Siege of Azekah Following their success in quelling the smaller rebellious states the Assyrian army turned on the
Kingdom of Judah and
Hezekiah. The timeline of the campaign is somewhat unclear, but it is thought that one of the first major engagements between Judah and Assyria was the
Siege of Azekah, a walled settlement on a 372 meter high hill roughly 45 kilometers west of Jerusalem. Knowledge of the siege comes primarily from the
Azekah Inscription, a tablet inscription from Sennacherib's reign which was found in the
Library of Ashurbanipal. The inscription describes the use of earthen ramps and battering rams to overcome
Azekah's formidable outer defences followed by the use of foot soldiers and cavalry to take the city. The tablet seems to imply that the defenders of Azekah were routed by the Assyrian cavalry, but the inscription is not complete and only the beginning of this section has survived. Following the city's capture the inscription states that the Assyrians looted and burned or otherwise destroyed Azekah.
Siege of Lachish While the timeline remains unclear, it seems that the next major battle between Assyria and Judah occurred at
Lachish, a walled city on a hilltop roughly 53 km south west of Jerusalem. The
siege of Lachish is documented in the Hebrew Bible as well as Assyrian documents but is most prominently depicted in the
Lachish reliefs which were once displayed in Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. The hill on which Lachish is located is steeper on the northern side, so it is thought that the Assyrians likely attacked the city from the southern slope. The Lachish reliefs depict the city's defenders shooting arrows and throwing stones down onto the Assyrian army who are shown responding with projectiles of their own. During the ongoing skirmishes the Assyrians constructed a siege ramp, evidence of which can still be seen today, to the east of the main gate and brought up
siege engines which broke the defensive walls. The siege ramp at Lachish is the oldest in the world and the only known example from the
Near East. It has been excavated extensively from the 1930s to as recently as 2017. Supporters of this theory contend that the outbreak of sickness or plague caused Sennacherib to swiftly conclude his negotiations with Hezekiah, return to Nineveh, and accept his tribute in the Assyrian capital rather than enter the city to take tribute and observe new oaths of loyalty in Jerusalem. Other scholars point to previous conflicts in which the Assyrians allowed rebellious vassals to remain on their thrones after the conclusion of military campaigns against them to bolster claims that there was nothing particularly unusual about the conclusion of Sennacherib's war with Judah and that following negotiations Sennacherib left with his army intact. Some speculate that either an unsuccessful siege of the city or the exhaustion of his army following their previous battles prompted Sennacherib's retreat and his leniency towards Hezekiah. ==References==