2 Kings 19:8

RABSHAKEH RETURNED WITH ANOTHER DEMAND FOR SURRENDER

"So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish. And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee, he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?"

A letter accompanied this second demand (2 Kings 19:14); but there was nothing new in it except three things. (1) Several more places that Assyria had devastated were mentioned; (2) and God was called "a deceiver" (2 Kings 19:10); also (3) Assyria's prior rulers were mentioned.

"(He) found the king of Assyria warring at Libnah" (2 Kings 19:8). "The location of Libnab relatively to Lachish is uncertain."[8]

"When he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia" (2 Kings 19:9). This bad news of an Ethiopian (Egyptian) excursion against Sennacherib might have been the rumor that God said he would hear. The age of Tirhakah is disputed, and largely on that basis, some have erroneously moved this campaign of Assyria to the year 688 B.C., but there is no need whatever for this. People do not even know whether Tirhakah was the name of a ruler or the title of a dynasty. All arguments against what is written here which are based on Egyptian history are extremely untrustworthy.

LaSor noted that, "The reign of Tirhakah is dated from 688 to 670 B.C., leaving the impression that Tirhakah was only ten years of age, and much too young to have led an expedition against Sennacherib in 701 B.C.. However, the Assyrian records declare that, Sennacherib defeated Pharaoh and his allies in the battle of Eltekah in 701 B.C."[9]

Whatever the problems about Tirhakah may be, it is still safe, as Honeycutt stated, to view 2 Kings 19:9b-13 as a continuation of the same demands made previously.[10]

Jamieson agreed that this second appeal for surrender exceeded the first one in its blasphemy and also in the extension of the list of places conquered.[11] Also, in this second demand, Sennacherib brought in the devastations perpetrated by his predecessors upon "all lands." Apparently, the Assyrians enjoyed the conceit that they were destined to destroy everyone on earth except themselves.