King of Assyria (704681 BC), the son of Sargon II and grandfather of Assurbanipal. He was an able ruler, whose fame rests mainly on his conquest of Babylon (689 BC) and his rebuilding of Nineveh. He figures prominently in the Bible, because of his attack on Jerusalem.
Sennacherib (in Akkadian Śïn-ahhe-eriba "(The moon god) Śïn has Replaced (Lost) Brothers for Me") was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (705 BC–681 BC).
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 Nineveh, 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).
The Assyrian accounts do not treat it as a disaster, but a great victory, not telling about the final outcome - 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. 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 (cities as categorized in the 1st millenium BCE ranged in scope from large modern-day towns to villages) 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 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... |
Biblical account
The Biblical account of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem is recorded in length. II Kings 18-19 (and parallel passage II Chronicles 32:1-23) details Sennacherib's attack on Judah and capitol Jerusalem. Hezekiah realized his error and sent great tribute to Sennacherib, undoubtedly the tribute mentioned in the Taylor Prism. Sennacherib sent his supreme commander with an army to besiege Jerusalem while he himself went to fight with the Egyptians. The supreme commander met with Hezekiah's officials and threatened them to surrender, while hailing insults so the people of the city could hear, blaspheming Judah and particularly their God. Sennacherib soon returned to Nineveh in disgrace. Shortly afterwards, while Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons killed him and fled, thus God protected His people and sent judgment upon him who had previously blasphemed God.
The Egyptian disaster according to Herodotus
The Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote his Histories ca. 450 BC, also speaks of a divinely-appointed disaster destroying an army of Sennacherib in this same campaign while his supreme commander was being defeated in Jerusalem (2:141):
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.
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
Sennacherib can also be found on the Terrace of pride in Dante's Purgatorio
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