[597] This is the meaning of "he departed, and went, and returned."
[598] Not, only fifty-five days, as we read in Tobit i. 21.
[599] Jos., Antt., X. i. 5: "In his own temple to Araskê"; LXX., Ἀσαράχ; Isa. xxxvii. 38. One guess connects the word with Nesher, "the eagle-god," often seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Lenormant calls him "the god of human destiny."
[600] Alex. Polyhistor ap. Euseb., i. 27; Kimchi ad 2 Kings xix. 37. Buxtorf (Bibl. Rabbinic.) says that Sennacherib entered the temple to ask his counsellors why Jehovah favoured Israel. Being told that it was because of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, he said, "Then I will offer my two sons." Rashi adds that they slew him to save their own lives. (See Schenkel and Riehm, s.v. "Sanherib"—both articles by Schrader).
[601] See Schrader in Riehm's Handwörterbuch, s.vv. "Sanherib," "Asarhaddon." Esarhaddon, judging from what is called "Sennacherib's will," in which the king leaves him splendid presents, seems to have been a favourite of his father (Records of the Past, i. 136). He says that on hearing of his father's murder, "I was wrathful as a lion, and my soul raged within me, and I lifted my hands to the great gods to assume the sovereignty of my father's house." See [Appendix I].
[602] The Book of Tobit (i. 21) calls him Sarchedonas.
[603] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.
[604] 2 Chron. xxxii. 23.
[605] Wellhausen, p. 116.
[606] Herod., ii. 14. "Sin" (Tanis?), Ezek. xxx. 15. It lay in the midst of morasses, and some attribute the catastrophe to the malaria.