Sennacherib the son of Shalmaneser in the 14th year of Hezekiah invaded Phoenicia, and took several cities of Judah, and attempted Egypt; and Sethon or Sevechus King of Egypt and Tirhakah King of Ethiopia coming against him, he lost in one night 185000 men, as some say by a plague, or perhaps by lightning, or a fiery wind which blows sometimes in the neighbouring deserts, or rather by being surprised by Sethon and Tirhakah:  for the Egyptians in memory of this action erected a statue to Sethon, holding in his hand a mouse, the Egyptian symbol of destruction.  Upon this defeat Sennacherib returned in haste to Nineveh, and [367] his Kingdom became troubled, so that Tobit could not go into Media, the Medes I think at this time revolting:  and he was soon after slain by two of his sons who fled into Armenia, and his son Asserhadon succeeded him.  At that time did Merodach Baladan or Mardocempad King of Babylon send an embassy to Hezekiah King of Judah.

Asserhadon, [368] called Sarchedon by Tobit, Asordan by the LXX, and Assaradin in Ptolomy’s Canon, began his Reign at Nineveh, in the year of Nabonassar 42; and in the year 68 extended it over Babylon:  then he carried the remainder of the Samaritans into captivity, and peopled Samaria with captives brought from several parts of his Kingdom, the Dinaites, the Apharsachites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, the Elamites, Ezra iv. 2, 9. and therefore he Reigned over all these nations. Pekah and Rezin Kings of Samaria and Damascus, invaded Judaea in the first year of Ahaz, and within 65 years after, that is in the 21st year of Manasseh, Anno Nabonass. 69, Samaria by this captivity ceased to be a people, Isa. vii. 8.  Then Asserhadon invaded Judaea, took Azoth, carried Manasseh captive to Babylon, and [369] captivated also Egypt, Thebais, and Ethiopia above Thebais:  and by this war he seems to have put an end to the Reign of the Ethiopians over Egypt, in the year of Nabonassar 77 or 78.

In the Reign of Sennacherib and Asserhadon, the Assyrian Empire seems arrived at its greatness, being united under one Monarch, and containing Assyria, Media, Apolloniatis, Susiana, Chaldaea, Mesopotamia, Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part of Arabia, and reaching eastward into Elymais, and Paraetacene, a province