The One Hundred Eighty-Five Thousand of Sennacherib

Serving God is not a hobby, an interest, or something one does on a particular Sunday. Serving God is a new birth, a new Father, a new life in Christ Jesus, a new name, new indwelling Kingdom, new love, new desires, new will, new purpose, new destiny—everything new! II Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

That verse, as you should understand, is absolutely accurate. Would you like to find this newness of life? Would you like to have your sinful past expunged? Would you like to have your guilt and shame removed from your memory? I John 1:7-9:

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Click onto "Further With Jesus" for instant entry into God’s newness of life. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, II Kings 18:13-14:

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

GOD SAID, II Kings 19:32-37:

32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

MAN SAID: The Bible is an irrelevant book, not to be taken seriously. It makes no real historic contribution.

Now THE RECORD. This feature presentation is number 319. All of these amazing messages are fully archived in text and streaming audio, readily accessible by using the navigation bar on the left. The purpose of GodSaidManSaid is three-fold:

1. To strengthen the faith of the saints.

2. To convince the gainsayers and win their souls to Christ.

3. To supply spiritual ammunition unto the sons and daughters of God in order to wage war against the gates of hell.

On this website, we prove that God is, that He authored His inerrant Word, and will hold all men accountable to it at a soon-coming judgment day. This is accomplished by the four-step proof pattern listed on the navigation bar:

1. Archaeology, and other ancient histories, establish the Bible as a supremely reliable history book—amazing miracles and all.

2.  Prophecy establishes the supernatural origin of the Scriptures. When you apply the laws of probability to an earthling making prophetic Biblical predictions, and actually see them come to pass, the odds against it happening are so staggering, that it could only be from God. For example, if the odds are one in 5,000,000,000 in favor of man, then it would follow that the chances are 4,999,999,999 out of 5,000,000,000 that it was God.

3. The "GodSaidManSaid: The Record" category on the navigation bar, for which this website is named, declares a commandment or principle of God, shows man’s disregard for it, and outlines the consequences suffered. Also, new discoveries that certify the authenticity of God’s Holy Word are cited.

4. The Historicity of Jesus Christ. Was there a Jesus Christ? Did He perform miracles? Was He crucified on Calvary for the sins of the world? Did He die and rise from the dead? Did He ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of God? The answer to all questions is a resounding yes!

Welcome to GodSaidManSaid. We’re so glad you’ve come.

The marvelous historic and miraculous account of God’s deliverance of Jerusalem, recounted earlier in II Kings, is also recorded by the great prophet Isaiah, who was central to the event. Isaiah 37:21-29; 33-36:

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:

22 This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

24 By thy servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel.

25 I have digged, and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.

26 Hast thou not heard long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.

27 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

28 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

29 Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.

34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

The Assyrian king, Sennacherib, invaded Judah in the reign of Hezekiah. Sennacherib ordered tribute to be paid. II Kings 18:13-14: "Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold." Even after Hezekiah satisfied the demands, Sennacherib continued to besiege Jerusalem, the capital of Judah and the last city standing. The book Archaeology and Bible History records the following:

When Sennacherib made his invasion into Judah (701 B.C.), he took many of the cities (II Kings 18:13), and finally threatened Jerusalem. Hezekiah then paid tribute to Sennacherib, including thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents of silver (II Kings 18:14). The inscriptions of Sennacherib tell us of this tribute in the following words, "In addition to 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, (there were) gems, antimony, jewels, large sandu-stones . . . ivory, maple, boxwood, all kinds of valuable treasures . . . which he had them bring after me to Nineveh, my royal city. To pay tribute and to accept servitude he dispatched his messengers" (LARA, II, p. 121, paragraph 240; also see BAB, 472; CBS, 160). The Biblical and the Assyrian records agree exactly in the reference to thirty talents of gold, but the Biblical figure of three hundred talents of silver at first appears to be contradicted by the eight hundred talents of silver recorded in the Assyrian inscription. It is quite possible, however, that Sennacherib counted some other payment or valuables in his figure of 800 talents of silver, which is more than the 300 talents given in the Bible. It has also been suggested that the numbers were really equivalent to one another, the divergence being due to textual corruption (BAB, 473). Schrader explains it as due to the difference between the Babylonian and Palestinian talent (RBA, 100).  [End of quote]

