The account of Sennacherib shows that Sidon and Judah stood at the head of the rising in Syria, that the population of the cities of the Philistines was more eager than their princes for war with Assyria. The men of Ascalon had either deposed their prince, who adhered to Assyria, or raised up Zidka, after him, to oppose Assyria. When Padi, the prince of Ekron, would not join the rebellion against Assyria, the chiefs, the priests, and a part of the population of the city, took him prisoner, and handed him over to Hezekiah. We have already seen from the statements of the Hebrews, that Hezekiah had made better preparations for the contest than Hoshea of Israel 25 years before. Not only were weapons and armour ready for the people; the towers and walls of Jerusalem had been improved and strengthened. The defensive work between Zion and the city, Millo, had been secured by new fortifications, a copious conduit brought into the city. When the danger came, the streams and springs round the city were filled up, and an outer wall was carried round the city as a first line of defence. In order to obtain the materials for this, a number of houses were pulled down in the city.[290]
The Books of Kings tell us that "Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. Then Hezekiah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, and said: I have sinned, depart from me; what thou layest upon me I will bear. Then the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and cut down the doors and posts of the temple of Jehovah, which he had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Asshur. But the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish with a great army against Jerusalem, and when they were come up, they halted by the conduit of the upper pool which lies by the street of the fuller's field. And they cried to the king. Then there went out to them Eliakim, the overseer of the king's house, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the chancellor. And Rabshakeh said to them: Ye trust in the staff of a broken reed, even Egypt, which passes into a man's hand and pierces him who leans upon it. How will ye thrust back a single captain, one of the least of the servants of my master? And Eliakim, Shebnah, and Joah said: Speak to thy servants in Syriac; we understand it; speak not in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall. Has my master sent me to thy master and to thee, said Rabshakeh, and not to those who sit on the wall, who, with you, shall eat their dung and drink their water? And Rabshakeh came up and cried with a loud voice, in the Jews' language, towards the wall: Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: If ye will make peace with me,—thus he saith to you,—and come forth, ye shall eat every one of his own vineyard, and fig tree, and drink the water of his well. But the people remained quiet: for the king had given commandment not to answer the Assyrians. And Rabshakeh turned back, and found the king of Assyria warring before Libnah. Here he heard of Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, that it was said: See, he has come up to contend with thee. And he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, and said: Be not deceived by thy God in whom thou trustest. Have the gods of the nations whom my fathers overthrew saved them—Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden and Telassar? (p. 6.) Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the kings of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Iva?"[291]
This account of the Hebrews is confirmed, and supplemented by the inscriptions of Sennacherib, given above. They tell us that the king of Assyria directed his arms first against Sidon. He takes the smaller cities of the coast belonging to Sidon, Zarephath, Achsib, Akko. King Elulæus retires to Cyprus. Sidon opens her gates, and receives a new prince, Ithobal (Tubal), at the hands of Sennacherib. Aradus and Byblus bring tribute. It must have been at the time of this campaign in Syria that Sennacherib caused his image to be engraved on the rocks at the mouth of the Nahr el Kelb, beside the reliefs which Ramses II. had caused to be cut there more than 650 years before. The picture represents him in the usual manner of Assyrian rulers, with the kidaris on his head, the right hand raised, and inscriptions in cuneiform letters beside the hieroglyphs of Ramses. The cuneiform inscription is destroyed to such a degree that only the name of Sennacherib can be read. From the coast of the Phenicians Sennacherib marches to the South, along the sea, against the cities of the Philistines. First, the places subject to Ascalon, Japho, Beth Dagon, Bene Barak, Yasur, are besieged and taken. Matinti, the prince of Ashdod, pays tribute to Sennacherib. Ascalon herself appears to have opened her gates while Zidka escaped, for the inscription only mentions the carrying away of his wife, his sons and daughters. Sarludari, the son of Rukibti, who had previously reigned in Ascalon, and remained loyal to Assyria, was placed on the throne. The prince of Samaria, Menahem II., the princes of Moab and Edom, bring tribute. Sennacherib turns against Ekron: as already remarked, the Ekronites had deposed their prince, Padi, and given him up as a prisoner to Hezekiah. Beside Ekron only Judah remains in arms against Assyria. The account of the Hebrews says that Sennacherib took all the fortified cities in Judah. Sennacherib's account says that he took 46 fortified places, small places without number, and carried away 200,150 men and women. Then, according to the account of the Hebrews, Hezekiah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish to enter into negotiations.
