An intelligence officer whose name is Isaiah the prophet

With the help of the social and political networks that he was involved in or that he founded himself, he had an array of trusted and loyal people who gave him a lot of information about what was happening throughout the Middle East, including the plan to assassinate Sennacherib

One of the unclear topics in the Bible is the siege that Sennacherib imposed on Jerusalem in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah. The problem in the story is the contradiction between what is told in the Bible and the documentation of Sennacherib himself. In 35 Kings 37 it is stated that Sennacherib demanded that Hezekiah surrender to him and he refused. At the end of this failed negotiation, a miracle happened to Jerusalem. "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of Assyria one hundred and eighty-five thousand, and they all fell asleep in the morning, and behold, they were all dead carcasses. And he went and went, and Sennacherib, king of Assyria, dwelt in Nineveh. And he bowed down at the house of Nisroch, his god, and Adramelech and Sharatzer smote him with the sword, and they fled to Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead." XNUMX Kings XNUMX:XNUMX-XNUMX).

This event has two additional references in the Bible and they are in Isaiah and in 36 Chronicles. In both it is said that Hezekiah refused to surrender and Sennacherib lost his army. In Isaiah 39:21-XNUMX it is said: "And the angel of the Lord went out and struck the camp of Assyria, in which one hundred and eighty-five thousand fell, and behold, they were all dead carcasses. And he went and went, and Sennacherib, king of Assyria, dwelt in Nineveh. And he bowed down in the house of Nisroch, his God, and Adramelech and Shrezer, his sons, who struck him with the sword, and why did they flee to the land of Ararat? And Esarhadan will reign under him. In XNUMX Chronicles Lev XNUMX it is said "And the Lord sent an angel and destroyed every mighty man of valor and governor and minister in the camp of the king of Assyria, and he sat in shame in his country, and the house of his God came, and he came out of his mouth, and there he slew him with the sword."

In his book "Ancestors of the Jews" Joseph ben Matthieu says that "God sent a disease in his army that resembled a plague and on the first night of the siege one hundred and eighty-five thousand men died on the heads of the army and their regimental heads. This disaster cast a terrible fear and terror upon him and being anxious for the entire army he fled with his remaining army to His kingdom is called the Kingdom of Nineveh. He did not spend here, except for a short time (because) he was murdered in the connection that his sons had made over him The elders, Adermalech and Schratzer, were expelled by the citizens because of their father's murder and fled to Armenia" (p. 345).

Against these reports, Sennacherib reports (Manseret of Sennacherib) that "As for Hezekiah the Jew on his 46 dry cities... 200, 150 souls, small and large, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep without number I took out of them and set them aside as booty I imprisoned him within his royal city like a bird in a cage I made him an abomination from the gate of his city... and he sent his chosen army into Nineveh to fortify his royal city, along with 30 squares of gold and 800 squares of silver" (Kogan 79:2003). In addition, according to this report, Hezekiah sent Sennacherib valuable property. Sennacherib does not refer at all to the disaster that befell him. How to reconcile this contradiction?

What the biblical sources and Joseph ben Matthieu all have in common is the elimination of most of the Assyrian army in one night, Sennacherib's escape from this disaster and his elimination after he returned to Nineveh. How could it be that he and a handful of soldiers were saved? In 32 Kings 33:33-35 and Isaiah 344:XNUMX-XNUMX, the same prophecy is said by Isaiah regarding the fate of Sennacherib. This king will not be able to enter the city at all. Did Isaiah know what Hezekiah did not? This feeling that the prophet did indeed know something is strengthened when reading the words of encouragement he gave to Hezekiah's representatives during the Assyrian siege of the city. The prophet encouraged "the king himself and his people who were around him and prophesied that the enemies would be defeated without war and would return in shame and not be as insolent as they are now. For God is the name of their opinion that they will go to destruction and he repeated and said that Sennacherib himself, the king of Assyria, would not succeed in his actions against Egypt and in his return The god of his house will die by the sword" (Yosef ben Matityahu, ibid., p. XNUMX). This is not a prophecy that is considered a motivational speech to encourage the king and the people that they will be saved. Such a detailed prophecy is like a gamble. It is not difficult to guess what would have happened to the prophet if his prediction had turned out to be wrong. The prophet would have risked his life, what's more, he was a member of Hezekiah's household.

