Archaeology in Support of 2 Kings #1

This is a truly incredible find from a canal at the Temple Mount. It is a 2,700-year-old Assyrian cuneiform text dated to the time when the very same event (taxing of Judah) occurred according to the biblical book of 2 Kings, in the 7th-8th centuries BCE.

From the article by Tudor Tarita, "Archaeologists Just Found Extremely Rare 2,700-Year-Old Assyrian Warning Buried in Jerusalem" (11/02/2025):

The inscription appears to reflect that very moment of tension. In the Hebrew Bible, King Hezekiah of Judah rebels against Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. He withholds tribute—prompting a devastating campaign. There seems to be some historical truth to that biblical writing.

“In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched against all the fortified towns of Judah and seized them,” reads 2 Kings 18:13–14. “King Hezekiah… said to the king of Assyria at Lachish: ‘I have done wrong; withdraw from me; and I shall bear whatever you impose on me.’”

The price of rebellion was 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold—an enormous sum at the time. A talent was an ancient unit of weight whose exact measure varied through history.

Until now, we have known about this episode mainly through Assyrian sources like the Sennacherib prisms and the Hebrew Bible. But the inscription offers, for the first time, physical evidence of this political friction from the heart of Jerusalem itself.