Hezekiah was terrified by the overthrow of the cities of the Phenicians and Philistines, the subjugation of the remaining princes, and the invasion of his land. As the army of Tirhaka was not yet in Syria, he despaired under such circumstances of maintaining his position, and paid the tribute which Sennacherib required—30 talents of gold, and 300 talents of silver, according to the Hebrew account. The statement of Sennacherib gives 30 talents of gold, and 800 talents of silver. The difference is explained if we may assume that the amount given by Sennacherib is founded on the light Babylonian talent, that of the Hebrews on the heavy Syrian talent; 300 heavy Syrian talents are equivalent to 800 light Babylonian talents.[292] If Sennacherib states further that he "brought Padi out of Jerusalem" (p. 126), he, no doubt, required and obtained the surrender of Padi besides the tribute in this negotiation with Hezekiah. But Sennacherib was not content with this demand. It is clear that when the tribute had been paid, and Padi given up, he made the further request to open the gates of Jerusalem. This Hezekiah refused. The siege of Jerusalem, which Hezekiah had sought to avert, commenced. "I shut him up," says Sennacherib, "in Jerusalem, like a bird in a cage."
As the account of the Hebrews shows, Sennacherib did not appear himself in person at Jerusalem. Hezekiah's envoys find him at Lachish, in the south of Judah. A relief of the palace of Sennacherib at Kuyundshik (p. 106) shows us the king in the camp at Lachish. With two arrows in the right, and the bow in the left hand, he sits in the tent, on a high and richly-adorned chair; two eunuchs with fans are behind him, fanning him; before him is a general, and behind the latter, curly-haired and bearded prisoners, and women among them.[293] The upper inscription says: "Tent of Sennacherib, king of the land of Asshur." The lower inscription says: "Sennacherib, king of the nations, king of the land of Asshur, sits on an exalted throne, to receive the booty from Lachish."[294] As we gathered from his inscriptions, Sennacherib marched along the coast from Sidon to the south; he had passed beyond Japho, when the resistance of Ekron checked him. In order to bring Ashdod and Ascalon to obedience, and to await the approach of Tirhaka, Sennacherib encamped at Lachish, to cover the siege of Ekron, and beat back the Egyptians and Ethiopians who, according to his account, marched to the aid of Ekron. In order to avoid having any enemy in the rear at the time of Tirhaka's arrival, he sends his commander-in-chief, Tartan, with a part of his army, to invade Judah. He was so far successful that Hezekiah paid tribute and surrendered Padi. The surrender of Jerusalem did not take place. He now caused Jerusalem to be invested. Under these circumstances the approach of the Assyrians did not take place, as Isaiah had announced, from the north, through the pass of Michmash, but from the south. When arrived before Jerusalem, the leaders of the Assyrians begin to negotiate; they demand the surrender of the city, "the hope in Egypt is vain." As they failed to produce an effect on the emissaries of Hezekiah, they attempt to entice the soldiers on the wall to desert. In order to lend force to the negotiations the siege is commenced. Meanwhile the Egyptians come nearer; Sennacherib goes back to Libnah, and the renewed negotiations, which according to the statements of the Hebrews he here commences with Hezekiah, show how anxious he was to get Jerusalem into his hands. As the negotiations failed, he was compelled to attempt to gain the city by assault, by trenches, and besieging towers.
