Sunday Sermonette: Getting real

We ' re at the point where the story in Chronicles and the Deuteronomistic history have emerged from the mists of myth into a basis in historical reality. The failed siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib is established history. The story is also told in Kings, but it ' s a completely different recounting of very similar events, which is more evidence that this really happened, in other words at least two different people wrote an account of the same events. (The Chronicler is evidently drawing on, or copying from, a lost source.) Historians aren ' t convinced that a plague was the reason for Sennacherib ' s defeat, but otherwise yeah, this more or less did happen, as did the Babylonian exile which is to come shortly.32 After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself.2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem,3 he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him.4 They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings[a] of Assyria come and find plenty of water? ” they said.5 Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and rein...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs