King James Version · Under Assyria
2 Chronicles 34
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was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of , and walked in the ways of his , and declined neither to , nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the of his : and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and from the , and the groves, and the carved , and the . And they brake down the of in his ; and the , that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved , and the , he brake in pieces, and made of them, and strowed it upon the of them that had unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their , and cleansed Judah and . And so did he in the cities of , and , and , even unto , with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the and the groves, and had beaten the graven into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to . Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent the son of Azaliah, and the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the his . And when they came to Hilkiah the , they the money that was brought into the house of , which the that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of and , and of all of Israel, and of all Judah and ; and they returned to . And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the , and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the , to repair and amend the house: Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and , the , of the sons of ; and and , of the sons of the , to set it forward; and other of the , all that could skill of instruments of musick. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of : and of the there were , and officers, and porters. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the , Hilkiah the priest found a book of of given by . 15And Hilkiah answered and said to the , I have found the book of in the . And Hilkiah the book to . And carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it. 17And they have gathered together the money that was found in the , and have it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen. Then the told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of , that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and the son of , and the son of Micah, and the , and Asaiah a the king’s, saying, Go, enquire of for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the of that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of , to do after all that is written in this book. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to the , the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect. And she answered them, Thus saith of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me, Thus saith , Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken me, and have unto other gods, that they might provoke me to with all the works of their hands; therefore my shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of , so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; Because thine was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before , when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith . Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. Then the king sent and gathered together all the of Judah and . And the king went up into the , and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of , and the priests, and the , and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of that was found in the . And the king stood in his place, and made a before , to walk after , and to keep his , and his testimonies, and his , with all , and with all his , to perform the words of which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in and to stand to it. And the inhabitants of did according to of , the of their fathers. And took away all the out of all the countries that pertained to the , and made all that were present in Israel to , even to their . And all his days they departed not from following , the of their fathers.
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.