18:13 In the fourteenth year. 701 b.c., dated from the beginning of his independent reign (vv. 1, 2 and notes).

Sennacherib king of Assyria. Sennacherib succeeded Sargon II in 705 b.c.

came up against all the fortified cities of Judah. The annals of Sennacherib record his campaign against Phoenicia, Judah, the Philistine cities, and Egypt. He claims to have taken forty-six cities and “countless small villages.” He also boasts of having shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage.” His annals, however, do not claim that Sennacherib captured Jerusalem (Mic. 1:9 and note).