The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
    And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold;
    And the sheen of their spears was like stars of the sea,
    When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

    Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
    That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
    Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
    That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

    For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
    And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;
    And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
    And their hearts but once heaved—­and forever grew still!

    And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
    But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
    And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
    And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

    And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
    With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
    And the tents were all silent—­the banners alone—­
    Thelances uplifted—­the trumpet unblown.

    And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail,
    And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
    And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
    Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

Before this disaster occurred Sennacherib had to invade Babylonia again, for the vassal king, Bel-ibni, had allied himself with the Chaldaeans and raised the standard of revolt.  The city of Babylon was besieged and captured, and its unfaithful king deported with a number of nobles to Assyria.  Old Merodach Baladan was concerned in the plot and took refuge on the Elamite coast, where the Chaldaeans had formed a colony.  He died soon afterwards.

Sennacherib operated in southern Babylonia and invaded Elam.  But ere he could return to Assyria he was opposed by a strong army of allies, including Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Elamites, and Persians, led by Samunu, son of Merodach Baladan.  A desperate battle was fought.  Although Sennacherib claimed a victory, he was unable to follow it up.  This was in 692 B.C.  A Chaldaean named Mushezib-Merodach seized the Babylonian throne.

In 691 B.C.  Sennacherib again struck a blow for Babylonia, but was unable to depose Mushezib-Merodach.  His opportunity came, however, in 689 B.C.  Elam had been crippled by raids of the men of Parsua (Persia), and was unable to co-operate with the Chaldaean king of Babylon.  Sennacherib captured the great commercial metropolis, took Mushezib-Merodach prisoner, and dispatched him to Nineveh.  Then he wreaked his vengeance on Babylon.  For several days the Assyrian soldiers looted the houses and temples, and slaughtered the inhabitants without mercy.  E-sagila was robbed of its treasures, images of deities were either broken