Thematic Bible: Besieged by


Thematic Bible



In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. So Hezekiah king of Judah sent [word] to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. What you impose on me I will bear." So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Then Hezekiah gave all of the silver found [in] the temple of Yahweh and in the storerooms of the house of the king. read more.
At that time, Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of Yahweh and the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria sent the commander in chief, the chief eunuch, and the {chief advisor} from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with a heavy army. They went up and came [to] Jerusalem, then they went up and came and stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool which is on the main road of the {washer's} field. Then they called to the king, so Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who [was] over the palace, Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came out to them. Then the chief advisor said to them, "Please say to Hezekiah: 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: "What [is] this confidence that you trust? You think only a word of lips, '[I have] advice and power for the war.' Now, on whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me? Now, look! You {rely} on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [when] a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it! So [is] Pharaoh the king of Egypt for all who are trusting on him! But if you say to me, 'On Yahweh our God we trust,' [is] it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and he had said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'In the presence of this altar you shall bow down [only] in Jerusalem?' So then, please make a wager with my lord, with the king of Assyria, and I will give to you a thousand horses {if you are able on your part to put riders on them.} How {can you repulse a single captain among the least of the servants of my master}? [Yet] you rely for yourself on Egypt for chariots and horsemen! Have I now come up against this place without Yahweh to destroy it? Yahweh has said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'" '" Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the chief commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we [are] understanding, but you must not speak Judean with us in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall." The chief commander said to them, "Is it [solely] to your master and to you my master has sent me to speak these words? [Is] it not for the men who sit on the wall to eat their feces and to drink their urine with you?" Then the chief commander stood and called with a great voice in Judean, and he spoke and said, "Hear the word of the king, the great king of Assyria! Thus says the king, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to rescue you from my hand. Do not let Hezekiah [make you] trust in Yahweh, saying, "Certainly Yahweh will rescue us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!" ' Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make with me a treaty of peace and come out to me that each [may] eat [from] his vine and each [from] his fig tree, and each [may] drink water [from] his cistern! Until I come and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees, olive oil, and honey, that [you may] live and not die! You must not listen to Hezekiah, for he has misled you [by] saying, "Yahweh will deliver us!" Did the gods of each of the nations ever rescue the land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where [are] the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? For did they rescue Samaria from my hand? Who among all of the gods of the countries have rescued their countries from my hand that Yahweh should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?'" The people were silent, and they did not answer him a word, for the command of that king was saying, "You shall not answer him." Eliakim the son of Hilkiah who was over the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah [with] torn clothes, and they told him the words of the chief commander.

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'What you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard. This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion. Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem shakes [her] head. Whom have you mocked and reviled? And against whom have you have raised [your] voice and have haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel! read more.
By the hand of your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, 'With my many chariots I have gone up [to] the height of the mountains. [To] the remote areas of Lebanon, I have felled the tallest of its cedars, the choicest of its cypresses. I have entered the place of overnight lodging. Even [to] the edge of forest of its fertile land. I dug [wells] and I drank foreign water, and I dried up with the sole of my steps all the canals of Egypt.' Have you not heard? From long ago I have determined it, from the days of old I have planned it, and now I am bringing it to pass. It shall be turned into a pile of rocks; fortified cities are ruined. Their inhabitants, short of hand, shall be dismayed; and they shall be ashamed. They have become green plants of the open field, and tender grass, green grass of the roof and blight before the standing grain. Your sitting, your going out, and your coming [in] I know, and your raging against me. Because you are raging against me, and your arrogance has come up in my ears, I will put my nose ring in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. And I will turn you back on the way that you have come. " 'This will be the sign for you: Eat the volunteer plants for the year, and in the second year, the volunteer plants that spring up from that. But [in] the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The remainder of the house of Judah which survives will again [take] root below and bear fruit above. For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh will do this. " 'Therefore thus says Yahweh to the king of Assyria, "He shall not come to this city, nor shall he shoot an arrow there, nor shall he bring a small shield near her, nor shall he cast a siege ramp against her. By the way that he came to her he shall return; but to this city, he shall not come," declares Yahweh. And I will defend this city to save her for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.'" It happened in that night that an angel of Yahweh went out, and he struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. When they got up early in the morning, look! All of them [were] dead corpses. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria set out and went and returned and lived in Nineveh. It happened that he [was] worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword. Then they escaped [into] the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

And Yahweh stirred up the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who [were] {near} the Cushites against Jehoram. And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions found in the house of the king, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz his youngest son.

Then Rezin the king of Aram went up [with] Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel against Jerusalem for battle, and they besieged Ahaz but were not able to {defeat} him. Verse ConceptsActual Attacks On JerusalemList Of Kings Of Israelsyria