EXTRACT FROM THE ANNALS OF SENNACHERIB

Sennacherib - king of Assyria, 705-681 BCE.

This extract, from the central column of the illustration of the Prism, beginning with line 11, records the siege of Jerusalem.

11. I fixed upon him.
    And of Hezekiah [king of the]
12. Jews,
    who had not submitted to my yoke,
13. 46 of his fenced cities, and the strongholds,
    and the smaller cities
14. which were round about them and which were without number,
15. by the battering of rams, and by the attack of engines,
16. and by the assault of foot-soldiers, and ...
17. I besieged,
    I captured 200,150 people, small and Great, male and female,
18. horses and mules, and asses, and camels, and oxen,
19. and sheep innumerable from their midst I brought out and
20. I reckoned [them] as spoil.
    [Hezekiah] himself like a caged bird within Jerusalem,
21. his royal city, I shut in.
    Banks against him
22. I threw up, and whosoever came forth from the gate of his city, I turned back.
23. I requited his sin.
    His cities of which I had made spoil from his dominions
24. I cut off,
    and to Mitinti, King of Ashdod,
25. to Padi, king of Ekron, and to Sillibel,
26. king of Gaza, I gave,
    and I cut short his borders.
27. Besides the old tribute, which they paid yearly,
28. tribute and gifts to my sovereignty I added and
29. laid upon them.
    As for Hezekiah himself,
30. the fear of the majesty of my lordship overwhelmed him;
    and
31. the Urbu of his trusty warriors,
32. whom, in order to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city,
33. he had brought in,
    left him.
34. 30 talents of gold, and 800 talents of silver, and precious stones.
35. And stibium, and ... and great ... stones,
36. and couches of ivory, and seats of ivory, and elephant hide,
37. and ivory, and ushu-wood, and urkarinnu-wood, and diverse things,
38. and great treasure,
39. and [his] daughters, and the women of his palace, and the male musicians,
40. and the female musicians, into the midst of Ninevah, the city of my sovereignty,
41. after me he brought;
    and to give tribute
42. and to make submission he sent his envoy.  

British Museum.
('Helps to the Study of the Bible', c 1896, Henry Frowde - Oxford University Press.)