2 Kings 18 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

18:1 Hezekiah . . . began to reign. With the fall of Samaria and the incorporation of much of Syria and Palestine into the Assyrian Empire, only Judah was left as a relatively independent remnant of what had been Israel. Although Ahaz’s son Hezekiah attained regal status just a few years before the end of the northern kingdom (727 BC), he was not yet sole ruler of the kingdom; his 14th year in v. 13 is in fact correlated with Sennacherib of Assyria’s invasion of Judah in 701 BC, implying a sole accession date of 714 BC and a period of coregency with Ahaz from 727–714 BC.

18:4 high places. See notes on 1Ki 3:2; 11:7. Even the most righteous of Judahite kings thus far had always failed to remove the “high places” (man-made structures, sometimes located on mountain tops or on raised platforms, within which or upon which cultic acts were performed), and the possibility always existed, therefore, that they would become focal points for the kind of slide from true worship of Yahweh into apostasy that occurred during the reign of Ahaz (cf. 16:4). Hezekiah now appears as the one who addresses this issue, although it is not clear from the evidently generalized and perhaps hyperbolic language of the text what this closure of the high places might have looked like “on the ground” in terms of its severity and geographic extent. sacred stones . . . Asherah poles. See notes on 1Ki 14:23; Dt 7:5.

18:13 Sennacherib . . . attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. After Sargon II’s death in 705 BC, the new Assyrian king Sennacherib (705–681 BC) was involved in a campaign in southern Mesopotamia (703–702 BC) against the erstwhile king of Babylon Marduk-apla-iddina II (Biblical Marduk-Baladan), who was leading a revolt there in renewed pursuit of his own royal claims. It was only after dealing with this closer threat that Sennacherib was able to turn his attention to Syria and Palestine (in 701 BC). The rebellion there quickly collapsed, according to Assyrian records, and Hezekiah found himself without effective allies and without fortresses.

18:14 Lachish. One of the most important cities in Judah, it guarded a main route from the coastal plain to the Hebron hills (see note on 14:19), and it received particular attention from Sennacherib during this campaign. The main Assyrian attack was carried out in the southwest corner of the city—the only part of the city not protected by a deep valley—where a siege ramp of boulders was erected to allow the approach of the Assyrian forces. The city was eventually captured and burned to the ground.

18:14–16 Sennacherib’s records report that Hezekiah paid about 30 talents (1 ton or 0.9 metric tons) of gold and 800 talents of silver (3 tons or 2.7 metric tons). Assyrian texts are more detailed, specifying a wide variety of persons and objects.

18:17 sent his supreme commander, his chief officer and his field commander. While still besieging Lachish and having apparently decided after all not to accept Hezekiah’s attempt to persuade him to withdraw (vv. 14–15), Sennacherib sent an army to Jerusalem to pressure Hezekiah into a full surrender. We have an analogy to the practice of besieging a major city while continuing operations elsewhere in the surrounding region in Tiglath-Pileser III’s campaigns in Syria in 743–740 BC. supreme commander. The turtanu (Hebrew tartan), one of two persons in the Assyrian army with this title who often led campaigns on behalf of the emperor. chief officer. The rab-saris (lit. “chief eunuch”), who was often dispatched on campaigns at the head of Assyrian forces; the title does not necessarily indicate that he himself was physically a eunuch. field commander. The rab-shakeh (lit. “chief cupbearer”) did not normally take part in military campaigns, but he would have accompanied the emperor as a personal attendant. His presence in this delegation is no doubt to be explained in terms of his linguistic abilities, as he spoke the local language. He may well himself have been of Aramean or Israelite origin, for although his first speech in vv. 19–35 reveals many parallels with the Neo-Assyrian annals, he clearly not only knew the local language, but also displayed good knowledge of Judahite customs.

18:18 palace administrator . . . secretary . . . recorder. Three of the most important of the Judahite officials went out to parley with the three Assyrian officials. palace administrator. See note on 10:5. secretary. In charge of royal correspondence and, as such, was a royal counselor. recorder. Also a royal counselor, somewhat akin to a modern secretary of state but absorbing also the role of the king’s official spokesman.

18:21 Egypt. The Assyrian push to the Mediterranean in pursuit of sea trade, begun with the campaigns of Tiglath-Pileser III, inevitably brought Assyria into conflict with Egypt. Throughout the later eighth and early seventh centuries BC, the kingdoms in Syria and Palestine often looked to Egypt for help in resisting the Assyrians. Hoshea of northern Israel had sought military support against the Assyrians from “So King of Egypt” just prior to the fall of Samaria (17:4), and in 712 BC it was to Egypt that the rebel ruler of the city of Ashdod fled when all was lost: “When Yamani heard about the advance of my [Sargon II’s] expedition . . . he fled into the territory of Egypt . . . and his hiding-place could not be detected.” In 701 BC, Hezekiah also looks to Egypt for help.

18:26 Please speak . . . in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of the Assyrian Empire west of the Euphrates and would have been understood by the educated royal officials, but not by the ordinary people on the city wall. The Assyrians are trying to appeal to the people over the heads of their rulers, however, and so their choice of Hebrew is understandable. They want the people to be fully aware of the hopelessness of their situation and the consequences of a long siege (they will “eat their own excrement and drink their own urine,” v. 27). Perhaps the people will even turn on their leaders.