SENNACHERIB sə năk’ ēr ĭb (סַנְחֵרִ֣יב, Akkad. Sin-aḫḫē-eriba, “Sin has increased (or replaced) the (lost) brothers.” King of Assyria and Babylonia, 705-681 b.c.

1. Accession. As his name implies Sennacherib was not the eldest son of Sargon II, but was chosen as crown prince and made military governor of the troublesome northern frontier. His boldness in difficult situations and firmness in dispensing justice was to stand him in good stead. When his father was assassinated in 705 b.c. Sennacherib acted quickly to take the throne before marching against dissidents.

2. Foreign policy

a. The northern tribes. Since Sargon’s victories over the tribes they had been subject to pressure from the Cimmerians (Assyr. Gimirrai) moving westward from the Caucasus toward Lydia. Sennacherib led expeditions to the C. Zagros and to Tabal and Cilicia, where he captured Tarsus. His aim was to keep the trade routes open to friendly peoples outside the newly invaded areas. This action contained the borders and enabled him to devote his attention to the more restive parts of his empire.

b. Babylonia. In the same year as he became king the old enemy of his father, Marduk-apla-iddina (Merodach-baladan), sheikh of the Bit-Yakin, seized the throne of Babylon with the backing of Elamite troops. Much of his time was spent in Borsippa since this was closer to his tribal lands and more easily defensible by his fellow Arameans. In 703 Sennacherib led an army against the rebel whom he defeated near Kish. After sacking Babylon he deported 208,000 prisoners and set a puppet king, trained in Nineveh, one Bēl-ibni, on the throne. Marduk-apla-iddina retreated to the security of the southern marshes until the time, three years later, when he was able to elicit further Elamite assistance and rouse the Chaldaean and Aramaean tribes in collusion with Bēl-ibni. A swift Assyrian march broke up the attempt by this coalition to assert their independence. This time Marduk-apla-iddina fled across the Persian Gulf to take refuge in S. Elam where he died. Sennacherib characteristically aimed to deal with the subversion at its source and to do this mounted a sea-borne invasion, using a fleet of ships, manned by sailors from Tyre, Sidon and Cyprus, floated down the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. From a bridgehead on the coast punitive raids were mounted against the villages which harbored the tribesmen from the marshes.

This punitive action had little lasting effect. Soon Elam retaliated by raiding across the Tigris to capture Ashur-nadin-shumi at Sippar. This was Sennacherib’s youngest son whom he had placed on the Babylonian throne under a special charter (699-694). A pro-Elamite supporter, Nergal-ushēzib, replaced him. Then in 693 Assyrian troops redrawing from the S defeated Nergal-ushēzib at Nippur, but failed to recapture Babylon itself where another Aramaean, Mushēzib-Marduk, had taken control. In the following year Sennacherib took drastic steps to reassert Assyrian authority in the S. He met and defeated the Elamites at Dēr and local Assyrian officials ousted Mushēzib-Marduk who had seized this moment to rouse the tribes. Fleeing to Elam he managed to bribe the Elamites and Arameans to waylay the Assyrians at Ḫalule where an indeterminate but bloody battle was fought. Internal dissensions soon limited further Elamite help, so that an Assyrian force was able to besiege Mushēzib-Marduk in Babylon for nine months. When the city fell it was looted, its deity Marduk being taken off to Nineveh, and the city remained quiet through the rest of the reign.

c. Action against Judah. Hezekiah of Judah, perhaps incited by the Babylonian Marduk-apla-iddina (Merodach-Baladan) to join in the anti-Assyrian coalition (2 Kings 20:12, 13) seized Padi, the pro-Assyrian ruler of Ekron (2 Kings 18:8). When Sidon and Tyre refused tribute in 701 Sennacherib directed his third campaign to the W. Marching down the Phoen. coast he captured Great and little Sidon, Zarephath, Mahallib (Ahlab of Judg 1:31), Ushu and Acco. Eluli (Elulaeus) who had fled was replaced as king of Tyre by Ethbaal, but that seaport was bypassed. The kings of Sidon, Arvad, Byblos, Beth-Ammon, and Edom submitted but Ashkelon, Beth-Dagon and Joppa, who refused, were sacked. Hezekiah’s resistance in these circumstances was outstandingly daring, esp. as the Assyrians marching on Eltekeh defeated the Egyptians on whom the anti-Assyrian forces doubtless relied for help. The elders of Ekron were flayed alive for handing over their king to Hezekiah. The Assyrians thereupon beseiged Lachish, which fell after a cruel siege, and sacked forty-six towns and villages in Judah, taking away 200,150 prisoners and much spoil. Despite the close siege works hemming in Jerusalem, Hezekiah refused a demand for surrender (2 Kings 18:17; Isa 36:1-21). According to Sennacherib he later paid tribute of “40 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, precious stones,” and other rare commodities. 2 Kings 18:13-16 mentions only “300 [talents] of silver and 30 [talents] of gold,” the difference being perhaps due to the remaining amount being given in other form, to variations in the standards of weights used, or to Assyrian exaggeration.