If we go back to the biblical story about Hezekiah's reign, it seems that he reigned for 29 years. In 7 Kings chapter 9 3 it is stated that he rebelled in Assyria and he "struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders from the tower of Christians to the fortified city" it was not stated in what year of his reign this occurred. On the other hand, in verse 10 it is stated that in the fourth year of his reign, Manser, the king of Assyria, invaded Israel and carried out a campaign of conquests that lasted for 13 years and exiled its population. What can be understood is that Hezekiah's rebellion was shortly after the establishment of his rule. XNUMX years later, "Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went up against all the "forsaken cities of Judah and destroyed them" (ibid. verse XNUMX). Sennacherib himself did not besiege Jerusalem. This can be learned from the fact that, seeing the strength of Sennacherib's army, King Hezekiah transferred to him in Lachish a great deal of property, including items from his household. the temple

Sennacherib stayed in Lachish with part of his army and took control of the cities in this area. He conveyed the ultimate demand of surrender through a diplomatic delegation that included Tartan and Rav Seris and Rabashkah (17 Kings 4:6) while warning Hezekiah that he should not rely on an alliance with Egypt. Hezekiah is distressed and sends a message to the prophet Isaiah asking for help, and the prophet does encourage him and, among other things, tells him, "Do not be afraid of the things you have heard, which the sons of the king of Assyria have blasphemed against me. I will give him a spirit, and he will hear a rumor, and he will return to his country, and I will kill him with the sword in his country" (ibid. chapter XNUMX). Very reminiscent of Joseph's words. A very concrete prophecy indicating that Isaiah had his own knowledge regarding the internal politics in Assyria. The description given in the book of Isaiah is the same as the description given in the book of XNUMX Kings. In XNUMX Chronicles Lev XNUMX-XNUMX it is stated that Hezekiah was also prepared militarily in case of an attack on Jerusalem. "And they gathered together a great people and stopped all the springs and all the streams that flow in the land, saying why the kings of Assyria came and found many waters. And he strengthened and built the whole wall that had been breached and went up on the towers and beyond the wall another way and strengthened the reserve of the city of David and he did send many and defenders. And he gathered to him on the street of the city gate."

The solution to the contradiction between the military achievements of Sennacherib described in the Bible and the Sennacherib sawmill and the blow that fell on his army near the walls of Jerusalem can be explained by the fact that Sennacherib conducted two military campaigns, one described in the sources we mentioned and one not mentioned in any Assyrian source. In the course of this journey and its traumatic end for Sennacherib, the prophet Isaiah is involved. From the descriptions in the Bible it appears that Isaiah was from the social and religious elite in the Kingdom of Judah and that he was personally close to King Hezekiah. In addition to his spiritual and intellectual status, the prophet was networked with the royal court, with various parties in the court of the King of Assyria. He was familiar with all the political moves and the personalities working in them, including unrest among the opponents of King Sennacherib and he was also familiar with the Egyptian army and its methods of operation. Isaiah was the so-called great man of the world. With the help of the social and political networks that he was involved in or that he founded himself, he had an array of trusted and loyal people who gave him a lot of information about what was happening throughout the Middle East. What can support this hypothesis is the prophecy he gave to Hezekiah that Sennacherib would kill.

The impression we get is that there was a rebellion against Sennacherib including Egyptian military activity near the imperial domain of Assyria in the south. Sennacherib had to send a military force to suppress these rebellions and he personally managed them. His pattern of action was the same as that described in the military campaign described in the Bible. He personally commanded the campaign near the border with Egypt and stationed around Jerusalem a large military force with a commander on his behalf and this is what Isaiah was waiting for. According to what is told in the sources, this army all died in the course of one night. If the Assyrian army had died as a result of some kind of virus, most likely the virus would have reached the besieged in the air as well and many of them would have fallen into the void.

It should also not be forgotten that an epidemic lasts several days. A possibility that must be taken into account is poisoning. Isaiah got to know the structure of the Assyrian army, its logistical system, the ways of supplying food, its storage places and its guard system. It is possible that Isaiah had collaborators from among the Assyrian army and also among the members of the royal court who were interested in the overthrow of Sennacherib. Isaiah also knew the ways to get out of the besieged city and move outside of them without the Assyrians noticing. Isaiah prepared large quantities of poisons and at the appropriate time his men left the city and scattered them in the Assyrian food stores. From the time the Assyrians opened these warehouses to prepare their meals, their death was only a matter of hours.

When Sennacherib learned what had happened to his army, he returned, as described in the Book of Chronicles, quickly and shamefully to Nineveh, but this time without a significant part of his army, which made it easier for those who were interested in taking over the government and a few days later he was killed. Presumably, if he had returned to Nineveh crowned with victory, he would have recorded his achievement as in Sennacherib's sawmill documenting his first journey.

If this description is indeed correct, a new picture is obtained regarding Isaiah. In addition to his intellectual reputation he also possessed first-rate military intelligence and political thinking, achieving a massive military victory without firing a single arrow.

Sources

Josephus (Flavius) - Antiquities of the Jews books seven-tenth. Bialik Institute 1944 XNUMX pages.

Kogan Mordechai - a collection of historical inscriptions from Assyria and Babylon 2003th-179th centuries BC Bialik Institute XNUMX XNUMX pages

XNUMX Kings

The book of Isaiah

The book of XNUMX Chronicles.

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More of the topic in Hayadan:

• The dating in the book of Jeremiah
• Shmuel - a priest about a troubled childhood
• The political status of the prophet Ezekiel
• Natan - the prophet behind the scenes
• The ambivalent attitude of the kings of Israel and Judah to the prophets