World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 33
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was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in . He did that which was evil in sight, after the of the nations whom cast out before the . For he built again the which his had broken down; and he up for , made Asheroth, and of , and them. He built in house, of which said, "My name shall be in ." He built for of in the two courts of house. He also made his children to pass through the in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced , , and , and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in sight, to provoke him to . He set the engraved of the idol, which he had made, in house, of which said to and to his son, "In this house, and in , which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name . I will not any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all , the , and the ordinances given by ." seduced Judah and the inhabitants of , so that they did more evil than did the nations whom destroyed before the . spoke to and to his people, but they didn't listen. Therefore brought on them the captains of the army of the king of , who took in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to . When he was in distress, he begged his , and humbled himself greatly before the of his fathers. He to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his , and brought him again to into . Then knew that was . Now after this, he built an outer wall to city on the west side of , in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate. He encircled with it, and it up to a very great height; and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. He took away the foreign gods and the idol out of house, and all the that he had built in the mountain of house and in , and cast them out of the city. He built up , and offered of and of on it, and commanded Judah to , the of Israel. Nevertheless the people still in the , but only to their . Now the rest of the acts of , and his to his , and the words of the who spoke to him in the name of , the of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel. His also, and how listened to his request, and all his and his trespass, and the places in which he built and set up the and the engraved before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai. So slept with his fathers, and they in his own house; and his son reigned in his place. was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in . He did that which was evil in sight, as did his ; and to all the engraved which his had made, and them. He didn't humble himself before , as his had humbled himself; but this same trespassed more and more. His servants conspired against him, and put him to in his own house. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King ; and the people of the land made his son king in his place.
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.