King James Version · Under Assyria
Isaiah 9
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Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of and the land of , and afterward did more grievously afflict her by of the sea, beyond Jordan, in of the nations. The people that walked have seen a great : they that in the land of the shadow of , upon them hath shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the of his burden, and the of his shoulder, the of his oppressor, as in the day of . For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in ; but this shall be with burning and fuel of . For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty , The , The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon of , and upon , to order it, and to establish it with and with from henceforth even for ever. The of of hosts will perform this. sent a word into , and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even and the inhabitant of , that say in the pride and stoutness of , The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. Therefore shall set up the of Rezin against him, and join his together; before, and the behind; and they shall devour Israel with open . For all this his is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek of hosts. Therefore will Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their and : for every one is an and an evildoer, and every speaketh folly. For all this his is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For wickedness burneth as the : it shall devour the and , and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the of of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the : no man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on , and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man of his own arm: Manasseh, ; and , Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.
All of Isaiah