According to Sennacherib, Hezekiah freed Padi who was given some former Judaean territory as compensation for his ordeal on behalf of Assyria. Meanwhile, “Hezekiah, the Judaean, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city, like a bird in a cage. I put sentry-posts closely round the city, to turn back to his fate anyone who ventured out of the citygate” (Sennacherib; Taylor prism). The siege was unsuccessful due to the foresight of Hezekiah in protecting his water-supplies (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chron 32:30) and his steadfast trust in God rather than in material support from allies (2 Kings 19:32-34). Sennacherib’s own account makes no reference to the outcome of the siege, a sure acknowledgment of failure, or to the defeat of the Assyrian army, described as 185,000 dead “by the angel of the Lord” (2 Kings 19:35). This latter event Herodotus (ii 141) says was due to “a multitude of field mice which by night devoured all the quivers and bows of the enemy, and all the straps by which they held their shields....Next morning they commenced their fight and great numbers fell as they had no arms with which to defend themselves.”

There has long been debate whether all these events fall into one or two campaigns by Sennacherib. Those who argue for two campaigns, see the reference to the approach of the Egyp. relief forces under Tirhakah (2 Kings 19:9; Isa 37:9) as indicative of later action since he did not come to the throne of Egypt until c. 690 b.c. This may be answered by the suggestion that he acted as commander-in-chief while “king of Ethiopia/Nubia (Cush),” for there is no confirmation that he was born c. 709 and was therefore too young to be in the field. The two-campaign theory assumes that it was in the first campaign of 701 b.c. that Hezekiah paid tribute and surrendered Padi and that he successfully withstood a later siege, c. 689-686 b.c. when Sennacherib struck against the Arabs S of Damascus, of which there is no mention in the Assyrian records. Those who hold this view require that both campaigns have been conflated into one by the Heb. historians. They, moreover, interpret 2 Kings 19:37 as implying that Sennacherib’s death took place immediately on his return from Pal. The Heb. text does not, however, state or imply the length of time between his return to Nineveh and his death in 681 b.c. The latter was some years after the Palestinian campaign on either view. There is no textual or historical evidence which precludes the now more generally accepted view of a single campaign in 701 b.c.

d. His death. According to 2 Kings 19:37 (Isa 37:38) Sennacherib was assassinated by his two sons while worshiping in the shrine of his god Nisroch. The sons escaped to Ararat and Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead. The Assyrian texts make no specific reference to this event and it has been thought that there are divergencies in the accounts. The Babylonian Chronicle states that he was murdered by “his son.” Such variation in historical sources is not uncommon, since one son may well have been the ringleader or have actually done the deed. Esarhaddon himself makes no reference to his father’s death in his account of his own accession, though he does mention the hostility of his brothers whom he had to defeat before gaining the throne. The rebels he claims to have defeated in Hanigalbat, from where two of them may have fled to Urartu. These could have been named Arad-malik and (Nergal)-sharusur, names preserved by Abydenus as Adramelus and Nergilus and by the OT as Adrammelech and Sharezer, though the latter may have been the inspiration for the former writer. Thirty-two years later Ashurbanipal says that his grandfather Sennacherib had been “crushed between the figures of protecting deities,” possibly the bull-colossi guarding the narrow temple doorway. Though the Temple of Nisroch is not necessarily to be located in Assyria it could be the temple of Ninurta (or Nusku?) in Nineveh.

3. Domestic policy. Sennacherib exercised a firm but tolerant rule at home. Encouraged by his W Sem. (Palestinian?) wife, Naq’ia-Zakutu, he spent much effort on rebuilding his capital Nineveh. With prisoner of war labor he built his own “palace without a rival,” with suites of rooms furnished in cedar, cypress, boxwood (walnut?) and ebony. Stone was extensively used and the reception rooms were panelled with more than 9,000 sq. ft. of basreliefs depicting his victories, including the siege of Lachish (now in British Museum). This palace has been reopened since 1965. The city walls and gates were renovated and a New Year Temple and armory built to receive the spoils of war. Water for the city was brought via canals, and aqueduct (Jerwan) and a dam (Ajeila) to water the city and its surrounding parks between the Tigris and Khosr Rivers. Sennacherib introduced cotton growing to Assyria and claims to have used other new techniques in his architectural works, including open-cast bronze modeling “like the casting of half-shekels.”

Bibliography D. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (1924); L. L. Honor, Sennacherib’s Invasion of Palestine (1926); A. L. Oppenheim, ANET, 287, 288; D. J. Wiseman, “Records of Assyria and Babylonia,” in D. W. Thomas, Documents from Old Testament Times (1958), 64-73; H. H. Rowley, “Hezekiah’s Reform and Rebellion,” BJRL 44 (1962), 395-431.