2 Kings 18:14, commentary and pictures

Hezekiah sent to Sennacherib while he was besieging Lachish, confessed his offense, asked him to withdraw, and agreed to bear whatever penalty was laid on him, which was fixed at three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. To meet it he stripped the doors of the temple and emptied the treasures of the temple and the royal house to buy peace with Assyria. His offense was his share in the revolt of Ekron, in receiving and holding Padi its loyal king as a prisoner when the Ekronites rose and seized him, for which Sennacherib came against him both to free Padi and to punish him. Sennacherib's own inscription confirms the invasion, the shutting up of Hezekiah in Jerusalem, and the exacting of the tribute, naming the same thirty talents of gold, and its eight hundred talents of silver agree with the three hundred of the Bible when the smaller Assyrian talent is reckoned against the larger Hebrew talent. The payment did not pacify or satisfy the invader, showing that even a good and God-trusting king pays dearly for meddling in the rebellion of others and for bartering sacred trusts for political protection, while Jerusalem's final deliverance came not by tribute but by God's direct intervention.

Hezekiah's Appeal And Tribute

Hezekiah king of Judah sent to Sennacherib king of Assyria at Lachish while the Assyrian king was besieging it, confessing that he had offended, asking him to withdraw, and agreeing to bear whatever burden was put upon him. The burden imposed was set at three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. The appeal was made during Sennacherib's invasion and his campaign against the western cities, and the submission included Hezekiah's admission of fault and offer to pay whatever was demanded.

The Bible by itself does not tell what the offense was or why Hezekiah yielded so readily. The offense was partnership in the revolt of the Philistine city of Ekron against Assyria by receiving and holding Padi, king of Ekron, as a prisoner. Padi had stayed loyal to Assyria when Ekron revolted and sought help from Egypt and Ethiopia, so the Ekronites seized him and sent him to Hezekiah for safekeeping. After Sennacherib defeated the Egyptians, recovered Ekron, and punished the rebel leaders, he went up against Hezekiah both to compel the release of Padi and to punish Hezekiah for his part, and that is what caused the confession and offer of tribute.

The verse belongs to the history of Judah's remaining kingdom after the ten tribes had been swept away. It is part of the closing record of Kings hastening from the breaking up of the northern kingdom of Samaria to the Babylonian captivity of Judah. That record covers eight chapters and seven kings, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, with five of those chapters given to Hezekiah and Josiah.

To pay the tribute Hezekiah took gold from the temple doors and treasures from the temple and royal treasuries to purchase peace and secure a treaty with Assyria. He had first in a measure repaired the loss to the temple caused when his father Ahaz robbed it to pay Tiglath-pileser, but when Sennacherib came he was compelled to take even all the riches of the temple. The taking showed that even this good king compromised the temple's sacred treasures for political protection.

The payment did not pacify the Assyrian invaders and did not satisfy the Assyrian king. Though Hezekiah paid from the temple and royal treasuries the demand of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, the invaders were not turned aside.

Assyrian Evidence Confirms Account

This verse belongs to the Biblical account of Sennacherib's invasion of Palestine and Judah and siege of Jerusalem. It stands in the history of his campaign against the western cities and his prolonged siege of Lachish. The Assyrian king's cylinder and other contemporary Assyrian sources and records from Nineveh confirm that invasion in part and confirm its historical setting. Palace images depict the capture of Lachish with Sennacherib receiving the city's spoils.

Sennacherib's inscription provides a supplementary account agreeing with the Bible in many details. It describes his campaign against Judah's fortified cities, their capture and plunder. It tells how he confined Hezekiah in Jerusalem. It tells how Hezekiah submitted and how he exacted and increased the tribute of gold and silver due to him.

The Assyrian account independently reports the same thirty talents of gold but claims eight hundred talents of silver instead of three hundred. The accounts agree when the different sizes of silver talent are taken into account, since eight hundred smaller talents equal three hundred larger ones. The larger total may include spoils taken from other Judean cities. The records are still noted as giving a different total for the silver. Sennacherib claims tribute, not the capture of Jerusalem.

The Assyrian record of these events confirms the truthfulness of the Bible account. It confirms the invasion and the amount of tribute.

Compromise, Trust, And Judgment

Hezekiah was a good king and a devoted man of God notwithstanding his mistakes. He had first in a measure repaired the loss to the temple caused when his father Ahaz robbed it to pay Tiglath-pileser, but when Sennacherib came against him he was compelled to take the temple's riches, even all the riches of the temple, to purchase peace from him. In that Assyrian crisis he took treasures from the temple and royal treasuries, even gold from the temple doors, to secure a treaty with Assyria, showing that even this good king compromised the temple's sacred treasures for political protection.

The verse shows Hezekiah paying dearly for meddling in the rebellion of others, such as the Ekronites, instead of attending to his own business. By doing so he brought evil upon himself and shut himself off from the help of the Lord, so that in his distress he could not ask God for help but could only admit his offense to the king of Assyria and agree to bear whatever tribute was laid on him. This is different from the next invasion of the same king of Assyria, when in his innocency Hezekiah could spread the insulting letter before the Lord and ask Him to look and hear what Sennacherib had spoken. The Lord answered by having the angel strike the Assyrian army so that Sennacherib returned with shame to his own country. Keeping clear of other men's matters keeps a person innocent so that when distress comes he can present his petition to the Lord in trust and God will hear and deliver.

In the surrounding crisis Hezekiah trusted in God while Sennacherib relied on his army, and Hezekiah's trust was ultimately vindicated. The verse records Hezekiah's appeal to the Assyrian king and his agreement to pay the heavy tribute demanded, yet it belongs to the account of Sennacherib's invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem in which Jerusalem's eventual deliverance came by God's direct intervention, not human power.

The verse belongs to the account used to show that the Assyrian king did not perish with his army near Jerusalem, but the king returned to his own land and died there. When the angel killed 185,000 Assyrians, the army was at Libnah with the king, not near Jerusalem. Therefore that event did not fulfill Isaiah 30:33 concerning Tophet.

The verse is part of the account of Assyria's threat against Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time, invoked to contrast confidence that Jerusalem as the city of God could suffer no evil with the warning that it would face disaster and captivity. It belongs to the career of Assyria, an empire whose origin, career, and end are predicted in the Bible and therefore bears witness to the truth of the Bible. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria acting in the verse, lifted his puny hand against God's mighty plans and precepts and set himself against the Rock of God's word. His hopeless doom is written in black characters on the pages of history, his name lives only in infamy, and while he is dead the Rock stands.