A well - known enemy of the Church of the living God, We have his history, as far as relates to the church, 2 Kings 18: 13. His name it should seem is a compound of Sennah, the sword; and Charab, to destroy.
Though I should not have thought it worth the record of even inserting this man’s name in a work of this kind, neither would his name have been remembered in history, had it not been for being connected with the church’s history, yet as that part of his history which relates to the church opens a beautiful lesson, for instruction, I hope the Reader will indulge me with adding a few lines more before that we dismiss the recollection of the impious character of Sennacherib.
We are told that in the Lord’s delivering the church from the threatenings and slaughter of this man, the "angel of the Lord went out that night, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred, four - score, and five thousand; and when they arose in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses." (2 Kings xix. 35.) By the angel of the Lord we may suppose is meant the messenger of the Lord, for so the word is. It is not necessary to connect the meaning of the passage, as if it was one of those beings of light which arecalledangels. Some have thought that this visitation from the Lord was by pestilence, or one of those fatal winds which are known to visit those climates, which, wheresoever they come they sweep off with the besom of destruction. And they who have construed the passage in this sense have observed that it is said by the Lord, before the judgment took place. "Behold, I will send a blast upon him." See the parallel history, Isa. 37. And as it was by night, and the Assyrian camp unprepared for so unexpected a judgment, this blast, like a devouring, fire, entered the camp, commissioned by the Lord, and destroyed them. One circumstance is related which seems very striking - - in the morning they were all dead corpses. Those who have witnessed the injury done by this pestilential meteor, or fiery wind, or blast, relate that the bodies so destroyed are quickly after reduced to ashes as if calcined or burnt in an oven. When we consider what is said of the Siroc winds of the warm though milder climates than Africa, I mean Sicily and Malta, we may easily conceive how fatal the Semyel, or Simoon as they are called, of those pestilential climates may be, especially when commissioned by the Lord. And the slaughter of such an army in one night carried with it the fullest and most decided testimony that it was indeed effected by the messenger, the angel of the Lord.
I have introduced this observation of the Lord’s judgment on Sennacherib’s army by way of introducing another; namely, what safety are the people of the Lord brought into when all the creation of God waits as ministering servants to execute the divine judgments on their enemies! "Winds and storms fulfilling his word, " sickness and the word, angels and messengers, all wait to execute the Lord’s commands. "Are they not all (saith the Scripture) ministering spirits, seat forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?(Heb. i. 14.) Hence with an eye to Christ, and to his people secured in him, the Lord’s promise runs - - "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee." (Ps. xci. throughout.) Firstspokento Christ, and then to all the seed of Christ everlastingly secured in him.
king of Assyria, son and successor of Shalmaneser. He began his reign A.M. 3290, and reigned only four years. Hezekiah, king of Judah, having refused to pay him tribute, though he afterward submitted, he invaded Judea with a great army, took several forts, and after repeated, insolent, and blasphemous messages, besieged Jerusalem; but his army being suddenly smitten with a pestilence, which cut off a hundred and eighty-five thousand in a single night, he returned to Nineveh, where he was murdered in the temple of Nisroch by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer, and was succeeded by his other son, Esar-haddon, 2Ki 19:7; 2Ki 19:13; 2Ki 19:37.
Sennacherib, King of Assyria, who, in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah (B.C. 713), came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them; on which Hezekiah agreed to pay the Assyrian monarch a tribute of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. This, however, did not satisfy Sennacherib, who sent an embassy with hostile intentions, charging Hezekiah with trusting on ’this bruised reed Egypt.’ The king of Judah in his perplexity had recourse to Isaiah, who counseled confidence and hope, giving a divine promise of miraculous aid. Meanwhile ’Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia,’ and of Thebes in Egypt, had come out to fight against the Assyrians, who had threatened Lower Egypt with an invasion. On learning this, Sennacherib sent another deputation to Hezekiah, who thereon applied for aid to Jehovah, who promised to defend the capital. ’And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses’ (2Ki 18:13, sq.). On this, Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, and was shortly after murdered by two of his sons as he was praying in the house of Nisroch his god (2Ki 19:36 sq.; 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 37).
