2 Chronicles 32:9-16 After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (but he himself laid siege against Lachish… I. SENNACHERIB'S ENCAMPMENT AT LACHISH. Fifteen or eighteen hours west-south-west of Jerusalem, in the low country of Judah, on the confines of Philistia, fourteen miles north-east of Gaza, Lachish (see on 2 Chronicles 11:9; 2 Chronicles 25:27) - on the monuments Lakis - according to a slab in the British Museum, was a walled town with towers and battlements, whose power of resistance was so great as to demand a protracted siege. 1. Sennacherib's route thither. From the north - not by the military road through Nazareth, Jezreel, Sichem, Bethel, At, Michmash, Geba, Rama, Gibeah, Anathoth, Nob (Isaiah 10:28-32), Sargon's route (Sayce, 'Fresh Light,' etc., p. 137), but by Sidon, Akko, Joppa, Bene-berak, Beth-dagon, Ekron, and Ashdod (Schrader, p. 386). 2. Sennacherib's employment there. (1) Besieging Lachish. Sennacherib's annals furnish no account of this siege; but some sculptured slabs in the British Museum represent a large city "defended by double walls, with battlements and towers and by fortified outworks," for the capture of which Sennacherib brought up his whole army, "and raised against the fortifications as many as ten banks or mounts, completely built of stones, bricks, earth, and branches of trees" (Layard, 'Nineveh and Babylon,' p. 149). That this was Lachish is rendered probable by the circumstance that one of these slabs depicts the capture of Lachish, the inscription reading, "Sennacherib, the king of multitudes, the King of Assyria, sat on an upright throne, and the spoil of the city of Lachish passed before him" (ibid., p. 150). "The besieged defended themselves with great determination, thronged the battlements and towers, showering arrows, javelins, stones, and blazing torches upon the assailants," while the Assyrians "poured water with large ladies upon the flaming brands which threatened to destroy their engines" (ibid., p. 149). The stubborn resistance of Lachish no doubt delayed the advance of Sennacherib's whole force against Jerusalem ('Records,' etc., 1:35). (2) Receiving Hezekiah's submission. Hezekiah had rebelled against the Assyrian supremacy in the days of Shalmaneser (2 Kings 18:7), but had again been placed under it by Sargon. On Sargon's assassination ( B.C. 705) the kings of Sidon, Ascalon, and Judah formed an alliance with Egypt and Ethiopia to once more break the oppressive yoke of Assyria. The league was joined by the Ekronites, against the will of Padi their prince, who remained faithful to Assyria, and whom they "placed in chains of iron, and unto Hezekiah King of Judah delivered," who "shut him up in darkness (or prison)." Before the allies could unite their forces, Sennacherib appeared upon the scene, having obtained a hint of the confederacy being formed against him. First he swooped down upon Luliah the King of Sidon, who fled to a distant spot in the middle of the sea, leaving to the mercy of the conqueror "his strong cities and castles, walled and fenced, and his finest garrison towns." Next the kings of Samaria, Sidon, Arvad, Gubal, Ashded, Beth-Ammon, Moab, and Edom, hastened to meet the invader with "great presents," and kiss his feet. Zedek of Ascalon, who, along with Judah, still stood out, was, with his wife, sons, daughters, brothers, and gods, apprehended and deported to Assyria. At Lachish a halt was made to await the Ethiopian and Assyrian kings, who were soon after defeated at Altaku, the Eltekon of Joshua 15:59. Dreading the fate he saw approaching, Hezekiah despatched an embassy to Lachish, proffering submission, and agreeing to pay whatever tribute might be asked (2 Kings 18:14). Sennacherib demanded three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. The monuments give the tribute as eight hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold, and state that it was sent to Nineveh after Sennacherib, with "woven cloth, scarlet, embroidered; precious stones of large size, couches of ivory, movable thrones of ivory, skins, and teeth of buffaloes - all sorts of treasures, his (Hezekiah's) daughters, the male and female inmates of his palace, as also male and female slaves." The discrepancy as to the number of silver talents may be explained by supposing different standards of value to have been employed in reckoning, while the biblical account of the place to which the tribute was sent is clearly to be preferred. In order to pay the exaction Hezekiah appropriated all the silver in the temple, and the treasures in the palace, as well as stripped the gold from off the doors and pillars of the former (2 Kings 18:15, 16). ('Records,' etc., 1:33, etc.; Smith, 'Assyrian Discoveries,' p. 295, etc.; Schrader, 'Die Keilinschriften,' p. 291, etc.; Sayce, 'Fresh Light,' etc., p. 139, etc.) II. SENNACHERIB'S COMMISSION TO HIS GENERALS. These generals were three in number. 