Jeremy Goldberg, «Two Assyrian Campaigns against Hezehiah and Later Eight Century Biblical Chronology», Vol. 80 (1999) 360-390
The massive Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 (reflected in 2 Kgs 18,13b; 18,1719,37) has apparently been confused with an earlier, limited invasion in Hezekiahs 14th year (reflected in 2 Kgs 18,13a.14-16; 2 Kgs 20; 2 Chr 32; Isa 22). Historically, this earlier campaign can best be dated to 712, when Sargon II apparently led the Assyrian royal guard on a Palestinian campaign. Chronologically, this dating fits perfectly with e.g. recent dating of the definitive fall of Samaria (2 Kgs 18,9: in Hezekiahs 6th year) to 720. 2 Kgs 18,9s parallel dating to Hosheas 9th year agrees with his apparent accession in 731 or 729. Dating Menahems death to 743 (as required, following biblical data, to avoid a triple overlap among Uzziah, Jotham and Ahaz) agrees with Eponym Chronicle evidence for this dating of 2 Kgs 15,19-20s presumably already desperate fiasco, and is consistent with a plausibly composite 738 tribute-list naming Menahem. Combining these datings produces a workable later 8th century biblical chronology.
was really the work of Sargon II8. On this basis, reference by 2 Kgs 17,3; 18,9 to Shalmaneser instead of Sargon in connection with the fall of Samaria provides a remarkable parallel for the proposed reference by 2 Kgs 18,13 to Sennacherib in error for Sargon in connection with 2 Kgs 18,14-16s campaign. This evident aversion to mentioning Sargon II would seem to be related to Isa 14,20s hoped-for proscription of a tyrant who is generally identified as Sargon II9.
Strong corroboration of this approach is provided by the Assyrian campaign against Hezekiah described in the fragmentary Azekah text, which is now widely and very plausibly assigned to Sargon II10. Before attempting to correlate biblical and Assyrian sources on a Judaean campaign by Sargon II, consider several additional biblical texts which appear connected to a limited Assyrian campaign against Hezekiah preceding the massive invasion in 2 Kgs 18,13b; 18,1719,37 / 701.
2 Kgs 20,1-11 (and Isa 38) date a near-fatal illness suffered by Hezekiah to his 14th year (cf. v. 6 with 2 Kgs 18,2) and around the time of an Assyrian invasion (v. 1, cf. v. 6). This illness was followed in 2 Kgs 20,12-19 (and Isa 39) by Hezekiahs reception of gift-bearing messengers from a "king of Babylon" clearly identifiable as