“Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left.
He went home.
He lived at Nineveh.
While he was worshiping
In the house of his god Nisroch,
His sons
Adrammelech with Sharezer killed him
With a sword.
They escaped
Into the land of Ararat.
Sennacherib’s son,
Esarhaddon,
Succeeded him.”
Once again, this is almost word for word from 2 Kings, chapter 19. As far we know, King Sennacherib died in 681 BCE. Thus it might not have been contemporaneous with his sojourn in Judah. In fact, the text does not indicate that. He was killed by 2 of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, but a third son Esarhaddon took over. The god Nisroch was an eagle headed human figure that was a favorite of the Assyrians in Nineveh. Nineveh was on the Tigris River about 250 miles north of Babylon, near the modern day city of Mosul. Esarhaddon was the youngest son of the king’s second wife and ruled from 681-669 BCE, after he defeated his brothers who had killed their father.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 