In this episode, Joe Heschmeyer explores the historical evidence surrounding 2 Kings 19 and the mysterious destruction of the Assyrian armies.

Transcription:

Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Hess Meyer. So I want to start with a strange passage from the Old Testament. It’s Isaiah 37, verse 36, and it says that the angel of the Lord went forth and slew 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when men arose early in the morning, behold these were all dead bodies. Then Rab King of Assyria departed and went home and dwelt at Nineveh. So this is a strange passage for a number of reasons. Number one, it’s this really striking kind of image of an angel going and killing the enemies of Israel. And it has that combination of features where it seems violent and sort of mythological, and it’s the kind of thing that I think people hear about and then think like, what do we do with this? As Christians, it may be hard to know how to incorporate that into the faith of Jesus as non-Christians.

You may look at that and say, this is weird. What is going on in your Bible here, guys? And so I want to explore, well, is that really what happened? And what’s great about this as we’re going to see is this is a really well-documented historical event. Now, before I unpack that and explore this from the Egyptian and Greek and Babylonian and Assyrian perspectives, I want to give two quick announcements. Number one, as you may have already noticed, my voice is a little bit shot. I lost my voice over the weekend, so doing the best I can, but if the sound is a little weird today, that’s on me. Second, I have a Patreon. This is something I’ve been talking about doing for a while now and finally got it up and running. So if you go to patreon.com/shameless, or if you click the link in the description below, you can if you want, sign up.

And so one of the cool things we’re doing at even the $5 a month level is there’s an online weekly q and a where you can ask your questions directly, and I leave an hour to just respond to people’s questions. I’m super excited about it. I’m excited to see how this works. I just did a discord q and a week or two ago with a ton of young people and it was amazing. It was a real blast. And it also, I think helps generate ideas for me for what kind of videos to make. So if that’s something that you want to support, great, I’ll try not to be too pushy. I don’t like when people push their stuff too much. So with that, let’s turn towards the topic at hand. As I said, this is one of the best documented events in biblical history. Now, why do I say that? Well, let me introduce you to Dr. Isaac Kmi.

Dr. Isaac Kmi is professor for the Hebrew Bible, the history of ancient Israel and Jewish studies. He has worked to distinguished institutions, Europe, the USA and Israel before being invited to the University of MAs.

And Dr. Isaac Kini talks about how this campaign of the Assyrian Kings Sona rib, including the siege of Jerusalem compared to many other events in the history of the ancient Near East, this third campaign, the Western campaign from the Assyrian perspective in the fourth year of his reign. So 7 0 1 is very well documented. He says it is definitely the best documented event of the history of Israel in the first temple period. So here’s why I’m excited about this because on the one hand you have this event that seems really strange and mythological sounding angels beating armies. On the other hand, you have a bunch of really old historical evidence from a variety of cultures. As Kini says, the event is counted in various Assyrian sources like the Annals of cib, which were composed shortly after the campaign in the bowl inscriptions and in later condensed summary inscriptions, it’s also in Ass Syrian relief.

So you’ve got carvings of the events and it’s testified to by an abundance of archeological excavations and discoveries. So there’s all sorts of things, pots and coins and bole as they’re called that attest to the historicity that the Assyrians really did invade. They really did try to conquer Jerusalem and something really did happen. But I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit. So for this video, I’m going to give you kind of an overview of, okay, what is even this story? Maybe you’ve never heard of Sinek herb’s campaign totally normal. So let’s look at it first from the Israelites account or the Judeans or the Jewish account. This is a Hebrew or biblical kind of version of events. And then we’ll look at it from their enemies perspective, from the Assyrian perspective and then the Greek perspective with ti, he’s relying on Egyptian sources. I’m calling it kind of the Greek slash egyptian perspective.

And then finally from the Babylonian perspective. So it’s going to be really cool because it’s not just people who were the combatants in this particular fight, and each of the four perspectives has a different angle. But what I think we can draw out a particular picture emerges you’ll see as we go. Let’s start with what the Bible says. This is going to be the Jewish perspective on the events. There’s really two sources for this. You’ve got Second Kings chapter 18 and 19, Isaiah chapter 36 and 37. They’re clearly using the same material or one of them is using the other one. There are large passages that are just verbatim the same since I quoted from Isaiah earlier, I’ll switch here to two kings, two kings, 18 sets kind of the background that the King Hezekiah was favored by the Lord. The Lord was with him.

