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In 2 Kings 19 the angel of God strikes down the army of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who had mocked Jerusalem. A prayer in 3 Maccabees recalls how God broke that boastful king during one of his past rescues of Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Kings 19:35
Hebrew Bible
34 “‘I will shield this city and rescue it for the sake of my reputation and because of my promise to David my servant.’” 35 That very night the angel of the Lord went out and killed 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When they got up early the next morning, there were all the corpses. 36 So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh.
3 Maccabees 6:5
Pseudepigrapha
4 Pharaoh with his abundance of chariots, the former ruler of this Egypt, exalted with lawless insolence and boastful tongue, you destroyed together with his arrogant army by drowning them in the sea, manifesting the light of your mercy on the nation of Israel. 5 Sennacherib exulting in his countless forces, oppressive king of the Assyrians, who had already gained control of the whole world by the spear and was lifted up against your holy city, speaking grievous words with boasting and insolence, you, O Lord, broke in pieces, showing your power to many nations. 6 The three companions in Babylon who had voluntarily surrendered their lives to the flames so as not to serve vain things, you rescued unharmed, even to a hair, moistening the fiery furnace with dew and turning the flame against all their enemies.
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Notes and References
... Sennacherib (verse 5) was the king of Assyria (705-681 BCE) who invaded Judah during King Hezekiah's reign and laid siege to Jerusalem in 701 (see 2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 36-37). Sennacherib's possession of 'the entire earth' was in large part due to the vastness of the empire he inherited from his father, Sargon II, but he also conquered Babylon and rebuilt Nineveh, making it his capital. Despite such impressive gains, God shattered him in a display of divine power. A significant difference between the story in 3 Maccabees and that of 2 Kings is the critical role of a supernatural intermediary in the latter: an angel of the Lord slays 185,000 Assyrians in the middle of the night, a development that rather effectively ended the Assyrian threat (2 Kings 19:35; compare 2 Chronicles 32:21). ...
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