(S. A. C.)
[1] See W. R. Smith, Prophets of Israel,[2] 415 sqq.; O. C. Whitehouse, Isaiah, pp. 20 sqq., 372; J. Skinner, Kings, p. 43 seq.; T. K. Cheyne, Ency. Bib. col. 2058, n. 1, and references.
[2] The chief dates are: 720, defeat of a coalition (Hamath, Gaza and Muṣri) at Ḳarḳar in north Syria and Raphia (S. Palestine); 715, a rising of Muṣri and Arabian tribes; 713-711, revolt and capture of Ashdod (cp. Is. xx.). That Judah was invaded on this latter occasion is not improbable.
[3] Meluḥḥa is held by many critics to be N.W. Arabia; the identification of Muṣri is uncertain, see below.
[4] The phrase was a favourite one of Rib-Addi, king of Gebal (Byblus), in the 15th century B.C.; Tell-el-Amarna Letters (ed. Knudtzon), Nos. 74, 79, &c. Jeremiah (v. 27) uses the simile in a different way. For a discussion of Sennacherib’s record, see Wilke, Jesaja u. Assur (Leipzig, 1905), pp. 97 sqq.
[5] For the early date (between 720 and 710), Winckler, Alttest. Unt. 139 sqq., Burney, Kings, 350 sq.; Driver; Küchler, &c.; for the later, Whitehouse, Isaiah, 29 sq., in agreement with Schrader, Wellhausen, W. R. Smith, Cheyne, M’Curdy, Paton, &c.
[6] Isa. x. 28-32 may perhaps refer to this invasion. Allusions to the Assyrian oppression are found in Isa. x. 5-15, xiv. 24-27, xvii. 12-14; and to internal Judaean intrigues perhaps in Isa. xxii. 15-18, xxix. 15. For a picture of the ruins in Jerusalem, see Isa. xxii. 9-11. But see further [Isaiah (Book)].
[7] See, on the story, Griffith, in D. Hogarth’s Authority and Archaeology, p. 167, n. 1.
[8] The house of Nisroch should probably be that of the god Nusku; see also Driver in Hogarth, op. cit. p. 109; Winckler, op. cit. p. 84.