Passover Deliverance in March/April 701

Introduction

The deliverance of Jerusalem from the hand of Assyria and the recovery of Hezekiah coincided with the feast of Passover. This possibility is not considered in scholarly circles because it is regarded as too specific. E. T. Mullen describes the chapters recounting Sennacherib’s campaign against Hezekiah as “one of the most complex and confusing narrations of events contained in the Hebrew Bible”.[1] The extra-biblical evidence for this campaign, mainly from Assyrian sources, is inconclusive,[2] and this is compounded by the fact that the Assyrian accounts are not always arranged chronologically.[3] Although Assyrian annalistic history records the campaign in the Levant, there is not enough data to describe (except in the broadest terms) when the last phase[4]  (invasion of Judah) commenced, or the duration of this stage of the campaign, or when it concluded.  The intention of this article is to put forward the biblical evidence for a winter campaign that ended in Passover deliverance.

Biblical Records

The vagueness of the time frame in the biblical narratives leads to confusion between sequential and synchronic events:

In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. (Isa 38:1)

I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. (Isa 38:6)

This indicates that Hezekiah’s illness coincided with the Assyrian crisis.[5] It is suggested that Hezekiah’s incapacity offered opportunity for ambitious functionaries (like Shebna)[6] to pursue a duplicitous policy ostensibly on Hezekiah’s behalf  (Isa 28:14-15; cf. the ‘treacherous dealers’ Isa 24:16; 33:1) – paying tribute to Sennacherib and at the same time appealing to Egypto-Nubian diplomats for help.

It would be completely out of character for Hezekiah to pay tribute. Hezekiah made hasty preparations for a long siege and fortified the city (2 Chron. 32:2-8). Hezekiah was probably the leader of the revolt against Sennacherib as the nobles and peoples of Ekron delivered up their own king, named Padi,[7] an Assyrian loyalist, in iron fetters to Hezekiah to keep in confinement. Moreover, it is inconceivable that Hezekiah would deface the Temple (2 Kgs 18:16) that he had so recently restored (2 Chon 29:3).

Sennacherib obviously had resource to good counter-intelligence[8] and realised that Hezekiah was ill and that the payment of tribute was a stalling tactic. He sent his generals to Jerusalem with a warning and disengaged from the siege at Libnah to confront the rumoured Egypto-Nubian threat which he neutralized.

A chronology of the events might look something like this (2 Kgs18-19):

1. Sennacherib besieges Lachish
2. Rab-shakeh sent to Jerusalem from Lachish with an army (18:17)
3. Rab-shakeh negotiates with Shebna and delegation (18:18)
4. Sennacherib proceeds to Libnah
5. Jerusalem is now isolated
6. Rab-shakeh ’s offer of peace in exchange for tribute (18:31)
7. Hezekiah enters Temple receives reassurance from Yahweh (19:7)
8. Rumour of Egypto-Nubian intervention (19:9)
9. Rab-shakeh ’s host withdraws from Jerusalem and head to Libnah
10. Reunited Assyrian army prepares for Egypto-Nubian threat
11. Warning letter sent to Jerusalem
12. Hezekiah presents letter in the Temple and receives reassurance
13. Hezekiah becomes ill
14. Tribute paid to Assyria (messengers sent to Egypto-Nubian diplomats)
15. No Egypto-Nubian support forthcoming
16. Sennacherib learns of the double-cross
17. Sennacherib prepares to besiege Jerusalem
18. Hezekiah’s condition deteriorates – near death he cries to Yahweh
19. Hezekiah delivered at Passover – Assyrian camp destroyed by angel

The above incidents/events cover a period of three to four months.

Add year to year; let feasts come around

In Isa 29:1 we have a prediction of impending doom with words that note the passing of the Jerusalem feasts:

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; Let feasts come around. (Isa 29:1)

The mention of the anticipated Assyrian siege (v. 3) suggests that v. 1 should be understood as a chronological marker rather than a proverbial saying. The phrase “add year to year” speaks of the cyclical year change, but is this from Nissan to Nissan or from Tishri to Tishri?

