14:28–32  With this section we move from the great powers to Judah’s neighbors, and first to Philistia, its immediate neighbor to the southwest, between the Judean hills and the Mediterranean. Realpolitik is urgent here, as the provision of a concrete date suggests. Ahaz died in the 720s B.C., as did the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmanezer V. One of the latter is the “broken rod.” A king’s death often brings a hiatus of power, and Philistia joined a coalition of peoples also interested in resisting Assyrian authority at the time. Philistia was perhaps pressing Juda…