Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem In approximately 701 BCE , Sennacherib , king of Assyria , attacked the fortified cities of Judah , laying siege on Jerusalem , but failed to capture it ( it is the only city mentioned as being besieged on Sennacherib ' s Stele , of which the capture is not mentioned ) . Background . In 721 BCE , the Assyrian army captured the Israelite capital at Samaria and carried away the citizens of the northern kingdom into captivity . The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom , Judah , to fend for itself in the whirlwind of warring Near Eastern kingdoms . At the time of Samaria ' s fall , there existed two kings in Judah — Ahaz and his son Hezekiah — who ruled as co - regents . Judah existed as a vassal to Assyria during this time and was forced to pay an annual tribute to the powerful empire . In 715 BCE , following the death of Ahaz , Hezekiah became the sole regent of Judah and initiated widespread religious changes , including the breaking of religious idols . He re - captured Philistine - occupied lands in the Negev desert , formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt , and made a stand against Assyria by refusing to pay tribute . In response , Sennacherib attacked Judah , laying siege to Jerusalem . Outcome of siege . Sources from both sides claimed victory , the Judahites ( or Biblical author ( s ) ) in the Tanakh , and Sennacherib in his prism . Sennacherib claimed siege and capture of many Judaean cities , but only siege — not capture — of Jerusalem . The Jewish account . The story of the Assyrian siege is told in the Old Testament books of Isaiah , Chronicles and Second Kings . As the Assyrians began their invasion , Hezekiah began preparations to protect Jerusalem . In an effort to deprive the Assyrians of water , springs outside the city were blocked . Workers then dug a 533 - meter tunnel to the Spring of Gihon , providing the city with fresh water . Additional siege preparations included fortification of the existing walls , construction of towers , and the erection of a new , reinforcing wall . Hezekiah gathered the citizens in the square and encouraged them by reminding them that the Assyrians possessed only " an arm of flesh " , but the Judeans had the protection of Yahweh . According to Second Kings 18 , while Sennacherib was besieging Lachish , he received a message from Hezekiah offering to pay tribute in exchange for Assyrian withdrawal . According to the Old Testament , Hezekiah paid three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold to Assyria — a price so heavy that he was forced to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold from the doorposts of Solomon ' s temple . Nevertheless , Sennacherib marched on Jerusalem with a large army . When the Assyrian force arrived , its field commander brought a message from Sennacherib himself . In an attempt to demoralize the Judeans , the field commander announced to the people on the city walls that Hezekiah was deceiving them , and Yahweh could not deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria . He listed the gods of the people thus far swept away by Sennacherib then asked , " Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me ? " During the siege , Hezekiah clad himself in sackcloth out of anguish from the psychological warfare that the Assyrians were waging . However , the prophet Isaiah assured Hezekiah that the city would be delivered and Sennacherib would be cut down with the sword . The Hebrew Bible states that during the night , an angel of Yahweh brought death to 185 , 000 Assyrians troops . When Sennacherib saw the destruction wreaked on his army , he withdrew to Nineveh . Jerusalem was spared destruction . The Assyrian account . Sennacherib ' s Prism , which details the events of Sennacherib ' s campaign against Judah , was discovered in the ruins of Nineveh in 1830 , and is now stored at the Oriental Institute in Chicago , Illinois . The account dates from about 690 BCE and these types of accounts are generally used for boasting of Assyrian conquests . The text of the prism boasts how Sennacherib destroyed forty - six of Judah ' s cities , trapped Hezekiah in Jerusalem " like a caged bird . " The text goes on to describe how the " terrifying splendor " of the Assyrian army caused the Arabs and mercenaries reinforcing the city to desert . It goes on to state that the Assyrian king returned to Assyria where he later received a large tribute from Judah . This explanation to an extent is incompatible with the one in the Tanakh . The mass death mentioned in the Tanakh has never been substantiated by any archaeological find . The validity of Assyrian records is not reliable due to the common Assyrian propaganda of their own invincibility . However , the Hebrew Bible ' s suggestion that Jerusalem was victorious rather than defeated , is corroborated by the Jewish historian Josephus . Nevertheless , as all of these are expansions on the Hebrew Bible ' s account , adding Midrash , none are independent witnesses . Other theories . In " What If ? " , a collection of essays on counterfactual history , historian William Hardy McNeill speculates that the accounts of mass death among the Assyrian army in the Tanakh might be explained by an outbreak of cholera ( or other water - borne diseases ) due to the springs beyond the city walls having been blocked , thus depriving the besieging force of a safe water supply . In McNeill ' s speculative essay , the Assyrians were forced to withdraw by disease , an event which in McNeill ' s opinion served to support Judaism ' s then - new monotheistic tradition . In addition , McNeill reasons that the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem holds special historical significance due to the newness ( at the time ) of the monotheistic tradition in Judaism . McNeill argues that the apparent defeat of Sennacherib by Yahweh supported the idea of monotheism in an age when a conquered people typically adopted the god or gods of their conquerors , as their own had failed to protect them . The extraordinary defeat of Sennacherib which McNeill suggests , by disease which was as yet not understood , would have proven Yahweh superior to the gods of the most powerful nation then known to the Jews , Assyria . McNeill concludes that if Sennacherib had taken the city , the Jews may have not adopted monotheism ; consequently , the Abrahamic faiths { Judaism , Christianity , Islam } would not exist . Henry T . Aubin writes in " The Rescue of Jerusalem : The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B . C . " that the Assyrian army was routed by an Egypt ian army under Kushite ( Nubian ) command . Sennacherib ' s end . The prophecy of Isaiah did not come to pass immediately , but did eventually intersect with Sennacherib . In 681 BCE , while worshiping in the temple of Nisroch , the king of Assyria was killed by his own son . He had ruled Assyria for twenty - four years . In popular culture . A 1813 poem by Lord Byron , The Destruction of Sennacherib , commemorates Sennacherib ' s campaign in Judea from the Hebrew point of view . Written in anapestic tetrameter , the poem was popular in school recitations .