World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 22
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was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in . His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of of Bozkath. He did that which was right in eyes, and walked in all the ways of his , and didn't turn away to or to the left. In the eighteenth year of King , the king sent , the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the , to house, saying, "Go up to the , that he may count the money which is brought into house, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people. Let them it into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of house; and let them give it to the workers who are in house, to repair the damage to the house, 6to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house. However, no accounting shall be asked of them for the money into their hand, for they deal faithfully." the said to the , "I have found the book of in house." the book to , and he read it. the came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have it into the hands of the workmen who have the oversight of house." the told the king, saying, " the priest has a book to me." Then read it before the king. When the king had heard the words of the book of , he tore his clothes. The king commanded the priest, the son of , the son of , the , and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, "Go inquire of for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us." So the priest, , , , and Asaiah went to the , the wife of the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in in the second quarter); and they talked with her. She said to them, " the of Israel says, 'Tell the man who sent you to me, " says, 'Behold, I will bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have to other gods, that they might provoke me to with all the work of their hands, therefore my shall be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.'" But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of , tell him, " the of Israel says, 'Concerning the words which you have heard, because was tender, and you humbled yourself before when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and , and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you,' . 'Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.'"'" So they brought this message back to the king.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. 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.