And it came to pass. — Twenty years afterwards.
Nisroch. — This name appears to be corrupt. The LXX. gives Νεσεραχ and Μεσορὰχ; Josephus, ἐν Αράσαη, “in Araskè,” as if the name were that of the temple rather than the god. The Hebrew version of Tobit (1:21) gives Dagon as the god. Dagon (Da-kan, Da-gan-nu) was worshipped at an early date in Babylonia, and later in Assyria; but no stress can be laid on the evidence of a late version of an Apochryphon. Wellhausen thinks the original reading of the LXX. must have been Άσσαρὰχ, which seems to involve the name of Asshur, the supreme god of the Assyrians.
Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him. — The Assyrian monuments are silent on the subject of the death of Sennacherib. For Adrammelech, see the Note on 2 Kings 17:31. Sharezer, in Assyrian, Sar-uçur, “protect the king,” is only part of a name. The other half is found in Abydenus (apud Eusebius), who records that Sennacherib was slain by his son Adramelos, and succeeded by Nergilos (i.e., Nergal), who was slain by Axerdis (Esarhaddon). From this it appears that the full name was Nergal-sar-uçur, “Nergal protect the king!” (the Greek Neriglissar.) (See Jeremiah 39:3; Jeremiah 39:13.)
And they escaped into the land of Armenia. — Ararat, the Assyrian Urartu, was the name of the great plain through which the Araxes flowed. The battle in which Esarhaddon defeated his brothers was fought somewhere in Little Armenia, near the Euphrates, according to Schrader, who gives a fragment of an inscription apparently relating thereto.
Esarhaddon. — The Assyrian Assur-aha-iddina, “Asshur gave a brother,” who reigned 681-668 B.C.