The mention of feasts would seem to indicate the festal calendar which begins in Nissan,[9] but this is not decisive as the agricultural and civil year, including the announcement of the Jubilee year, occurred in Tishri. It was in the autumn ( cf. Isa 33:9) when Isaiah gave the prophecy of “adding year to year”,  and the current civil year was reckoned from one autumnal equinox to the other, as, for example, in Exod 23:16, where the feast of tabernacles or harvest festival is said to fall at the close of the year. The later New Year began with trumpet blowing followed ten days later by the Day of Atonement. Moreover, the Jubilee year was announced by blowing the ram’s horn on the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:9).

The Jubilee year was the year of release and features as a sign of the impending release of the prisoners of war:

So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. (Isa 27:3)

The prophecy of Isa 37:30 anticipates this release:

This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

It follows then that Isa 29:1 is counting the years from the Day of Atonement as this marked the start of the Jubilee year and the commencement of the agricultural year. [10]

There is, however, something unusual about the mention of two consecutive Sabbatical years. Sabbatical years occurred every seventh year and the Jubilee every forty ninth year. There is no other occasion in the Hebrew calendar when two years of scheduled non-planting occur back-to-back. If the Assyrian campaign lasted until after planting time in the autumn of 701 BC, and they had consumed/destroyed the yearly harvest only “such as grows of itself” would remain to be gleaned from the fields.

In the next year, the people were to eat “what springs from the same”. Since this phrase occurs only in Isaiah and in the parallel passage in 2 Kgs 19:29, there is some uncertainty about its exact meaning. If it is the same as the “sabbath produce of the land” that was permitted to be eaten in a Sabbatical year in Lev 25:6, then there is a ready explanation why there was no harvest: the second year, i.e. the year starting in the autumn of 701 BC was a Sabbatical year, after which normal sowing and reaping resumed in the third year, as stated in the text.

The “sign” or token that is given to Hezekiah in Isa 37:30 is by way of reassurance that the slaughter of the Assyrians would be the end of the matter. Yahweh would cause Sennacherib to be dragged back to Assyria “with a hook in his nose” (v. 30). There would be no further reprisals from Assyria. Assyria would never again mount a campaign against Jerusalem. Yahweh would ensure the continuity of the nation – spontaneous growth years would compensate for the year of Assyrian destruction and for the fallow Jubilee year. Yahweh would also release the captives in a second Exodus (Isa 52:11-12; 63:15)[11] – the “zeal” of Yahweh would perform this (Isa 51:5 -“on my arm shall they trust” Isa 42:13- “The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man”) not the strength of man.

The returning Jubilee captives would plant crops and receive an abundant blessing to make up for the lost years. The people would be permitted to live in peace; it would be a sign to them that the Assyrian was finally and entirely withdrawn, and that they might return in the third year to the cultivation of their land with the assurance that this much-dreaded invasion was not again to be feared. It required an act of faith on the behalf of the remnant not to immediately replant the ravaged land but to allow it to remain fallow during the Jubilee. As a consequence they would be abundantly blessed:

Also in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.” (Isa 37:30)

Even though vineyards take years to cultivate, the Judahites would be able to enjoy the fruit of their labour almost immediately in direct contrast to the taunts of Rab-shakeh:

Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and everyone from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern’ ” (Isa.36:16).

Year	Month	Season	Feast	Event
702	Nisan	Spring
	Tammuz	Summer		Assyrian campaign in the Levant – Phoenicia, Philistia and a battle with Egypt on the coast
701         14th year of Hezekiah	Tishri	Autumn (barley and wheat planted)	Atonement	Add year to year – Isaiah delivers prophecy of 29:1
	Tebeth (January)	Winter	Invasion of Judea	Final phase – Judah attacked….winter siege in Palestine cities of Judah destroyed, prisoners deported siege established at Lachish and the blockade of Jerusalem in anticipation of spring offensive – No crops planted – Jerusalem completely isolated
	Nissan	Spring (harvest)	Passover Deliverance	Sign of Isaiah 37:30 given marking Tishri 702 as Year One (“This Year”) of the three year prophecy. Assyrian Defeat     No harvest
	Tammuz	Summer
700	Tishri	Autumn (barley and wheat planted)	Atonement Jubilee Year	Year Two… No planting of crops in the Jubilee year but captives released (Isa 27:3)
	Tebeth (January)	Winter
	Nissan	Spring (harvesting)	Passover	No harvest
	Tammuz	Summer
699	Tishri	Autumn (barley and wheat planted)	Atonement	Year Three Plant and sow
	Tebeth (January)	Winter
	Nissan	Spring (harvesting)	Passover
	Tammuz	Summer		Huge harvest

