King James Version · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 30
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And sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to and , that they should come to the at , to keep unto of Israel. For the king had taken , and his princes, and all in , to keep in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to . And the thing pleased the king and all . So they established a to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer–sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep unto of Israel at : for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the of the king, saying, Ye , turn again unto of , , and Israel, and he will return to of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of . And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not , as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto , and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath for ever: and your , that the fierceness of his may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto , your brethren and your children shall find before them that lead them , so that they shall come again into this land: for your is and merciful, and will not turn away from you, if ye return unto him. So the posts passed from city to city through the country of and even unto : but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and and of humbled themselves, and came to . Also in Judah the hand of was to give them one to do the of the king and of the princes, by the word of . And there assembled at much people to keep the feast of in the second month, a very great . And they arose and took away the that were in , and all the for took they away, and cast them into the brook . Then they killed on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the were , and themselves, and brought in the burnt offerings into the . And they stood in their place after their manner, according to of the : the priests sprinkled , which they received of the hand of the . For there were many in that were not : therefore the had the charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean, to them unto . For a multitude of the people, even many of , and , , and , had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat otherwise than it was written. But for them, saying, The good pardon every one That prepareth to seek , of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of . And hearkened to , and healed the people. And the that were present at kept the feast of seven days with great gladness: and the and the priests praised day by day, singing with loud instruments unto . And spake comfortably unto all the that taught the good knowledge of : and they did eat throughout the feast seven days, , and making to of their fathers. And the whole to keep other seven days: and they kept other seven days with gladness. For king of Judah did give to a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests themselves. And all of Judah, with the priests and the , and all that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah, rejoiced. So there was great joy in : for since the time of king of Israel there was not the like in . Then the priests the arose and the people: and their voice was heard, and their came up to his , even unto .
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.