For the teacher• This Lesson Starter can be used with preteens, teens, and adults to introduce a lesson about King Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in the days of King Hezekiah.

• This Lesson Starter is a “What is it?” activity.(1) Start with slide 3. Show slides 4 through

10 and simply ask the students, “What is it?” Let them guess.

(2) Next read the Scripture slides together, slides 11-14. Do the students now know what these things are about?

(3) Finally, look at the answers together, slides 15-37.

Whatis it?

Ramp to city gates

Outer gatehous

e

Inner gatehous

e

Palace-fort

compound

PalaceStoreroom

sHouses

Outer wallInner

wall

Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield website

BAR, Mar/Apr 1984, p.58.

David Knight Writes Blog Spot

Jewish Magazine website

Elliott Lawrence Lewis Blog Spot

British Museum, London

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Oriental Institute, Chicago

Bible History website

Scripture

Isaiah 36:1 Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defenced cities of Judah, and took them. 2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army.

Isaiah 37:33 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. 35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Answers

Ramp to city gates

Outer gatehous

e

Inner gatehous

e

Palace-fort

compound

PalaceStoreroom

sHouses

Outer wallInner

wall

Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield website

?Lachish Isaiah

36:2

TelLachish today

Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield website

“Tel Lachish, viewed from the southwest. Cultivated fields of an Israeli moshav, or cooperative village, frame the rectangular mound, 30 acres at its base and 18 acres on its flat summit. One of the most prominent of all the Biblical tels in Israel, Lachish commands an uninterrupted view from the Judean hills in the east to the coastal plain in the west. At the end of the eighth century B.C., Tel Lachish was one of the most formidable citadels in Judah. … Its fortified gate, outer city wall with sloping glacis against it, and palace-fort protected a large and populous city.”

Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1984, p.56.

BAR, Mar/Apr 1984, p.58.

?Lachish Siege Relief

From Senna-cherib’

s Palace,Nineve

h

Assyrian siege engine

Water!

Sling stones

Defenders of the city gate

Battering ram

Fire brands

Jewish captives

“The second book of Chronicles

states that when Sennacherib

invaded Palestine he established his

headquarters in front of Lachish. …

Neither the Old Testament nor his

own Annals say more about the fate

of Lachish, but a long series of

reliefs from his palace at Nineveh

illustrate what happened to it.

(continued)

“These sculptures lined the walls of

Room XXXVI in the palace. This

main room (the Lachish Room) was

situated in a promi-nent position. …

This suggests that to Sennacherib

this was a significant conquest.” T. C. Mitchell, The Bible In The British Museum, Interpreting The Evidence,

The British Museum Press, 2004, p.67.

David Knight Writes Blog Spot

?Sennacherib receives the

surrender of

Lachish

Sennacherib receives thesurrender of Lachish

Another sculpture from Sennacherib’s Palace, Nineveh

The cuneiform inscription at the

upper left of the relief reads

‘Sennacherib, king of all, king of

Assyria, sitting on his throne while

the spoil from the city of Lachish

passed before him.’Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1984, p.65.

Jewish Magazine website

?Entrance to the Lachish

Room

Sennacherib’s Palace, Nineveh

In 1849 the young British adventurer Sir Austen Henry Layard rediscovered the lost palace of Sennacherib with its 71 rooms and colossal bas-reliefs.

Wikipedia, Nineveh

Artifex Original Photography website

Elliott Lawrence Lewis Blog Spot

Jerusalem under siege?

Isaiah 36:2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field. 3 Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah’s son, which was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph’s son, the recorder. 4 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? 5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

20 km

PC Bible Atlas for Windows, Parsons Technology

British Museum, London

Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Oriental Institute, Chicago

?Sennacherib

Prisms

The Sennacherib Prisms

Three clay cylinders have been found on which Sennacherib recorded his military exploits against Judah in c. 701 BC. On the left, the Taylor Prism, discovered by Colonel R. Taylor in 1830, now in the British Museum, London. At center, the Sennacherib Prism of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and on the right the Sen-nacherib Prism at the Oriental Institute, Chicago.

