"The accounts of this expedition of Sennacherib given in the Bible relate that after the submission of Hezekiah, ' the angel of the Lord" went through the camp of the As- syrians and destroyed 18.'>,000 men of Sennacherib's army, aiid that the Assyrian monarch returned in disgrace to Nineveh (2 Kings xix, 35-37). Tliis overthrow of Sen- nacherib's army is confirmed by a story told to Herodotus (ii, 141) by the Egyptian priests. They relate that in the time of an Egyptian king named Sethos, Sennacherib made an expedition against Egypt, and came as far as Pelusium. Sethos went out against him with an inferior army, having invoked the aid of the Egyptian gods and been promised deliverance. In the niglit, as the two ar- mies lay opposite each other, hosts of tield-mice came and destroyed the bowstrings of the Assyrians, who next morning fled."
The discrepancy in dates between the cuneiform and the Biblical accounts of this invasion are at present ir- reconcilable {Journ. of Snc. Lit. July, 1854, p. 383 sq.). See Chronology. There has probably been an error in reading the former, or perhaps an error in the record itself. All attempts to correct the Scripture date are forbidden by the manner in which it is interlaced and confirmed by the ccmtext. Ravvlin.son and others have sought a partial solution of the difficulty by the sup- position of a twofold attack by Sennacherib upon Pal- estine ; but neither the Assyrian nor the Biblical an-
nals give any countenance to this view. See Hkzekiah.
3. Later Campai(jns and Death. — In his fourth year Sennacherib invaded Babylo- nia for the second time. Me- rodach-Baladan continued to have a party in that country, where his brothers still resided ; and it may be suspected that the viceroy, Helibiis, either .se- cretly favored liis cause, or, at any rate, was remiss in oppos- ing it. The Assyrian mon- arch, therefore, took the field in person, defeated a Chaldaean chief who had taken up arms on behalf of the banished king, expelled the king's brothers, and, displacing Belibus,putone of his own sons on the thrones in his stead. In his fifth j-ear he led an expedition into Ar- menia and Media; after which, from his sixth to his eighth year, he was engaged in wars with Susiana and Babylonia. From this point his annals fail
Sennacherib is believed to have reigned at least twenty- two, and perhaps twenty-four, years. The date of his accession appears to be fixed by the canon of Ptolemy to B.C. 702, the first year of Beli- bus or Elibus ; but Col. Rawlinson's revised computation (in the Athenceum, No. 1869, Aug. 22, 1863, p. 245) dates the accession in B.C. 704, and the late Assyriologist George Smith makes the reign to have begun in B.C. 705. The Scripture synchronism locates its beginning in B.C. 715. The date of his death seems to be marked in the same canon by the accession of Asaridanus (Esar- haddon) to the throne of Babylon in B.C. 680; but it is possible that an interval occurred between the two. See EsAK-HAUDON. The monuments are in conformity with the canon, for the twenty-second year of Sennach- erib has been found upon them, while they have not furnished any notice of a later year. See Assyria.
Of the death of Sennacherib nothing is known be- yond the brief statement of Scripture, that " as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch (?) his god, Adram- melech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword : and they escaped into the land of Armenia" (2 Kings xix, 37; Isa. xxxvii, 38). It is curious that Moses of Chorene and Alexander Polyhistor should both call the elder of these two sons by a different name (Ardumaza- nes or Argamozanus) ; and it is still more curious tliat Abydenns, who generally drew from Berosus, should interpose a king Nergilus between Sennacherib and Adrammelech, and make the latter be slain by Esar- haddon (Eusebius, Chr. Can. i, 9; comp. i, 5; and see also Mos. Chor. A rm. Hist, i, 22). Moses, on the con- trary, confirms the escape of both brothers, and men- tions the parts of Armenia where they settled, and which were afterwards peopled by their descendants.
4. Character. — Sennacheril) was one of the greatest of the Assyrian kings, and also one of the proudest of them. The prophet Isaiah pictures his haughtiness — his "stout heart," and the "glory of his high looks;" represents him as boasting, "Are not my princes alto- gether kings?" and as ascribing his victories to his "strength of hand" and his "wisdom" — victories, at the same time, so complete and so easy as when one takes away the eggs of a fowl .so scared that it neither flut- tered nor "peeped" (.x, 8-14). Sennacherib himself verifies the portrait, for he calls himself "the great king," " king of nations," " king of the four regions,"' "first of kings," " favorite of the great gods," etc. The
SENNACHERIB
532
SENS
Clay Iini)iessioii from Seal of Seini:icherib. (Ill the British Mu- seum.)
accompanying seal depicts him killing a lion, and in one of his inscriptions he boasts of snch a conquest. His approaching in- vasion tilled Jerusalem with deep alarm, and Isaiah again and again depicts it. His boasts of previ- ous conc^uests were not vain ones : ancient monarchies had disap- peared before him, opposing ar- mies had perished "as grass on the house-tops," and his numerous hosts had drunk up riv- ers on their march. An ideal march is vividly sketched for him — by Aiath, Migron, and Michmash, to Geba, and Nob on the northern shoulder of Olivet. Sennach- erib did not come by this route, for he wished to pros- trate Egypt; but the route sketched might have been taken, and its very dithculties are meant to picture As- syrian intrepidity and perseverance. All the while Sennacherib was only God's " rod," an " axe in his hand ;" and " Lebanon." an image of his stately and warlike grandeur, "shall fall by a mighty one." "The virgin, the daughter of Sion," without armor or prow- ess, but courageous in her seeming helplessness, laughed him to scorn. Nay, God would do to him as he had done to the captives at I.achish, " put a hook into his nose," and ignoraiiiiously and easily turn him " back by the way he came" (Isa. xxxvii). " The stout-hearted are spoiled, they slept their sleep ; at thy rebuke, both the chariots and horses were cast into a deep sleep;" " the earth feared and was still, when God arose to judg- ment" (Psa. Ixxvi, 5-9).