3. The Bible states that “in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.” In the face of this threat Hezekiah opted to pay a tribute to Sennacherib. “Accordingly the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah the king of Judah three hundred silver talents and thirty gold talents.”​—2 Kings 18:13-16.

Are these events confirmed by any other source? During 1847-51 the British archaeologist A. H. Layard discovered, in the ruins of Sennacherib’s palace, what is now known as King Sennacherib’s Prism or the Taylor Prism. In cuneiform writing it presents Sennacherib’s version of his exploits. Is Hezekiah mentioned? Does it say anything about the tribute? A translation reads:

“As for Hezekiah the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, 46 of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighbourhood, . . . I besieged and took.” The account continues, “Himself like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city.” Please note that Sennacherib does not claim he conquered Jerusalem, which agrees with the Bible account. But what about the tribute? “I added to the former tribute, and laid upon him as their yearly payment, a tax . . . 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver . . . [and] all kinds of valuable treasures.” The Bible version clearly agrees with Sennacherib’s Prism except in the value of the tribute of silver. Should that make us doubt the Bible’s accuracy? Why should we believe Sennacherib’s boastful version rather than the low-key Bible account?

In Sennacherib’s Prism account he also claims that he took 200,150 prisoners from Judah, while the Bible record shows he himself suffered a terrible loss of 185,000 soldiers in one night. (2 Kings 18:13–19:36) How can we account for these differences?

In his book Light From the Ancient Past Professor Jack Finegan speaks of the “general note of boasting which pervades the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings.” Professor Olmstead, in Assyrian Historiography, offers the opinion: “When Sennacherib tells us that he took from . . . Judah no less than 200,150 prisoners, and that in spite of the fact that Jerusalem itself was not captured, we may deduct the 200,000 as a product of the exuberant fancy of the Assyrian scribe and accept the 150 as somewhere near the actual number captured.”

Evidently exaggerated war reports are not something peculiar to the 20th century! And the failure to recognize a crushing defeat in an official annal is nothing new. But the point is that the inscription on the Taylor Prism points to the Bible’s accuracy!

The Taylor Prism parallels the Bible account of tribute paid to Sennacherib