Sennacherib.
Though in all probability young when he came to the throne in 705 b.c., Sennacherib had already some experience as a ruler, having been the representative of his father Sargon in Armenia, where he had to receive and transmit the reports of the Assyrian generals, and probably also to administer the country. For the nations over which he was to rule, however, he was practically a new and untried administrator, of whose strength or weakness of character nothing was known. Merodach-baladan therefore took advantage of the death of Sargon and the succession of his son to come forth from his hiding-place, with such of his followers who were available, and an army placed at his disposal by the king of Elam. To all appearance the Chaldean ruler had taken advantage of the occupation of the Assyrian army elsewhere to possess himself of Babylon, which city Sennacherib entered, occupying Merodach-baladan's palace, and seizing all his treasures. Merodach-baladan fled and took refuge in Nagitu, on the other side of the Persian Gulf, so as to be near his Elamite allies.
After this the Assyrian king records his expedition to the mountainous countries of Kassû (the Cossæans) and the Yasubigalleans, north of Elam, in the course of which he wasted the neighbouring district of Ellipu, taking, on his way, tribute from some of the more inaccessible tribes of the Medes. His third campaign was to the land of Ḫatti (Syria), and as this is of considerable importance, a translation of the whole, from the Taylor Cylinder, which gives a full account, is inserted here—
“In my third expedition I went to the land of Ḫatti. Lulî king of the city of Ṣidunnu (Sidon), fear of the glory of my dominion struck him, and he fled from the midst of Tyre to Yatnana[106] (Cyprus), which [pg 374] is in the middle of the sea, and I subjugated his country. Great Ṣidunnu, little Ṣidunnu, Bît-zitte, Ṣareptu (Zarephath), Maḫalliba, Ûšû (Osah), Akzibi (Achzib), Akkû (Accho), his strong cities, fortresses, where were food and drink, his strongholds, the terror of the weapons of Aššur my lord struck them, and they submitted to my feet. Tu-ba'alu (Ethobaal) on the throne of dominion over them I set, and the tax and tribute of my overlordship yearly without fail I imposed upon him.
“As for Minḫimmu (Menahem) of the city of the Samsimurunâa;
Tu-ba'alu of the city of the Ṣidunnâa (Sidonians);
Abdi-li'iti of the city of the Arudâa (Arvadites);
Uru-milki of the city of the Gublâa (Gebalites);
Mitinti of the city of the Asdudâa (Ashdodites);
Budu-îlu of the land of the Bît-Ammanâa (Beth-Ammonites);
Kammusu-nadbi (Chemosh-nadab) of the land of the Ma'abâa (Moabites);
Aa-rammu (Joram) of the land of the Udummâa (Edomites);
kings of the land of Amoria all of them, brought numerous treasures, their valuable presents, as gifts to my presence and kissed my feet. And Ṣidqâ[107] (Zedekiah), king of the city of Isqalluna (Askelon), who was not submissive to my yoke, the gods of his father's house, himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his brothers, (and) the seed of his father's house, I removed and brought to the land of Aššur. Šarru-lûdâri, son of Rûkibtu, their former king, I placed over the people of the city of Isqalluna, and the payment of tribute as the price of my overlordship I set for him, and he bore my yoke. In the course of my campaign the [pg 375] city Bît-Daganna (Beth-Dagon), Yappû (Joppa), Banâa-barqa (Bene-berak), Azuru (Azor), cities of Ṣidqâ which were not at once submissive to my yoke, I besieged, captured, (and) carried off their spoil.
“The prefects, the princes, and the people of the city Amqarruna (Ekron), who had thrown Padî, their king, who was faithful to the agreement and oath of the land of Aššur, into fetters of iron, and given him to Ḫazaqiau (Hezekiah), of the land of the Yaudâa (Jews)—hostilely in secret they had acted—feared in their hearts. The kings of the land of Muṣuru (Egypt), (and) the soldiers of the bow, the chariots, (and) the horses of the king of the land of Meluḫḫa, gathered to themselves a numberless force, and came to their help. Over against me in sight of Altaqû (Eltekah) their line of battle was set in array, they called for their weapons. In the service of Aššur my lord I fought with them and accomplished their defeat. The charioteers and the sons of the king of the Muṣurâa (Egyptians), with the charioteers of the king of the land of Meluḫḫa, my hands captured alive in the midst of the battle. (As for) the city of Altaqû (Eltekah) (and) the city of Tamnâ (Timnah), I besieged, captured, (and) carried off their spoil.
