King James Version · Under Assyria
2 Kings 18
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Now it came to pass in the third year of son of Elah king of Israel, that the son of king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in . His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of , according to all that his did. He removed the , and brake the , and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen that had made: for unto those days the did to it: and he called it . He trusted in of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to , and departed not from following him, but kept his , which commanded . And was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of , and him not. He smote the , even unto , and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king , which was the seventh year of son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of came up against , and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of , that is the ninth year of king of Israel, was taken. And the king of did carry away Israel unto , and put them in and in by the river of , and in the cities of the : Because they not their , but transgressed his , and all that the commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them. Now in the fourteenth year of king did king of come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And king of Judah sent to the king of to , saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of appointed unto king of Judah three hundred of silver and thirty of gold. And gave him all the silver that was found in the , and in the of the king’s house. At that time did the gold from the doors of of , and from the pillars which king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of . And the king of sent and and Rab–shakeh from to king with a great host against . And they went up and came to . And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field. And when they had called to the king, there came out to them the son of , which was over the household, and the , and the son of the recorder. And Rab–shakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to , Thus saith the great king, the king of , What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Thou sayest, (but they are but words,) I have and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou , that thou rebellest against me? Now, behold, thou trustest upon the of this bruised reed, even upon , on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is king of unto all that on him. But if ye say unto me, We in our : is not that he, whose and whose hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and , Ye shall before this in ? Now therefore, I thee, give pledges to my the king of , and I will thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. How then wilt thou turn away the of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put thy on for chariots and for horsemen? Am I now come up without against this place to destroy it? said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it. Then said the son of , and , and , unto Rab–shakeh, Speak, I thee, to thy servants in the language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the ’ language in the ears of the people that are on the wall. But Rab–shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? Then Rab–shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the ’ language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of : Thus saith the king, Let not deceive you: for he shall not be able to you out of his hand: Neither let make you in , saying, will surely us, and this city shall not be into the hand of the king of . not to : for thus saith the king of , Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own , and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and , a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not : and not unto , when he persuadeth you, saying, will us. Hath any of the gods of the nations at all his land out of the hand of the king of ? Where are the gods of , and of ? where are the gods of , , and Ivah? have they out of mine hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have their country out of mine hand, that should out of mine hand? But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s was, saying, Answer him not. Then came the son of , which was over the household, and the , and the son of the recorder, to with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rab–shakeh.
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.