The narrative Source BII includes a meeting of three Assyrian commanders accompanied by a large army with a Judean delegation at the conduit of the upper pool on the highway at the Fuller’s Field. Rāb-šaqê conveys to Hezekiah’s emissaries a message. He warns them not to rebel against Assyria, not to confront the Assyrian army with the aid of the Egyptians in a pitched battle, and not to trust YHWH for deliverance, since YHWH has allegedly sent Sennacherib to devastate the land of Judah. When Hezekiah sends a delegation to Isaiah to ask for YHWH’s aid, Isaiah delivers an oracle assuring the king of Judah not to fear, for a spirit will be given to the king of Assyria. He will hear a rumor, retreat to Assyria, and die by the sword. Source BII focuses on the murder of Sennacherib, on the Egyptian aid in a pitched battle, and mentions Taharqa, king of Kush, who would cause Sennacherib to retreat. The motifs of divine intervention, causing Assyria’s defeat and Sennacherib’s retreat and eventual murder, are the backbone of Source BII.

The main intention of Chapter 1 of this book is to detect the problems in the narrative of Isaiah 36–37. These include the existence of an almost identical narrative in 2 Kings 18:13–19:37, recurring repetitions, breaks in the narrative, contradictions and inconsistencies, and abrupt grammatical changes in consecutive sentences. I aim to suggest a comprehensive solution to these numerous problems.

Strand BIII is a redactional strand that does not comprise an original complete narrative. The redactor, whose primary interest is theological, adds his comments into the earlier sources. He subtly combines BI and BII by incorporating characterizing Leitwörter of both sources into his composition. He integrated Source BI, the siege of Sennacherib, and Source BII, the divine victory over the Assyrians and punishment of their king. The editor described the involvement of God in defence of Jerusalem, consequently promoting the belief in the inviolability of Zion, the protection of the king of Judah and the house of David. He raises the following questions: Should Judah surrender or oppose the besiegers? Will God protect Zion? Did the people of Jerusalem offend God? What is the proper way to worship God? How should God be approached to ask for his help? What is the role of the king toward God?

Chapters 4–9 will take a further step in the search to reconstruct and date the different putative sources that form the story of Jerusalem’s deliverance. I will attempt to reconstruct each coherent source by tying together the threads of narrative that were detected in the previous chapters. I will address questions of literary composition, narration, continuity of themes and ideas, the coherency of the narrative, repetitions, structure, ideological, and religious aspects in the story.

The historical events span over a century and a half. I will reassess the time of the composition of the different sources and strands. Each discussion of a reconstructed source will be followed by a historical chapter that provides the historical-political Sitz im Leben of the narrative. I will suggest a historical situation in which the strand could have been written and the raison d’être of the composition. To do so, I will explore relevant extra-Biblical sources: Neo-Assyrian, Egyptian, Kushite, and Neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions and administrative documents, as well as classical historians (Herodotus, Josephus Flavius) and archaeological evidence. I will review the historical setting of the putative reconstructed sources and evaluate whether they are corroborated or contradicted by external evidence and whether their narratives are historical or fictional. Chapters 4: Source BI

The narrative of the Assyrian invasion of Judah in Isa 36–37/2 Kgs 18:17–19:37 describes the utter defeat of the Assyrians through divine intervention. The campaign ends with the defeat of the Assyrians, the return home of Sennacherib, and his murder by his sons.

In Chapter 4, Isaiah’s original message condemned the hubris of the king of Assyria who claimed that he destroyed many kingdoms and no God could stop him since the destruction of all the cities was God’s doing. Furthermore, Isaiah prophesied that although Judah was seriously damaged, it would recover from the disaster within three years. The recovery is not described, and the departure of Sennacherib and his army is not mentioned explicitly. The realization of the prophecy was some time in the future.

Already in 1886, Stade suggested that the Hezekiah-Isaiah narrative is a composite literary creation. He detected literary seams and suggested a combination of three sources. Source A: A chronistic record (2 Kgs 18:14–16, which is absent in Isaiah). Two further independent traditions about the deliverance from the Assyrian threat have been combined into one story: (a) Source B1: 2 Kgs 18:13, 17–19:9a and (b) Source B2: 2 Kgs 19:9b–37. Most scholars have accepted the identification of two consecutive accounts with an almost similar development of the narrative. Some scholars suggested different reconstructions of the putative sources and distinguish up to six strands spanning for hundreds of years.

Recently, proponents of the synchronic literary approach analysed the Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative (Isa 36–37/2 Kgs 18:13–19:37) as a coherent literary composition; some include the putative source A, while others exclude it. They are mainly focused on the message, meaning, devices of writing, and form and structure of the narrative as it stands in its final form.

The description of Sennacherib’s campaign against Jerusalem in the book of Chronicles is dependent on the version of the Isaiah account (Isa 36–37) but differs considerably from the narratives in 2 Kgs and Isaiah. It is but only one-third of the length of the Isaiah account. On the other hand, the author incorporates new material that does not originate in the Hezekiah–Sennacherib narrative.

The editor of Chronicles drew his information from sources, which were not included in Isaiah or 2 Kings. He added to these his theological perspective. As for the material which resembles the narrative in Isaiah and Kings, the Chronicler used material from the book of Isaiah, and heavily condensed it. Source A is absent; BI is represented only by two verses (Isa 36:19–20); Isaiah’s role (and the role of the other minor actors in the narrative) is greatly diminished. The end of the narrative incorporates information about the defeat of Assyria, the murder of Sennacherib; however, in a completely different phrasing from the BII version. On the other hand, the Chronicler heavily relied on a draft of the BIII version.