Wherever he went forth, he prospered and he rebelled against the King of Assyria. We know his Seneca rib and would not serve him. Now you might think, given that context, it’s going to be great. Well, okay, the Lord’s anointed, right? The guy walking with the Lord rebels against the King of the Assyrians, and I bet it’s going to go great. It does not. So Sinek rib in the 14th year, king Hezekiah comes up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. So he has this mass conquest of the other cities of Judah. And Lord Byron has a great poem called The Destruction of Sin that I think does a good job of kind of painting the picture here. So here’s just a little taste where you can imagine these massive Assyrian armies coming in on the relatively small Judean.

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold and the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea when the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

I love that depiction. Just like here comes the wolf, here comes this sheen of spears like stars on the sea. And as I say, it does not go well at first. In fact, Hezekiah regrets rebelling against the Assyrians. And so in verse 14 of two Kings 18, he sends the king of Assyrian at last. So this is one of Hezekiah’s own cities that’s been conquered, and he says, I’ve done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will bear. And the king of Assyria requested 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver, though is to be found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house. And in fact, he’s even reduced to having to strip the doors of the temple of the Lord for their gold and from the doorposts which he’d overlaid.

And he gives all that to sib for some reason. And none of the historical accounts are clear about why this is not good enough. Now, maybe that he didn’t get as much as he’d asked for. And so the massive donations, we’ll say the massive kind of penalty that he’s extracted from Hezekiah is not enough to sinna rib, but whatever the case, he doesn’t stop. And so Iris Barr, who is a research a ologist for the Met talks about this and he does a good job kind of laying out the history here. He says, it is not known why Hezekiah’s tribute did not succeed in preventing further attacks. The whole point of tribute is one small country sends a bunch of money to a larger country so they don’t get invaded. And that here, the money by all accounts was sent or at least some money was sent, and they’re nevertheless.

And so as I Spar says, the Assyrians Bo down on lashes, remember that’s where we find the tribute being given. The Assyrians are already there. They battered down its walls, they slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants and impaled the bodies of its leaders on stakes outside of the city walls. Jerusalem meanwhile is only 30 miles away. So in advance of the arrival in Jerusalem, Sinek group sends a delegation of high powered military and administrative officials to negotiate terms of surrender and to remind Hezekiah that Egypt had been defeated in Judah’s, God would be of no help against the might of the great king of Assyria. So at this time, Judah is trying to rely on Egypt for help, but Egypt is just no match for Assyria. And meanwhile, all of these other nations have fought against the Assyrians, looked to their pagan gods, and one after another has been knocked down by the great king of Assyria.

It does seem from a secular perspective, like a hopeless situation. How is tiny Israel, how is tiny Judah rather going to be able to survive this? And Irish spar suggests, undoubtedly the negotiations broke down possibly in part now how you can say undoubtedly, possibly, I don’t know. Undoubtedly, the negotiations broke down possibly in part as a result of Hezekiah’s reliance on the words of Isaiah who assured the king once again that God would protect Jerusalem and crushed the Assyrian army. So Hezekiah is clearly regretting this course of action, but meanwhile, the prophet Isaiah is saying, God is going to protect you. The Egyptians can’t do anything for you. The God of Israel can do something for you. He will protect you. So that delegation that came down, I actually alluded to this two weeks ago, just so you see all these kind of interesting imperial offices, and it shows the Royal Authority.

Two Kings 18 verse 16 talks about how Sinek rub sends the tartan that are abs and their abs Shaka with a great army from Lache. This is the delegation. They’re not coming to invade. They come up with enough force that their top administrative officials aren’t going to get killed to go and propose terms of surrender slash taunt the people of Jerusalem. And they break apparent protocol. So they have the high ranking delegates. And so the king sends out his high ranking people like Eki, and they’re just kind of ignored. So rather than speaking to them in Aramaic, which they both understand, the Assyrians turn in speaking the language of the people so that the people on the wall, the soldiers who are protecting the city of Jerusalem can hear. And so you just have this incredible taunt of Hezekiah and of God made by the Assyrian officials. This is from the Children’s show, but it pretty closely follows the biblical account. So here’s a little taste of a much longer kind of taunt that the Assyrians give.

Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying the Lord will rescue us. Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria? What happened to the gods of Hamath and our pad? And what about the gods of Sfar? Did any God rescue Samaria from my power? What God of any nation has ever been able to save? Its people from my power. So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem from me

As Toki? This is pretty effective because he’s raising all these kind of military and theological objections saying, Hey, you relied on your gods. A bunch of other nations relied on their gods, didn’t work out great for them. Instead, you should consent to our terms and the terms are that they’re going to be exiled and sent away from Jerusalem, which is pretty similar to what happens to the 10 Northern tribes. What becomes Samaria King Hezekiah does the right thing here. He turns to God and he prays. And his prayer is a really fascinating kind of prayer because he basically points out, yeah, the Assyrians are right, all these other gods failed them because they weren’t real gods. So show that you are the true God by having Jerusalem survive when all these other nations fell. So in two Kings chapter 19, verse 17, he prays of a truth.

