Sennacherib Poem by Gert Strydom

Sennacherib king of Assyria
send a message to Hezekiah king of Judah saying:

"Do not be deceived by your god
when he assures you that Jerusalem
will not fall to me.

Haven't you heard
what the kings of Assyria
have done to all the other countries
and how we have destroyed them completely?

Who will deliver you now? Did the gods
of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, Hamath, Eden,
Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena or Ivvah protect them? "

In humility Hezekiah went to the temple
and prayed:

"Lord, enthroned among cherubim
You are alone the living God
who rules over all kingdoms
and have created both heaven and earth

and it's true that the kings of Assyria
have destroyed the gods of these nations
and have conquered these nations and their lands,
but their gods were only wood and stone
created by man.

Please deliver us from king Sennacherib
that the entire world may know
that You alone are God."

Then the prophet Isaiah
send king Hezekiah a message:

"The Lord says that Sennacherib
has blasphemed and insulted Him
and has lifted his voice in pride saying

that with his chariots
he has ascended mountains,
that he has drawn water from foreign wells,
has dried up the streams of Egypt

but I know where he lives
and when he comes and goes
and he has raised his voice against me.

I will make him return from where he came
for out of Jerusalem My remnant will come
and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors will come

and he will not enter this city,
even shoot an arrow here
or come against it with shields
or build a siege ramp
and I will defend this city."

During that night the Angel of God
waged war against the army of Assyria
killing a hundred and eighty-five thousand men

and Sennacherib withdraw to Nineveh
where he was killed by his own sons
while worshipping his god Nisroch.