1. Their titles. (1) Tartan. In Assyria, tur-ta-nu, commander-in-chief, or field-marshal (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 20:1). (2) Rabsaris, "chief of the eunuchs" (2 Kings 18:17), probably Sennacherib's lord chamberlain, whose duty was to act as official scribe. (3) Rabshakeh, "chief of the cup-bearers" (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 36:2). As the inscriptions never speak of this court official as a military personage, it has been suggested (Schrader, p. 319) that Rabshakeh is a Hebraized or Aramaized form of Rabsak, meaning "upper chief, superior officer," perhaps Sennacherib's prime minister. Tiglath-Pileser II. had a general of this name, whom he sent to Tyre (Smith's 'Assyrian Discoveries,' p. 264). The Rabshakeh was obviously the orator of Sennacherib's three (2 Kings 18:19). The tartan was most likely too exalted a personage to hold either oral or written communications with the king's enemies. 2. Their commission. To advance, with a detachment of the army, against Jerusalem, with the view of intimidating it into surrender; failing in this, to prosecute against it a siege. Sennacherib was most likely moved to this by the report of the approach of the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia; before encountering these, it was clearly to his advantage to reduce both Ekron and Jerusalem. III. SENNACHERIB'S ADDRESS TO THE KING AND INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM. Not delivered in person, but through "his servants" (ver. 9), and in particular Rabshakeh (2 Kings 18:19; Isaiah 36:2-4). Nor spoken directly to Hezekiah and his people, but to Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the household, i.e. the king's high steward (Isaiah 22:20), to Shebna the scribe, or king's secretary, who had lately been deposed from the office of high steward (Isaiah 22:15-19) because of favouring the interest of Assyria, and to Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder, or king's annalist. Standing by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, where Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub had met with Ahaz when the Syro-Israelitish invasion was threatened (Isaiah 7:3), and where the Assyrian army was now encamped, over against the Gennath Gate, in front of which the envoys of Hezekiah stood, while the inhabitants crowded round it and even sat upon the city wall, observing the scene (Isaiah 22:1-13), - Rabshakeh, in the name of his master, called upon the king and his subjects to surrender, using the Hebrew tongue, that the inhabitants might understand, and becoming alarmed, induce their rulers to submit. The points in Rabshakeh's harangue, considerably shortened by the Chronicler, were two. 1. That the hope of deliverance held out by Hezekiah was a delusion. If their confidence was based upon expected assistance from Egypt, they would soon know that Pharaoh was "a bruised reed, upon which, if a man leant, it would go into his hand and pierce it" (2 Kings 18:21); if it was Jehovah to whom Hezekiah was persuading them to turn their gaze (ver. 11; cf. 2 Kings 18:22; Isaiah 36:7), that source of succour would prove as little satisfactory. (1) Because it was not likely Jehovah would extend aid to one who had so openly insulted him as Hezekiah had done by taking away his high places and altars, and commanding all Jerusalem and Judah to worship at one altar (ver. 12). Either the fame of Hezekiah's reformation had travelled to Nineveh, or Sennacherib had heard of it since coming into the country. if he had not learnt of it from Sargon his father. But Sennacherib either wilfully, or most likely ignorantly, misrepresented Hezekiah's action as one that would rather cause him to forfeit than gain the Divine favour. So the best deeds of men are often misunderstood, and their good conversation falsely accused by others who speak against them as evildoers (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:16). (2) Because, even although Jehovah did extend aid to Hezekiah, it would come to nothing. Jehovah would prove as powerless as the gods of other nations had done. Not one of these had been able to oppose the resistless march of Sennacherib and his predecessors on the Assyrian throne, or to deliver from destruction the peoples that served them; and if these had failed to render effectual aid to their devotees, much more would Jehovah fail in protecting his (vers. 13-15; cf. 2 Kings 18:33-35; Isaiah 36:11-13). Sennacherib forgot, as Sargon had done before him, that the power of himself and his fathers over the nations and their gods arose from this - that Assyria was the rod of Jehovah's anger (Isaiah 10:5-19), and that whensoever Jehovah pleased he could cause the Assyrian, who smote with a rod, to be beaten down (Isaiah 30:31). 2. That their resistance would entail upon them all the horrors of a siege. They would certainly perish by famine and by thirst (ver. 11), if not by the sword, since their escape was impossible. Neither Sennacherib nor his generals guessed the resources of the God of Judah; had they done so, their attitude would have been less defiant and their language less confident. Events were to teach them that what was impossible for man was both possible and easy for God. Learn: 1. The presumption of some wicked men. 2. The impotence of all heathen gods. 3. The supremacy of the one living and true God. 4. The security of those whom Jehovah defends. - W. Parallel Verses KJV: After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (but he himself laid siege against Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying, |
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