After a stubborn resistance the fugitives were routed and forced to return. Despite certain chronological difficulties, it seems probable on the whole that Sennacherib again invaded Palestine, about , 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 , men in a single night, while the remnant, fleeing in terror, was pursued by the Egyptians II Kings xix.
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 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 The events of the last eight years of the reign of Sennacherib are not recorded. He fought several campaigns against Babylonia and sacked the city of Babylon in BC it was later re-built by Nenuchadnezzar. Nineveh was sometimes known as 'Babylon' because it was a great city and a religious centre.
This has caused confusion. Sennacherib put great energy into rebuiding Nineveh and providing it with new walls, parks and plantations of fruit trees. To irrigate these plantations he made a canal to bring water from the hills 10 km to the north. Sennacherib's palace was on the hill of Kuyunjik. The famous Hanging Gardens, probably at Kuyunjik, are illustrated and discussed by Gothein and further analysed by Stephanie Dalley. In B. Sennacherib marched to the coast and occupied Ascalon and Sidon; Judah was next invaded, Lachish captured by assault, and Jerusalem invested.
Hezekiah, King of Judah, defied the Assyrians and was forced to pay a heavy indemnity. Sennacherib then attempted to invade Egypt, but disaster, perhaps plague, struck his army and he was forced to turn back. A second rebellion in Babylonia was foiled, and Sennacherib made his son, Assur-nadin-shum, king of Babylon. Merodach-Baladan took refuge in the marshes of southern Elam. Seven years later, after repeated provocation, Sennacherib decided to seek him out; building a fleet at Nineveh, he sailed the ships downriver to Opis, then dragged them overland to the Euphrates, and thence to the Persian Gulf.
After a sea battle, Elamite coastal towns were destroyed. Meanwhile, Assur-nadin-shum was murdered and replaced by an Elamite nominee. In Sennacherib avenged his son. Marching to Babylon, he took the city by storm and mercilessly destroyed it, deporting the inhabitants and flooding the ruins.
This sacrilege to a holy city shocked the ancient world but effectively discouraged further rebellion.
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