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Quotations from the Hebrew Bible follow the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise indicated.

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Aerial view of the Temple Mount, looking northwest (photo Samuel Magal).

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8. The Kingdom of Judah as an Assyrian Tributary

For close to a quarter century, ever since ascending the throne in 727 BCE, Hezekiah succeeded in preserving the semi-independence of the kingdom of Judah vis-à-vis the Assyrian empire. Judah's status as a vassal had been initiated by his father Ahaz in response to the pressure by neighboring Samaria and Damascus to join an anti-Assyrian coalition (cf. 2Ki 16:7; Isa 7:1-9). Rather than risk the consequences of rebellion, Ahaz chose to submit to Tiglath-
pileser III. Submission meant the payment of yearly tax and tribute, and maintaining political loyalty to Assyria, in particular, the forfeiture of an independent foreign policy. These onerous and confining requirements put Hezekiah's skill as a statesman to the test throughout his three decades on the throne, and more than once it appears that he was of two minds.

The monarchy in Assyria changed hands three times during the years of Hezekiah's rule: in the winter of 727/26, when
Shalmaneser V took the throne on the death of Tiglath-pileser III; five years later, in the winter of 722/21, when Sargon II replaced Shalmaneser V; and in 705, when Sennacherib ascended the throne following Sargon's death. At each of these junctures many of Assyria's subjects rebelled to their eventual discomfiture. Therefore, it would not be in error to think that Hezekiah, like the others, faced the question of rebellion at times of transition in Assyria, weighing his chances for success against the powerful imperial forces. Unfortunately, the extant sources are minimal, leaving us only with speculation as to how Hezekiah navigated the ever-shifting political upheavals he encountered.

The first challenge to Hezekiah's Assyrian policy passed without incident. The year was 727, the year of his accession to the throne following the death of Ahaz; it was also the year in which Tiglath-pileser III died. The prophet Isaiah commented on the unrest that the demise of the Assyrian king had created in Philistia, and his words sent a clear message to his Judean audience:

In the year that King Ahaz died this oracle came:

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
 that the rod that struck you is broken,

for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
 and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent. (Isa 14:28-29)

Tiglath-pileser III's passing was not a time for celebration, for this snake that had bitten them will surely be followed by poisonous offspring! The message rang clear, and Hezekiah, a new and untried ruler, seems to have considered it prudent to remain submissive to Assyria, at least for the time being. The ensuing five-year reign of Shalmaneser V, which is for the most part undocumented, passed quietly for Judah. Hezekiah certainly took note of Samaria's failed attempt at rebellion against Assyria that led to the invasion and capture of the northern kingdom of Israel (cf. 2Ki 17:1-6; 18:9), and the lesson learnt was that the time was not ripe for rebellion.

From a relief in the palace of Sargon II at Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad) with the epigraph: “I flayed Yau-bi'di of Hamath”
(P. E. Botta-E. Flandin, Monument de Ninive, II, Paris 1849, Plate 120).

The next moment of decision for Hezekiah occurred in the winter of 722/21, during which the unexpected death of Shalmaneser V destabilized Assyria both at home and abroad. Sargon II—apparently of royal blood, but not in the line of succession—seized the throne and fought to establish his rule in Assyria. Sargon faced strong internal opposition and he boasts of his gracious pardoning of “6,300 guilty Assyrians”—those who had opposed him. Rather than executing such a large group of native Assyrians, he had them resettled in northern Syria. In the south, Babylon broke away from Assyria and came under the rule of the Chaldean Merodach-baladan, and in the western reaches of the empire, rebellion had reached serious dimensions; under the leadership of Yau-bi'di of Hamath, provinces and vassal kingdoms rose up and “killed the citizens of Assyria who were present” in their region. Among the rebel areas, Sargon listed: Arpad, Ṣimirra, Damascus and Samaria; and there were others as well, for example, Gaza on the Philistine coast broke from Assyria and won the support of Shabaka, the Cushite ruler of Egypt, who sent armed forces to Philistia.

It is clear that retaking the West was vital for the continuation of the empire. In 720, after being forced into a military stalemate with Babylon, Sargon marched west. He overcame the insurgents in north and central Syria on the historic battlefield of Qarqar on the Orontes River, where in the mid-ninth century a western coalition had stopped Shalmaneser III's advance. Sargon deported Yau-bi'di of Hamath, his family and court to Assyria, where the rebel leader was summarily punished by flaying. By these moves, Assyria reasserted its hegemony over the northern territories.

During this western campaign of 720, the kingdom of Israel came to its final end. Though Samaria had been conquered by Shalmaneser V two years earlier, the death of the Assyrian king had halted the process of converting Samaria into an Assyrian province. Sargon seems to have won an easy victory, following which he deported 27,290 inhabitants from the territory of Samaria and brought foreign settlers to the newly established province of Samerina (Samaria).A A contingent of 200 Israelite charioteers were mobilized and attached to Sargon's personal guard (see The Raging Torrent, Text no. 5.02).

