Today's Scripture Reading (April 14, 2023): Isaiah 36
There was a day when Kings went out to war with their
troops. They were armed, and while the King was often positioned at the back of
the battle formation, the King's purpose on the battlefield was to send out
their commands to the soldiers under their control in real time. King David is
often criticized at the beginning of the Bathsheba saga for not being with his
troops when they went to war. The warrior King stayed home and sent his
commander, Joab, to fight against the Ammonites. Because he was home, he was
tempted by the beauty of Bathsheba, something that wouldn't have happened if he
had been out in the field, fighting with his men.
The Book of Kings clarifies that King Sennacherib
accompanied his men onto the battlefield in Judah. "In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah's
reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities
of Judah and captured them" (2 Kings 18:13). What is less clear is if Sennacherib
went to Jerusalem for the siege of Judah's capital city. In fact, it appears he
didn't, at least not at the beginning of the blockade against the Judean
capital. Isaiah says that as the siege begins, Sennacherib decides to send a
field commander with a large army instead of going himself. Maybe Sennacherib
understood that the blockade would be long, and he didn't need to be there for
all of it. Or maybe Sennacherib had more pressing duties elsewhere.
Whatever the reason, Sennacherib stayed behind, maybe in
Lachish. Lachish was an important city thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem.
During the First-Temple period, Lachish was Judah's second most important city,
second only to Jerusalem. Because of its importance, it appears that
Sennacherib had left Lachish to the end of his conquest of the area, defeating
the city just before he turned the totality of his military strength on the
Judean capital.
Archaeologists have discovered a pit that dates back to the
attack of Lachish by Sennacherib. The pit was filled with 1,500 casualties of
the attack. They also found a carving detailing how the Assyrians laid siege to
the city.
The Siege of Lachish became the launching ground for the
attack on Jerusalem. Although this time, Sennacherib was not there to witness
the siege. Either he was busy cleaning up in Lachish, or he was called back to
Nineveh to deal with problems in the Empire. Wherever Sennacherib was, Lachish
was the last victory that Assyria would experience in Judah. Jerusalem would be
put under siege, but it would not fall, at least not to Assyria.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 37
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