King of Assyria, son and successor of Shalmaneser, began to reign B. C. 710, and reigned but a few years. Hezekiah king of Judah having shaken off the yoke of the Assyrians, by which Ahaz his father had suffered under Tigloth-pileser, Sennacherib marched an army against him, and took all the strong cities of Judah. Hezekiah, seeing he had nothing left but Jerusalem, which he perhaps found it difficult to preserve, sent ambassadors to Sennacherib, then besieging and destroying Lachish, to make submission. Sennacherib accepted his tribute, but refused to depart, and sent Rabshakeh with an insolent message to Jerusalem. Hezekiah entreated the Lord, who sent a destroying angel against the Assyrian army, and slew in one night 185,000 men. Sennacherib returned with all speed to Nineveh, and turned his arms against the nations south of Assyria, and afterwards towards the north. But his career was not long; within two or three years from his return from Jerusalem, while he was paying adorations to his god Nisroch, in the temple, his two sons Adrammelech and Sharezer slew him and fled into Armenia. Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead, 2Ki 18:1-19:37 2Ch 32:33.\par A most remarkable confirmation of the above Bible history has been found in the long buried ruins of ancient Nineveh. The mound called Kouyunijik, opposite Mosul, has been to a good degree explored, and its ruins prove to be those of a palace erected by this powerful monarch. The huge stone tablets which formed the walls of its various apartments are covered with bas-reliefs and inscriptions; and though large portions of these have perished by violence and time, the fragments that remain are full of interest. One series of tablets recounts the warlike exploits of Sennacherib, who calls himself "the subduer of kings from the upper sea of the setting sun to the lower sea of the rising sun," that is, from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.\par The most important of these mural pages to Bible readers, are those recounting the history of his war against Syria and the Jews, in the third year of his reign. Crossing the upper part of Mount Lebanon, he appears to have conquered Tyre and all the cities south of it on the seacoast to Askelon. In this region he came in conflict with an Egyptian army, sent in aid of King Hezekiah; this host he defeated and drove back. See 2Ki 19:9 Isa 37:1-38 . The inscription then proceeds to say, "Hezekiah king of Judah, who had not submitted to my authority, forty-six of his principal cities, and fortresses and villages dependant upon them, of which I took no account, I captured, and carried away their spoil. The fortified towns, and the rest of his towns which I spoiled, I severed from his country, and gave to the kings of Askelon, Ekron, and Gaza, so as to make his country small. In addition to the former tribute imposed upon their countries, I added a tribute the nature of which I fixed." Compare 2Ki 18:13 Isa 36:1 . He does not profess to have taken Jerusalem itself, but to have carried away Hezekiah’s family, servants, and treasures, with a tribute of thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver. The amount of gold is the same mentioned in the Bible narrative. The three hundred talents of silver mentioned in Scripture may have been all that was given in money, and the five hundred additional claimed in the Ninevite record may include the temple and palace treasures, given by Hezekiah as the price of peace.\par In another apartment of the same palace was found a series of wellpreserved bas-reliefs, representing the siege and capture by the Assyrians of a large and strong city. It was doubly fortified, and the assault and the defense were both fierce. Part of the city is represented as already taken, while elsewhere the battle rages still in all its fury. Meanwhile captives are seen flayed, impaled, and put to the sword; and from one of the gates of the city a long procession of prisoners is brought before the king, who is gorgeously arrayed and seated on his throne upon a mound or low hill. They are presented by the general in command, very possibly Rabshakeh, with other chief officers. Two eunuchs stand behind the king, holding fans and napkins. Above his head is an inscription, which is thus translated: "Sennacherib the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judging at the gate of the city Lachisa; I give permission for its slaughter." The captives are stripped of their armor, ornaments, and much of their clothing, and are evidently Jews.\par Little did Sennacherib then anticipate the utter of his ruin of his own proud metropolis, and still less that the ruins of his palace should preserve to this remote age the tablets containing his own history, and the image of his god Nisroch so incapable of defending him, to bear witness for the God whom he blasphemed and defied. See NINEVEH, NISROCH, SHALMANESER, and SO.\par
Sennach’erib or Sennache’rib. (sin, the moon, increases brothers). Sennacherib was the son, and successor, of Sargon. See Sargon. His name in the original is read as Tsinakki-irib, the meaning of which, as given above indicates that he was not the first-born of his father. Sennacherib mounted the throne B.C. 702. His efforts were directed to crushing the revolt of Babylonia, which he invaded with a large army. Merodach-baladan ventured on a battle, but was defeated and driven from the country.