Throughout all this upheaval, nothing is heard of Judah and whether it was a party to the insurrections. It may be that Hezekiah was a holdout, who chose caution rather than rebellion. Yet there is reason to suspect that this is not the full picture. To the north and to the west, Judah was surrounded by provinces and kingdoms in rebellion against Assyria. Besides, Sargon was not the designated heir to the throne and the transfer of loyalty to a usurper was not an established principle. With all due caution, one may suggest that Hezekiah was involved in the rebellion against Sargon at this juncture. In an inscription written in 717, three years after Sargon's western campaign, Sargon claims to being “the subduer of the land of Judah, whose place is far off” (The Raging Torrent, Text no. 5.07). For sure, the term “subduer” is equivocal; in Assyrian inscriptions it is used both for kingdoms who submitted after battle, as well as for those who choose to submit without a fight. In addition, though the text of Sargon's annal inscription is broken at this point in time, it has been suggested that the missing lines might have included a report on Judah's rebellion and some have even speculated what report these missing lines might have told us. Thus, while we cannot be sure, one should not rule out Hezekiah's complicity in the uprisings against Sargon. Whatever the case, for now, Judah did not suffer the devastating consequences that befell Samaria. Samaria had rebelled and lost; Judah continued on as an Assyrian vassal.

The next opportunity for Hezekiah to free Judah from its ties to Assyria came later in the same decade, during the rebellion against Sargon that broke out in Ashdod in 713-712. Judah was implicated in the surreptitious negotiations led by Yamani of Ashdod who sought to build a southern coalition opposed to Assyrian heavy-handed supervision of the coastal trade in Philistia. An annalistic text from Nineveh reports:

(They [the Ashdodites] sent) seditious words and slander to the k[ings] of Philistia, Judah, Ed[om,] Moab, (and) the residents of the sea(coast), who bear the tax and gifts of the god Ashur, my lord, to make them hostile towards me. They sent bribes to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, a king who cannot save them, to seek his aid. (The Raging Torrent, Text No. 5.08).

Again, though it is nowhere stated that Hezekiah supported this move, a fragmentary Assyrian text, which resembles a composition known as Sargon's “Letter to the god Ashur,” reports on the attack against the Judean fortress of Azekah during Hezekiah's reign (The Raging Torrent, Text No. 5.10). If this text is indeed dated to the reign of Sargon, as it looks, then it may be related to the Assyrian campaign in 712; it attests to the fact that Hezekiah had indeed been a partner to the Ashdod rebellion, and as a result, he suffered the loss of a major city in the Shephelah that likely forced him to surrender, just in time to save Judah from further punishment.

These losses should have been a lesson for Hezekiah concerning Assyria's seriousness with regard to control of the trade routes that ran through the Land of Israel; yet it seems that it was a lesson only partially learnt. For as it turned out, Judah's king did not give up all thought of freeing himself from tax and tribute payments. Less than a decade later, Judah was again in a state of rebellion, this time with Hezekiah as the ostensive head of an area-wide uprising (see below).

Back A. This is the Assyrian name of the province that reflects the Aramaic pronunciation Shamarayin, also known from Ezr 4:10.

9. The Rebellion against Assyria in 705-701 BCE

The Background

The year 705 was a fateful year for Assyria and all those who were subject to the empire. During an Assyrian campaign to Anatolia, Sargon was killed in battle in Tabal; his death and the fact that his body was not recovered suggested to many in the empire that Assyria's power had weakened.A The circumstances seemed right to throw off vassal bonds. In the west, Hezekiah, together with other neighboring kingdoms—among them Tyre, Ashkelon and Ekron—withheld recognition of Sennacherib, Sargon's son and heir. And at first, this seditious step must have looked like it would succeed, for it took Sennacherib four years to mount a campaign to regain control of the Mediterranean coast and the Land of Israel. This he did in 701 BCE.

A royal dedicatory inscription on stone from the temple of the goddess PTGYH, “queen of Ekron,” built by Akayus/Ikausu, son of Padi, king of Ekron; early seventh century BCE (on display at the Israel Museum; photo Oren Rozen, via Wikimedia Commons).

Back A. This is known from a later political-theological text (from the days of Esarhaddon?) that explores the “sin of Sargon” for which the king “was killed…and who was not interred in his house.” See the recent discussion by S. C. Melville, The Campaigns of Sargon II, King of Assyria, 721-705 B.C., Norman, OK 2016, pp. 187-191.

