The King of Nineveh believed the impending disaster could be averted and decreed that the people of Nineveh put on sackcloth, fast, and call out to God, presumably in repentance.

At the end of the 8th century BC the Assyrian King Sennacherib chose Nineveh as his capital and built what he called the 'Palace without Rival', decorating it with finely carved reliefs.