The Philistines, however, were soon subdued.  A new king was appointed over Ashkelon, and Hezekiah was compelled to restore to Ekron its former prince, whom he had imprisoned in Jerusalem on account of his loyalty to Assyria.  The priests and nobles of Ekron, who had given him up to Hezekiah, were ruthlessly impaled.  Meanwhile Tirhakah, the Ethiopian king of Egypt, on whose help Hezekiah had relied, was marching to the assistance of his ally.  Sennacherib met him at Eltekeh, and there the combined forces of the Egyptians and Arabians were defeated and compelled to retreat.  Hezekiah now endeavoured to make peace by the offer of rich and numerous presents, including thirty talents of gold and 800 of silver.  But nothing short of the death of the Jewish king and the transportation of his people would content the invader.  Hezekiah accordingly shut himself up within the strong walls of his capital, while the Assyrians ravaged the rest of the country and prepared to besiege Jerusalem.  The cities and villages were destroyed, and 200,150 persons were led away into captivity.  But at this moment a catastrophe befell the Assyrians which saved Hezekiah and “the remnant” of Israel.  The angel of death smote the Assyrian army, and it was decimated by a sudden pestilence.  Sennacherib fled from the plague-stricken camp, carrying with him his spoil and captives, and the scanty relics of his troops.  It was the last time he marched to the west, and his rebellious vassal remained unpunished.

In the following year troubles in Babylonia called him to the south.  Merodach-baladan was hunted out of the marshes, and fled with his subjects across the Persian Gulf to the opposite coast of Elam, while a son of Sennacherib was made king of Babylon.  But his reign did not last long.  Six years later he was carried off to Elam, and a new king of native origin, Nergal-yusezib by name, was proclaimed by the Elamites.  This was in return for an attack made by Sennacherib upon the Chaldaean colony in Elam, where the followers of Merodach-baladan had found a refuge.  Sennacherib had caused ships to be built at Nineveh by Phoenician workmen, and had manned them with Tyrian, Sidonian, and Ionian sailors who were prisoners of war.  The ships sailed down to the Tigris and across the gulf, and then fell unexpectedly upon the Chaldaeans, burning their settlement, and carrying away all who had escaped massacre.

Nergal-yusezib had reigned only one year when he was defeated and captured in battle by the Assyrians; but the Elamites were still predominant in Babylonia, and another Babylonian, Musezib-Merodach, was set upon the throne of the distracted country (B.C. 693).  In B.C. 691 Sennacherib once more entered it, with an overwhelming army, determined to crush all opposition.  But the battle of Khalule, fought between the Assyrians on the one side, and the combined Babylonians and Elamites on the other, led to no definite result.  Sennacherib, indeed, claimed the victory, but so he had also done