But the History of Prophecy also in this epoch is marked by events of world-wide importance. In the days of Isaiah we see the change of Israel from a nation into a church of the faithful, for which alone he has any permanent hope. In him, too, we hear the first distinct utterances of the final form in which should be fulfilled the Messianic hope. Under Jeremiah there was still further advance. He points, as Joel does, to the epoch of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and shows that God does not only deal with men as nations, or as churches, or even as families, but as beings with individual souls.
This and much besides we have seen in the foregoing pages, in which we have endeavoured to point the lessons of the Books of Kings. The one main lesson which the narrative is meant to teach is absolute faith and trust in God, as an anchor which holds amid the wildest storms of ruin, and of apparently final failure. Not until we have realised that truth can we hear the words of God, or see the vision of the Almighty. When we have learnt it, we shall not fear, though the hills be moved and carried into the midst of the sea. It is the lesson which gets behind the meaning of failure, and raises us to a height from which we can look down on prosperity as a thing which—except in fatally delusive semblance—cannot exist apart from righteousness and faith. This is the lesson of life, the lesson of lessons. If it does not solve all problems on their intellectual side, it scatters all perplexities in the spiritual sphere. It shows us that duty is the reward of duty, and that there can be no happiness save for those who have learnt that duty and blessedness are one. And thus even by this book of annals—annals of wild deeds and troubled times—we may be taught the truths which find their perfect illustration and proof in the life and teaching of the Son of God. When those truths are our real possession, the work of life is done. Then
"Vigour may fail the towering fantasy,
But yet the Will rolls onward, like a wheel
In even motion by the love impelled
That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars."
[APPENDIX I]
THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA, AND SOME OF THEIR INSCRIPTIONS.
Dates from the Eponym Canon and the Assyrian Monuments; Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, and the Old Testament, E. Tr., 1888, pp. 167-187.
b.c.
860.—Shalmaneser II.
854.—Battle of Karkar. War with Ahab and Benhadad.
842.—War with Hazael. Tribute of Jehu.
825.—Samsi-Ramman.[918]
812.—Ramman-Nirari.
783.—Shalmaneser III.
773.—Assur-dan III.
763.—June 15th. Eclipse of the sun.
755.—Assur-Nirari.
745.—Tiglath-Pileser II.
742.—Azariah (Uzziah) heads a league of nineteen Hamathite
districts against Assyria (?).
740.—Death of Uzziah (?).
738.—Tribute of Menahem, Rezin, and Hiram.
734.—Expedition to Palestine against Pekah. Tribute of Ahaz.
732.—Capture of Damascus. Death of Rezin. First actual
collision between Israel and Assyria.
728.—Hoshea refuses tribute.
727.—Shalmaneser IV.
724.—Siege of Samaria begun.
722.—Sargon. Fall of Samaria.
721.—Defeat of Merodach-Baladan.
720.—Battle of Raphia. Defeat of Sabaco, King of Egypt.
715.—Subjugated people deported to Samaria. Accession of
Hezekiah.
711.—Capture of Ashdod.
707.—Building of great palace of Dur-Sarrukin.
709.—Sargon expels Merodach-Baladan, and becomes King of
Babylon.
705.—Assassination (?) of Sargon.
705.—Sennacherib.
704.—Embassy of Merodach-Baladan to Hezekiah.
703.—Belibus made King of Babylon.
702.—Construction of the Bellino Cylinder.
721.—Siege of Ekron. Defeat of Egypt at Altaqu. Siege of
Jerusalem. Campaign against Hezekiah and Tirhakah
disastrously concluded at Pelusium and Jerusalem.
681.—Murder of Sennacherib.
681.—Esar-haddon.
676.—Manasseh pays tribute.
668.—Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus).
608.—Death of Josiah in the battle of Megiddo against Pharaoh
Necho.
The dates and names of Assyrian kings as given in Records of the Past (ii. 207, 208) do not exactly accord with these in all cases.