Sennacherib's Prism — Hezekiah shut up "like a bird in a cage"
The invasion of Judah in 701 BC, Hezekiah by name, the siege of Jerusalem and the tribute are all recorded by the invader himself — and the city's survival is implicit in his own silence about taking it.
Außerbiblisch genanntInschriftc. 691 BC
A six-sided clay prism recording Sennacherib's campaigns. The third describes his 701 BC invasion of Judah: forty-six walled towns taken, Hezekiah besieged in Jerusalem, heavy tribute exacted. What the Assyrian account conspicuously does not claim is the capture of Jerusalem — the one city its own annals leave standing.
As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke… him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a bird in a cage.
- Gefunden
- Nineveh, Iraq, 1830 — Acquired by Col. R. Taylor, British Consul-General at Baghdad
- Heute in
- British Museum, London (near-duplicates in Chicago and Jerusalem) (BM 91032 (Taylor Prism))
- Sprache
- Akkadian
- Wie es zu uns kam
- Ausgegraben oder noch dort stehend, wo es errichtet wurde.
Was er zeigt
Both sides agree on the campaign, the siege and the tribute; they differ on why Sennacherib withdrew. The Assyrian text simply stops short of claiming the city.
Wie Historiker es nutzen
The 701 BC campaign is one of the best-documented events in Iron Age history, reconstructed by secular historians from the Assyrian annals, the Lachish reliefs and the biblical account together.
In der Schrift
Verbunden mit
Quellen
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