(continued)

Sennacherib’s boast against Hezekiah:‘As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, by leveling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil.

(continued)

Sennacherib’s boast against Hezekiah:

‘(Hezekiah) himself,

like a caged bird I

shut up in Jerusalem,

his royal city.’Bible History website

Psalm 124 answers the proud boast of Sennacherib:

Psalm 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Bible History website

?The murder of

Sennacherib

Nabonidus Stele“This basalt stele records the assassination of Sennacherib by his sons in 681 B.C … This event happened just after Sennacherib had his unsuccessful campaign against Jerusalem and is recorded in the Bible: 2 Kings 19:35-37.”

Bible History websitehttp://www.bible-history.com/assyria_archaeology/

sennacherib_murder_nabonidus_marduk.jpg

The murder of

Sennacherib

Babylonian Chronicles“In the passage dealing with the events of 681 BC it gives the very concise statement ‘on the 20th day of the month Tebetu, Sennacherib king of Assyria, his son killed him in a rebellion’ [right-hand column, lines 34-5].”

T.C. Mitchell, The Bible In The British Museum, Interpreting The Evidence,The British Museum Press, 2004, p.73.

The pictures in this presentation:

Slides 3, 15 – Google Image, Artist’s rendition of ancient LachishURL* = http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/images2/lachmode.jpg Also Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield websiteURL* = http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Rel302/Lachish/Lachish%20Diagram.jpg

Slides 4, 18 – Lachish Siege Relief, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1984, p.58.

Slides 5, 21 – Google Image, Sennacherib Receives the Capitulation of Lachish Relief, David Knight Writes Blog Spot

URL* = http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VTbjDNa564A/TWJhpxP_O_I/AAAAAAAAAlw/T2YHydf9iYU/s1600/Sennacherib.jpg

Slides 6, 23 – Google Image, Sennacherib Palace, Jewish Magazine website

URL* = http://www.jewishmag.com/56mag/lachish/sennacherib.jpgAlso Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield websiteURL* = http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Rel302/Lachish/sennacherib%20palace.jpg

Slides 7, 25 – Google Image, Jerusalem Wall, Elliott Lawrence Lewis Blog Spot

URL* = http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xb-ElL7Jlvs/TANhgKYVFjI/AAAAAAAABcI/h1vcwRvZHKs/s1600/walls.jpg

(continued)

The pictures in this presentation:

Slides 8, 28 – Google Image, Taylor Prism, British Museum, London; Sennacherib Prism, Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Google Image, Sennacherib Prism, Oriental Institute, Chicago

Online Bible School websiteURL* = http://www.generationword.com/images/bible_school/ sennacherib_prism_textbox2.jpgBiblical Archaeology Review, Mach/April 1984, p.48, picture courtesy of Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums Jesus Walk websiteURL* = http://www.jesuswalk.com/greatprayers/images/sennacherib_prism267x400.jpg

Slides 9, 33 – Google Image, Sennacherib Murder, Bible History website

URL* = http://www.bible-history.com/assyria_archaeology/sennacherib_murder_nabonidus_marduk.jpg

Slide 16 – Google Image, Tel Lachish, Brigham Young University Idaho, Bruce K. Satterfield website

URL* = http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Rel302/Lachish/lachish-aerial.jpg

Slide 24 – Google Image, Austen Henry Layard, Artifex Original Photography website, after a painting by H. W. Phillips,

URL*= http://imagecache5.art.com/p/LRG/17/1745/8ML3D00Z/austen-henry-layard-archaeologist-and-diplomat.jpg

(continued)

The pictures in this presentation:

Slide 27 – PC Bible Atlas for Windows, Parsons Technology, © 1998

Slide 35 – Sennacherib MurderT. C. Mitchell, The Bible In The British Museum, Interpreting The Evidence, The British Museum Press, 2004, p.73

* URLs = picture locations at the time this presentation was prepared, April, 2011. The pictures at these addresses are not necessarily the property of the websites that use them.