Isaiah had proclaimed the day of judgment with more earnestness than any prophet before him. None of them had set himself with such force to take away every support from the feeling of self-confidence. The Jews were to look forward with fear and trembling to the day of judgment, that they might learn to trust in Jehovah alone, and from this renovation of the heart might spring into blossom the new and better time—the new kingdom. When all splendour and wealth is destroyed; when the chiefs and the warriors are overthrown; when "the sinners in Zion quake, and trembling seizes the godless;" when "the Lord has thus washed away the lewdness of the daughter of Zion,"[295] and "purged away the dross as with lye," then "he will be very gracious to his people which dwelleth in Zion, at the voice of her cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee."[296] But Isaiah had not proclaimed the coming judgment for Judah only; he had announced without ceasing, that no earthly power, however great and proud it might be, could stand before Jehovah. In his lofty conception the judgment over Israel became a judgment over the whole world, from the cleansing punishment of which would arise the new and true religion for all, a new life in the fear of God and in piety, in righteousness and peace. "The day of the Lord of hosts," he says, "shall be upon every thing that is proud and lofty, and upon every thing that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, and all the oaks of Bashan, upon all the high mountains, and lofty towers, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and all costly pictures. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men, and their idols of silver and gold they shall cast down to the moles and the bats, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day."[297] Thus Egypt and Ethiopia also will be smitten, and at length the line will reach even the scourge with which Jehovah has punished the sins of the others, even the Assyrians. This great day of judgment, "which avenges their misdeeds on the inhabitants of the earth," is followed by the restoration, for Jehovah "smites and heals."[298] As the exiles of Israel shall return from Asshur and the lost from Egypt (the Israelites who had fled thither before Sargon), and Israel's power shall be restored, so will Assyria and Egypt be restored, and Jehovah will say: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."[299] The standard of Jehovah will be planted on the hill of Zion, and under this banner the people shall assemble. "All nations shall come to the mount of Jehovah to learn the way of Jehovah, and walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Then will Jehovah judge among the nations, and the work of righteousness is peace, and the fruit of righteousness is rest, so that the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not raise up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.[300] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. The cow and the lioness shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox; the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp."[301] But in order that this happy time, "which shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea," may be brought on, Jehovah's worship must be maintained by a remnant of the people which he has chosen, to which he announced his will since the days of the patriarchs. Isaiah was, therefore, firmly convinced that Zion and the temple of Jehovah, "in which he had founded a precious corner-stone," could not perish;—that "from Jerusalem a remnant would go forth, and the ransomed from Mount Zion." As Jehovah had punished Israel only in measure[302] by carrying the people away into captivity, but had turned aside the complete annihilation of the people, so Isaiah firmly believed that in the present instance also Judah would not be entirely destroyed, that Jerusalem would not be taken, and the judgment of Jehovah would be accomplished by the harrying and devastation of the whole land by the Assyrians, and the capture of the remaining cities. This hope was in him the more surely founded as Hezekiah worshipped Jehovah with zeal and earnestness.
Though the cities of Judah were lost, and Sennacherib lay in the south of Judah with a mighty army, though hundreds of thousands had been carried away, and Jerusalem itself was now shut up, Isaiah was nevertheless more zealous and earnest in urging the people and the king to resistance than he had previously been in advising them to desist from the undertaking. The line of destruction would soon reach the Assyrians, they would not march into Jerusalem; Jehovah would rescue the remnant of Judah. "Lo! the Assyrian," thus Isaiah represents Jehovah as saying, "the rod of mine anger and the staff of mine indignation is in his hand. Against the people of my wrath I will send him to take the spoil, and to tread them down like the mire of the street.[303] But it shall come to pass that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith: I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the princes like a valiant man. My hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent. Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? Shall the axe boast against him that heweth therewith; or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod led him that bears it, or the staff raised the man. Therefore the Lord of hosts will send a blight upon his fatness, and a firebrand will destroy his splendour, and diminish the glory of his forest and his fruitful field, and the remnant of the trees will be so few, that a child may write them.[304] When thou shalt cease to desolate, thou shalt be desolated: when thou shalt make an end to plunder, they shall plunder thee.[305] Jehovah hath determined it from the days of old, and from distant times he hath established it. I have suffered it to take place that the Assyrian destroyed the cities and made them heaps of ruins, and that their inhabitants were put to shame, of small power, as grass of the field. But I know the insolence of the mighty, and his going out and coming in, saith Jehovah. For the sake of his insolence, and because his tumult has come up into my ears, I will put my ring in his nose, and my bit in his mouth, and carry him back on the way that he came. O my people that dwelleth in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He smote thee with the rod, and lifted up his staff against thee. Yet a little while and my indignation shall cease, and mine anger shall turn to their destruction, and in that day his burden shall be taken from thy shoulder, and his yoke from thy back.[306] The king of Assyria shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return. And I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.[307] As I have purposed so shall it come to pass. I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot.[308] Lo! a noise of many nations, which make a noise like the sound of mighty waters. But Jehovah shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the whirling dust before the wind. And behold at evening trouble, and before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us."[309]
