2 4 and Ivah. Calno had become as Carchemish, and Hamath as Arphad; there was not one of them left to tell their story. Damascus was a heap of ruins. The fortress of Ephraim had ceased. Tyre had been attacked, and greatly weakened. The desolations of Moab had roused once more the Prophetic dirge. The wild Arabs of Dumah asked fearfully of the night of the future. The caravans of the Dedanites fled from the sword and bow of the conqueror. The glory of Kedar 5 failed before him. Even in western nations Sennacherib was known as King of the Arabs. Philistia, which had for a moment rejoiced in her rival's danger, shrieked in terror as she saw the column of smoke advancing from the north, and sought for help from her ancient foe. Each stage of the march of the army into Judæa was foreseen. He was first expected at Aiath. There was the renowned defile of Michmash-the Rubicon, as it seemed, of the sacred territory-the precipitous pass, on the edge of which he would pause for a moment with his vast array of military baggage. They would pass over, and spend their first night at Geba. The next morning would dawn upon a terror-stricken neighbourhood. Each one of those Benjamite fortresses, on the top of its crested hill, or down in its deep ravine, seems ready to leave its rooted base and fly awayRamah, Gibeah, Michmash, Geba-and the cries of Gallim and Laish are reverberated by Anathoth, the village of echoes. It is a short march to Jerusalem, and the evening will find him at Nob, the old sanctuary on the northern corner of Olivet, within sight of the Holy City. He shall 1 Isa. x. 9. Ibid. xvii. 1, x. 9. • Ibid. x. 9. Ibid. xxi. 11. Ibid. 13-16. Herod. ii. 141. See Ewald, Proph. i. 235. Isa. xiv. 31 (Heb.). Ibid. x. 28-32. That this march of Sennacherib was not actual, but (as Dr. Pusey well remarks on MICAH, p. 293) 'ideal,' appears from the account of his approach by Lachish. Submission of 'shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, 'the hill of Jerusalem.' It was as if the great rivers of Mesopotamia-the sealike rivers, as they seemed to the Israelites-had burst their bounds, and were sweeping away nation after nation, in their irresistible advance. From a distance the sound of their approach had been as the roaring of wild beasts, as the roaring of the sea. The multitudes of many people, a 'rushing of nations, like the rushing of mighty waters." And now these waves upon waves had passed over into Judah, and overflowed and gone over,' and seemed to have filled the sacred land,'3 to be dashing against the very rock of Zion itself. Out of those mighty waters the little kingdom alone stood uncovered. Nothing else was in sight. The fenced cities of Judah were taken - Zion alone remained. The desolation was as if the country had been held up like a bowl, and its inhabitants shaken out of it. It was even regarded as the first act of the captivity of Judah.* Up to this point Hezekiah had been firm in maintaining Hezekiah. the independence of his country. But now even he gave way. The show of resistance which he had assumed on the death of Sargon he could sustain no longer. He paid the tribute required. The gold with which he had covered the cedar gates and the brazen pillars of the Temple, he stripped off to propitiate the invader. Peace was concluded. Both at Nineveh and Jerusalem we are able to read the effects. At Nineveh, if we may trust the inscriptions, Sennacherib spoke as follows:- And because Hezekiah, King of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came up against 6 him, and by force of arms, and by the might of my power, 'I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities, and of smaller ' towns which were scattered about, I took and plundered a 'countless number. And from those places I captured and carried off as spoil 200,150 people, old and young, male and female together, with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Heze'kiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like 'a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to hem 'him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates to 'prevent his escape. Then upon this Hezekiah there 'fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to 'me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem, with thirty 1 ' talents of gold, and eight hundred talents of silver, and 'divers treasures, and rich and immense booty. . . . All 'these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of 'my government, Hezekiah having sent them by way of 'tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power.' ... In Jerusalem there was a