In this episode of The Soul Unleashed Podcast, host Mike Nicholas takes a closer look at one of the Bible’s most well-known military accounts—the story of King Hezekiah and the Assyrian army. According to scripture, an angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, forcing their king, Sennacherib, to withdraw and sparing Jerusalem from destruction.
But how does this account hold up against historical records and archaeological evidence? The Assyrians documented this event very differently, raising important questions about biblical accuracy, interpretation, and the nature of divine intervention.
In this episode, Mike explores:
🔹 The biblical version of Hezekiah’s victory vs. the Assyrian records
🔹 What archaeology reveals about the siege of Jerusalem
🔹 The theological implications of divine intervention and the problem of evil
🔹 Insights from Gregory Boyd’s God at War and The Bible Unearthed
The biblical verse referring to this event is found in 2 Kings 19:36 (also recounted in Isaiah 37:36):
“That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.”
(2 Kings 19:36, New International Version)
Despite the biblical report of the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem, contemporary Assyrian records provide a very different picture of the outcome of Hezekiah’s revolt. The Assyrian account of Sennacherib’s devastation of the Judahite countryside is presented concisely and coldly:
As to Hezekiah, the Judahite, he did not submit to my yoke. I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered them by means of well-stamped earth ramps, and battering rams brought thus near to the walls combined with the attack by foot soldiers, using mines, breeches as well as sapper work. I drove out of them 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered them booty. Himself, I made prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest those who were leaving his city’s gate. His towns which I had plundered, I took away from his country and gave them over to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Sillibel, king of Gaza. Thus I reduced his country, but I still increased the tribute.
REF:
Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. 2001. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Free Press
Other book reference:
Boyd, Gregory A. God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1997.
My podcasts target left-brained types like me, whose rigid view of life restricts us from considering things outside the tightly organized spiritual paradigm we either grew up with or built for ourselves.
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Mike
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