Oh Lord, the king of Assyria have laid waste the nations in their lands and have cast their gods into the fire for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands would instill and therefore they were destroyed. So now, oh Lord, our God save us at SC from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou oh Lord, art God alone and through the prophet the reply comes, therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. Okay? So that’s the promise, Israel, specifically Jerusalem will be spared. So Israel’s a little bit of a misnomer here. You’ve got the northern tribes, which were sometimes called Israel. We’d now call them Samaria’s. Very confusing.

But when I’m talking about Israel here, I actually mean Judea and the city of Jerusalem. So the save Jerusalem, the capital, God is promising that it’ll be spared. They won’t even fire an arrow in the city. Instead, God says, by the way that he came, by the same, he shall return and he shall not into this city, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant, David. That’s the promise. It’s not enough that Jerusalem will survive. Jerusalem will literally not be, they not be successful in the city. They won’t even fire an arrow in the city. Something miraculous is going to have to happen because all of the military forces of the Judean are clearly no match. Jerusalem is clearly outmatched here. And so what happens? Well, in the next verse, you get very much the same story that we heard.

And Isaiah that night, the angel of the Lord went forth, flew 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians when men arose early in the morning. Behold these were all dead bodies. So something happened seemingly overnight in which there is a divine angelic visitation resulting in the mass death of the Assyrians. So when they wake up in the morning, they’re surrounded by dead bodies. sib departs goes home, goes back to Nineveh. So let’s summarize all that. The Jewish account is basically this with Sinek successful early on, he’s conquering Judean cities, he’s forcing Hezeki to pay tribute. The Assyrian siege of Jerusalem is thwarted by sudden divine intervention. The debts of 195,000 sending the remaining Assyrians home. That’s the account, and I completely understand it if you say, I don’t know what to make of that account, I don’t know how historical that account is. So let’s hear some more.

Let’s turn to the Assyrian perspective because they surely have some thoughts about this, right? And one of the cool things here is that the Assyrians keep really good records, including very ancient records. Remember the annals of Ecib that we heard referenced before? Well, auntie Lotto, the Finnish professor of Old Testament exegesis, I believe he warns us that on the pro side, these are extremely ancient records, but on the other hand, the K side, if you will, these are also government propaganda. So the fact that these are written around in the lifetime of cib, and then in some cases we’re going to look at some ones that are a little bit later, but still very early on, these are not neutral third party kind of accounts. What’s striking when you read the Jewish accounts is how they’re not particularly glowing accounts, even if Hezekiah, Hezekiah is a good guy, but he loses pretty badly at first, he has to pay tribute.

He strips the gold from the doors of the temple. These are not the kind of things you write in a propaganda about how great your king is. These are just things that actually happen. And so there’s a pretty honest account. These Syrian accounts are not encumbered by the same need for honesty, we’ll say. So Auntie Lotto, he says that there’s a general tendency in Assyrian Annals to avoid mentioning setbacks altogether. Like if they were writing from Hezekiah’s point of view, they would just skip all the stuff, but pay and tribute, they’d skip all this stuff about having to strip the gold from the temple. Just mentioned the high points. And at many points, Sinek group has attempted to give the impression that his military campaigns were successful, even if in fact we know from other sources that he suffered some military setbacks. So he’s putting obviously a good face on things and we should know that as we’re listening to what he’s going to have to say.

In fact, rather, excuse me, Lato says the fact that Sinek group’s own inscriptions were recorded soon after the time of the campaigns they describe does not change their propaganda to nature. So the fact that he knows what he’s talking about doesn’t mean that he’s telling us the full truth because the whole point of these is to say, I’m an amazing king and he’s not going to lead with here all the ways I screwed up or all the military setbacks or any of those things. But I actually want to look at not the direct annals of Sinek rib, although we do have good sources there, but I like the version given what’s called the raam cylinder. The raam cylinder is slightly later, it’s 6 34. So the siege happens at about 7 0 1. Sun rib dies in 6 81, and so this is later in that century. This is 6 34, but nevertheless, it’s still lifetime or one generation after.