No doubt the Assyrians threw up trenches and besieging towers round the city; no doubt they endeavoured to destroy the walls and gates. But Jerusalem was saved. The army of Tirhaka, though it appeared very late in Syria, did not fail to come. Sennacherib had time to bring the siege of Ekron to an end, to execute the leaders of the rebellion, to carry away a part of the population, and set up Padi again as the prince of Ekron (p. 127), before the Egyptians and Ethiopians came. He retired before their approach from Libnah to Timnath and Eltekeh, in order, no doubt, to be nearer the part of his army which was besieging Jerusalem, and to be able to withdraw troops from it for the decisive battle. Of this battle, which took place near Eltekeh, he tells us that he was victorious in it; that he took captive charioteers and sons of the princes of Egypt, and charioteers of the king of Meroe in the conflict. But while in other cases the hostile king is invariably mentioned by name, Tirhaka's name is wanting; Sennacherib speaks quite vaguely of the kings of Egypt (sarrani mat Mussuri) and the king of Meroe (sar mat Miluhhi), who came to aid Ekron, of sons of the kings of Egypt, of charioteers of the kings of Meroe, whom he captured; captive sons of princes are also mentioned elsewhere in the inscriptions. Further, Sennacherib does not tell us, as is usual elsewhere, how many of the enemy were killed, how many prisoners he took, that the enemy fled, and that he pursued them. If we add to this that the siege of Jerusalem ends suddenly according to the account of the Hebrews, that Sennacherib's army did not appear afterwards in Syria, although he sat for 20 years on the throne of Assyria after this battle, we cannot fail to see that Sennacherib, if not completely defeated at Eltekeh, must have suffered the severest losses—losses of such weight that they compelled him to retire immediately after the battle, and break off the siege of Jerusalem on the spot.
This result Sennacherib's inscriptions conceal by speaking very vaguely of the enemy, and bringing into prominence some captures, which may have been effected even by the defeated side in the battle. This concealment was aided by the fact that the rulers who rose again in the districts of Egypt under Sabakon—the "hereditary lords," who maintained themselves under Sabakon's successors—could be described as kings, while their sovereign, Tirhaka, could be kept in the background, and made to appear as the king of Meroe. Of more importance is the attempt in the annals to give the appearance of a favourable issue to the campaign in Syria, by altering the chronology of the events. They represent that, which took place before the battle of Eltekeh, as taking place after it; the invasion of Judah, the negotiations with Hezekiah, his payment of tribute, which according to the account of the Hebrews took place before the battle at Eltekeh, when Sennacherib was at Lachish, they put after the battle, so that Sennacherib's campaign appears to close with the submission of Hezekiah. The inscriptions do not give any false facts: they even mention the attempt to seduce the soldiers of Hezekiah, saying that "the good warriors, whom he had brought to Jerusalem for defence, were inclined to submission;" they only alter the order, and represent the capture of Ekron, the shutting up and siege of Jerusalem, the division of the land in the south of Judah among Ashdod, Ekron, and Gaza, and, finally, the payment of tribute by Hezekiah, as coming after the battle of Eltekeh, whereas these events preceded it; and in their usual manner they exaggerate the payments of Hezekiah, when they represent him as sending "his daughters" to Nineveh. That the inscription of Nebbi Yunus mentions the subjugation of the land of Judah (Jehuda) and its king Hezekiah (Chazakiyahu), beside the dethronement of Luli of Sidon,[310] has no basis beyond the tribute of 330 talents.
To the Hebrews the rescue from the most grievous distress, the sudden departure of the Assyrians from the walls of Jerusalem, could appear only as a decree of Jehovah, as the work of his mighty arm. When Isaiah announced to Hezekiah the word of Jehovah: "I will protect this city, and save it for my own and my servant David's sake"—the Books of the Kings continue—"It came to pass in the selfsame night that the angel of Jehovah went out, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men.[311] And when they arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Then Sennacherib departed, and went and returned, and dwelt in Nineveh." In most complete contrast to his father Ahaz, who had sacrificed his son to Moloch, and altered the arrangements of the temple at Jerusalem after an Assyrian model (p. 78), Hezekiah was sincerely devoted to the worship of Jehovah. He had "removed the high places, broken the pillars, and destroyed the Astartes;" he had made thorough regulations for the purification, arrangement, and elevation of the worship, and taken measures for the better maintenance of the priests and Levites.[312] The revision by the prophetic hand, in which we possess the Books of Kings, naturally derives all the misery which fell upon Israel and Judah from the idolatry of the kings, who for this reason, no doubt, are made to sacrifice on the hills more frequently than was really the case, to offer incense to strange gods, and pray to all the host of heaven. The more easy was it, on the other hand, to believe that the sudden, most unhoped-for rescue of the pious king was brought about by the direct interposition of Jehovah, and the announcement of the great prophet fulfilled on the spot.