Sieges

Sustained battle against fortified cities, preventing renewal of supplies; a common tactic in OT times. Samaria and Jerusalem both fell to sieges.

Sieges used by and against Israel

Deuteronomy 20:12, Deuteronomy 20:19–20; Judges 9:50; 1 Samuel 11:1; 2 Samuel 11:1, 2 Samuel 20:15

Ben-Hadad II twice besieged Samaria, unsuccessfully

1 Kings 20:1 See also 1 Kings 20:15–20; 2 Kings 6:24, 2 Kings 7:3–7

Now Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he marched up, besieged Samaria, and waged war against it.

Shalmaneser V besieged Samaria

2 Kings 17:5–6 See also 2 Kings 18:9–12

Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, unsuccessfully

2 Kings 18:17, 2 Kings 18:35–36; 2 Chronicles 32:1–5; Isaiah 29:5–8, Isaiah 37:36–37

Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem

2 Kings 25:1 See also 2 Kings 25:2–11 parallel Jeremiah 39:1–10; 2 Chronicles 36:17–20 parallel Jeremiah 52:4–15

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

Jesus Christ warned that Jerusalem would be besieged and destroyed

Luke 19:43 The Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70 using an embankment to besiege the city. See also Luke 21:20–24

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side.

Sieges caused great suffering and people adopted desperate measures for survival

Deuteronomy 28:51–57; 2 Kings 6:24–29, 2 Kings 18:27