“I approached to the city of Amqarruna, and the prefects and princes who had caused the wrong to be, I killed, and on stakes around the city I hung their corpses. The sons of the city doing the crime and misdeed I counted as spoil. The rest of them, who did not commit sin and wickedness, whose evil deed was not, I commanded their release. I caused Padî, their king, to come forth from the midst of Ursalimmu (Jerusalem), and to sit on the throne of dominion over them, and the tribute of my overlordship I imposed upon him. And (as for) Hazaqiau (Hezekiah) of the land of the Yaudâa (Jews), who had not submitted to my yoke, 46 of his strong cities, fortresses, [pg 376] and small towns which were around them, which were innumerable, with overthrowing by battering-rams, and advance of towers, infantry-attack, breaching, cutting, and earthworks, I besieged (and) captured. 200,150 people, small and great, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep, which were without number, from their midst I caused to come forth and reckoned as spoil. As for him, like a cage-bird I shut him up within Ursalimmu, the city of his dominion. Redoubts I threw up around him, and I cut off the exit from the great gate of his city—it was (completely) covered. His cities, which I had spoiled, I detached from the midst of his country, and gave (them) to Mitintu, king of Asdudu (Ashdod), Padî, king of Amqarruna (Ekron), and Ṣilli-bêl, king of the city Ḫazitu (Gaza), and (thus) reduced his land. Over the former tribute, their yearly gift, I added a payment as to the due of my overlordship, and imposed it upon them. As for him, Ḫazaqiau (Hezekiah), fear of the magnificence of my lordship struck him, and the urbi and his chosen soldiers, which he had brought in for the defence of Ursalimmu, the city of his kingdom, and (who) had pay, with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious (stones), guḫli, daggassi,[108] great carbuncles (?), couches of ivory, state thrones of ivory, elephant-skin, elephant-tooth (ivory), ebony (?), urkarinnu-wood, all sorts of things,[109] a valuable treasure, and his daughters, the women of his palace, male singers (and) female singers, he[110] caused to be brought after me to the midst of Ninua (Nineveh), the city of my dominion, and he sent his messenger to present the gift and pay homage.”
It is needless to say that the above long account differs considerably from that given in the Bible (2 Kings xviii. 13; Isa. xxxvi. 1 ff.), and it is very difficult to reconcile the two narratives. According to the account [pg 377] in Kings, Sennacherib came and took all the fenced cities of Judah, but there is no statement as to the reason why. The Assyrian king justifies his invasion of the country by stating that Hezekiah had sided with the inhabitants of Ekron in the deposition of their king, whom he had received from them and kept in prison. He even states that he brought him forth from Jerusalem and replaced him on the throne. That this circumstance is not referred to in the Biblical account, cannot be held to indicate that the Assyrian king's story is wrong, and only shows that the writer of the 2nd Book of the Kings did not think it of sufficient importance to record. In all probability, Hezekiah did not know at the time that Padî was an Assyrian vassal, otherwise he would not have incurred the risk of an invasion of his country by the dreaded Assyrians. The Biblical account then states that Hezekiah sent to the king at Lachish, saying that he had offended, and asking for terms, a fact which indicates that he was aware of having done something at which the king of Assyria might justly take offence. The answer was, the fixing of the amount of tribute which Hezekiah had to pay—300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold, this latter item agreeing with the statement of Sennacherib himself, though the amount of silver which he mentions—800 talents—is much greater. The sacrifice which Hezekiah made on this occasion (he had to strip off the gold from the doors of the Temple, and also from the pillars which he had overlaid, to make up the sum) was considerable. Concerning a siege of Jerusalem at this point, however, there is not a single word in the Biblical account, and the general opinion is, that the Assyrian king has purposely combined two accounts to give an appearance of success to what, in 2 Kings xix. 35-37, appears to have been a serious disaster to the Assyrian arms.
It is worthy of note, however, that Josephus makes [pg 378] the siege of Jerusalem to have taken place when Sennacherib was returning from Egypt, where he had spent a long time besieging Pelusium (Ant. x. i. 4), which was regarded as the key of Egypt. In support of this he quotes Herodotus, who, according to him, made a great mistake “when he called this king not king of the Assyrians, but of the Arabians.” This, however, is not quite correct, as Herodotus really says (book ii. 141), “Sennacherib king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians.” That it took place on his return from Egypt, however, is also stated by Berosus, whom Josephus quotes in full, as follows—
“Now when Sennacherib was returning from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem, he found his army under Rabshakeh in great danger, for God had sent a pestilential distemper upon his army; and on the very first night of the siege, a hundred and eighty-five thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed. So the king was in a great dread, and in a terrible agony at this calamity; and being in great fear for his whole army, he fled with the rest of his forces to his own kingdom, and to his city Nineveh, and when he had abode there a little while, he was treacherously assaulted, and died by the hands of his elder sons, Adramelech and Sarasar, and was slain in his own temple which was called Araske. Now these sons of his were driven away on account of the murder of their father, by the citizens, and went into Armenia, whilst Assarachoddas took the kingdom of Sennacherib.”
This would seem to be conclusive, especially as Sennacherib, according to his own records, made no expedition to Egypt before or at the time of that against the land of Ḫatti, which took place in the eponymy of Mitunu, prefect of Isana, i.e. 700 b.c., or the year immediately preceding. Now as Sennacherib died in 681 b.c., nearly twenty years elapsed between the campaign of which the account is above translated [pg 379] and his death. Berosus, however, states that, after the siege of Jerusalem, which ended so disastrously for him, he abode at Nineveh only “a little while” before he was murdered. There is then no doubt that there were two campaigns, and the events referred to in 2 Kings xviii. 13-xix. 37, though they seem to follow each other with little or no break, must have extended over a considerable period, the widest gap being in all probability between the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of ch. xviii. It is noteworthy that, at this point, the Hebrew indicates the end of a paragraph, though not a change of subject.
Affairs in Babylonia now occupied the attention of Sennacherib for many years, in consequence of the many revolutions there, which were largely fomented, aided and abetted by the Elamites. In 703 b.c., two pretenders, Marduk-zakir-šumi and Marduk-âbla-iddina, held the throne in succession for a few months, but Sennacherib put an end to this rule by setting on the throne a Chaldean named Bêl-ibnî (Belibus).[111] This took place when he defeated Merodach-baladan, before the campaign against the West. Evidently, however, he was not satisfied with the rule of his nominee, who had probably been plotting against him, and therefore entered the country again in 699 b.c., carried away Bêl-ibnî prisoner, and set on the throne his own eldest son, Aššur-nadin-šum. After this seems to have occurred his fifth expedition, which was to the mountainous region where lay the cities Tumurru, Šarum or Šarma, Ezema, Kibšu, Ḫalbuda, Qûa, and Qana, in the neighbourhood of Cilicia, his objective being the city Ukku, which was taken and spoiled.
Whilst absent on this expedition, however, the Elamites seem to have been again plotting against the Assyrians in Babylonia. This being the case, Sennacherib went in “ships of the land of Ḫatti” to [pg 380] the place where Merodach-baladan[112] had taken refuge, namely, “Nagitu of Elam.”[113] On this occasion, he claims to have captured Šûzubu (otherwise Nergal-ušêzib), and carried him in chains to Assyria. This led to reprisals on the part of the Elamites, who invaded Babylonia, carried Aššur-nadin-šum, the king, Sennacherib's son, prisoner, and set on the throne Nergal-ušêzib, who, if he be the Šûzubu referred to by Sennacherib, must have escaped from the custody of the Assyrians. This was in 693 b.c.
Nergal-ušêzib only ruled for a year or eighteen months, and was captured (? again) by the Assyrians. The Assyrian king now ravaged Elam “from Râš to Bît-Burnaki,” but his army would have been better employed in watching over affairs in Babylonia, where another pretender, Mušêzib-Marduk, sat on the throne, and ruled for four years. During this time he, too, found that his seat was not altogether a bed of roses, for Menanu, king of Elam, after a battle with the Assyrians,[114] captured Mušêzib-Marduk with an army composed of Elamites and Babylonians, and delivered him to the Assyrians. Sennacherib now again (688 b.c.) became king of Babylonia, and it is thought that, on taking possession of the capital again, out of revenge for the loss of his son, and on account of the trouble he had had in consequence of the Babylonians running after the many pretenders, with which the land seems to have teemed, he destroyed [pg 381] the city of Babylon, committing such cruelties that they were remembered to the end, and sowed the seeds of that hatred which were to bring forth for Assyria that deadliest of all fruit—her own destruction.
