World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 20
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In those days was sick and dying. the the son of came to him, and said to him, " says, 'Set your house in order; for you will , and not live.'" Then he turned to the wall, and to , saying, "Remember now, , I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect , and have done that which is good in your sight." And wept bitterly. Before had gone out into the middle part of the city, word came to him, saying, ", and tell the prince of my people, ', the of your , says, "I have heard your . I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to house. I will add to your days fifteen years. I will you and this city out of the hand of the king of . I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant sake."'" said, "Take a cake of figs." They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. said to , "What will be the sign that will heal me, and that I will go up to house the third day?" said, "This will be the sign to you from , that will do the thing that he has spoken: should the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?" answered, "It is a thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps. No, but let the shadow return backward ten steps." the cried to ; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of . At that time Berodach the son of , king of , sent letters and a present to , for he had heard that had been sick. listened to them, and showed them all the of his precious things—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his . There was nothing in his house, or in all his , that didn't show them. Then the came to King , and said to him, "What did these men say? From where did they come to you?" said, "They have come from a far country, even from ." He said, "What have they seen in your house?" answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my that I have not shown them." said to , "Hear word. 'Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, will be carried to . Nothing will be left,' . 'They will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will ; and they will be in the palace of the king of .'" Then said to , " word which you have spoken is good." He said moreover, "Isn't it so, if peace and truth will be in my days?" Now the rest of the acts of , and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? slept with his fathers, and 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.