[588] 2 Kings xix. 33. "The river of Egypt" (_Nachal-ha-Mizraim_) is the Wady-el-Arish.
[589] Isa. x. 33, 34, xi. 1, xiv. 8; Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 410.
[590] אוֹת. A sign "is a thing, an event, or an action intended as a pledge of the Divine certainty of another. Sometimes it is a miracle (Gen. iv. 15, Heb.), or a permanent symbol (Isa. viii. 18, xx. 3, xxxvii. 30; Jer. xliv. 29)" (Delitzsch).
[591] The first year they should eat _saphîach_ (LXX., αὐτόματα; Vulg., _quæ repereris_); the second year, _sachîsh_ (LXX., τὰ ἀνατέλλοντα; Vulg., _quæ sponte nascuntur_).
[592] 2 Kings xix. 35: "It came to pass that night." Isaiah only has "then"; Josephus, κατὰ τὴν πρώτην τῆς πολιορκίας νύκτα. Menochius understands it "_in celebri illa nocte_." The LXX. omits "that," and simply says "in the night" (νυκτός). Comp. Psalm xlvi. 5 (Heb.); Isa. xvii. 14.
[593] Josephus, followed by many moderns, and even by Keil, suggests a plague. The malaria of the Pelusiotic marshes easily breeds pestilence. The "_maleak Jehovah_" is "the destroyer" (_mashchith_) (Exod. xii. 23; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16.) Comp. Justin., xix. 11; Diod. Sic., xix. 434.
[594] Comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16.
[595] The Babyl. Talmud and some Targums, followed by Vitringa, etc., attribute to it storms of lightning; Prideaux, Heine, and Faber, to the simoom; R. José, Ussher, etc., to a nocturnal attack of Tirhakah.
[596] It is, however, perfectly possible that a contingent was left on guard. "Where is the [past] terror? Where is he that rated the tribute? Where is he that received it?" (Isa. xxxiii. 18). "At the noise of the tumult the people flee" (Isa. xxxiii. 3); "At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep" (Psalm lxxvi. 6). Comp. Psalm xlviii. 4-6.
[597] This is the meaning of "he departed, and went, and returned."
[598] Not, only fifty-five days, as we read in Tobit i. 21.
[599] Jos., _Antt._, X. i. 5: "In his own temple to Araskê"; LXX., Ἀσαράχ; Isa. xxxvii. 38. One guess connects the word with Nesher, "the eagle-god," often seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Lenormant calls him "the god of human destiny."
[600] Alex. Polyhistor _ap._ Euseb., i. 27; Kimchi _ad_ 2 Kings xix. 37. Buxtorf (_Bibl. Rabbinic._) says that Sennacherib entered the temple to ask his counsellors why Jehovah favoured Israel. Being told that it was because of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, he said, "Then I will offer my two sons." Rashi adds that they slew him to save their own lives. (See Schenkel and Riehm, _s.v._ "Sanherib"--both articles by Schrader).
[601] See Schrader in Riehm's _Handwörterbuch_, _s.vv._ "Sanherib," "Asarhaddon." Esarhaddon, judging from what is called "Sennacherib's will," in which the king leaves him splendid presents, seems to have been a favourite of his father (_Records of the Past_, i. 136). He says that on hearing of his father's murder, "I was wrathful as a lion, and my soul raged within me, and I lifted my hands to the great gods to assume the sovereignty of my father's house." See Appendix I.
[602] The Book of Tobit (i. 21) calls him Sarchedonas.
[603] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.
[604] 2 Chron. xxxii. 23.
[605] Wellhausen, p. 116.
[606] Herod., ii. 14. "Sin" (Tanis?), Ezek. xxx. 15. It lay in the midst of morasses, and some attribute the catastrophe to the malaria.
[607] The deliverance is really connected with Tirhakah, whose deeds are recorded in a temple at Medinet Habou, but the jealousy of the Memphites attributed it to the piety of Sethos. See G. W. Wilkinson, _Ancient Egyptians_, i. 141; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 394.
[608] _Antt._, X. i. 1-5.
[609] Comp. 1 Sam. v., vi., where, after a plague, the Philistines sent an expiation of five golden mice.
[610] We may add that even the Chronicler drops a veil over Sennacherib's actual capture of fortresses in Judah ("he _thought_ to win them for himself," 2 Chron. xxxii. 1: comp. 2 Kings xviii. 13; Isa. xxxvi. 1).