In his third year, B.C. 700, Sennacherib turned his arms toward the west, chastised Sidon, and, having, probably, concluded a convention with his chief enemy, finally marched against Hezekiah, king of Judah. It was at this time that "Sennacherib came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them." 2Ki 18:13. There can be no doubt that the record, which he has left of his campaign against "Hiskiah" in his third year, is the war with Hezekiah so briefly touched in 2Ki 18:13-16.
In the following year, (B.C. 699), Sennacherib made his second expedition into Palestine. Hezekiah had again revolted, and claimed the protection of Egypt. Sennacherib, therefore, attacked Egypt, and from his camp at Lachish and Libnah, he sent an insulting letter to Hezekiah at Jerusalem. In answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, an event occurred which relieved both Egypt and Judea from their danger. In one night, the Assyrians lost, either by a pestilence or by some more awful manifestation of divine power, 185,000 men! The camp immediately broke up; the king fled.
Sennacherib reached his capital in safety, and was not deterred by the terrible disaster, which had befallen his arms from engaging in other wars, though he seems, thenceforward, to have carefully avoided Palestine. Sennacherib reigned 22 years and was succeeded by Esar-haddon, B.C. 680. Sennacherib was one of the most magnificent of the Assyrian kings. He seems to have been the first, who fixed the seat of government permanently at Nineveh, which he carefully repaired, and adorned with splendid buildings. His greatest work is the grand palace, Kouyunjik. Of the death of Sennacherib, nothing is known beyond the brief statement of Scripture that "as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Armenia." 2Ki 19:37; Isa 37:38.
On the monuments
Hezekiah’s sickness was in his 14th year, but Sennacherib’s expedition in his 27th, which ought to be substituted for the copyist’s error "fourteenth." On his way, according to inscriptions (G. Smith, in Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, October 1872, p. 198), Sennacherib attacked Lulia of Sidon, then took Sidon, Zarephath, etc. The kings of Palestine mentioned as submitting to Sennacherib are Menahem of Samaria, Tubal of Sidon, Kemosh Natbi of Moab, etc. He took Ekron, which had submitted to Hezekiah and had delivered its king Padi up to him; Sennacherib reseated Padi on his throne. Sennacherib defeated the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia at Eltekeh. Sennacherib took 46 of Judah’s fenced cities including Lachish, the storming of which, is depicted on his palace walls. He shut up Hezekiah, (building towers round Jerusalem), who then submitted and paid 30 talents of gold and 800 of silver.
Sennacherib gave part of Judah’s territory to Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, and Ashkelon. It was at his second expedition that the overthrow of his host by Jehovah’s Angel took place (2Ki 18:17-37; 2Ki 18:2 Kings 19). This was probably two years after the first, but late in his reign Sennacherib speaks of an expedition to Palestine apparently. "After this," in 2Ch 32:9; 2Ch 32:17 years after his disaster, in 681 B.C., his two sons Adrammelech and Sharezer assassinated him after a reign of 22 years, and Esarhaddon ascended the throne 680 B.C. Esarhaddon’s inscription, stating that he was at war with his half brothers, after his accession, agrees with the Bible account of Sennacherib’s assassination. Moses of Chorene confirms the escape of the brothers to Armenia, and says that part was peopled by their descendants.