The agricultural blessing was therefore a “sign” or token of the absolute defeat of the enemy and just as the fields would enjoy the blessing of “fruit” (cf. the desert blooming in Isa 35) so also the remnant would “take root downward, And bear fruit upward” (Isa 37:31). The Lord would preserve a people for Himself from among the Jerusalemites. This would include the Davidic line of kings, as He had promised (2 Sam 7:16; cf. Isa 9:6). His own zeal to remain true to His word and to bless His people would perform this (cf. 9:7; 59:17). It would not depend on the faithfulness of His people (Isa 37:32).

Assyrian Records

I contend that a Passover deliverance in 701 fits the historical data in the Assyrian annals as far as this can be ascertained. The Assyriologist L. D. Levine has analysed the Assyrian records and concluded that Sennacherib’s campaigning in Mesopotamia (known as his first and second campaigns) ended at the latest around August 702. This means the campaign in the Levant could in theory have started around September/October (Tishri) 702 after a month or two of rest. Most probably the campaign began in the October of 702 (autumn) with the “final phase” (invasion of Judah) occurring in the winter (thus giving an 8-9 month campaign).

Sennacherib’s records show that he was an all-year campaigner in his early years and did not respect the usual “fighting season of the kings”. The final phase of the Levant campaign happened in Judah in the autumn/winter of 702-701 and ended in the early spring of 701. Strategically this makes sense because the battle with Egypt at El-Tekeh would have employed chariots which are difficult to operate in the winter months. The establishment of siege works does not necessitate the same manoeuvrability as cavalry engagements and this could be done in autumn or in winter. Assyrian camps outside of garrison cities would ensure restriction of movement in the countryside and the destruction/requisition of the harvest coupled with the prevention of sowing winter crops would effectively isolate the city of Jerusalem.

Sennacherib has “form” for employing the unorthodox strategy of conducting campaigns in winter rather than in the spring. In his first campaign against Babylonia he committed his troops in Jan/Feb on 20 Shebatu (expeditions at this time of year are unknown). The first campaign of Sennacherib is recorded in fullest detail on BM 113203 and its duplicates.[12] Levine notes the fact that Sennacherib commenced his campaign on 20 Shebatu (Jan/Feb).[13]  During his campaign of 694-693 Sennacherib attempted to attack Madaktu in the month of Tebet (Dec/Jan), Levine notes that, “unusually severe weather forced him to retreat. The campaign of 694-693 ended as it had begun, with the weather playing a critical role”.[14] It is therefore not out of character to propose the placement of winter siege camps in the Levant as it seems to have formed part of Sennacherib’s overall military strategy to deny his opponents time to regroup (during the winter) and the disruption of the agricultural cycle probably also factored in this strategy. It is unlikely that besieged cities could survive for more than six months on their reserves, especially if the next harvest was non-existent. The Assyrians would either burn (or eat) the standing crops (in spring) and prevent the sowing of the winter crop. Even if reserve stores allowed for a six month siege, the besieged would emerge into a countryside that was devoid of food, depopulated and unproductive for at least another six months – this would ensure that a city like Jerusalem would not survive a second spring offensive.

The Passover Deliverance in Isaiah 26

The background to Isaiah 26 is the Passover deliverance during the Assyrian crisis. The reference in the opening verses of the chapter is to a “song that will be sung in the land of Judah (praise)” and v. 2 is virtually a quote of Ps 118:19-20:

Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter. (Ps 118:19-20)

Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in. (Isa.26:2)

Psalms 113-118 constitute the Hallel (Psalms of Praise) sung at the Jewish Passover.[15] Isaiah 30:29 also refers to singing on the Passover night; “You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept, And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, To come into the mountain of the Lord, To the Mighty One of Israel”. No longer would they only sing the “song of Moses” (Ex.15:1) on Passover but they would now also sing a “new song” (cf. Isa 42:10) composed to commemorate the latest Passover deliverance (cf. Ps 118:14). In a similar fashion the redeemed in Christ also sing a “new song” (Rev 14:3),which is also an adaptation (like/as a song in the night) of the Passover song as this future version is designated “the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (Rev 15:3). Psalm 118 celebrates the fact of Hezekiah’s reprieve “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (v. 17), and that he (together with the faithful) would enter into the gates of the temple and “sing my songs (i.e. Psalm 118) with stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord” (Isa 38:20). On the third day after being told of his recovery (2 Kgs 20:5, 8) Hezekiah arose from his sickbed and entered the Temple through the doors that he had unsealed at the beginning of his reformation (2 Chron 29:3).