Preparations for War

The intervening years between 705 and 701 were well spent by the rebels as they prepared the defense of their lands in advance of the anticipated return of the Assyrian army. A united front was sought, and to this end, Hezekiah, the leading figure among the anti-Assyrians, moved with force against some of the Philistine kingdoms on the southern coast - “He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city” (2Ki 18:8) - no doubt because they were hesitant or were opposed to the war. Hezekiah's assertive actions are exemplified by his involvement in the internal politics of the Philistine city of Ekron (Tel Miqne). The city's leaders had taken a stand in support of resisting Assyria; they ousted their pro-Assyrian king, Padi, and handed him over to Hezekiah, who imprisoned him in Jerusalem (so according to Sennacherib's account; see Translation of Sennacherib. . .). They were active in securing foreign support for the rebel cause, in particular, from Shabatka, the Cushite ruler of Egypt. Judah, too, took part in the negotiations with its powerful southern neighbor.

But not everyone applauded these moves. Isaiah typically inveighed against “those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and on horsemen because they are very strong.” His cry against those who “do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!” (Isa 31:1) was consistent with the stance he had taken in years previous against such foreign entanglements.

As noted earlier, during the first decade of Sargon's reign, relations between Egypt and Assyria had stabilized and remained quiescent as result of Sargon's two-pronged Assyrian policy in Philistia: the stationing of an Assyrian military presence at the northern border of the Sinai Peninsula at Raphiah (The Raging Torrent, Text no. 5.01, lines 23-27), and the fostering of an open trade zone in this area between Egypt and Assyria (The Raging Torrent, Text no. 5.02). But when Sargon died, Shabatka changed course and sent military units to aid the rebels. Sennacherib's account tells of a major battle between the Assyrian army and an Egyptian force at Eltekeh (see below).

Remains of the Broad Wall today in the Jewish Quarter (photo Ian Scott, via Wikimedia Commons)

A major facet of Judah's preparedness was the physical strengthening of the fortifications of the realm and the laying in of stores ahead of siege and battle. Again, Isaiah, the always critical witness to what he considered the godless activities of Judah's leaders, tells of the intensive construction undertaken in the capital at this time of crisis:

On that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that there were many breaches in the city of David, and you collected the waters of the lower pool. You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or have regard for him who planned it long ago. (Isa 22:8-11)

The three concerns to which the prophet referred were not unusual for a city that anticipated an attack or a long siege: the store of weapons, the reinforcement of the city wall and the insuring of a ready supply of water.

Jerusalem at the time of Hezekiah

Archaeological excavations in the walled city of Jerusalem have elucidated two aspects of Isaiah's description. On the western hill, the so-called Upper City—today's Jewish Quarter—a suburban residential area had developed beginning in the ninth century BCE; within this locality a section of a massive wall, 65 meters long and 7 meters thick, of both finished and unfinished stone, has been uncovered. This city wall can be dated to the end of the eigth century and was surely meant to protect this extra-mural quarter from attack. In several places the wall was laid atop earlier constructions, explicating Isaiah's description of tearing down old structures in favor of the new defenses. The line of this “Broad Wall” (after the name of the wall as given in Ne 3:8) seems to have run west from the Temple Mount to the Hinnom Valley and then south, following the Hinnom east to its conjuncture with the Kidron Valley at the southeastern corner of the City of David.

Interior of Hezekiah's Tunnel (photo: Tamar Hayardeni, via Wikimedia Commons).

As to Jerusalem's water supply, Hezekiah is credited with several hydraulic projects aimed at providing water to a growing city. A short notice in the Book of Kings relates that “he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city” (2Ki 20:20). The location and the circumstances of this work were apparently so well known that the author did not find it necessary to give further details. These were supplied by the early modern investigators of the town, who discovered the conduit in the Kidron Valley by the Gihon Spring, at the foot of the eastern wall of the City of David, from which over 1,500 cubic meters of water issue daily. In the second millennium BCE, a series of tunnels had been dug through the hillside; a vertical pier (“Warren's Shaft”) led down to the spring, permitting the town's dwellers to draw water from within the city without having to climb down outside the city's defenses. In addition, at the mouth of the spring the excavators found the opening of a meandering tunnel that runs 533 m under the hill of the City of David from the Gihon to the Siloam Pool at the southern end of the city. The nature of the construction dates the tunnel to the eighth century BCE (Iron Age II), which confirms its association with Hezekiah.

At about 6 m before the tunnel reaches the pool, a six-line Hebrew inscription in elegant monumental script was incised on the wall, describing the method of excavation.

While [ ] (were) still [ ] the axe(s) toward one another, and while there were still three cubits to be [tunneled, there was heard] a voice calling to his fellow, for there was a fissure(?) in the rock on the right [and on the left]. And on the day when the tunnel was cut through, the stonecutters struck toward one another, ax against ax. The water flowed from the source to the pool for 1,200 cubits, and the height of the rock was 100 cubits above the heads of the stonecutters.

