World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 21
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was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in . His mother's name was Hephzibah. He did that which was evil in sight, after the of the nations whom cast out before the . For he built again the which his had destroyed; and he up for , and made an , as king of Israel did, and of , and them. He built in house, of which said, "I will put my name in ." He built for of in the two courts of house. He made his son to pass through the , practiced , used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in sight, to provoke him to . He set the engraved of that he had made in the house of which said to and to his son, "In this house, and in , which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name ; I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all that my servant commanded them." But they didn't listen, and seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom destroyed before the . spoke by his servants , saying, "Because king of Judah has done these , and has done wickedly above all that the did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to with his idols; therefore the of Israel says, 'Behold, I will bring such evil on and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over the line of , and the of house; and I will wipe as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will cast off of my and them into the hands of their . They will become a prey and a plunder to all their , because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to since the day their fathers came out of , even to this day.'" Moreover very much, until he had filled from one end to another; in addition to his with which he made Judah to , in doing that which was evil in sight. Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, and his that he , aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of ; and his son reigned in his place. was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in . His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. He did that which was evil in sight, as his did. 21He walked in all the ways that his walked in, and the idols that his , and them; and he abandoned , the of his fathers, and didn't walk in of . The servants of conspired against him, and put the king to in his own house. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King ; and the people of the land made his son king in his place. Now the rest of the acts of which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? He was buried in his in the garden of , 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.