But on the night when the two armies were in sight of each other,
ere the battle, the blast of death passed over the Assyrians; and in
early morning the host lay dead, not by the sword, but by the breath of
the Lord, and Sennacherib was left to return without the men in whom he
had trusted! Even heathens recorded this deliverance, but they strangely
altered the story. They said that it was the prayer of the Egyptian king
that prevailed on his gods to send a multitude of mice into the enemy's
camp, to gnaw all the bow-strings, so that they could not fight; and
they showed a statue of the king with a mouse in his hand, which was,
they said, a memorial of the wonder.
Sennacherib, in rage and fury, cruelly persecuted the Israelites at
Nineveh for their connection with the Jews; and then it was that the
pious Tobit buried the corpses that were cast in the street until he
lost his sight, afterwards so wonderfully restored. Sennacherib was
murdered in the year 720 by two of his sons, while worshipping his god
Nisroch; and another son, Esarhaddon, became king.
Esarhaddon, who is known by many different names, soon after came out
and marauded all over the adjacent country; and it is believed that
it was about this time that Bethulia was so bravely defended, and the
Ninevite general slain by the craft and courage of Judith.
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