King James Version · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 28
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was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in : but he did not that which was right in the sight of , like his : For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also for . Moreover he burnt in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the , after the of the heathen whom had cast out before the . He also and burnt in the , and on the hills, and . Wherefore his him into the hand of the king of ; and they smote him, and a great multitude of them , and brought them to . And he was also into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. For the son of slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken of their fathers. And , a mighty man of , slew the king’s son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and that was next to the king. And the of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to . But a of was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to , and said unto them, Behold, because of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto . And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, against your ? Now hear me therefore, and the again, which ye have taken of your brethren: for the fierce of is upon you. Then certain of the heads of the children of , the son of , Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war, And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the hither: for whereas we have offended against already, ye intend to add more to our and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce against Israel. 14So the armed men left the and the spoil before the princes and all . And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the , and with the spoil clothed all that were among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to , the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to . At that time did king send unto the kings of to help him. For again the had come and smitten Judah, and . The also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken , and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there. For brought Judah low because of king of Israel; for he made Judah , and transgressed sore against . And Tilgath–pilneser king of came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not. For took away a out of the , and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of : but he helped him not. And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against : this is that king . For he unto the gods of , which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of help them, therefore will I to them, that they may help me. But they were the of him, and of all Israel. And gathered together the vessels of the house of , and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of , and shut up the doors of the , and he made him in every corner of . And in every several city of Judah he made to unto other gods, and provoked to of his fathers. Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And slept with his fathers, and they in the city, even in : but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and his son reigned in his stead.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.