Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
He shall not come ... before it with shields. He did come near it, but was not allowed to conduct a proper siege.
Nor cast a bank against it - a mound to defend the assailants in attacking the walk. Sennacherib did hem it in with towers at the first invasion, as we know from the inscriptions, but not at the second invasion. Sir H. Rawlinson thus reads the inscription as to the former, 'Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against him, and by force of arms, and by the might of my power, I took 46 of his fenced cities, and of smaller towns scattered about I took a countless number. And I carried off as spoil 200,150 people. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem him in. Then upon this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs of Jerusalem, with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver.'