The King Of Assyria Sennacherib Analysis

The king of Assyria Sennacherib’s primary tactic was defeating the different cities or countries one by one, or accepting tribute from the different kings to avoid conflict. Sennacherib accepted being paid tribute in money or goods, and through sources insists that the kings should pay tribute instead of trying to fight the Assyrian army. The Assyrian army’s failure was due to an unknown disease possibly plague. This disease caused them to retreat before attempting to take Jerusalem ultimately making Judah the victor. Egypt’s primary role in the attack was to insure Assyria did not reach Egypt. Egypt was not trying to help Judah, but to instead protect themselves by using Judah as a buffer. This is all demonstrated through primary sources like
“The kings of Ammuru, all of them…brought me sumptuous presents as their abundant audience gift, fourfold, kissed my feet” (Coogan 77). This demonstrates how the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, desired tribute to be paid to the kingdom. This shows that the surrounding cities were apart of tributary system with Assyria. If they refused to pay tribute then they faced the wrath of the Assyrian Army. For example, “As for Sidqa, king of Ashkelon, who had not submitted to my yoke – his family gods, he himself, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his brothers, and all the rest of his descendants, I deported an brought him to Assyria” (Coogan 77). This is a prime example of how the Assyria King, Sennacherib, punished those who did not submit to his will. Most cities and countries paid tribute to him probably out of fear for what may happen to them if they did
“That night 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” (New International Version, 2 Kings 20-35-36). It is not likely though that 185,000 Assyrian troops died especially in one night. More likely is a good amount of men died from a disease causing Sennacherib to retreat out of fear that all his soldiers would contract it. “Although we have hardly any exact figures on the size of a regular Assyrian army, it is unlikely that a campaigning force was comprised of 200,000 men or more, so that 185,000 could die in one night. The highest figure ever given for an Assyrian army is 120,000 men (Horn 28). This secondary sources points out that the highest numbers ever recorded for the Assyrian army was only 120,000 men. This makes the 185,000 deaths seem highly unreasonable, and more than likely inaccurate. The bible despite being considered a primary source in this paper some of the stories in the bible were written down later. This could have caused the individual writing to record 185,000 as the amount of deaths. “It is conceivable that the death of more than 5,000 soldiers in one night as the result of the outbreak of a mysterious disease could result in such