Hezekiah had been vindicated because he trusted in Yahweh in contrast to the lofty city (Nineveh) that had been “brought low” by the defeat of her armies (Isa 26:3-4) trodden down under the feet of the “poor and needy” (v. 5) the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 and another reference from the Passover Halel Psalms:

He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap (Ps 113:7)

Hezekiah was the Passover victim brought “as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa 53:7), but his hope was focused on Passover deliverance:

Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; The desire of our soul is for your name And for the remembrance (rkz) of You. (Isa 26:8)

The last phrase is a reference to the burning bush revelation in Exod 3:15,

This is my name forever, and this is my memorial (rkz) to all generations. (Exod 3:15)

The revelation given to Moses concerned the Passover deliverance from Egypt (v. 7). The Hebrew zēker (rkz) refers either to remembrance when it is associated with death (the fate of not being remembered, e.g. Isa 26:14), or as a parallel or synonym of “name” or “fame” particularly when used of God (Exod 3:15; Isa 26:8) in Ps 111:4 the zēker that God established for his wonders denotes proclamation of the Exodus.[16]  Interestingly, both uses of zēker are found in Isaiah 26, probably by way of contrast;

O Lord our God, masters besides You Have had dominion over us; But by you only we make mention (rkz) of your name. They are dead, they will not live; they are deceased, they will not rise. Therefore you have punished and destroyed them, and made all their memory (rkz) to perish. (Isa 26:13-14)

The contrast is between the memorial of Yahweh which lives on in the resurrected Hezekiah and the memory of Ashur who is destroyed together with his worshippers. The nominative form of zēker is zikkārôn (!wrkz) and is translated as “memorial”  in Exodus 12 in reference to the Passover:

So this day shall be to you a memorial (!Arkz); and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. (Exod 12:14)

Just as the name was a memorial “to all generations” so also this day (Passover) was a memorial “throughout your generations”, thereby linking the name of Yahweh indelibly with the Passover feast. Hezekiah was waiting (hoping) for Yahweh’s “judgements” against Assyria just as Yahweh had wrought “great judgements” (Exod 6:6) against Egypt.[17]

The children of Israel were instructed to keep the Passover memorial and instruct their children as to its significance (2 Cor 11:24). The desire of Hezekiah’s soul (life) was to the Yahweh name and the keeping of the memorial. As the Hezekiah Psalm declares,

Shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in the place of destruction? (Ps 88:11)

In the same manner it was Jesus’ desire to praise the name and keep the memorial: “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isa 26:9)

This is the Passover night; God’s judgements against the enemy become apparent early in the morning (Hezekiah raised/the Assyrians destroyed):

And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses — all dead. (2 Kgs 19:35)

Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. (Luke 24:1-2)

As a woman with child is in pain and cries out in her pangs, When she draws near the time of her delivery, So have we been in Your sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain; We have, as it were, brought forth wind; We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth, Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past. (Isa 26:17-20)

The woman who died in childbirth is Rachel giving birth to the son-of-sorrow renamed the son-of-the-right-hand. The delivery of the “child” happened despite (not because of) the nation’s best efforts.

Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth’. (Isa 37:3)

The “resurrection” of Hezekiah (my dead body) heralded the resurrection of the faithful remnant (your dead shall live). The inhabitants of Jerusalem “hid in their chambers” (And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning; cf. Exod 12:22) “until the indignation is over past” (KJV) – denoting the angel of death – the “destroyer” who acted as the avenger of blood on behalf of the slain (Isa 26:21).