strange reaction of policy. The invading army passed in long defile under the walls of the city. It was composed chiefly of two auxiliary forces-one, the Syrians of Damascus, distinguished as of old by their 2 shields; the other-a name here first mentioned in the Sacred History-Elam or Persia, with the archers for which it was famous throughout the ancient world.3 The chariots and horses, in which both Syria and Assyria excelled, filled the ravines underneath the walls. The horsemen rode up to the gates. Their scarlet dresses and scarlet shields blazed in the sun. The veil of the city was, as it were, The glorious front of Solomon's cedar palace torn away. The sum of gold mentioned, 30 talents, is the same in 2 Kings xviii. 14; the sum of silver, 800 talents, is in Kings, 300. 2 Is. xxii. 6; comp. Amos i. 5, ix. 7. Comp. Isa. xiii. 17, 18; Jer. xlix. 35. Isa. ix. 5 (Ewald, Propheten, 226); Nahum ii. 3, and so in the sculptures. Fall of and the rents in the walls of Zion were seen by the foreigners.1 But, instead of regarding this as a day of humiliation, a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity,'' the whole city was astir with joy at this deliverance through their unworthy submission. The people crowded to the flat tops of the houses, in idle curiosity, to see the troops pass by: 3 instead of weeping and mourning, and cutting off the hair and sackcloth,' there was joy and gladness, slaying of oxen and killing of sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Whatever evil might be in store, they were satisfied to live for the day. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' 4 Isaiah was there, and looked on with unutterable grief. Look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Labour not to comfort me.' In the midst of the revelry, an awful voice sounded in his ears, that this was an iniquity which could never be forgiven on this side the ' grave.' 5 6 6 Amongst the advisers of the King in this act of submission, there was one who attained a fatal eminence. It was Shebna, the chief minister, who was over the household, and bore the key of state. His chariots were of royal state. The tomb which he had prepared for himself in the rocky sides of Jerusalem was conspicuous in height and depth." On him the Prophet poured forth a malediction which, for its personal severity, stands alone in his writings; the only expression in his writings that in any way recalls the fierce imprecations of the Psalter. He was to be driven from his station, and pulled down from his state. Behold the Lord 'shall sling and sling, and pack and pack, and toss and 1 Isa. xxii. 8, 9. 2 Ibid. 5. Ibid. 1, 2. 4 Ibid. 13. • Ibid. 4, 14. See Sir E. Strachey's Hebrew Politics, ch. xvi., and F. Newman's Hebrew Monarchy, p. 296. 7 Isa. xxii. 16, 18. • Ibid. 19. 'toss thee away like a ball, into a distant land, and there 'shalt thou die.'1 How far this took effect ultimately we know not. But its partial results are soon visible. Shebna's next appearance is in the inferior office of secretary, and in his place we find Eliakim. He was to assume the insignia of the key of state, the mantle, and the girdle. He was now advanced in years, and thus his family were numerous enough to add to his power, as well as to share in it. He was to be like a huge nail or house-peg driven into the palace, of which he was the chief minister, and all his sons and grandsons, great and small, like cups, of all shapes and sizes, were to hang and cluster round him.2 ance of Whether from the fall of Shebna, or the warnings of Isaiah, Resistas soon as the immediate danger was removed, Hezekiah Hezekiah. took courage, and again raised the standard of independence. An embassy had arrived from the powerful Egyptian king, Tirhakah, in his distant land of Ethiopia, with promises of assistance.3 The Philistines who occupied the frontier between Judah and Egypt, had been subdued by Hezekiah, apparently with a view to this very alliance. On the hope of gaining the chariots and horses, which constituted the main forces of Egypt, the King and people buoyed themselves up. All across the perilous desert gifts were sent on troops of asses and camels to propitiate the great ally. 5 But it was an alliance fraught with danger to the Jewish commonwealth. The policy of the Egyptian Kings would have been to use the warlike little state as an outpost to sustain the first shock of the enemy before he entered the 1 Isa. xxii. 17, 18 (Heb.). 2 Isa. xxii. 24. Comp. Lecture XXXV. Isa. xviii. 1, 2; 2 Kings xix. 9. His name appears in Manetho, on the Monuments, and in Strabo, x. p. 61, 5 Isa. xxxi. 1. |