And Sennacherib the king of the Assyrians went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive.
וַיִּסַּ֣ע וַיֵּ֔לֶךְ וַיָּ֖שָׁב סַנְחֵרִ֣יב מֶֽלֶךְ־אַשּׁ֑וּר וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב בְּנִֽינְוֵֽה׃
4 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, left and returned, settling in Nineveh. While he was in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adramelech and Sharezer assassinated him with a sword and then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Asardan succeeded him as king. This illustrates the nature of unbelief: despite having witnessed God's might in various forms, he chose to worship false deities in hopes of finding salvation, only to encounter the true power of God in that moment.
Sennacherib was filled with terror upon witnessing this miracle, despite being a valiant leader. He barely made it back to his homeland, having entirely lost the army he had once led. He returned to his country in a state of despair and later established himself in Nineveh, as he noted.
In a single night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand valiant warriors fell to death at the hands of an angel; though they were not wounded, a harsh demise took place, as God’s command separated their souls from their bodies. This is confirmed in the Chronicles where it states, “and the Lord sent an angel, which smote every strong man, and warrior, and captain of the army of the king of Assyria: and he returned with dishonour to his land” (2 Chron. 32:21). This king was spared to witness the might of God, to bring low his blasphemous mouth, and to become a testimony to the majesty of the very One he had previously scorned.
The phrase “rose up in the morning” can pertain to either the Israelites or to the rest of his army, though in the Book of Kings, it is recorded that when the king himself awakened at dawn, he beheld the multitude of dead bodies (4 Kings 19:35). Likewise, Pharaoh was preserved through the ten plagues of Egypt, destined to meet his end last, a fate that also awaited Sennacherib. Upon returning to Nineveh, the principal city of his reign, he worshipped in the temple of Nesrach, his god, as if celebrating a triumph over his foes, entering the temple of his idol with a sense of victory and gratitude. Yet, this derider of the true God met his demise within the sanctuary of a false deity, not by the sword like many others, but through the betrayal of his own sons. When they fled to the land of Ararat, which is in Armenia, Asaraddon took his father’s place, of whom the Scriptures declare that he sent the inhabitants to Samaria, ensuring that the land did not lie fallow. Ararat itself is a fertile lowland in Armenia nourished by the Arax River, at the base of Mount Taurus, which extends into it. Thus, the ark that saved Noah and his family after the flood was not merely brought to the region known as Ararat but was positioned upon the lofty peaks of Taurus that tower over the plains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4).
Upon discovering the loss of his forces at the gates of Jerusalem, Sennacherib, who was then in southern Judea, abandoned the region. In fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, he returned to his territory in the same manner as he had arrived, resigning himself to a state of despair in his capital, Nineveh. The book of Tobit reveals that Sennacherib expressed his rage and disappointment over the unsuccessful campaign by targeting the unfortunate Israelites who had relocated to Assyria under Salmanassar.
Passages read together with this verse.
THEOSIS