Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Sennacherib's expedition in Egypt and Asia are mentioned by Herodotus (ii. 141.) and Berosus, (Josephus, x. 1.) but they do not say that he passed farther then Pelusium, (Calmet) the frontier on the Egyptian side of Palestine. (Haydock)
These expeditions might have been performed in less than eight months, during the 14th year of Ezechias, who fell sick, perhaps soon after the ruin of Sennacherib's army, chap. xx. 1. Isaias (x. 28.) represents the Assyrian proceeding from Gabaa towards Egypt, and thence he ascended to attack the cities of Juda, (ver. 25.) Manresa, (Micheas i. 15.) While he was before Lachis, Ezechias, dreading the horrors of war, purchased a peace: but the tyrant soon after sent to require him to surrender at discretion; and in the mean time he went to besiege Lebna, where his envoys found him, having received no answer from the king of Juda. The haughty Assyrian being obliged to go to meet the king of Chus, sent insolent letters to Ezechias; but the latter was assured that all his menaces were to be despised, and on the same night that Sennacherib left Lebna, the angel destroyed 185,000 of his men. It is thought that the siege of Lachis did not take place till three years after Sennacherib had come into Palestine, and after he had spent that time in attacking Egypt, chap. xix. 24. (Josephus, x. 2., and 3.)
He attempted afterwards to take the southern cities of Juda, in order to cut off all communication with Egypt; as Nabuchodonosor, Holofernes, and Eupator probably intended to do, Jeremias xxiv. 7., Judith vi., and vii., and 1 Machabees vi. 31. (Calmet)
Offended, and been imprudent. (Menochius)
Gold, so that the value of each was equal. (Du Hamel)
Josephus reads, "or thirty "as if that quantity of gold would suffice. (Haydock)
The talent contains 3000 sicles. (Menochius)
The heart of Ezechias fainted at the approach of so great an army, though he had before made the greatest preparations, chap. xx. 2., 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. 5., and Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 19. (Tirinus)
