Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia: The connector Now renders the common Hebrew conjunction, which introduces the next event in the story. Contemporary English Version translates it “About this same time,” and Nouvelle Bible Segond has “Then.” Revised English Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh use the connector “But” to express a new development in the story. The Assyrian king was attacking Libnah, but his war strategy was interrupted by the news that Tirhakah was coming to attack him. Translators may use a temporal or contrastive connector here. The king heard is literally “he heard.” The pronoun “he” refers to the Assyrian king, so Revised Standard Version says the king for clarity. New International Version is even more explicit with “Sennacherib.” Good News Translation refers to both “the Assyrians” and “the emperor.” It is acceptable to refer explicitly to the referent of this pronoun.

Tirhakah ruled over Egypt about 690-664 B.C. However, the events described in this chapter take place in 701 B.C., about ten years before Tirhakah became king. At that time he was an army commander under his father, the king of Egypt. It is possible that he is referred to as king here because later he did become king and remained known as such. He and his predecessors were rulers of Egypt during the so-called “Ethiopian dynasty.” He is called king of Ethiopia since he came from the land of Ethiopia. Ethiopia renders the Hebrew name “Cush” (see 11.11 and the introductory comments on 18.1-7). New International Version and New Century Version render Tirhakah king of Ethiopia as “Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt” to clarify that he was of Cushite origin, but was actually ruler over Egypt.

He has set out to fight against you: This is what Sennacherib heard about Tirhakah. Assyrian records indicate that there was a battle between the Assyrians and Tirhakah, and that they defeated Tirhakah. This was the Battle of Eltekeh in 701 B.C., during the Assyrian invasion of Judah. Eltekeh was a town in the Sorek Valley west of Jerusalem. This clause is a direct quote in Hebrew, but some translators may prefer to make it indirect speech, as in Good News Translation.

And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying: The pronoun he still refers to Sennacherib. When he heard the Egyptian army was coming to attack him, he sent another message to Hezekiah. This time it was in the form of a letter carried by messengers (see verse 14). Good News Translation anticipates this by stating already here that it was a letter.

There is a textual problem with the Hebrew verb rendered And when he heard it. Some manuscripts read “and he [re]turned,” which may simply be rendered “again” in connection with the next verb. Revised English Bible follows this reading by rendering this last half of the verse as “he sent messengers again to King Hezekiah of Judah” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible). However, Hebrew Old Testament Text Project suggests that Masoretic Text is the better reading, so translators should keep the verb “heard” (so RSV/NRSV, Good News Translation, New International Version).

The word saying is the Hebrew equivalent of quotation marks introducing direct speech. It may be left implied, as in Good News Translation.

Some translation examples for this verse are:

• But the Assyrian king heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia had set out [from Egypt] to fight him. Hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying….

• Now when Sennacherib heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia had set out to fight him, he sent messengers with a letter to Hezekiah:….

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .