World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 28
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was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in . He didn't do that which was right in eyes, like his , but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made for . Moreover he in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the , according to the of the nations whom cast out before the . He and in the , and on the hills, and . Therefore his him into the hand of the king of . They struck him, and from him a great multitude of , and brought them to . He was also into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. For the son of killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken , the of their fathers. , a mighty man of , killed the king's son, Azrikam the ruler of the house, and who was next to the king. The of their brothers two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, and also took away much plunder from them, and brought the plunder to . But a of was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that came to , and said to them, "Behold, because , the of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to . Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and as male and female for yourselves. Aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against your ? Now hear me therefore, and send back the that you have taken from your brothers, for the fierce of is on you." Then some of the heads of the children of , the son of , Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war, and said to them, "You must not bring in the here, for you intend that which will bring on us a trespass against , to add to our and to our ; for our is great, and there is fierce against Israel." 14So the armed men left the and the plunder before the princes and all . The men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the , and with the plunder clothed all who were among them, dressed them, gave them , gave them something to eat and to drink, them, carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to , the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to . At that time King sent to the kings of to help him. For again the had come and struck Judah, and . The also had invaded the cities of the lowland and of the South of Judah, and had taken , , Gederoth, with its villages, with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there. For brought Judah low because of king of Israel, because he acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against . Tilgath-pilneser king of came to him and gave him trouble, but didn't strengthen him. For took away a out of house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of ; but it didn't help him. In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against , this same King . For he to the gods of which had defeated him. He said, "Because the gods of the kings of helped them, I will to them, that they may help me." But they were the of him and of all Israel. gathered together the vessels of house, cut the vessels of house in pieces, and shut up the doors of house; and he made himself in every corner of . In every city of Judah he made to to other gods, and provoked , the of his fathers, to . Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. slept with his fathers, and they in the city, even in , because they didn't bring him into the of the kings of Israel; and his son reigned in his place.
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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.