wells in their plots of ground. Oisterns, "swept the whole land of Hamath to ita or reservoirs, in which the re.in-we.tar we.a extreme limit,'' taken the king prisoner, nnd stored, were compruatively uncommon. CBrried him e.we.y c1tptive to Assyria, where Ver.17.-Until I oome e.nd take you e.we.y. he flrtyed an,! burned him; removed most n we.a so muoh the urruo.1 policy of Assyrie. of tho inhabitant•, and replaced them by to remove to e. now loco.lity e. conquered Aasyrians; plun,lere,l the city of its chir:f people, which had given them trouble, that treasures, and placed an Asayrian governor Ro.b~ho.keh felt snfo in o.ssuming the.t the over it (see 'Eponym Canon,' pp. I 2G-128). fo.te in store for the Jews, if they submitted Among the treasures taken were, no doubt, themscl ves, wn s e. tro.nsplo.nte.tion. Bo.rgon the images of the Ho.mnthite go-la, which he.d tre.nsportcd the laro.olites to Gozo.n e.nd were uniformly carried off by the Assyrians Medio (2 Kings xviii. 11), the Tibareni to from a conquered city. And Arphad. Ar- Assyria, the Comme.geni to Busiane. (' An- phad, or Arpad (eh. x. 9), had joined with cient Monarchies,' vol. ii. p. 423). Senna- Hamath in the war against Assyria, aurl cherib himself he.d transported into Assyria. was taken by Sargon in the same year more than two hundred thousand Are.mmans (' Eponyrn Canon,' p. 127). Of Sepharvaim. (ibirl., p. 480). It might be confidently pre- Sepharvaim, or Sippara, was besi,,ged and dicted that, if he conquered them, he would captured by Sargon in his twelfth year, transplant the J ewe. Ro.bshakeh tries to B.o. 710. A severe example waa made of soften down the harcbhip of the lot before the inhabitants (G. Smith, 'History of them by promises of e. remove.I to a land Babylonia,' p. 122). A discovery made by equal in o.!I respects to Po.Jestine. To a Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, in 1881, is thought land like your own land. This we.s certainly to prove that Sippara was situated at not e. general principle of Assyrian adminis- Abu-Habbah, between Baghdad and the tration. Nations were removed from the for site of Babylon, about sixteen miles from north to the extreme south, and vice versa, the former city (see the 'Tre.nsactiona of from arid to marshy tracts, from fertile the Society of Bibi. .Arch::eology,' vol. viii. regions to comparative deserts. The security pp. 164, 173). "Hena" and" Ive.h," joined of the empire, not the gmtificution of the with Sepharvaim by the author of Kings transported slaves, was the ruling and (2 Kings xviii. 34), seem to be omitted by guiding principle of e.11 such changes. A Isaiah e.s unimportant. They are thought land of oom and wine, a land of bread and to have been towns upon the Euphrates, vineyards, The writer of Kings adds, "a not very distant from Babylon, and ham land of oil olive e.nd of honey." (On the been identified respectively with Anah o.nd productiveness of Palestine, see Numb. xiii. Hit. But the identification is in both cases 27; xiv. 7; Deut. i. 23; viii. 7-9; xi. uncertain. Have they delivered Se.maria l 11, 12.) Delitzsch and Mr. Cheyne translate," B0111 Ver. 18.-Beware lest Hezekiah persuade much less have they deli vere<l Samaria?" you; rather, seduce you (comp. Dent. xiii. 6; Kay, " Verily ha'Oe they del;vered,'' regard- 1 Kings xxi. 25). Sennacherib claims to be ing the sentence e.s ironical. Sennacherib entitled to the people's allegiance, o.nd repre- ce.n see no distinction between the cities sents Hezekiah as e. rebel, who seeks to draw where Jehovah we.s worshipped, and those them away from their duty. Hath any of which acknowledged any other tutelary god. the gods of the nations delivered his land 1 AB Samo.ria fell, why should not Jerusalem The successes of the Assyri11ns, e.nd the fe.11? religious chRmcter of their wars, justified Ver. 21.-They (i.e. the people, e.s in 2 this boo.et. The pervading idea of the in- Kings xviii. 36) held their peaoe. Ro.b- scriptions is that we.re Rre underto.kcn for sbakeh's attempt to shake their fidelity the glory of the Assyrian deitirs, particu- ho.d, at nny r"te, no manifest effect. For the lurly of Asshur, for the chnstisement of his king's oommandment we.a, saying, Answer enemies, und with the object of estnulishing him not. Hezekiah cau sco.rccly have antioi- in co.eh country, as it is brought undor sub- p11ted that Rabslrnkeh would so far depo.rt jection, tho 10,ws e.ud worship of Asshur from ord in.,ry usage ns to mnke a speech to (see 'Anciont Monarchies,' vol. ii. pp. 322- "the men on tho waJ.l." But be may h11ve 824 11nd 531). 'l'he no.tions fight under the been in the immediate neighbourhood, and, protootion of their own gods, e.nd thus eMh when apprised of the euvoy's proceedings, wo.r is a struggle between the Assyrilln may havA sent the order. We are not to deities ancl those of the no.tion with which suppose that the J owish king was at a loss they 11ro contending. Hitherto, un,louhtc<lly, for o.n nnswer. He did not choose to bandy Assy1-io. lmd met with 0,lmost uniform suc- words with nu envoy who ho,l bcho.ved him- cess (see eh. x. 5-H). self so outrageously. Ver. 19.-Where 11re the gods of Hnmo.th 1 Ver. ~2.-With their olothes rent. Gar- (comp. oh. x. 9), Bnrgon h11d reduced He.- ments were "rent,'' not only as a sign ol moth in his third yoor, B.o 720. llo ho.d mourning, but whenever persons were 6 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [OIJ, xx1v1. 1-22.
ehockc-d or horriflod (eee Gen. xxxvii. 29: Jewish officials meant to mark their horror l Sam. iv. 12; 2 Sam. i. 2; Ezra ix. 3: at Rabahakeh'a bluphemiea. 2 Chron. :nxiv. 19; MatL :nvi. 65). The