Antiquities of the Jews — Book 10, Chapter 1

1. It was now the fourteenth year of the government of Hezekiah, king of
the two tribes, when the king of Assyria, whose name was Sennacherib,
made an expedition against him with a great army, and took all the
cities of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin by force; and when he was
ready to bring his army against Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to
him beforehand, and promised to submit, and pay what tribute he should
appoint. Hereupon Sennacherib, when he heard of what offers the
ambassadors made, resolved not to proceed in the war, but to accept of
the proposals that were made him; and if he might receive three hundred
talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, he promised that he would
depart in a friendly manner; and he gave security upon oath to the
ambassadors that he would then do him no harm, but go away as he came.
So Hezekiah submitted, and emptied his treasures, and sent the money, as
supposing he should be freed from his enemy, and from any further
distress about his kingdom. Accordingly, the Assyrian king took it, and
yet had no regard to what he had promised; but while he himself went to
the war against the Egyptians and Ethiopians, he left his general
Rabshakeh, and two other of his principal commanders, with great forces,
to destroy Jerusalem. The names of the two other commanders were Tartan
and Rabsaris.

2. Now as soon as they were come before the walls, they pitched their
camp, and sent messengers to Hezekiah, and desired that they might speak
with him; but he did not himself come out to them for fear, but he sent
three of his most intimate friends; the name of one was Eliakim, who was
over the kingdom, and Shebna, and Joah the recorder. So these men came
out, and stood over against the commanders of the Assyrian army; and
when Rabshakeh saw them, he bid them go and speak to Hezekiah in the
manner following: That Sennacherib, the great king, 1 desires to know of
him, on whom it is that he relies and depends, in flying from his lord,
and will not hear him, nor admit his army into the city? Is it on
account of the Egyptians, and in hopes that his army would be beaten by
them? Whereupon he lets him know, that if this be what he expects, he is
a foolish man, and like one who leans on a broken reed; while such a one
will not only fall down, but will have his hand pierced and hurt by it.
That he ought to know he makes this expedition against him by the will
of God, who hath granted this favor to him, that he shall overthrow the
kingdom of Israel, and that in the very same manner he shall destroy
those that are his subjects also. When Rabshakeh had made this speech in
the Hebrew tongue, for he was skillful in that language, Eliakim was
afraid lest the multitude that heard him should be disturbed; so he
desired him to speak in the Syrian tongue. But the general,
understanding what he meant, and perceiving the fear that he was in, he
made his answer with a greater and a louder voice, but in the Hebrew
tongue; and said, that "since they all heard what were the king's
commands, they would consult their own advantage in delivering up
themselves to us; for it is plain the both you and your king dissuade
the people from submitting by vain hopes, and so induce them to resist;
but if you be courageous, and think to drive our forces away, I am ready
to deliver to you two thousand of these horses that are with me for your
use, if you can set as many horsemen on their backs, and show your
strength; but what you have not you cannot produce. Why therefore do you
delay to deliver up yourselves to a superior force, who can take you
without your consent? although it will be safer for you to deliver
yourselves up voluntarily, while a forcible capture, when you are
beaten, must appear more dangerous, and will bring further calamities
upon you."

3. When the people, as well as the ambassadors, heard what the Assyrian
commander said, they related it to Hezekiah, who thereupon put off his
royal apparel, and clothed himself with sackcloth, and took the habit of
a mourner, and, after the manner of his country, he fell upon his face,
and besought God, and entreated him to assist them, now they had no
other hope of relief. He also sent some of his friends, and some of the
priests, to the prophet Isaiah, and desired that he would pray to God,
and offer sacrifices for their common deliverance, and so put up
supplications to him, that he would have indignation at the expectations
of their enemies, and have mercy upon his people. And when the prophet
had done accordingly, an oracle came from God to him, and encouraged the
king and his friends that were about him; and foretold that their
enemies should be beaten without fighting, and should go away in an
ignominious manner, and not with that insolence which they now show, for
that God would take care that they should be destroyed. He also foretold
that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, should fail of his purpose
against Egypt, and that when he came home he should perish by the sword.

4. About the same time also the king of Assyria wrote an epistle to
Hezekiah, in which he said he was a foolish man, in supposing that he
should escape from being his servant, since he had already brought under
many and great nations; and he threatened, that when he took him, he
would utterly destroy him, unless he now opened the gates, and willingly
received his army into Jerusalem. When he read this epistle, he despised
it, on account of the trust that he had in God; but he rolled up the
epistle, and laid it up within the temple. And as he made his further
prayers to God for the city, and for the preservation of all the people,
the prophet Isaiah said that God had heard his prayer, and that he
should not be besieged at this time by the king of Assyria 2 that for
the future he might be secure of not being at all disturbed by him; and
that the people might go on peaceably, and without fear, with their
husbandry and other affairs. But after a little while the king of
Assyria, when he had failed of his treacherous designs against the
Egyptians, returned home without success, on the following occasion: He
spent a long time in the siege of Pelusium; and when the banks that he
had raised over against the walls were of a great height, and when he
was ready to make an immediate assault upon them, but heard that
Tirhaka, king of the Ethiopians, was coming and bringing great forces to
aid the Egyptians, and was resolved to march through the desert, and so
to fall directly upon the Assyrians, this king Sennacherib was disturbed
at the news, and, as I said before, left Pelusium, and returned back
without success. Now concerning this Sennacherib, Herodotus also says,
in the second book of his histories, how "this king came against the
Egyptian king, who was the priest of Vulcan; and that as he was
besieging Pelusium, he broke up the siege on the following occasion:
This Egyptian priest prayed to God, and God heard his prayer, and sent a
judgment upon the Arabian king." But in this Herodotus was mistaken,
when he called this king not king of the Assyrians, but of the Arabians;
for he saith that "a multitude of mice gnawed to pieces in one night
both the bows and the rest of the armor of the Assyrians, and that it
was on that account that the king, when he had no bows left, drew off
his army from Pelusium." And Herodotus does indeed give us this history;
nay, and Berosus, who wrote of the affairs of Chaldea, makes mention of
this king Sennacherib, and that he ruled over the Assyrians, and that he
made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt; and says thus:

5. "Now when Sennacherib was returning from his Egyptian war to
Jerusalem, he found his army under Rabshakeh his general in danger [by a
plague], for God had sent a pestilential distemper upon his army; and on
the very first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore and five
thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed. So the king
was in a great dread and in a terrible agony at this calamity; and being
in great fear for his whole army, he fled with the rest of his forces to
his own kingdom, and to his city Nineveh; and when he had abode there a
little while, he was treacherously assaulted, and died by the hands of
his elder sons, 3 Adrammelech and Seraser, and was slain in his own
temple, which was called Araske. Now these sons of his were driven away
on account of the murder of their father by the citizens, and went into
Armenia, while Assarachoddas took the kingdom of Sennacherib." And this
proved to be the conclusion of this Assyrian expedition against the
people of Jerusalem.