2 Kings 18:13-17a In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 18:14 King Hezekiah of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria, who was at Lachish, “I have violated our treaty. If you leave, I will do whatever you demand.” So the king of Assyria demanded that King Hezekiah of Judah pay three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 16 At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated and gave them to the king of Assyria. 17 The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch [Tartan], and the chief adviser from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, along with a large army.
Sargon II was followed by his son Sennacherib who ruled from 705-681 BC. Early in his reign he began to attack and defeat the fortified cities of Judah. One of those cities was Lachish, which he defeated in 701 BC[1], and was still present in the city when Hezekiah engaged in correspondence with him in a desperate plea to spare the overthrow of Jerusalem.
Thinking to Believe 