Chapter 1.
HOW SENNACHERIB MADE AN EXPEDITION AGAINST HEZEKIAH; WHAT
THREATENINGS RABSHAKEH MADE TO HEZEKIAH WHEN SENNACHERIB WAS GONE AGAINST
THE EGYPTIANS; HOW ISAIAH THE PROPHET ENCOURAGED HIM; HOW SENNACHERIB HAVING
FAILED OF SUCCESS IN EGYPT, RETURNED THENCE TO JERUSALEM; AND HOW UPON
HIS FINDING HIS ARMY DESTROYED, HE RETURNED HOME; AND WHAT BEFELL HIM A
LITTLE AFTERWARD.FJAJ 10.3
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.FJAJ 10.4
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)
This title of great king, both in our Bibles, 2 Kings 18:19; Isaiah 36:4,
and here in Josephus, is the very same that Herodotus gives this Sennacherib,
as Spanheim takes notice on this place.
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."FJAJ 10.5
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.FJAJ 10.6
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 be 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)
What Josephus says here, how Isaiah the prophet assured Hezekiah that "at
this time he should not be besieged by the king of Assyria; that for the
future he might be secure of being not at all disturbed by him; and that
[afterward] the people might go on peaceably, and without fear, with their
husbandry and other affairs," is more distinct in our other copies,
both of the Kings and of Isaiah, and deserves very great consideration.
The words are these: "This shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat
this year such as groweth of itself, and the second year that which springeth
of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards,
and eat the fruit thereof," 2 Kings 19:29; Isaiah 37:30; which seem
to me plainly to design a Sabbatic year, a year of jubilee next after it,
and the succeeding usual labors and fruits of them on the third and following
years.
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:
(3)
That this terrible calamity of the slaughter of the 185,000 Assyrians is
here delivered in the words of Berosus the Chaldean, and that it was certainly
and frequently foretold by the Jewish prophets, and that it was certainly
and undeniably accomplished, see Authent. Rec. part II. p. 858.FJAJ 10.7
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, (4)
We are here to take notice, that these two sons of Sennacherib, that ran
away into Armenia, became the heads of two famous families there, the Arzerunii
and the Genunii; of which see the particular histories in Moses Chorenensis,
p. 60.
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.FJAJ 10.8