King James Version · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 32
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After these things, and the establishment thereof, king of came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. And when saw that was come, and that he was purposed to fight against , He with his princes and his to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of come, and find much water? Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired in , and made darts and shields in abundance. And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the , and spake comfortably to them, saying, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of , nor for all that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of ; but with us is our to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of king of Judah. After this did king of send his servants to , (but he himself laid siege against , and all his with him,) unto king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at , saying, Thus saith king of , Whereon do ye , that ye in the siege in ? Doth not persuade you to give over yourselves to by and by thirst, saying, our shall us out of the hand of the king of ? Hath not the same taken away his and his , and commanded Judah and , saying, Ye shall before one , and upon it? Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the people of other lands? were the gods of the nations of those lands any ways able to their lands out of mine hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers , that could his people out of mine hand, that your should be able to you out of mine hand? Now therefore let not deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet him: for no of any nation or kingdom was able to his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your you out of mine hand? And his servants spake yet more against , and against his servant . He wrote also letters to rail on of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not their people out of mine hand, so shall not the of his people out of mine hand. Then they cried with a loud voice in the ’ speech unto the people of that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city. And they spake against the of , as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man. And for this cause the king, and the the son of , and cried to . And sent , which all the of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of . So he returned with of to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his , they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with . Thus and the inhabitants of from the hand of the king of , and from the hand of all other, and guided them on every side. And many brought gifts unto to , and presents to king of Judah: so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth. In those days was sick to the , and unto : and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign. But rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for was lifted up: therefore there was upon him, and upon Judah and . Notwithstanding humbled himself for the pride of , both he and the inhabitants of , so that the of came not upon them in the days of . And had exceeding much riches and : and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels; Storehouses also for the increase of corn, and , and oil; and stalls for all manner of , and cotes for flocks. Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance: for had given him substance very much. This same also stopped the upper watercourse of , and brought it straight down to the west side of . And prospered in all his works. Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of , who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in . Now the rest of the acts of , and his goodness, behold, they are written in the of the , the son of , and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And slept with his fathers, and they in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of : and all Judah and the inhabitants of did him at his . 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.