Sennacherib’s second invasion of Babylon was apparently in 699 B.C.; he defeated a Chaldaean chief who headed an army in support of Merodach Baladan. Sennacherib put one of his own sons on the throne instead of Belibus. Sennacherib was the first who made Nineveh the seat of government. The grand palace at Koyunjik was his, covering more than eight acres. He embanked with brick the Tigris, restored the aqueducts of Nineveh, and repaired a second palace at Nineveh on the mound of Nebi Yunns. Its halls were ranged about three courts, one 154 ft. by 125 ft., another 124 ft. by 90 ft. One hall was 180 ft. long by 40 ft. broad; 60 ft. small rooms have been opened. He erected memorial tablet at the mouth of the nahr el Kelb on the Syrian coast, beside an inscription recording Rameses the Great’s conquests six hundred years before; this answers to his boast that "he had come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon."
Sennacherib (sen-nak’e-rĭb, or sĕn-na-kç’-rib), sin, the moon, increases brothers, was the son and successor of Sargon. In the third year of his reign, b.c. 700, Sennacherib turned his arms toward the west, attacked Sidon, and finally marched against Hezekiah, king of Judah. "Sennacherib came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them." 2Ki 18:13. There can be no doubt that the record which he has left of his campaign against "Hiskiah" in his third year is the war with Hezekiah so briefly touched in 2Ki 18:13-16. In the following year. b.c. 699, Sennacherib made his second expedition into Palestine. Hezekiah had revolted, and claimed the protection of Egypt. Sennacherib therefore attacked Egypt, and from his camp at Lachish and Libnah he sent an insulting letter to Hezekiah at Jerusalem. 2Ki 19:14. In answer to Hezekiah’s prayer the Assyrians lost, in a single night, by some awful manifestation of divine power, 185,000 men! The camp immediately broke up; the king fled. 2Ki 19:35-37. Sennacherib reached his capital in safety, engaged in other wars, though he seems to have carefully avoided Palestine, and was slain by two of his sons, 15 or 20 years after his flight from Jerusalem. Isa 37:38. He reigned 22 years, and was succeeded by Esar-haddon, b.c. 680. Sennacherib was one of the most magnificent of the Assyrian kings. He seems to have been the first who fixed the seat of government permanently at Nineveh, which he carefully repaired and adorned with palaces and splendid buildings.
[Sennach’erib]
Son and successor of Sargon, king of Assyria. He invaded Syria and Palestine in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign. Hezekiah owned that he had offended, and paid to him a tribute of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. Sennacherib has left an account of this on a clay tablet. He says he captured forty-six fenced cities, and the fortresses and villages round about them belonging to Hezekiah the Jew, and carried away 200,150 souls, and horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number, etc. He shut up Hezekiah in his house at Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. Cf. 2Ki 18:13-16; 2Ch 32:1-8.
On Sennacherib’s second invasion, he sent insulting and impious messages to Hezekiah, who apparently was again trusting in Egypt. But an angel of God destroyed the Assyrian army. Of course the monuments say nothing of this. The king returned to Assyria, and did not venture to invade Palestine again. He was eventually murdered by two of his sons, and Esar-haddon, another son, succeeded him. 2Ki 18:17-37; 2Ki 19:1-37; 2Ch 32:9-22; Isa. 36; Isa. 37. Apparently Sennacherib was co-regent with Sargon in B.C. 714 when he invaded Judaea the first time; he reigned alone from B.C. 705 to 681.
