How did Mesopotamian kings connect military victories to divine favor?

In the ancient Mesopotamian worldview, there was no distinction between secular and religious policy; national affairs were considered divinely ordered and scrutinized. Consequently, kings viewed themselves as the human agents or "chief executive officers" of their national deities, and military campaigns were often framed as acts performed in conformity with divine will rather than personal initiative.1

For example, the Assyrian king Sennacherib explicitly recorded that he undertook his second military campaign because his lord, the deity Ashur, had impelled him. This connection was reinforced by the belief that all major royal undertakings were dependent on directives from the gods, which kings sought to ascertain in advance through omens, dreams, or the reading of entrails.12

By positioning their military actions as the fulfillment of a god’s command, kings legitimized their authority and demonstrated that their victories were evidence of divine favor and support for the state.1