How was Hezekiah shut up "like a caged bird" in Jerusalem?

THE BIBLE AND INTERPRETATION:

The Language of Power in the Simile, “Like a Caged Bird”: The Assyrian Royal Lion Hunt and Sennacherib’s Military Campaign against Hezekiah of Judah

Sennacherib’s claim that he shut Hezekiah up in Jerusalem “like a caged bird” reflects a broader Assyrian ideological language of domination rather than face-saving rhetoric for a failed siege. Read against Assyrian lion-hunt imagery and military inscriptions, the simile signifies control, confinement, and royal victory, presenting Hezekiah as subdued even without Jerusalem’s destruction.

See also The Language of Power in the Simile “Like a Caged Bird”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Assyrian Royal Lion Hunt and Sennacherib’s Military Campaign Against Hezekiah of Judah (Pickwick, 2025).

By Woo Min Lee
Adjunct Professor
McCormick Theological Seminary April 2026

For lots more posts on Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, its archaeology, and what may have happened there, start here and follow the links.

I'm curious what the author of this essay and book makes of those odd reports about a visit of the Angel of the Lord to Sennacherib's camp during this siege or, alternatively, a plague of mice at his camp in Pelusium during the same campaign.

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