Sennacherib, the son of Sargon II, was ambitious to add the conquest of Jerusalem to his trophies of war, especially in view of the fact that Hezekiah had withdrawn from the alliance that had been entered into with Assyria by his father King Ahaz. In the 14th year of Hezekiah’s reign (732 B.C.E.), Sennacherib “came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” Hezekiah offered to buy Sennacherib off to save the threatened city of Jerusalem, whereupon Sennacherib demanded the enormous sum of 300 silver talents (c. $1,982,000) and 30 gold talents (c. $11,560,000). To pay this amount, Hezekiah was obliged to give all the silver that was found in the temple and the royal treasury, besides the precious metals that Hezekiah himself had caused to be overlaid on the temple doors and posts. This satisfied the king of Assyria, but only temporarily.​—2Ki 18:13-16.

Sennacherib’s Failure at Jerusalem. Fulfilling Hezekiah’s expectations, Sennacherib determined to attack Jerusalem. While Sennacherib was with his army besieging the strongly fortified city of Lachish, he sent a part of his army along with a deputation of military chiefs to demand capitulation of Jerusalem. The spokesman for the group was Rabshakeh (not the man’s name, but his military title), who spoke Hebrew fluently. He loudly ridiculed Hezekiah and taunted Jehovah, boasting that Jehovah could no more deliver Jerusalem than the gods of the other nations had been able to save the lands of their worshipers from the king of Assyria.​—2Ki 18:13-35; 2Ch 32:9-15; Isa 36:2-20.

Hezekiah was greatly distressed but continued to trust in Jehovah and appealed to him at the temple, also sending some of the head ones of the people to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s reply, from Jehovah, was that Sennacherib would hear a report and would return to his own land, where eventually he would be slain. (2Ki 19:1-7; Isa 37:1-7) At this time Sennacherib had pulled away from Lachish to Libnah, where he heard that Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia had come out to fight against him. Nevertheless, Sennacherib sent letters by messenger to Hezekiah, continuing his threats and taunting Jehovah the God of Israel. On receipt of the highly reproachful letters, Hezekiah spread them before Jehovah, who again answered through Isaiah, taunting Sennacherib in return and assuring that the Assyrians would not enter Jerusalem. Jehovah said: “I shall certainly defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant.”​—2Ki 19:8-34; Isa 37:8-35.

During the night Jehovah sent his angel, who destroyed 185,000 of the cream of Sennacherib’s troops, “every valiant, mighty man and leader and chief in the camp of the king of Assyria, so that he went back with shame of face to his own land.” Thus Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem was effectually removed. Later “it came about that as he was bowing down at the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his own sons, struck him down with the sword.”​—2Ch 32:21; Isa 37:36-38.

Inscriptions have been discovered describing Sennacherib’s defeat of the Ethiopian forces. These say: “As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities . . . and conquered (them) . . . Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.” (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 288) He does not claim to have captured the city. This supports the Bible account of Hezekiah’s revolt against Assyria and Sennacherib’s failure to take Jerusalem. In the custom of the inscriptions of the pagan kings, to exalt themselves, Sennacherib in this inscription exaggerates the amount of silver paid by Hezekiah, as 800 talents, in contrast with the Bible’s 300.