World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 18
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Now in the third year of son of Elah king of Israel, the son of king of Judah began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in . His mother's name was Abi the daughter of . He did that which was right in eyes, according to all that his had done. He removed the , broke the pillars, and cut down the . He also broke in pieces the bronze that had made, because in those days the to it; and he called it . He trusted in , the of Israel, so that after him was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. For he joined with . He didn't depart from following him, but kept his , which commanded . was with him. Wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of , and didn't him. He struck the to and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. In the fourth year of King , which was the seventh year of son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of came up against and besieged it. At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of , which was the ninth year of king of Israel, was taken. The king of carried Israel away to , and put them in , and on the , the river of , and in the cities of the , because they didn't their voice, but transgressed his , even all that the commanded, and would not hear it or do it. Now in the fourteenth year of King , king of came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. king of Judah sent to the king of at , saying, "I have offended you. Withdraw from me. That which you put on me, I will bear." The king of appointed to king of Judah three hundred of silver and thirty of gold. gave him all the silver that was found in house and in the of the king's house. At that time, the gold from the doors of temple, and from the pillars which king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of . The king of sent , , and from to King with a great army to . They went up and came to . When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field. When they had called to the king, the son of , who was over the household, and Shebnah the , and the son of the recorder came out to them. said to them, "Say now to , 'The great king, the king of , says, "What confidence is this in which you ? You say (but they are but words), 'There is and strength for war.' Now on whom do you , that you have rebelled against me? Now, behold, you in the of this bruised reed, even in . If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is king of to all who on him. But if you tell me, 'We in our ,' isn't that he whose and whose has taken away, and has said to Judah and to , 'You shall before this in '? Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of , and I will give you two thousand horses if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you turn away the of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your on for chariots and for horsemen? Have I now come up without against this place to destroy it? said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.'"'" Then the son of , Shebnah, and , said to , "Please speak to your servants in the language, for we understand it. Don't speak with us in the ' language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall." But said to them, "Has my master sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?" Then stood and cried with a loud voice in the ' language, and spoke, saying, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of . The king says, 'Don't let deceive you, for he will not be able to you out of his hand. Don't let make you in , saying, " will surely us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of ." Don't listen to .' For the king of says, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat from his own , and everyone from his own fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and , a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live and not . Don't listen to when he persuades you, saying, " will us." Has any of the gods of the nations ever his land out of the hand of the king of ? Where are the gods of and of ? Where are the gods of , of , and ? Have they out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have their country out of my hand, that should out of my hand?'" But the people stayed quiet, and answered him not a word; for the king's was, "Don't answer him." Then the son of , who was over the household, came with the and the son of the recorder to with their clothes torn, and told him words.
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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.