And it’s recording Sinek’s own view. Again, these are part of Assyrian governmental propaganda. These are the official accounts, and it’s told from Sinek group’s perspective, it may actually be based on one of the older sources like the Annals and other sources. It may are lost to us now, but in the Rassam cylinder it says, as for Hezekiah, the Judean, I besiege 46 of his fortified walled cities in surrounding smaller towns, which were without number. He himself, I locked up within Jerusalem, his royal city like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with arm posts and made it unthinkable. Literally, it’s like I made it taboo for him to exit by the city gate. I imposed dues and gifts from my lordship upon him. In addition to the former tribute, his yearly payment, he Hezekiah was overwhelmed by the awesome splendor of my lordship and he sent me after my departure to Nineveh, my royal city, his elite troops and his best soldiers, which he had brought in as reinforcements to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, et cetera.

It goes on from there. There’s a couple things that are striking about this. First there’s just like this, okay, he’s clearly winning. So net’s conquering dozens of major cities, 48 cities, and then he has Akira, he’s in the royal city and he’s coming in and then the story kind of falters for a second, and the next thing we hear is that Hezekiah sends him tribute as he’s going back to Nineveh. Now, everything about that is really sketchy. Like, wait, why didn’t you just take Jerusalem? You were just about to do that and now we’re just hearing about you going home. And we’re to believe that Hezeki was just so impressed that he’s just sending new soldiers in gold and silver. That story doesn’t make a lot of sense. And Auntie Lato points this out. He says, the first problem encountered in reading this account is the question why Sinek group suddenly returned to Nineveh.

He doesn’t explain it, right? He’s just like, oh yeah. Then back when I was home, it’s like, why were you going home? Something that’s not being told here. So Lotto says, well, what caused this sudden withdrawal from Jerusalem? Sin does not say, and instead goes on to tell how Hezeki has sent a great tribute after him to Nineveh. Now, I’ll just say at the outset, the account that the Judeans give that they were losing, they started paying tribute, he keeps coming and then he’s defeated and goes home. That makes sense. You give tribute when you’re losing the idea that he just gives up the siege for no reason, and Hezekiah for no reason, sends him money after he’s left. Why would he be giving tribute after he is given up the siege? Why give tribute after you’ve said, okay, we know we’re not going to fight this anymore.

Now there’s any number of kind of things you could imagine there. Maybe something came up at home, he had to get back there, he’d left the tea kettle on. Or more seriously, there were theories that maybe the Babylonians or somebody else rose up and started giving them problems in the east and they had to turn their forces back. But even in those cases, it doesn’t really make sense that Hezekiah would be just so impressed by the Assyrians that he’s just voluntarily sending a massive tribute of soldiers and silver and gold. It makes much more sense to say tribute was being given when the judeans were losing and then something happens and the Assyrians have to turn back. Nevertheless, here’s the Assyrian account in a nutshell. Number one, Sunne group is successful early on. Everybody agrees on this. There’s some concrete of Judean cities, number two, Sunnet group for no clear reason in the Assyrian version, returns home to Nineveh that he does return home is actually something everybody’s going to agree on.

And number three, he receives tribute from Hezekiah. Now, the difference is in timing, he’s going to claim that happens after he goes home. The other sources are going to say it happens while he’s winning early on. And as I say, I think that makes much more sense, but that’s the Assyrian account in a nutshell. Alright, so the third place I want to look is what I’m calling the Greco account. Now here we’re looking at the work of tis. If you don’t know who ti is, he’s generally considered the world’s first historian. He invents the idea of history writing about the past in kind of an organized way to record it for the future. And his book is called Histories Fittingly Enough. I guess if you’re first, you get have that title confusingly. Some versions of it are also called the Persian Wars because it’s not just like a history of the world, it’s a history of the Persian wars.

He’s writing about 250 years after the events in question, but he’s relying on older sources, some of which are lost to us today. So when he talks about Rab siege, he quotes Egyptian sources. And the fascinating thing is the Egyptians tell the story about Rab being divinely thwarted and sent home with one major difference, even though the Judean, the Assyrians. And as we’re going to see the Babylonians all agree, this happens in Jerusalem, the Egyptians are like, no, no, no, no, it happened to us. And so they have their own kind of version of the story, and in their version, there’s a high priest of one of the Egyptian gods named STOs, and he had no regard for the Warrior Egyptians because he thought he would never need them. And so he dishonor them. He takes away special lands that had been given to them, and so they don’t want to work for him.

So when Sinek group comes against Egypt, the warrior Egyptians are just like, we’re not going to defend you because you’ve betrayed us. So the priest, he’s a priest, king, high priest and king and his quandary goes into the temple shrine and therefore the God’s image bitterly laments over what he was expected to suffer. And then he falls asleep. And while he’s asleep, it seemed to... Read more on Catholic.com