CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE 2 Kings 18:1 to 2 Kings 20:21 Three Chapter s of Kings are devoted to the reign of good King Hezekiah. After a somewhat lengthy introduction to the reign of this king (2 Kings 18:1-12), the author discusses a political crisis (2 Kings 18:13 to 2 K... [ Continue Reading ]
I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 18:1-12 TRANSLATION (1) And it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. (2) He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine ye... [ Continue Reading ]
II. A POLITICAL CRISIS: THE ASSYRIAN INVASION OF 701 B.C. 18:13-19:37 In 701 B.C. the Assyrian king Sennacherib was able to turn his attention to the rebellious vassal in Jerusalem. It is not easy to correlate all the details of this section with Sennacherib's own account of the campaign. Some schol... [ Continue Reading ]
B. SENNACHERIB'S INITIAL SURRENDER DEMANDS 18:17-19:7 The Assyrian king was not satisfied with the tribute paid by Hezekiah. He wanted nothing less than the total surrender of Jerusalem. While he himself was engaged in military operations in the lowland region of Palestine, he sent an embassy to Je... [ Continue Reading ]