World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 31
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the , and broke down the and the out of all Judah and , also in and , until they had destroyed them all. Then all the returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. appointed the divisions of the priests and the after their divisions, every man according to his , both the priests and the , for burnt offerings and for , to minister, to give thanks, and to of camp. He also appointed the king's of his possessions for the burnt offerings: for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the , for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as in law. Moreover he commanded the people who lived in to give the of the priests and the , that they might give themselves to law. As soon as the went out, the gave in abundance the of grain, , oil, honey, and of all the increase of the field; and they brought in the of all things abundantly. The and Judah, who lived in the cities of Judah, also brought in the of cattle and sheep, and the of dedicated things which were to their , and laid them in heaps. In the third month, they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. When and the princes came and saw the heaps, they and his people Israel. 9Then questioned the priests and the about the heaps. the , of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, "Since people began to bring the into house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for has his people; and that which is left is this great store." Then commanded them to prepare rooms in house, and they prepared them. They brought in the , the , and the dedicated things faithfully. Conaniah the was ruler over them, and his brother was second. Jehiel, , , , , , , Ismachiah, , and were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and his brother, by the appointment of the king and the ruler of house. the son of the , the gatekeeper at the east , was over the free will of , to distribute and the most things. Under him were , Miniamin, Jeshua, , , and , in the cities of the priests, in their office of , to give to their brothers by divisions, to the great as well as to the small; in addition to those who were listed by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into house, as the duty of every day required, for their in their offices according to their divisions; and those who were listed by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their divisions; and those who were listed by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, through all ; for in their office of they themselves in . Also for the sons of the priests, who were in the fields of the pasture lands of their cities, in every city, there were men who were mentioned by name to give portions to all the males among the priests and to all who were listed by genealogy among the . did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and before his . In every work that he began in the of house, in , and in , to seek his , he did it with all and prospered.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.