HEZEKIAH: 727 – 699 BC HISTORY TUTORIAL

The Lachish Relief, Hezekiah and Sennacherib

Readings:

Isaiah 36-39; 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chronicles 29-32

#*Edelman, Diana, ‘What if we had no accounts of Sennacherib’s third campaign or the palace reliefs depicting his capture of Lachish?’ Biblical Interpretation, 8 (2000) 88-103.

#Lachish Relief (images only) in Ussishkin, David, The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology, 1982)

This tutorial covers the same skills as for Week 8 and heightens further the problem of when various ancient sources contradict, or differ from, each other when they report the same event/s.

Questions:

1.Examine the line drawings of the Lachish relief. What evidence can you see that indicated the importance of this siege to Sennacherib?

2. Is there anything you find particularly interesting about the relief? What are its key features? How do you understand these features in the relief’s ancient Near Eastern context?

3. What other evidence do we have for Sennacherib’s campaigns, and the rebellion of Hezekiah?

4. Where do the biblical accounts overlap with Sennacherib’s inscription/relief? Is there any contradictory evidence in the two sources? How do you account for this?

5. Are the Biblical sources consistent? Do they include different information or show differing interests?

Recommended Reading:


*Laato, A., ‘Assyrian Propaganda and the Falsification of History in the Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib’, Vetus Testamentum 45 (1995) 198-226.


*Reade, J., ‘Sources for Sennacherib: The Prisms’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 27:4 (1975) 189-196.


#Russell, J.M., ‘Sennacherib’s Lachish Narratives’, in P.J. Holliday (ed.), Narrative and Event in Ancient Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 55-73.


*Shea, W.H., ‘Sennacherib’s Second Palestinian Campaign’, Journal of Biblical Literature 104 (1985) 401-418.


Further Reading:


*Borowski, O., ‘Hezekiah’s Reforms and the Revolt against Assyria, Biblical Archaeologist, 58:3 (1995) 148-155.

*Dougherty, R.P., ‘Sennacherib and the Walled cities of Judah’, Journal of Biblical Literature, 49 (1930) 160-171.

*Na’aman, N., ‘Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah and the Date of the lmlk Stamps’, Vetus Testamentum 29 (1979) 61-86.

*Russell, J.M., ‘Bulls for the Palace and Order in the Empire: The Sculptural Programme of Sennacherib’s Court IV at Nineveh’, The Art Bulletin 69 (1987) 520-539.

*Wright, E., ‘Judean Lachish’, The Biblical Archaeologist 18:1 (1955) 9-17.

*Yurco, F.J., ‘The Shabaka-Shebitku Coregency and the Supposed Second Campaign of Sennacherib against Judah: A Critical Assessment’, Journal of Biblical Literature 110 (1991) 35-45.
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