Nadav Na'aman, «New Light on Hezekiah's Second Prophetic Story (2 Kgs 19,9b-35)», Vol. 81 (2000) 393-402
The article re-examines some elements in Account B2 (2 Kgs 19,9b-35) in an effort to shed more light on the date and place in which the story was composed. It is suggested that the list of cities mentioned in vv. 12-13 reflects the conquests of Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar in the late seventh century BCE. It is also suggested that vv. 17-18 may reflect the Babylonian practice of destroying cult statues during their conquest of Assyria. The author of Account B2 was probably a descendant of a Judean deportee who lived in eastern Babylonia in the second half of the sixth century BCE. It is further suggested that the Deuteronomist combined chronistic and narrative early texts (Accounts A and B1) and integrated them into his composition of the history of Israel.
The List of Conquered Places in 2 Kings 19,12-13
The key for dating Account B2 (2 Kgs 19,9b-35) is the list of cities mentioned in vv. 12-13. The text runs as follows:
Did the gods of the nations save them whom my ancestors destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?
This text may be compared with 2 Kgs 18,33-34, which is part of the second speech of the Rabshakeh in Account B1:
Did any of the gods of the nations ever save his land from the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? [ ]6. [Where are the gods of Samaria?]7. Did they save Samaria from me?
Hamath, Arpad and Samaria participated in the anti-Assyrian rebellion that broke out in Syria-Palestine upon the death of Shalmaneser V, when Sargon II ascended the throne in 722 BCE8. After he crushed the rebellion in 720 BCE, Sargon annexed Hamath and Samaria to the Assyrian territory. Arpad was an Assyrian province since 738 BCE and after the rebellion was probably re-organized9. Sepharvaim appears in 2 Kings 17,24 as the origin of settlers whom Sargon deported to the province of Samerina in his late years10, and is