The Sennacherib Prism

(A full translation of the prism is available here)


The Sennacherib Prism


The Sennacherib prism is a six sided clay prism detailing the first eight military campaigns of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The prism is also known as the Taylor prism after the discoverer, Colonel R. Taylor who found it in Nineveh in 1830.


The prism is famous for it’s reference to Hezekiah the Biblical king of Judah.


As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, by levelling with battering-rams and by bringing up seige-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. (Hezekiah) himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. I threw up earthworks against him- the one coming out of the city-gate, I turned back to his misery. His cities, which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land, and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Silli-bêl, king of Gaza, I gave (them). And thus I diminished his land. I added to the former tribute, and I lad upon him the surrender of their land and imposts-gifts for my majesty. As for Hezekiah, the terrifying splendor of my majesty overcame him, and the Arabs and his mercenary troops which he had brought in to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him. In addition to the thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, gems, antimony, jewels, large carnelians, ivory-inlaid couches, ivory-inlaid chairs, elephant hides, elephant tusks, ebony, boxwood, all kinds of valuable treasures, as well as his daughters, his harem, his male and female musicians, which he had brought after me to Nineveh, my royal city. To pay tribute and to accept servitude, he dispatched his messengers.
(A full translation of the prism is available here)


Sennacherib’s boast to have shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem is in complete accord with the Biblical record. It also fits rather well with the proud attitude of the Assyrian kings who could never admit failure or defeat. Sennacherib’s highly understated admission of defeat is deafening…


“(Hezekiah) himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city.”


The biblical record has a different story to tell:


2Ki 19:35 “And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.”






Isaiah 30 & 31 are fascinating in this respect and perhaps explain how “the angel of the LORD” destroyed the Assyrian army. These chapters give the impression that whilst the Hezekiah, Isaiah and the remnant of Judah were celebrating Passover (Passover was the only feast that was kept at night) inside the walls of Jerusalem, outside a violent storm raged, wreaking destruction on the Assyrian camp.


Isa 30v27-33 “Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.
31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod.
32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.
33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.”


Chapter 31 of Isaiah has a similar message and is a continuation of Isaiah’s words from God to the remnant of Judah:


Isa 31v4-9 For thus the LORD said to me, "As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it."
6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labour.
9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic," declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.


Both chapters are in the context of not relying on the then superpower of Egypt for protection against the Assyrians, but rather to rely on God.


The table below shows in more detail where the Biblical record and the Assyrian record coincide.




1 Kings 18 & 19


Sennacherib’s Prism


At the beginning of his reign Hezekiah is described as rebelling against Assyria and also subduing the Philistines.


1Kings 18v7&8: "And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city."


Sennacherib refers to Hezekiah’s control over the Philistine area, an undesigned coincidence that links the two records and demostrates that both records are talking about the same events.


“The officials, nobles, and people of Ekron, who had thrown Padi their king-bound by oath and curse of Assyria- into fetters of iron and... ...had given him over to Hezekiah, the Judahite - he kept him in confinement like an enemy...”


He boasts that the cities he has defeated, he gives to the former Philistine kings…


“His cities, which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land, and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Silli-bêl, king of Gaza, I gave (them). And thus I diminished his land.”


2Kings 18v13 “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.”


“As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, by levelling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged and took them.”


2Kings 18v14-16 “And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.


And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house.


At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.”


The record in the book of Kings makes if clear that Sennacherib took the tribute, sent by Hezekiah to end the attack, but continued the war against Judah. This was a deceit probably designed to weaken Hezekiah. Sennacherib boasts:


“As for Hezekiah, the terrifying splendour of my majesty overcame him, and the Arabs and his mercenary troops which he had brought in to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him.”


It’s no surprise that after paying tribute to Sennacherib he no longer had the money to pay the mercenaries, so they deserted him.


Whilst this inscription doesn’t refer to the siege of Lachish, other inscriptions do. In particular the wall relief now housed in the British Museum.
This inscription does mention the tribute Sennacherib received from Hezekiah…


“In addition to the thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, gems, antimony, jewels, large carnelians, ivory-inlaid couches, ivory-inlaid chairs, elephant hides, elephant tusks, ebony, boxwood, all kinds of valuable treasures, as well as his daughters, his harem, his male and female musicians, which he had brought after me to Nineveh, my royal city. To pay tribute and to accept servitude, he dispatched his messengers.”


The weight of the gold is the same but the silver is almost three times more. This makes sense, Sennacherib is boasting about the whole quantity of tribute, several years after the event. He may be exaggerating but it is also worth noting the trouble Hezekiah took to obtain the gold. It is likely that he had no more gold to give. The silver and other tribute would’ve been taken from cities like Lachish which Sennacherib attacked and defeated. He puts a spin on the story to make himself look greater and Hezekiah appear as weak as possible. After all it was a storm that defeated the Assyrian army whilst Hezekiah was “shut up” inside Jerusalem.


Famously Hezekiah defeats the Assyrian King by faith in the intervention of God. In one night the Assyrian army is decimated. 185 thousand soldiers of the Assyrians are killed.


2Ki 19:31 “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.
For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."
And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.
And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.”


The Assyrian record shouts out in it’s silence. Sennacherib boasts the best boast he can make but the fame of his defeat at Jerusalem means he cannot pretend he took the city.


“(Hezekiah) himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. I threw up earthworks against him- the one coming out of the city-gate, I turned back to his misery. His cities, which I had despoiled,...”


One place where the records do diverge is the reference to siege mounds and earth works, Isaiah the prophet says that the King of Assyria will not build a siege mound but Sennacherib claims he did. This may be a boast or it may be that the Assyrians had pitched their camp and in that sense built earth works in preparation for a siege but not directly against the city.






The death of Sennacherib at the hand of his son’s did happen as described but it was about twenty after the events in Judah.


Chapter 20 of second kings refers to a delegation from Babylon of the envoys of Merodach-Baladan


2Ki 20:12 “At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.”


Both Hezekiah and Merodach-Baladan had a common enemy in the King of Assyria at this time. Again evidence that the bible record really is historical and accurate to it’s time.


Merodach-Baladan is refered to in the Taylor prism in both the first and the fourth campaigns of Sennacherib.


“In my first campaign I accomplished the defeat of Merodach-baladan, king of Babylonia, together with the army of Elam, his ally, on the plain of Kish.”


“...That Merodach-baladan, whose defeat I had brought about in the course of my first campaign, and whose forces I had shattered, the roar of my mighty arms and the onset of my terrible battle he feared...




The British Museum also has on display a section of text taken from the base of a winged bull in Sennacherib’s palace. The text again contains the annuls of Sennacherib and in content is essentially the same as the Taylor prism. Of particular interest to the Bible reader, the shutting up of Hezekiah in Jerusalem and the tribute he paid to the Assyrian king are mentioned here also.