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200 annals describe constant military campaigns and boast of captured cities, brutal executions of local kings and nobility, and mass exiles. His role, and those of his successors Shal- maneser V and Sargon II, in the demise of Israel and the ex- ile of its people (the Ten Lost Tribes), and then the attempt by Sennacherib to seize Jerusalem, were described in the previ- ous chapter. Closer to home, those Assyrian kings were busy annexing Babylonia by “taking the hands of Marduk.” The next Assyrian king, Esarhaddon (680-669 B.c.E.), announced that “both Ashur and Marduk gave me wisdom,” swore oaths in the name of Marduk and Nabu, and started to rebuild the Esagil temple in Babylon. In history books, Esarhaddon is mainly remembered for his successful invasion of Egypt (675-669 B.c.£.). The inva- sion’s purpose, as far as it could be ascertained, was to stop Egyptian attempts to “meddle in Canaan” and dominate Jerusalem. Noteworthy, in the light of subsequent events, was the route he chose: instead of going the shortest way, to the southwest, he made a considerable detour and went northward, to Harran. There, in the olden temple of the god Sin, Esarhaddon sought that god’s blessing to embark on the conquest; and Sin, leaning on a staff and accompa- nied by Nusku (the Divine Messenger of the gods), gave his approval. Esarhaddon then did turn southward, sweeping mightily through the lands of the eastern Mediterranean to reach Egypt. Significantly, he detoured away from the prize that Sennacherib failed to seize—Jerusalem. Significantly, too, that invasion of Egypt and the detour away from Jerusa- lem—as well as Assyria’s own eventual fate—had been prophesied by Isaiah decades earlier (10: 24-32). Busy geopolitically as Esarhaddon was, he did not neglect the astronomical requirements of those times. With guid- ance from the gods Shamash and Adad, he erected in Ashur (the city, Assyria’s cult center) a “House of Wisdom’”—an observatory—and depicted the complete twelve-member so- lar system, including Nibiru, on his monuments (Fig. 89). Leading to a more lavish sacred precinct was a new monu- mental gate, built—according to cylinder seal depictions—to THE END OF DAYS