In the eight years which passed between his assuming the reins of power in Babylonia and his death, must be placed that expedition to Egypt spoken of by Berosus and Herodotus. The version of the former, which refers principally to the siege of Jerusalem, is quoted above (p. [378]); the following is the account of the latter—
“After this, Sanacharib, king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians, marched a great host against Egypt. Then the warriors of the Egyptians refused to come to the rescue, and the priest (Hephaistos, whose name was Sethos),[115] being driven into a strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to the image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he was thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his vision that the god came out and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that he should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the Arabians, for he would himself send him helpers. Trusting in these things seen in sleep, he took with him, they say, those of the Egyptians who were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusion, for by this way the invasion came; and not one of the warrior class followed him, but shopkeepers and artisans and men of the market. Then after they came, there swarmed by night upon the enemies mice of the fields, and ate up their quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of their shields, so that on the next day they fled, and being without defence of [pg 382] arms great numbers fell. And at the present time this king stands in the temple of Hephaistos in stone, holding upon his head a mouse, and by letters inscribed he says these words, ‘Let him who looks upon me learn to fear the gods.’ ”
Josephus's quotation from Herodotus differs somewhat from the above, in that he makes the Egyptian king to pray to God (and not before his image), and omits all reference to the dream. This was doubtless to make the parallel with the case of Hezekiah more striking.
Sennacherib before Lachish. For the translation of the inscription, see the opposite page. British Museum, Assyrian Saloon. The face of the king is mutilated in the original bas-relief, and has been restored.
The precise date of this expedition to Egypt and second siege of Jerusalem is unknown, but it must have taken place between 688 and 680 b.c. It is not by any means improbable that the date may some time or other be fixed, for an account of it will probably be found in the ruins of the cities of Assyria somewhere. That Herodotus calls Sennacherib “king of the Arabians and the Assyrians” is probably due to the fact that he seems to have been in alliance with “the queen of the Aribi”—(šar)rat D.P. Aribi—or Arabians, at the time. Esarhaddon speaks of his father Sennacherib as having captured the Arabian city Adumū, and inscriptions of Aššur-banî-âpli also refer to Sennacherib's expedition thither, and to his connection with an Arabian king named Ḫaza-îlu (Hazael). With regard to Palestine itself, the reality of the siege of Lachish is testified to by the fact, that a large portion of Sennacherib's sculptures represent him as being present at the siege of Lachish in person, when the prisoners and the booty taken were passed before him in procession. The inscription accompanying this scene reads as follows—
“Sin-âḫê-iriba, king of the world, king of the land Aššur,
sat upon his throne of state, and
the spoil of Lakisu
passed before him.”
It would be strange indeed if this event, of which he was evidently very proud, were omitted from the history of what he must have regarded as his glorious deeds. As it does not occur in the account of his expedition to the land of Ḫatti, there is hardly any doubt that it belongs to the later campaign there, when he took the city, though he failed, as has been seen, to take Jerusalem. In all probability there were two sieges of Lachish, and it was very possible that the city was taken only on the second occasion. In any case, it was from Lachish that Sennacherib sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh to Hezekiah, with a great army to besiege Jerusalem, and it is noteworthy that the Rabshakeh reproaches him with trusting to Egypt, the power with which Assyria was at that moment in conflict; and in Sennacherib's second message to Hezekiah (2 Kings xix. 9) the words accompanying it clearly show that the general opinion was, that it was the march of Tirhakah against him which called it forth. It is noteworthy in this connection, that Tirhakah cannot have been on the throne of Egypt so early as 700 b.c., the date of Sennacherib's first campaign against the West.
There are therefore many arguments in favour of two expeditions of Sennacherib to Palestine, with two sieges of Jerusalem, and also, to all appearance, two sieges of Lachish.
The following is the account of his death given in the Babylonian Chronicle—
“On the 20th day of Tebet, Sin-âḫê-eriba, king of Assyria, his son killed him in a revolt. For (? 25) years Sin-âḫê-eriba had ruled the kingdom of Assyria. From the 20th day of the month Tebet until the 2nd day of the month Adar, the revolt in Assyria continued. Month Adar, day 18th, Aššur-âḫâ-iddina (Esarhaddon), his son, sat upon the throne in Assyria.”
According to Berosus, who agrees with the Biblical account in this, it was two of his sons who killed him, but it may be taken that, though they were both morally responsible, one only actually performed the deed. Shareser is not mentioned, either by Abydenus or Polyhistor, as taking part in the murder; it would seem to be very probable, that Adrammelech was the culprit. From Berosus it is also clear that Esarhaddon had nothing to do with it, and this is to a certain extent confirmed by his inscriptions, which, as will be seen farther on, represent him as warring in Armenia, whither his brothers had fled.
According to the received chronology, the assassination of Sennacherib and the accession of Esarhaddon took place in the year 680 b.c.