(Assyrian, "Sin-aḥe-erib" = "Sin hath increased the brethren"; Hebrew, 
):
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Louis H. Gray
King of Assyria, 705-681 B.C.; son and successor of Sargon. His reign was a warlike one, yet it was marked by grandeur in architecture and art. Almost immediately after his accession to the throne Sennacherib was obliged to quell a revolt headed by Merodach-baladan, King of Babylonia, who had been dethroned by Sargon, and who now made an attempt, which was unsuccessful, to involve Hezekiah in his rebellion (II Kings xx. 12; Isa. xxxix. 1). In 703, at Kisu, about ten miles from Babylon, the Assyrian king completely defeated his opponent (comp. Jer. l. 2), who fled to Guzumani in Susiana. After taking Babylon and overrunning Chaldea, Sennacherib conquered a number of minor tribes along the middle Euphrates and in Zagros; and in the fourth year of his reign he marched against Luli, King of Tyre. This monarch fled, and his territory was seized by the Assyrians, who received tribute from a number of other petty rulers and, after the capture of Ascalon, invaded Egypt. This attack was caused by the Philistine city of Ekron, which had dethroned its king, Padi, a friend of the Assyrians, and had sent him to Hezekiah, who imprisoned him. Ekron then entered into an alliance with Egypt and Ethiopia; but this coalition was completely overthrown by Sennacherib at Altaku (the Eltekeh of Josh. xix. 44), near Ekron, and Padi was restored to his throne.
Besieges Jerusalem.
Hezekiah, however, by his partizanship had exposed himself to the hostility of Sennacherib, who began in 701 a campaign which is described at some length in the Bible (II Kings xviii.-xix.; II Chron. xxxii.; Isa. xxii., xxxvi.-xxxvii.; comp. Josephus, "Ant." x. 1). The invasion was at first completely succesful for the Assyrian arms. City after city of Judah fell, and Hezekiah was besieged in Jerusalem until he submitted to the payment of a ransom of 300 talents of silver (or, according to Sennacherib himself, of 800) and 30 of gold, the Temple itself being stripped to make up the amount. The conqueror then withdrew to Nineveh, but, after a marauding expedition into Cilicia, he was obliged in the following year again to subdue Merodachbaladan, who had fled to Nagitu on the Persian Gulf. With the aid of Phenician shipwrights, Sennacherib constructed a fleet on the Tigris, and finally reached Nagitu. After a stubborn resistance the fugitives were routed and forced to return.
Disaster Before Jerusalem.
Despite certain chronological difficulties, it seems probable on the whole that Sennacherib again invaded Palestine, about 699, because Hezekiah, relying on Egyptian support, had once more revolted. Directing his main attacks on Libnah and Lachish, the Assyrian king sent a strong force to Jerusalem to demand its surrender. The insolent tone adopted by his officers, however, rendered all overtures impossible; and, recognizing their inability to carry the city by storm, they returned to Sennacherib, who had meanwhile reached Pelusium, where he was about to attack Sethos, Pharaoh of Egypt. Before a battle could be fought a mysterious calamity befell the Assyrian army, which is said to have lost 185,000 men in a single night, while the remnant, fleeing in terror, was pursued by the Egyptians (II Kings xix. 35; Isa. xxxvii. 36; Herodotus, ii. 141). This disaster, however, which naturally is not mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, did not stay the career of Sennacherib. His expeditionto Nagitu brought upon Babylonia a retaliatory raid by the Elamites, who set a new king on the throne of Babylon. The Assyrians were completely victorious over the combined forces of Elamites and Babylonians, and in the following year (692) Sennacherib overran Susiana, capturing many towns, including the temporary capital of Kudur-Nakhunta, the Elamitic king, who fled, but survived his defeat only three months. His son and successor, Umman-Minanu, made an alliance with Mushezib-Marduk, King of Babylonia; and their forces were augmented by some of the Euphratean tribes which Sennacherib had subdued in the third year of his reign. After a fierce battle at Khalule on the lower Tigris, the Assyrian king routed his opponents, and followed up his victory by sacking Babylon itself (689). The events of the last eight years of the reign of Sennacherib are not recorded. In 681 the king was assassinated in the temple of Nisroch (possibly another name for Marduk) at Nineveh by two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer. The throne was seized by Esar - haddon, another son of Sennacherib.
