Digging Up the Bible: The Sennacherib Annals

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2017

 

The Sennacherib Annals (a.k.a. Taylor Prism) is a baked-clay record of the military campaign by the Assyrian king against Israel, culminating in the siege of Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah (701 B.C.).

 

 

The cuneiform (wedge-shaped letters) inscription recounts Sennacherib's two military campaigns into Canaan: the first in the north against the Kingdom of Israel, the second in the south against the Kingdom of Judah. While there are minor differences with the biblical account in certain details, such as the amount of tribute Sennacherib collected, the major difference is in the success of the second campaign.

 

Sennacherib famously boasts about having Hezekiah shut up in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage," which is probably true. The battle depicted on the palace walls at Nineveh represents the fall of Lachish, the last fortified Judean city on the way to the capital.

 

 

At that point, it is likely the size of Sennacherib's army coupled with the threat of a siege was enough to intimidate Hezekiah' s capitulation without a fight:

Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me." The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talentsof gold. So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. At this time Hezekiah king of Judah stripped off the gold with which he had covered the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and gave it to the king of Assyria. (2 Kgs 18:14-16)

Nevertheless, Sennacherib's promise to relocate the inhabitants of Jerusalem as he had the inhabitants of Samaria did not materialize:

The people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there. (2 Kgs 17:23)

This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! (2 Kgs 18:31-32)

Something interrupted Sennacherib's campaign against Judah before the Assyrian king could execute his plan.

 

The Assyrian record and the biblical record, although they purport to record the same event, diverge radically at the end.

• According to the foreigner's account, he returned to Nineveh from Jerusalem after his having received tribute and having achieved a great military victory (i.e., the destruction of the capital).
• According to the Bible's account, he returned to Nineveh from Jerusalem after his having received tribute but having suffered a crushing military loss (i.e., the decimation of his army):

The angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Kgs 19:35-36)

Significance for Biblical Studies: When the sacred account seems to diverge from a secular account, the reader must weigh both but recognize the inherent authority of a record that has God as its author. The biblical account also confirms His protection of His people, "the apple of his eye" (Zech 2:8).

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