The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 389

fight np:ninst Jerusalem," was applicable to both sovereigns, though only of Sargon was it true that Jerusalem was taken. Sennacherib besiegecl Hezekiah, shutting him up "like a caged bird in the midst of the city of his royalty" (' Records,' etc., vii. 62); but Jehovah,. put II hook into his nose, and a bridle into his lips," and sent him back: the way by which he came, without permitting him to enter the city (Isa. xxxvii. 29-37). If Isa. x. refers to Sargon's invasion (Sayce), it would seem as if the capital had been taken (eee vers. 6, 12, 22, 24, 34). IV. THE RESISTANCE. Hezekiah adopted measures to meet the attack of Sargon, or of Sennacherib, on his capital. 1. A council of war called. Attended by his princes and mighty men, i.e. hie statesmen and the generals of his army (ver. 3), who advised that steps should be taken to protect the metropolis, and lent him their aid for that purpose (ver. 3). Probably they also recommended Hezekiah, besides looking for help to Egypt, to join the league Merodach-Baladan of Babylonia was forming against Sargon; or, if the later date be adopted, to seek the aid of Tirhakah against Senna- cherib. 2. The water supplies outside the city stopped. (1) The reason-that the Assyrian kings should not find much water (ver. 4). Without water it would be impossible to conduct a protracted siege. (2) The mode-by covering up the fountains outside Jerusalem, and leading their waters by subterranean channels into the city (ver. 3; cf. 2 Kings xx. 20). "The brook that flowed through the midst of the land," i.e. the Gihon which flowed through the valley of that name on the west side of Jerusalem, connecting the upper pool of Gihon (faa. xxii. 11; xxxvi. 2), the present- day Birket Mamilla, with the under or lower pool (Isa. xxii. 9), the modern Birket- es-Sultan, was likewise dried up by the waters of the two springs being drained off by a conduit, and led into a great cistern within the city walls, called HezE-kiah's pool, close by the gate of Gennath" (Weser, in Riehm, art. "Gihon "); or, Rhould the Gihon be sought in the spring A.in Sitti Marfam, outside the east wall (i\fiihlan, in Riehm, art. "Jerusalem;" Conder, 'Handbook,' etc., p. 339), then the reservoir into which the waters were conducted will have been one of the four smaller pools in the neighbourhood of the pool of Siloam, if not that of Siloam itself (Sayce, 'Fresh Light,' etc., pp. 97-107). Warren locates the Gihon spring in the Tyropc:ea.n valley, and says it has not yet been discovered (' Picturesque Palestine,' i. 113; cf. 'The Recovery of Jerusalem,' p. 237). That similar stratagems were adopted when Sargon's tartan was at Ashdod, and Sargon himself was expected at Jerusalem, may be inferred from the fact that Sargon says of the Ashdodites, "Their cities they prepared to make war . . . against capture they fortified its (capital) . . . around it a ditch they exca- vated. Twenty cubits (thirty-four feet) in its depth they made it, and they brought the waters of the springs in front of the city" (Smith, 'Assyrian Discoveries,' pp. 290, 291). That corresponding measures were resorted to in the time of Stinnacherib, Isaiah (xxii. 9-11) shows. (3) The urgency. So great and obvious that the inhabi- tants generally assisted in the work (ver. 4). 3. The city fortifications increased. (1) Hezekiah built up all the wall that was broken down, i.e. wherever he found a breach he repaired, or a weak part he strengthened it. The prudence of this was apparent. The strength of a wall or fortress is not more than that of its weakest part, as the strength of a chain is that of its feeblest link. (2) He raised the existing wall to the height of the towers on it, or increased the height of the towers, or ascended the towers upon the walls to make a survey of the situation, and direct the labours of his masons and engineers. (3) Outside of the existing wall he erected another, which enclosed the lower city, Acre.. (4) He repaired the castle-fortress Millo, in the city of David, which had been built by Solomon (1 Kings ix. 24). (5) He provided weapons and shields in abundance, as had been done by his grandfather Uzziah (eh. xxvi. 14), whom in military genius ha considerably resern bled. An inscription of Sennacherib mentions that Hezekiah "had given commandment to renew the bulwarks of the great gate of his city" (this may suggest that the bulwarks had suffered damage in an earlier siege), and that" workmen, soldiers, and builders for the fortification of Jerusalem his royal city he had collected within it" (' Records,' etc., i. 41). 4. The city population armed. All the able-bodied men of the metropolis were enlisted divided into companies, placed under regular military commanders, and drilled, just ;s is done by modern peoples when expecting an invasion. 5. The extem- porized army 1·eviBwed. By the king's orders the troops wero mustered in the broad  894. THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [OR. xxxn.1-aa.