Bibliography:
Rawlinson, Seven Ancient Monarchies: The Second Monarchy, 4th ed., London, 1879;
Bezold. Inschriften Sanherib, in Schrader, K. B. ii., Berlin, 1890;
Thiele, Babylonisch-Assyrische Geschichte, Gotha, 1886;
Winckler, Gesch. Babyloniens und Assyriens, Leipsic, 1892;
Meissner and Rost, Bauinschriften Sanheribs, ib. 1893;
Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, New York, 1900;
Nagel, Zug des Sanherib Gegen Jerusalem, Leipsic, 1902;
Schrader, K. A. T. 3d ed.
SENNACHERIB (Assyr.
C. H. W. Johns.
(Assyrian: the Moon God increases the brothers)
One of the greatest kings of Assyria, warrior, and builder (705-681. B.C.), mentioned in the Bible in connection with Ezechias (4 Kings 18-19; Isaiah 36-37). He invaded Palestine twice; during his second invasion, the bulk of his army was miraculously destroyed, the rest fleeing with him. Shortly afterwards he was assassinated (4 Kings 19).
In order to fortify himself against Assyria the latter sent an embassy to Hezekiah, apparently for the purpose of inspiring the West to rebel against Assyria (2Ki 20:12-19).
Sennacherib in his first campaign marched into Babylonia. He found
This campaign was followed by an invasion of the country of the Cassites and Iasubigalleans. In his third campaign he directed his attention to the West, where the people had become restless under the Assyrian yoke. Hezekiah had been victorious over the Philistines (2Ki 18:8). In preparation to withstand a siege, Hezekiah had built a conduit to bring water within the city walls (2Ki 20:20). Although strongly opposed by the prophet Isaiah, gifts were sent to Egypt, whence assistance was promised (Isa 30:1-4). Apparently also the Phoenicians and Philistines, who had been sore pressed by Assyria, had made provision to resist Assyria. The first move was at Ekron, where the Assyrian governor Padi was put into chains and sent to Hezekiah at Jerusalem.
Sennacherib, in 701 BC, moved against the cities in the West. He ravaged the environs of Tyre, but made no attempt to take the city, as he was without a naval force. After Elulaeus the king of Sidon fled, the city surrendered without a battle, and Ethbaal was appointed king. Numerous cities at once sent presents to the king of Assyria. Ashkelon and other cities were taken. The forces of Egypt were routed at Eltekeh, and Ekron was destroyed. He claims to have conquered 46 strongholds of Hezekiah’s territory, but he did not capture Jerusalem, for concerning the king he said, in his annals, “himself like a bird in a cage in Jerusalem, his royal city, I penned him.” He states, also, how he reduced his territory, and how Hezekiah sent to him 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver, besides hostages.
The Biblical account of this invasion is found in 2 Ki 18:13 through 19:37; Isa 36; 37. The Assyrian account differs considerably from it; but at the same time it corroborates it in many details. One of the striking parallels is the exact amount of gold which Hezekiah sent to the Assyrian king (see The Expository Times, XII, 225, 405; XIII, 326).
In the following year Sennacherib returned to Babylonia to put down a rebellion by
In 694 BC Sennacherib attacked the Elamites, who were in league with the Babylonians. In revenge, the Elamites invaded Babylonia and carried off
In 681 BC Sennacherib was murdered by his two sons (2Ki 19:37; see SHAREZER). Esar-haddon their younger brother, who was at the time conducting a campaign against Ararat, was declared king in his stead.
A king of Assyria who ruled
about 706–681 b.c.