37

Sennacherib's Attack on Judah - Isaiah 36:1-3

The date for this event was the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, which would be 701 B.C. by our calendar. Sennacherib started his reign in Assyria in 705 B.C., so he had been ruling for about four years when he decided to attach Judah.

Sennacherib entered Judah's territory with a large army and methodically destroyed each of Judah's fortified cities. When only a few cities were left, he sent Rabshakeh with a large army to lay siege to Jerusalem while he continued to work on the city of Lachish.

Rabshakeh stands on a water conduit where he can be easily seen and heard to negotiate Jerusalem's surrender. Three of Hezekiah's officials, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, come to the wall to speak with Rabshakeh.

Rabshakeh's Attempt to Get the Judeans to Surrender - Isaiah 36:4-20

In Sennacherib's name, Rabshakeh claimed that Judah's confidence was useless. Their war counsels were merely talk without action. They relied on the Egyptians to help protect them, but the Egyptians abandoned them because they lacked strength. Nor could they rely on God because Hezekiah took away all the altars and told the Israelites to worship only in Jerusalem. Here, Rabshakeh makes a major mistake because he doesn't know the difference between idol worship and the worship of the one true God. He had assumed that all worship was the same.

He offers them a bargain. He will supply the Israelites with 2,000 horses if they can find 2,000 riders. But Israel usually used foot soldiers, so they would not have that many experienced riders. To Rabshakeh, this was a mark of how weak Judah's army was. In his mind, that is why Judah had relied on Egypt's chariots and horsemen. Thus, Rebshakeh declared that Judah could not repulse a minor Assyrian official like himself.

Worse, Rabshakeh claimed that God told him to attack Judah. Thus, he is only doing as their own God had directed.

Hezekiah's officials, Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah, asked Rabshakeh to speak to them in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. They understood the Assyrian language, and there was no need for the Judeans on the walls to hear his words. But Rabshakeh stated that he was there to talk to Hezekiah and all the people because they were doomed to starve because of Assyria's siege.

Rabshakeh raises his voice and declares to the men on the walls that they shouldn't let Hezekiah deceive them. Hezekiah can't rescue them. Hezekiah is trying to get the people of Judah to believe that God would rescue them. Rabshakeh offers the people of Jerusalem, who are already feeling the shortage of food because of the siege, an opportunity to surrender. He would allow them to go out to the farms and gather food to enjoy until it was time for Rabshakeh to send them off to slavery in a foreign country.

Again, Rabshakeh warns the people not to trust Hezekiah's claim that the Lord will save them. None of the other countries were saved by their gods, so he is certain that God will not deliver Jerusalem from Rabshakeh.

The Judeans Refused to Answer - Isaiah 36:21-22

There was no response to Rabshakeh's speech because Hezekiah had told his men not to answer earlier. Hezekiah's officials tore their clothes as a statement of their grief and relayed Rabshakeh's words to the king.

Hezekiah Asks Isaiah for Help - Isaiah 37:1-7

When Hezekiah was told what Rabshakeh had said, he tore his clothes. He put on sackcloth and went before the Lord in the Temple. Eliakim, Shebna, and the older priests also put on sackcloth and were sent to Isaiah with a message from Hezekiah. The distress caused by the Assyrians was like a woman in childbirth who had no strength left to complete the delivery of her child. Perhaps God heard Rabshakeh's reproachful words. Regardless, Hezekiah asked Isaiah to pray for the few Judeans who were left.

God's response through Isaiah was not to be afraid. God has certainly heard the blasphemous words Sennacherib's servants had spoken. God plans to plant a rumor that when Sennacherib hears it, he will return to Assyria. In his country, he will be killed by a sword.

Rabshakeh Tries to Press Judah Because of Rumors - Isaiah 37:8-13

Sennacherib had finished conquering Lacish and was now battling against Libnah. Rebshakeh joined him there. While there, word came that the king of Cush was coming to fight the Assyrian army. Sennacherib did not want to fight a two-front war, so he tried to quickly finish his conquering of Judah. He sent a letter to Hezekiah urging him not to trust any statement by God that Jerusalem would not be conquered by Assyria. He points out that the kings of Assyria have destroyed other nations, so why would Hezekiah think his nation would be spared? The gods of the other nations did not save their nations, nor did their mighty kings. All fell before Assyria's might.

Hezekiah Takes Sennacherib's Demands Before the Lord - Isaiah 37:14-20

After reading the letter, Hezekiah took it to the Temple and spread it out before the Lord. He then prayed to the one and only God, asking the Lord to see and hear Sennacherib's words, which had mocked God. Hezekiah acknowledges that Assyria has destroyed other nations, but those nations did not worship the true God as Judah does. He asks God to rescue Judah and honor God's name so that all will know that God is the only God.

Isaiah Brings Hezekiah's God's Answer - Isaiah 37:21-35

Isaiah sends word to Hezekiah with God's answer. He will answer because Hezekiah had prayed to Him about Sennacherib.

Assyria despised and mocked the people of Judah, but in truth, Sennacherib was blaspheming God. Through his servants, he has reproached the Lord. He thought that it was because of his might that he destroyed the forests of Lebanon, dug wells, and even dried up the rivers of Egypt. What Sennacherib didn't realize was that God had planned all of his actions long ago (remember Isaiah 2:12-22; 5:26-30; 7:17-25; 10:1-19?), including Assyria's destruction. Assyria only destroyed nations because God was using them to punish the other nations. It was God who weakened the other nations so that Assyria would win.

God knows every aspect of Sennacherib's life, and because he turned against the Lord who directed him, God would send him back the way he came. God refers to a hook in Sennacherib's nose and a bridle on his lips. This was the method Assyria used to send captives to other countries as slaves. The implication is that Sennacherib will leave, but not because he wants to.

Proof is offered to the people of Judah that the Lord's words are true. God would feed them for the next two years to give the Israelites a chance to recover from the warfare. The few who are left will quickly recover.

As for Sennacherib, he won't approach Jerusalem. He won't have a chance to shoot even one arrow, raise a shield, or build a siege ramp. Instead, he will return to Assyria. God declares that he will defend Jerusalem, not because the people deserve it, but to defend His reputation and to keep His promise to David.

The Destruction of Sennacherib and His Army - Isaiah 37:36-38

The angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight. This would be a fatal blow regardless of the size of Assyria's total strength. Remember also that Sennacherib was concerned about the rumored attack by Cush. To stay in Judah would be suicide, so Sennacherib fled back to Nineveh. Given the weakened state of his army, he did not venture down to Judah again.

Years later, he was worshiping his god, Nisroch, in the god's temple when two of his sons assassinated him with a sword and flew to Ararat. Esarhaddon then became the next Assyrian king.

Supporting Historical Evidence

See The Lachish Reliefs and Sennacherib’s Annals. Part of the text on Sennacherib’s prism is an account of his military campaign into Judah.

“As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered them by means of well-stamped earth ramps, and battering rams brought thus near to the walls combined with the attack by foot soldiers, using mines, breeches as well as sapper work. I drove out of them 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered them booty. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earth work in order to molest those who were leaving his city gates.”

But notice that he never stated that he conquered Jerusalem.

Another archeological find, the Nabonidus Stele, found in Assyria, contains Esarhaddon’s chronicles:

“In the month of Nisanu, on a favorable day, complying with their exalted command, I made my joyful entrance into the royal palace, an awesome place, wherein abides the fate of kings. A firm determination fell upon my brothers. They forsook the gods and turned to their deed of violence plotting evil. ... To gain the kinship they slew Sennacherib, their father ...”