Esarhaddon on his father's murder
The murder of Sennacherib by his own sons, and Esarhaddon's succession, are recorded by Esarhaddon himself.
Named outside the BibleInscriptionc. 670 BC
Esarhaddon's account of how he came to the throne describes his brothers turning on their father and killing him, and Esarhaddon marching on Nineveh to take the crown. 2 Kings ends Sennacherib's story with his murder by his sons while worshipping, and the succession of Esarhaddon.
They butted each other like kids to take over the kingship… an evil demon stood behind them.
- Found
- Nineveh, Iraq — Nineteenth-century excavations
- Now held at
- British Museum, London
- Language
- Akkadian
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
Esarhaddon does not name the killers in the way 2 Kings does, and the identification of the individual sons is debated. Both accounts agree on the killing and the successor.
How historians use it
A well-known case of an Assyrian royal text and a biblical text describing the same palace murder.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Leichty, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon (RINAP 4, 2011)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.