World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 23
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The king sent, and they gathered to him all the of Judah and of . The king went up to house, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of with him—with the priests, , and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of which was found in house. The king stood by and made a before to walk after and to keep his , his testimonies, and his with all and all his , to confirm the words of this that were written in this book; and all the people agreed to . The king commanded the , and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of temple all the vessels that were made for , for the , and for of ; and he burned them outside of in the fields of the , and carried their to . He got rid of the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to in the in the cities of Judah and in the places around ; those also who to , to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to of . He brought out the from house, outside of , to the brook , and burned it at the brook , and beat it to , and cast its on the of the common people. He broke down the houses of the male shrine that were in house, where the women wove hangings for the . He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the where the priests had , from to ; and he broke down the of the that were at the entrance of the of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the . Nevertheless the priests of the didn't come up to in , but they ate among their brothers. He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the to . He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of house, by the room of the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with . The king broke down the that were on the roof of the upper room of , which the kings of Judah had made, and the which had made in the two courts of house, and beat them down from there, and cast their into the brook . The king defiled the that were before , which were on of the mountain of corruption, which the king of Israel had built for the of the , and for the of , and for the of . He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the , and filled their places with men's bones. Moreover the that was at and the which the son of , who made Israel to , had made, even that and the he broke down; and he burned the and beat it to , and burned the . As turned himself, he spied the that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the bones out of the , and burned them on the , and defiled it, according to word which the proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. Then he said, "What monument is that which I see?" The men of the city told him, "It is the of the who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the of ." He said, "Let him be! Let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the who came out of . All the houses also of the that were in the cities of , which the kings of Israel had made to provoke to , took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in . He killed all the priests of the that were there, on the , and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to . The king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep to your , as in this book of ." Surely there was not kept such a from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23but in the eighteenth year of King , this was kept to in . Moreover, removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the that were seen in the land of Judah and in , that he might confirm the words of which were written in the book that the priest found in house. There was no king like him before him, who turned to with all , and with all his , and with all his might, according to all of ; and there was none like him who arose after him. Notwithstanding, didn't turn from the fierceness of his great , with which his burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which had provoked him. said, "I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even , and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'" Now the rest of the acts of , and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days Necoh king of went up against the king of to the river ; and King went against him, but Necoh killed him at when he saw him. His servants carried him in a chariot from , brought him to , and in his own . The people of the land took the son of , and him, and made him king in his place. was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in . His mother's name was the daughter of of . He did that which was evil in sight, according to all that his fathers had done. Necoh put him in bonds at in the land of , that he might not reign in ; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred of silver and a of gold. Necoh made the son of king in the place of his , and changed his name to ; but he took away, and he came to and there. gave the silver and the gold to ; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the of . He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Necoh. was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in . His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of of Rumah. He did that which was evil in sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
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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.