Sennarcherib, king of Assyria (705-681 B.C.), attacks Jerusalem in 701 B.C., while Hezekiah is king (715-686 B.C.) and Isaiah is prophet (740-686 B.C.). Working together, Hezekiah and Isaiah implore the Lord to save Jerusalem and Judah. And he does. God vows that “[Sennarcherib] will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here” (2 Kings 19: 32). “That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh [capital of the Assyrian Empire] and stayed there” (2 Kings 19: 35-36). With its defeat at Jerusalem in 701 B.C. Assyria weakens; to its south, Babylon (southern Iraq of today) rises. In 625 B.C. the Babylonians assert their independence from Assyria, attacking and destroying its capital, Nineveh, in 612 B.C. (the subject of the prophet Nahum). Nebuchadnezzar, Crown Prince of Babylon defeats Necho II king of Egypt in 605 B.C. at the Battle of Carchemish. Then he attacks Jerusalem. The Jews surrender in 605 B.C., becoming a vassal state to the Babylonian Empire and captives are taken to Babylon, including the prophet Daniel. The Babylonians attack again in 597 B.C. and more captives are taken, including the prophet Ezekiel. The last king of Judah, Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.)—a vassal king to Nebuchadnezzar, betrays him, and Nebuchadnezzar launches a full-scale siege against Jerusalem in 588 B.C. The city falls on August 14, 586 B.C. Zedekiah is taken captive, the city and the temple are burnt, and the survivors are taken captive to Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah (626-586 B.C.) records his eyewitness account of the events in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations.