2 Chronicles 32:1
After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.
The verse belongs to the record of Hezekiah's reign, who is counted among the good kings. It falls in the morning portion covering chapters 32 and 33 within the sequence from 2 Chronicles 25 to Ezra 5, which covers ground previously covered in Kings with a fuller history of the kings of Judah and additional details not given in the parallel books. The invasion came after Hezekiah's political and religious reforms had been established, after the people had turned from sin, and after he had rejected Assyrian control. The reform was timely so that God protected them.
Sennacherib king of Assyria entered Judah and encamped against and besieged its fenced, fortified cities, thinking to win and capture them for himself. The invasion followed Hezekiah's involvement in Ekron's rebellion, because he had kept Padi, Ekron's king, prisoner. The invasion took place in 701 B.C. Sennacherib's own inscription and account report the conquest of many towns, the siege and conquest of forty-six strong walled cities, the deportation of their people and wealth and livestock as booty, the blockade of Hezekiah shut up in Jerusalem, and tribute exacted from him.
The biblical account of the campaign further includes the capture of cities, the siege of Lachish, tribute demanded from Hezekiah, and an Assyrian force sent against Jerusalem. The invasion began a crisis in which Sennacherib boasted that no god could deliver Jerusalem, but Hezekiah sought the Lord through Isaiah. In answer to the humility and prayers of Hezekiah and the people the Lord delivered Judah and miraculously saved the city by His angel, delivering Jerusalem from destruction.
Seeking God with all the heart brought divine help, while departing from God brought strife, captivity, and loss. The deliverance showed that God was mightier than the gods of the nations and that salvation came through God's power, not human strength, and it should have taught Judah humility and righteousness by faith. The accounts of Sennacherib's campaign show that his army was not near Jerusalem but with the king at Libnah when the angel struck down 185,000 Assyrians in one night, so the passage does not support identifying the Tophet of Isaiah 30:33 with the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Sennacherib was later killed by his sons at Nineveh, and ancient records from Nineveh confirm the biblical account of the campaign.