Lives of Scripture

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded Judah in Hezekiah's fourteenth year, capturing all its fortified cities; Hezekiah initially tried to buy him off with a heavy tribute, stripping gold even from the temple doors, but Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem anyway (2 Kings 18:13-16). He sent his field commander Rabshakeh with a large force to demand the city's surrender, delivering a speech in Hebrew designed to terrify the population directly, mocking Hezekiah's trust in Egypt and, most seriously, equating the LORD with the defeated gods of other nations Assyria had already conquered -- 'who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem?' (18:19-35). Hezekiah brought the letter containing this threat directly into the temple and spread it before the LORD in prayer, and sought out the prophet Isaiah, who promised Sennacherib would fail and 'return to his own land' (19:1-7, 14-19). That night, 'the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians,' and Sennacherib withdrew to Nineveh in disgrace (19:35-36). There, some time later, while worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, Sennacherib was assassinated by two of his own sons, who then fled, and another son, Esarhaddon, reigned in his place (19:37) -- an empire's arrogance against the living God ending in humiliation and betrayal within his own household.