* Asrii/a'u nf .Ta'inU was a king in northern Syria.
t lU'ad pcrhups ' Seve ' {Sib'u ou the Ass^r. monmnents)-
ISEAEl., HISTORY OF
ISRAEL, HISTORY OF
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last policy, HczL-ki:ili would not attempt to ilcfeiul cities liku Lachish and Libiiali, whicli lay more or less in the great king's patli to EfjTPt, but would Avitlidraw his jieople as much as possible into the hill country and into Jerusalem itself. Judah would thus bow before the storm, and neither resist the Assyrian king nor attempt to make friends with him.
Of course in a case in which three policies were possible, no one was consistently followed. In Tul Sennacherib, the son and successor of Sarjjon, marched into the west, having Egypt for his linal objective (Herod, ii. 141). Hezekiati sent tribute (2 K 18"), butLibnahand Lacliish, fortresses which might assist the march of the Egyptians and retard that of the Assyrians, were not surrendered to Sennacherib. The Assyrian king, in accordance with hia general plan, set himself with his main army to reduce these fortresses; but he sent 'a great host,' under the Turtan (Tartan), i.e. the Commander-in-chief who commanded in the ab- sence of the king, to rciluce Jerusalem (2 K 18"). Hezekiah was blockaded, and derided in his help- lessness by the Assyrian leaders.
Thus far the Bible and the monuments agree, but the sequel is dill'erently told. According to 2 K ig** the Angel of the Lord (no doubt the pestil- ence) slew 185,000 of the Assj'rian army, and Sennacherib departed to his own land. According to Sennacherib's own account, fear fell on Hezekiah, and he acknowledged the majesty of Sennacherib by sending presents of evcrj'kind. It is hard to resist the impression that the Assyrian is escaping from the acknowledgment of failure in the long and wordy list of presents, and that the Hebrew account is based on a trustworthy tradition. In any case, Sennacherib does not claim to have taken Jeru.salem, nor to have inflicted anj' personal chas- tisement on Hezekiah. The strange tradition with which Herodotus explains the retreat of ' San- acharibus, king of the Arabians and of the As- syrians' from the frontiers of Egypt, supports as far as it goes the biblical account (ii. 141).
The retreat of Sennacherib, however, — be it re- membered,— meant the escape of Jerusalem from the horrors of a sack by the Assyrians, and not the permanent deliverance of Judah from Assyrian vassalage. Ksar-haddon (B.C. 681-669), continuing the work of his predecessor, conquered Egypt (B.C. 671), and we may believe him when he tells us that he demandecl building materials for his palace from twenty-two kings of the west, includ- mg Manasseh, king of Judah, if Mi-na-si-i -mr (makazu) Ja-u-di be he {KIB ii. 148, 149). The next king, Assur-bani-pal (the Osnappar of Ezr 4'°), also made successful expeditions against Egypt, and it is not improbable that on one of these occasions Manassen was carried oU", aa the chronicler Bays (2 Ch 33"), bound in fetters to Babylon.
Religion In Judah during the Assyrian Period. — The religious conllict was hardlv less .severe than the political. Under Ahaz (2 K IG"'- '"'•) and Man- a-R-seh (lb. 21'"') foreign worships and foreign super- stitions were practised (cf. Is 2" S'" etc.), and against these Isaiah and Micah prophesied with fearless invective and threatening. Sujiportcd by the prophets, Hezekiah (acconling to 2 IC 18*-'-') made some sweeping reforms, including the destruction of the brazen serpent, the removal of the high- places, and the centralization of the cultus in Jenisalem.
Wellhausen (IJG* p. 90 f.) doubts whether the last two measures were carrieil out, «ui>porting his doubt by a reforen<e to 2 K 23'", where, how- ever, the tiflcment (not the ilatnirlion) of Snlo- i mon's high-places is iuscril>ed to Josiah. Practical religion must have been at a very low ebb during this whole period, if we may judge from the denunciations uttered by Isaiah and .Micah (esp. ! VOL. II.— ;;
Mic 3"' ), and from Isaiah's favourite thought that only a remnant can survive God's judgment on JuJali and Jerusalem.
9. The Fall (if JiirfaA.— Under Josiah (B.C. 639- 608), Judah had a brief breathing space. Assur- b.inipal, the hist great sovereign of .\ssyria, died in 620, and the Assyrian power rapidly declined. Josiali took courage to repair the temple (2 K 22"'), to destroy the high-places, removing the priests attached to them, and even to extend hig activity northwards to Bethel and to ' the cities of Samaria' (i6. 23'"). Under him also was published 'the book of the law' [i.e. the Book of Deuter- onomy), and the people entered into a covenant to obey its morality, and to worship J " only in the one place which lie had chosen for his sanctuary (cf. l)t 12"). .losiah him.self set an e.\ample of kingly virtue (Jer 22"" ) as well as of Deuteronomio orthodoxy (cf. 2 K 23-'), and the removal of the yoke of Asshur .seemed to promise an era of com- parative prosperity for Judah.
Unfortunately the fall of As.qjTia involved a con- test for the spoils between Egypt under Xeco(h) (.W Necho(h)) and Babylon under Kabopolassar. Necoh ' went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates' (2 K 23-''), passing through Megiddo (somewhere near Mount Carmel) on his march, and at Megiddo Josiah met his deatli at the hands of the Egyptian king. Of the circumstances of his death we have two accounts. According to 2 Kings (cited above), Josiah went to meet (Heh. not EV) Necoh, doubtless in order to come to some understanding with him, perhaps to do homage to him. Necoh, however, judging perhaps that Josiah was too strong a man to be a good vassal, had him slain at the audience (' when he saw him '). Accord- ing to 2Cli ^S"'- ( = 1 Es l^-f-), on the contrary, Josiahs fate is precisely that of Ahab. He fujhta against Necoh in spite of a Divine warning, and is mortally wounded by an archer. (An obscure passage in Herodotus, li. 159, gives no help). The sequel, however, is clear : Judah became a vassal to Egypt, and Necoh appointed the infamous JehoiaVim (2 K 23", Jer 22'5'') to l)e kin".