Sennacherib

Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fenced cities of Judah in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. After taking forty-six walled cities, he sent his Rabshakeh with a great host to demand Jerusalem's surrender. Standing by the conduit of the upper pool, the Rabshakeh railed in the Jews' language, mocking Hezekiah's trust in the Lord and listing the gods of nations Assyria had already destroyed.

Hezekiah rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. He sent to Isaiah the prophet, who returned this word: "Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me." Sennacherib then sent letters renewing his threats. Hezekiah spread the letters before the Lord and prayed, "Now therefore, O Lord our God, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only."

That night the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand: "And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." Sennacherib departed and returned to Nineveh.

Some time afterward, as Sennacherib worshipped in the house of his god Nisroch, his own sons Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword and escaped into the land of Armenia. His son Esarhaddon reigned in his stead. Scripture records his fall as a warning to every ruler who lifts up himself against the living God.