During Shalmaneser's reign I performed many charitable works for my kinsmen and my people. I would give my bread to the hungry and my clothing to the naked. If I saw one of my people who had died and been thrown outside the walls of Nineveh, I would bury him. I also buried anyone whom Sennacherib slew when he returned as a fugitive from Judea during the days of judgment decreed against him by the heavenly King because of the blasphemies he had uttered. In his rage he killed many Israelites, but I used to take their bodies by stealth and bury them; so when Sennacherib looked for them, he could not find them. (Tobit 1: 16-18)

Sennacherib ruled Assyria from 705-681BC. In 689BC responding to Egyptian expansionism the Assyrians swept into Judah, conquered many cities, and put Jerusalem under siege.

In II Kings 18 it says that King Hezekiah of Judah "rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him." The book of Kings goes on to detail the blasphemies by three Assyrian ambassadors to Jerusalem referenced above. (See II Kings 18: 17-37)

According to Judean sources the siege of Jerusalem was lifted when angels intervened with plague. Assyrian sources record a great victory against King Hezekiah. Some modern historians accommodate both accounts by suggesting undefeated Assyrian forces were redeployed from Jerusalem to deal with a revolt in Babylon.

Scripture depicts King Hezekiah of Judah as a good king and a profoundly religious man. II Kings writes of Hezekiah, "He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him." Yet Hezekiah experienced invasion, conquest, humiliation, personal illness, and much more.

Tobit observes the religious laws, cares for the weak, and even risks his personal safety to care for the dead. What will happen to him?

Above is a relief showing Sennacherib (left) with his father Sargon II.