Sennacherib

Sennacherib, d. 681 B.C., king of Assyria (705–681 B.C.). The son of Sargon, Sennacherib spent most of his reign fighting to maintain the empire established by his father. It is difficult to determine the exact sequence of his conquests, but his first campaign seems to have been waged against Babylonia. Later he marched against an uprising of the western nations (Phoenicia, Judah, and Philistia), who were supported by Egypt. He defeated the Egyptians at Eltekeh (701 B.C.) and prepared to take Jerusalem. Isaiah had warned Hezekiah not to join the uprising against Assyria, but the king had refused the advice. Thus, Sennacherib destroyed many Judaean cities and besieged Jerusalem, forcing the king to pay a heavy tribute. Hezekiah built the famous Siloam Tunnel when the water supply was threatened by the approach of the Assyrian forces. Disturbances in Babylonia called the king to that area, and he waged a naval campaign against the Chaldaeans. He laid Elam waste and finally fought both the Chaldaeans and the Elamites at the battle of Halulina (Khaluli) (c.691 B.C.). The exact outcome of the battle is uncertain. Two years later Sennacherib captured and destroyed Babylon. He constructed canals and aqueducts and built a magnificent palace at Nineveh. Two of his sons, jealous of their brother Esar-haddon, murdered Sennacherib. Esar-haddon succeeded to the throne.

In 701 BC, an Egyptian-backed rebellion broke out in Judah and was led by Hezekiah. Sennacherib was able to sack many cites in Judah. He laid siege to Jerusalem, but soon returned to Ninevah, with Jerusalem not having been sacked. This famous event was recorded by Sennacherib himself, by Herodotus, and by several biblical writers.

According to the Bible, the siege failed, as the angel of Yahweh went forth and struck down 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp (2 Kings 19:35). Some of the Assyrian chronicles, such as the stone carved Taylor Prism now preserved in the British Museum, date from very close to the time.

The Assyrian accounts do not treat it as a disaster, but a great victory, and present a completely different account - they state that the siege was so successful that Hezekiah was forced to give a monetary tribute, and so the Assyrians left victoriously, without anything even remotely like great losses of thousands of men. In the Taylor Prism, Sennacherib states that he had shut up Hezekiah the Judahite within Jerusalem, his own royal city, like a caged bird.


Sennacherib's account
Sennacherib first recounts several of his previous victories, and how his enemies had become overwhelmed by his presence. He was able to do this to Great Sidon, Little Sidon, Bit-Zitti, Zaribtu, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzib and Akko. After taking each of these cities, Sennacherib installed a puppet leader named Ethbaal as ruler over the entire region. Sennacherib then turned his attention to Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Banai-Barqa, and Azjuru, cities that were ruled by Sidqia and also fell to Sennacherib.

Egypt and Nubia then came to the aid of the stricken cities. Sennacherib defeated the Egyptians and, by his own account, single-handedly captured the Egyptian and Nubian charioteers. Sennacherib captured and sacked several other cities, including Lachish. He punished the "criminal" citizens of the cities, and he reinstalled Padi, their leader, who had been held as a hostage in Jerusalem.

After this, Sennacherib turned to King Hezekiah of Judah, who stubbornly refused to submit to him. Forty-six of Hezekiah's cities were conquered by Sennacherib, but Jerusalem did not fall. His own account of this invasion, as given in the Taylor Prism, is as follows:

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 strong fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about, I took and plundered a countless number. From these places I took and carried off 200,156 persons, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mules, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude; 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, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape... Then upon Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty... All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my government.

Isaiah's account
Isaiah's account of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem is rather long. It starts with the obvious, about Sennacherib's march against the cities of Judah, and simply states that Sennacherib takes them. Isaiah then recounts how Hezekiah prayed to the God of Israel to save Jerusalem. His account then ended in the way the God of Israel defeats Sennacherib's army: many of Sennacherib's troops are simply killed in their sleep.

The disaster according to Herodotus
The Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote his Histories ca. 440 BC, also speaks of a divinely-appointed disaster destroying an army of Sennacherib in this same campaign (2:141):

when Sanacharib, king of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched his vast army into Egypt, the warriors one and all refused to come to his [i.e., the Pharoah Sethos'] aid. On this the monarch, greatly distressed, entered into the inner sanctuary, and, before the image of the god, bewailed the fate which impended over him. As he wept he fell asleep, and dreamed that the god came and stood at his side, bidding him be of good cheer, and go boldly forth to meet the Arabian host, which would do him no hurt, as he himself would send those who should help him. Sethos, then, relying on the dream, collected such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, who were none of them warriors, but traders, artisans, and market people; and with these marched to Pelusium, which commands the entrance into Egypt, and there pitched his camp. As the two armies lay here opposite one another, there came in the night, a multitude of field-mice, which devoured all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy, and ate the thongs by which they managed their shields. Next morning they commenced their fight, and great multitudes fell, as they had no arms with which to defend themselves. There stands to this day in the temple of Vulcan, a stone statue of Sethos, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to this effect - "Look on me, and learn to reverence the gods."

In popular culture
Lord Byron's poem The Destruction of Sennacherib ("The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold...") is a retelling of the story contained in 2 Kings.