World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 30
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sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to and , that they should come to house at , to keep to , the of Israel. For the king had taken with 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 in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to . The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all . So they established a to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from even to Dan, that they should come to keep to , the of Israel, at , for they had not kept it in great numbers in . So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the of the king, saying, "You , turn again to , the of , , and Israel, that he may return to of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of . Don't be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against , the of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. Now don't be , as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to , and enter into his sanctuary, which he has , and your , that his may turn away from you. For if you turn again to , your brothers and your children will find with those who led them , and will come again into this land, because your is and merciful, and will not turn away from you if you return to him." So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of and , even to , but people ridiculed them and mocked them. Nevertheless some men of Asher, , and humbled themselves and came to . Also the hand of came on Judah to give them one , to do the of the king and of the princes by word. Many people assembled at to keep the feast of in the second month, a very great . They arose and took away the that were in , and they took away all the for and threw them into the brook . Then they killed on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the were , and themselves, and brought burnt offerings into house. They stood in their place after their order, according to of the . The priests sprinkled which they received of the hand of the . For there were many in who had not themselves; therefore the were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to them to . For a multitude of the people, even many of , , , and , had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate other than . For had for them, saying, "May the good pardon everyone who sets to seek , , the of his fathers, even if they aren't clean according to the purification of ." listened to , and healed the people. The who were present at kept the feast of seven days with great gladness. The and the priests praised day by day, singing with loud instruments to . spoke encouragingly to all the who had good understanding in the of . So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, of and making to , the of their fathers. The whole to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness. For king of Judah gave to for one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests themselves. All of Judah, with the priests and the , and all who came out of Israel, and the who came out of the land of Israel and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. So there was great joy in ; for since the time of king of Israel there was nothing like this in . Then the priests arose and the people. Their voice was heard, and their came up to his habitation, even to .
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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.