The Word of God declares that all the fenced cities were captured, except for the prize: Jerusalem and her king. The following paragraph is again from Archaeology and Bible History:

To the rationalist, this story of the angel’s smiting of an army and causing a great king to return to his native land without capturing a city seems beyond the realm of historical possibility. However, confirmation of the fact that Sennacherib did not take Jerusalem was found in an inscription on a prism called the Taylor Cylinder, discovered at Kouyunjik, the site of ancient Nineveh, in 1830 by J. E. Taylor, the British Vice-Consul at Basra (PSB, 145). An almost identical inscription is found on the Oriental Institute Cylinder, purchased by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1920 (PMOT, 316, Fig. 136). In the inscription Sennacherib tells that he made other Palestinian cities yield, but when he comes to describe his campaign against Jerusalem he fails to tell of the capture of that city and its king, Hezekiah. Rather, the text of the inscription tells of King Hezekiah in these words, "As for himself, like a bird in a cage in his royal city Jerusalem, I shut (him) up." Since Sennacherib did not capture Jerusalem (as indicated in the Bible), he made as good a story out of the siege as possible, and reported that he had shut up poor Hezekiah "like a bird in a cage." Actually, Hezekiah was reposing quite safely in his "cage." [End of quote]

The most marvelous part of this Biblical record is found in II Kings 19:35:

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

The humanists find such a miraculous account unacceptable, but much to their dismay, secular history soundly confirms the Biblical writings. One of the secular historical records, according to the famed Jewish historian Josephus, was left to the world by Herodotus, who has the vaunted title of "The Father of History." Josephus reports on the Hezekiah-Sennacherib confrontation, and quotes the historian Berosus the Chaldean, directly. He writes:

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:

"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 Adrammelech and Seraser, and was slain in his own temple, which was called Araske." [End of quote]

A footnote added by the translator of Josephus, The Complete Works reads:

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 Authentic. Rec. Part II. p. 858. [End of quote]

Every jot and every tittle found in the majority-text Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible is true and righteous altogether. The Bible’s record of creation of our 6,000+-year-old earth, the temptation of Eve, Adam and Eve’s banishment from Paradise, Noah’s ark—it is all true and righteous altogether. The Bible’s record of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, Israel’s bondage in Egypt, to Moses, the slaying of the firstborn, the Israelite exit through the Red Sea on dry ground—it is all true and righteous altogether. The Bible’s record of David and Goliath, Solomon’s empire, Jonah and the whale, the lycanthropy of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel in the lions’ den is true and righteous altogether. The Bible’s record of the glorious Jesus Christ, the virgin-born, only begotten Son of God, the Creator of the universe, to His ministry of miracles and supernatural message, to His crucifixion on Golgotha’s hill and third-day resurrection, to His bodily ascension into heaven to sit on the right hand of the Father is true and righteous altogether. The Bible’s prophetic record of the restoration of Israel, whose citizens were drawn from global exile to form a nation in 1948, which is recognized with all great nations of the world—is true and righteous altogether. The great seven-year tribulation period to come, the nations gathering together to wipe the Jewish people of Israel off the face of God’s earth, the sky rolling back like a scroll, and Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah, returning to this earth in the brightness of His coming, to destroy all congregant armies perched around the city of Jerusalem—is true and righteous altogether. The mighty judgment of God upon this entire globe is true and will happen as recorded. Jesus Christ said in Luke 21:36:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Are you ready? Click onto "Further With Jesus."

GOD SAID, II Kings 18:13-14:

13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

GOD SAID, II Kings 19:32-37:

32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

MAN SAID: The Bible is an irrelevant book, not to be taken seriously. It makes no real historic contribution.

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

Authorized King James Version

Free, J.P., Archaeology and Bible History, Scripture Press Publications, 1973, pp208-209

Josephus, F., Complete Works of Josephus, Bigelow, Brown & Co., Inc., N.Y., Vol. Two, p73

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?