Oracles encouraging Esarhaddon exist, and possibly refer to this expedition.
Unfortunately the mutilation of the record, by which the beginning is wanting, has deprived us of the names of both conspirators, which are, therefore, only preserved by the Bible, Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor. Various have been the conjectures as to what the true Assyrian forms of the names would be, and only one, that of Adrammelech, has been found with any probability of its being the right one. The name in question is that of Aššur-munik, or, perhaps better, Aššur-mulik, for whom Sennacherib built a palace. From its form in Hebrew, Sharezer should be Šar-uṣur in Assyrian, i.e. “protect the king,” the name of the deity called upon being omitted.
Though Esarhaddon's inscriptions do not give any chronological data, the Babylonian chronicle indicates the dates of his campaigns with sufficient precision. From it we learn that in his first year he had to put [pg 386] down a rebellion in Ur, led by Zēru-kênu-lîšir, whom Esarhaddon calls Nabû-zēr-napišti-lîšir, son of Merodach-baladan. In the year 676 b.c., his expedition to Sidon took place, and Abdi-milkutti, the king, was beheaded in 675. After taking the spoil of the city, he says that he “assembled the kings of Ḫatti and the sea-coast, all of them,” and there is every probability that it was at this time that he “took Menasseh with hooks,” or, as the Revised Version has it, with chains, and bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon, where, as sovereign of that land also, he sometimes held court. Though severe, and probably also cruel sometimes, Esarhaddon was more mercifully inclined than his father, and allowed Menasseh to resume the reins of government at Jerusalem. There is no reference to this in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon, though he mentions, in his list of tributaries, Menasseh king of the city of Judah. This list, which is from a cylinder-inscription, is as follows—
“I gathered also the kings of Ḫatti and across the river ...
Ba'alu king of Ṣurru (Tyre): Menasê (Menasseh) king of the city of Yaudu:
Qauš-gabri, king of the city of Udumu (Edom); Muṣur'i, king of the city Ma'ab (Moab);
Ṣilli-bêlu, king of the city of Ḫazitu (Gaza); Mitinti, king of the city of Isqaluna (Askelon);
Ikausu, king of the city of Amqarruna (Ekron); Milki-ašapa, king of the city of Gublu (Gebal);
Matan-ba'al, king of the city of Aruadu (Arvad); Abi-baal, king of the city of Samsimuruna;
Budu-ilu, king of the city Bêt-Ammana (Beth-Ammon); Aḫi-milki, king of the city of Asdudu (Ashdod);