The course of Hezekiah's Tunnel.

Concerning the engineering aspects of the excavation, it may be that the two teams were following a natural fissure in the karstic rock through which water seeped as a guide.A

A second water project connected with the Gihon was meant specifically to be a defensive measure. It is reported by the later biblical Chronicler:

After these things and these acts of faithfulness, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, he planned with his officers and his warriors to stop the flow of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the Assyrian kings come and find water in abundance?” (2Ch 32:1-4)

The reference here seems to be to the Siloam Channel II that runs above the foot of the Kidron Valley, which is part open, and part covered. This channel carried overflow water from the Gihon Spring to the agricultural plots in the valley (“The King's Garden”; 2Ki 25:4) and ended at the “Lower Pool” (Isa 22:9; Birket el-Hamrah). It was found blocked by large stones, perhaps evidence of Hezekiah's activity prior to the war.

The Siloam Inscription (now in the Museum of Ancient Near Eastern Antiquities, Istanbul) and facsimile (Ada Yardeni).

Back A. D. Gil, “The Geology of the City of David and its Ancient Subterranean Waterworks,” in D. T. Ariel and A. De Groot (eds.), Excavations at the City of David 1978-1985, Directed by Yigal Shilo, IV, Various Reports, Qedem 35, Jerusalem 1996, pp. 1-28.

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For Further Reading

Aḥituv, Shmuel. Echoes from the Past: Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period, Jerusalem 2008.

Avigad, Nahman. Discovering Jerusalem, Jerusalem 1983.

Brinkman, John A. Prelude to Empire. Babylonian Society and Politics, 747-626 B.C., Philadelphia 1984.

Cogan, Mordechai. “Sennacherib's Siege of Jerusalem. Once or Twice?” Biblical Archaeology Review 27 (2001), pp. 40-45, 69.

Cogan, Mordechai. “Sennacherib and the Angry Gods of Babylon and Israel,” Israel Exploration Journal 59 (2009), pp. 164-174.

Cogan, Mordechai. Bound for Exile: Israelites and Judeans under Imperial Yoke. Documents from Assyria and Babylonia, Jerusalem 2013.

Cogan, Mordechai. The Raging Torrent: Historical Inscriptions from Assyria and Babylonia relating to Ancient Israel, 2nd ed., Jerusalem 2015.

Dubovsky, Peter. Hezekiah and the Assyrian Spies: Reconstruction of the Neo-Assyrian Intelligence Services and its Significance for 2Ki 18-19, Rome 2006.

Eph‘al, Israel. The City Besieged: Siege and Its Manifestations in the Ancient Near East, Jerusalem-Leiden 2009.

Gallagher, W. R. Sennacherib‘s Campaign to Judah. New Studies, Leiden 1999.

Geva, Hillel. “Western Jerusalem at the End of the First Temple Period in Light of the Excavations in the Jewish Quarter,” in Vaughn and Killebrew 2003, pp. 183-208.

Geva, Hillel. “Jerusalem's Population in Antiquity: A Minimalist View,” Tel Aviv 41 (2014), pp. 131-160.

Grabbe, Lester L. (ed.). ‘Like a Bird in a Cage,’ The Invasion of Sennacherib in 701 B.C.E., Sheffield 2003.

Hallo, William W. “Jerusalem under Hezekiah: An Assyriological Perspective,” in Levine 1999, pp. 36-50.

Hallo, William W., and K. Lawson Younger. Context of Scripture, vol. 2, Leiden 2000.

Honor, Leo L. Sennacherib's Invasion of Palestine. A Critical Source Study, New York 1926.

Kalimi, Isaac, and Seth Richardson (eds.). Sennacherib at the Gate of Jerusalem (701 B.C.E.): Story, History and Historiography, Leiden 2014.

Levine, Lee I. Jerusalem: Its Sanctity and Centrality to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, New York 1999.

Millard, Alan R. “Sennacherib's Attack on Hezekiah,” Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985), pp. 61-77.

NEAEHL. New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. 4 vols. E. Stern (ed.), Jerusalem 1993.

Rainey, Anson F., and R. Steven Notley. The Sacred Bridge: Carta's Atlas of the Biblical World, Jerusalem 2006.

Reade, Julian E. “Ninive (Nineveh),” in Reallexikon der Assyriologie, vol. 9 (1998-2001), pp. 388-433.

Tadmor, Hayim. “Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah: Historiographical and Historical Considerations,” in idem, “With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of mountains”: Historical and Literary Studies in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel, M. Cogan (ed.), Jerusalem 2011, pp. 653-675.

Ussishkin, David. The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib, Tel Aviv 1982.

Vaughn, Andrew G., and Ann E. Killebrew (eds.). Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period, Leiden 2003.

Young, Robb A. Hezekiah in History and Tradition, Leiden 2012.