For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.” (Exod 12:23)

Conclusion

Isaiah 26 is not the only chapter that has the Passover as backdrop to Hezekiah’s deliverance.[18] Rabbinical tradition dates Hezekiah’s deliverance to the Passover: “When Rab-shakeh heard the singing of the Hallel he counselled Sennacherib to withdraw from Jerusalem, as on this night-the first night of Passover-many miracles were wrought for Israel”. [19] Although the tradition is undoubtedly late and legendary it supports the biblical evidence that deliverance actually occurred on the Passover night. The biblical data supports Passover deliverance and this does not contradict Assyrian sources or the modus operandi of Sennacherib. At the commencement of his reign Hezekiah had re-instituted the feast of Passover and invited the northern tribes to celebrate the feast in Jerusalem. It is fitting that Hezekiah, together with the faithful who responded to his call, had been delivered on Passover.

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[1] E. T. Mullen, “Crime and Punishment: ‘The Sins of the King and the Despoliation of the Treasuries’ ” CBQ 54 (1992): 231-48.

[2] B. S. Childs remarks that, “In terms of the specific historical problem of 701, it seems unlikely that a satisfactory historical solution will be forthcoming without fresh extra-biblical evidence” Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah and the Assyrian Crisis (SBT 2/3; London: SCM, 1967), 120, and L. L. Honor, asserts, “none of the hypotheses is so strongly substantiated by the facts available in the sources, that it may claim greater credence than the others” L. L. Honor, Sennacherib’s Invasion of Palestine: A Critical Source Study (COHP 12; New York: Columbia,1926), xiv-xv.

[3] For example, W. R. Gallagher admits that the Assyrian annals are not always arranged chronologically but sometimes thematically in Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah. New Studies (Leiden: E J Brill, 1999), 123-125.

[4] There is consensus on this phase of the campaign occurring in 701-700 BC (the fourteenth year of Hezekiah).

[5] The expression “in those days” refers to an unspecified point and length of time when a certain event or chain of events was happening, and although it can denote an extended period (cf. Judg 18:1; Gen 6:4; Exod 2:11), it is qualified by the statement in Isa 38:6 indicating that the illness and the Assyrian crisis are parallel events.

[6] Isaiah 22:15-19 condemns the behaviour of Shebna; note the mention of Hezekiah’s fortifications vv.9-11 and the attitude of some of the people (drunken celebration v. 2, v. 13).

[7] This is only obliquely referred to in 2 Kgs 18:8 the details are given in Sennacherib’s report of the rebellion.

[8] Rab-shakeh’s propaganda makes use of the Isaiah prophecy and demonstrates awareness of Hezekiah’s policy of cult centralization. This indicates organized intelligence gathering.

[9] This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. (Exod 12:2)

[10] For the linked themes of Jubilee/trumpets/Atonement see Isaiah 58:1-5.

[11] Isa 52:11-12 is based on the Exodus from Egypt (pillar of cloud and fire protecting and leading them i.e. the captives from Egypt/Assyria) Isa 63:15 is again in the context of the Exodus (v. 12, Moses dividing the water (v. 13) and then leading through the wilderness).

[12] S. Smith, The First Campaign of Sennacherib (London: Luzac & Co., 1921).

[13] L. D. Levine, “Sennacherib’s Southern Front 704-689 B.C.” JCS 34 1/2 (1982): 28-58 (32-34).

[14] Levine, “Sennacherib’s Southern Front 704-689 B.C.”, 45-46. See also, D.D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylon (2 Vols; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926), 2:351.

[15] It appears that during the Jewish Passover meal of the first century, Psalms 113-114 were sung before the final meal blessing and Psalms 115-118 were sung after the final blessing. These were most probably the hymns that Jesus and his disciples sang in the context of their Passover (cf. Matt 26:30; Mark 14:26).

[16] B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel (SBT; London: SCM Press, 1962), 22.

[17] The Hebrew employs different terms for “judgement” in Isa 26:8 and Exod 6:6 and so the connection is conceptual.

[18] See the chapters, “Israel’s ancient Passover experience” and “Jerusalem delivered at Passover” in H.A. Whittaker, Isaiah (Cannock: Biblia, 1988), 50-53.

[19] Cited in L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews: From Moses to Esther: Notes for Volumes 3 and 4 (eds., H. Szold, P. Radin; Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1998), 363.