for God had sent a pestilential distemper upon his army; and on the very first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore and five thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed.” Some commentators attempt to explain the disaster by an account from Herodotus (of the fifth century B.C.E.) in which he claims that a legion of rats gnawed everything in the Assyrians’ weapons that was made of rope or leather, leaving them unable to carry out an invasion of Egypt. This account obviously does not coincide with the Biblical record, nor does Herodotus’ description of the Assyrian campaign harmonize with the Assyrian inscriptions. Nevertheless, the accounts by Berossus and Herodotus at least reflect the fact that Sennacherib’s forces met up with sudden and calamitous difficulty in this campaign.

Sennacherib’s troubles had not ended, however, and following his return to Assyria he had to quell another revolt in Babylon, provoked by Merodach-baladan. This time Sennacherib placed his own son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, as king in Babylon. Six years later Sennacherib embarked on a campaign against the Elamites, but they soon retaliated by invading Mesopotamia, captured Ashur-nadin-shumi, and placed their own king on the throne of Babylon. Several years of struggle for control of the region followed, until finally the enraged Sennacherib took vengeance on Babylon by leveling it to the ground, an unparalleled act in view of Babylon’s position as the “Holy City” of all Mesopotamia. The remaining years of Sennacherib’s reign were apparently without major incident.

Sennacherib’s death is considered to have come some twenty years after his campaign against Jerusalem. This figure is dependent on Assyrian records, their reliability being subject to question. At any rate, it should be noted that the Bible account does not state that Sennacherib’s death occurred immediately upon his return to Nineveh. “Later on he entered the house of his god” Nisroch, and his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, “struck him down with the sword,” escaping to the land of Ararat. (2 Chron. 32:21; Isa. 37:37, 38) An inscription of his son and successor, Esar-haddon, confirms this.

BUILDING WORKS

The Assyrian Empire thus saw no particular expansion under Sennacherib. He did, however, carry out an ambitious building project in Nineveh, which he had restored to its position as the capital city. The vast palace he erected there was a complex of halls, courts and rooms of state covering an area 1,500 feet (457 meters) long by 700 feet (213 meters) wide. He brought in water from thirty miles (48 kilometers) away, constructing a causeway over the Gomer River, known as the Jerwan Aqueduct. Its waters contributed toward the irrigation of gardens and parks, as well as the strengthening of the city’s defenses by its encircling moat.

SEORIM

(Se·oʹrim) [barley].

Head of the fourth of the twenty-four priestly service divisions selected by lot during David’s reign.—1 Chron. 24:5, 8.

SEPHAR

(Seʹphar).

One limit of the territory in which descendants of Joktan resided. The Bible says: “And their place of dwelling came to extend from Mesha as far as Sephar, the mountainous region of the East.” (Gen. 10:29, 30) One extremity was Mesha, apparently in N Arabia, making it probable that Sephar was in the S. (See MESHA No. 4.) One suggested location is the Yemenite city of Zafar (once the capital of the Himyarite kings), about a hundred miles (c. 161 kilometers) NE of the southern end of the Red Sea. Another is a coastal city in Mahra, on the Arabian Sea. But the exact location of ancient Sephar remains uncertain.

SEPHARAD

(Se·pharʹad).

A site from which Jerusalem’s exiles were due to return. (Obad. 20) Its exact location is unknown, but of several suggestions a likely possibility is Saparda, mentioned in certain Assyrian annals as a district of Media. The Assyrians once exiled people of Israel’s northern kingdom to “cities of the Medes.”—2 Ki. 17:5, 6.

SEPHARVAIM

(Seph·ar·vaʹim).

A city from which the king of Assyria brought people to dwell in Samaria after the Israelites had been taken into exile. (2 Ki. 17:24) Earlier, Sepharvaim and its king appear to have experienced defeat at the hands of the Assyrians. (2 Ki. 19:13; Isa. 37:13) Being mentioned along with places in Syria and Babylonia, Sepharvaim was perhaps in one of these areas. Tentative identifications include Sippar on the Euphrates N of Babylon, and Sibraim (Ezek. 47:16) between Hamath and Damascus.

SEPHARVITES

(Seʹphar·vites).

People of the city of Sepharvaim. After 740 B.C.E., at least some of the inhabitants of Sepharvaim were taken by the Assyrians as colonists to Samaria. The Sepharvites brought with them their false religion, which included the sacrificing of their sons to the gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.—2 Ki. 17:24, 31-33; 18:34; Isa. 36:19.

SERAH

(Seʹrah).

A daughter of Asher among “the souls of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt.”—Gen. 46:7, 17, 27; Num. 26:46; 1 Chron. 7:30.

SERAIAH

(Se·raiʹah) [Jehovah has prevailed, persists, is prince].

1. A son of Kenaz in the tribe of Judah, brother of Judge Othniel and nephew of Caleb the spy. Seraiah’s descendants through his son Joab became craftsmen.—1 Chron. 4:13, 14.

2. The secretary in King David’s administration. (2 Sam. 8:15, 17) Unless there were several changes in the personnel of this office he is elsewhere called Sheva (2 Sam. 20:25), Shavsha (1 Chron. 18:16) and Shisha, whose two sons later cared for like duties under Solomon. (1 Ki. 4:3) The names of most of the other governmental officials are the same in the three Davidic lists.

3. A son of Asiel in the tribe of Simeon whose descendants, contemporary with Hezekiah, joined the force that struck down Hamites and Meunim occupying an area and used the land for grazing.—1 Chron. 4:24, 35, 38-41.

4. One of the three whom King Jehoiakim, late in 624 B.C.E., sent to fetch Jeremiah and Baruch because of the prophecy they had written against Jerusalem and Judah. Seraiah was the son of Azriel.—Jer. 36:9, 26.

5. The quartermaster of King Zedekiah; son of Neriah and brother of Baruch. (Jer. 32:12; 51:59) In the fourth year of Zedekiah, 614 B.C.E., Seraiah accompanied Zedekiah to Babylon. Jeremiah had given him a scroll containing prophetic denunciations of Babylon, instructing him to read it alongside the Euphrates River, then tie a stone to the scroll and pitch it into the river, thus illustrating the permanence of Babylon’s fall. (Jer. 51:59-64) Seraiah likely passed on to the Israelites already captive there some of the thoughts from the prophecy.

6. The chief priest when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E. Though Seraiah was slain at Nebuchadnezzar’s order, his son Jehozadak was spared and taken captive to Babylon. (2 Ki. 25:18-21; Jer. 52:24-27) Through Seraiah’s son Jehozadak, the high-priestly line from Aaron continued, Jehozadak’s son Jeshua holding this office on the Jews’ release and return. (1 Chron. 6:14, 15; Ezra 3:2) Seraiah is also called the “father” of Ezra, but in view of the 139 years between Seraiah’s death and Ezra’s return, there were probably at least two unnamed generations in between them, a type of omission common in Biblical genealogies.—Ezra 7:1.

7. One of the military chiefs remaining in Judah after the general deportation to Babylon; son of Tanhumeth.