[15] Next are Hezekiah's early foreign political activities: he liberated the kingdom of Judah from Assyrian subservience and conducted successful campaigns against the Philistines (verses 7–8).

An Assyrian source noted that Hezekiah was the 'leader of an anti-Assyrian coalition from 705 BCE onwards', and he even 'arrested a pro-Assyrian king of Ekron in this capacity'.

[57] The Assyrians started by using psychological warfare,[14] with Rabshakeh speaking directly to the people of Jerusalem at the wall of the city using the Hebrew language and employing shrewd rhetoric on Israelite faith while undermining it.

[13] The Rabshakeh is not a common messenger, as he is a 'propagandist and skill negotiator' with the ability of speaking the 'language of diplomatic disputation', with a purpose to divide the people of Judah along calls lines (verse 27).

Rabshakeh's well-crafted speeches alternate between promises of good things from the Assyrian king and warnings not to trust YHWH nor Hezekiah to protect them:[13] He states four seemingly excellent arguments for capitulation:[58] Rabshakeh hammers on the issue of trust, which is a key issue in 2 Kings 17, as spoken by the prophets, but here he offers the theological challenge: Hezekiah's acts of destroying places of worship provoke the displeasure of YHWH, and the implication: neither Hezekiah nor Egypt nor YHWH can be trusted to deliver the people.

Significant data concerning Hezekiah appear in the Deuteronomistic History, the Chronicler, Isaiah, Assyrian annals and reliefs, Israelite epigraphy, and, increasingly, stratigraphy".

[80] Archaeologist Amihai Mazar considers the tensions between Assyria and Judah "one of the best-documented events of the Iron Age" and "Hezekiah's story is one of the best to cross-reference with the rest of the Mid Eastern world's historical documents".

[86][87][88] The accounts of Sennacherib of Assyria, including his invasion into the Kingdom of Judah, especially the capture of Lachish and the siege of Jerusalem, are recorded in a number of ancient documents and artifacts:[89]