World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 19
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When King heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with , and went into house. He sent , who was over the household, the , and the of the priests, covered with , to the the son of . They said to him, " says, 'Today is a day of trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to them. It may be your will hear all the words of , whom the king of his master has sent to defy the living , and will rebuke the words which your has heard. Therefore lift up your for that is left.'" 5So the servants of King came to . said to them, "Tell your master this: ' says, "Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of have blasphemed me. Behold, I will put a in him, and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall in his own land."'" So returned and found the king of warring against ; for he had heard that he had departed from . When he heard it said of king of , "Behold, he has come out to fight against you," he sent again to , saying, "Tell king of Judah this: 'Don't let your in whom you deceive you, saying, will not be given into the hand of the king of . Behold, you have heard what the kings of have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be ? Have the gods of the nations them, which my fathers have destroyed—, , , and the children of who were in ? Where is the king of , the king of , and the king of the city of , of , and ?'" received the letter from the hand of the and read it. Then went up to house, and spread it before . before , and said, ", the of Israel, who are enthroned above the , you are the , even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made and earth. Incline your ear, , and hear. Open your eyes, , and see. Hear the words of , which he has sent to defy the living . Truly, , the kings of have laid waste the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the ; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, our , us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, , are alone." Then the son of sent to , saying, ", the of Israel, says 'You have to me against king of , and I have heard you. This is the word that has spoken concerning him: 'The virgin daughter of has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of has shaken her head at you. Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the One of Israel! By your , you have defied , and have said, "With of my chariots, I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of , and I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees; and I will enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his fruitful field. I have dug and drunk strange waters, and I will dry up all the rivers of with the sole of my feet." Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants had little . They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops and like grain blasted before it has grown up. But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your , and I will turn you back by by which you came.' "This will be the sign to you: This year, you will eat that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from that; and in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of a will go out, and out of Mount those who shall escape. will perform this. "Therefore says concerning the king of , 'He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. He will return the same way that he came, and he will not come to this city,' . 'For I will defend this city to it, for my own sake and for my servant sake.'" That night, went out and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the . When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all bodies. So king of departed, went home, and lived at . As he was worshiping in the house of his , and struck him with ; and they escaped into the land of . Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
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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.