Sennacherib [Sĕnnăch'e rĭb]—the moon-god, sin (the moon-god) hath increased the brothers or destruction of the sword. A son of Sargon who succeeded to the throne after the murder of his father (2 Kings 18:13; 19:16, 20, 36; 2 Chron. 32; Isa. 36:1; 37:17, 21, 37).

The Man Who Built Nineveh

This Assyrian king saw his boasted army destroyed in one night. He himself was slain by two of his sons in Nineveh in the Temple of Nisroch (2 Kings 19:37). Sennacherib’s great achievement in this area was the creation of Nineveh as a metropolis of the empire. It was he who built the wonderful palace of Konyungik and the great wall of Nineveh.

The Assyrian king’s invading hosts marching through Judah leaving destruction behind them were vividly described by Byron in The Destruction of Sennacherib:

The Assyrians came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Fear seized the heart of Hezekiah as he faced the threats of Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, but the courage and faith of Isaiah were a strong tower to the troubled king and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The prophet reminded Hezekiah that Jehovah, and not the horses, material force and human cleverness, was the hope of Judah. Jerusalem was God’s city and He would preserve it (Isa. 37:33, 35). As we know, the city was saved by a remarkable providence. God commissioned one angel to slay one hundred eighty-five thousand Assyrians. If He can do that with one angel, what is He not able to do with a legion of the angelic army?