The Expositor's Bible Part 33

[553] Sennacherib calls Tirhakah's army "a host that no man could number"; but it was defeated by the better discipline, the heavier armour, and the superior physical strength of the a.s.syrians.

[554] See Josh. xix. 43.

[555] This very phrase "I imposed on them" is found on Sennacherib's monument (Schrader, ii. 1). The references, when not otherwise specified, are to Whitehouse's English translation.

[556] In 2 Kings xviii. 16 the word "pillars" or "doorposts" is uncertain. LXX., ?st??????a; Vulg., _laminas auri_.

[557] 2 Chron. x.x.xii. 9. He had to besiege it "with all his power." He seems to have thought it even more important than Jerusalem, for he superintended the siege in person (Layard, _Nineveh and Babylon_, 150; _Monuments of Nineveh_, 2nd series, pl. 21). The ruined Tel of Umm-el-Lakis lies between the Wady Simsim and the Wady-el-Ahsy (Riehm).

[558] See 2 Chron. xi. 9, xxv. 27; Jer. x.x.xiv. 7. The allusion to this city in Micah (i. 13) is obscure: "O thou inhabitant of Lachish [swift steed], bind the chariot to the swift steed: she is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee." This seems to imply that some form of idolatry had come from Israel to Lachish, and from Lachish to Jerusalem. In Sennacherib's picture of the city, foreign wors.h.i.+p is represented as going on in it (Layard, _Monuments of Nineveh_, Pls. 21 and 24; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 477).

[559] Isa. xxix., x.x.x., x.x.xi.

CHAPTER XXVIII

_THE GREAT DELIVERANCE_

B.C. 701

2 _Kings_ xix. 1-37

"There brake He the lightnings of the bow, the s.h.i.+eld, the sword, and the battle."--PSALM lxxvi. 3.

"?d? p??? t?? ?ss?????."--LXX.

"And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow at the glance of the Lord."

BYRON.

"Vuolsi cosi cola dove si puote Cio che si vuole: e piu non dimandare."

DANTE.

"Through love, through hope, through faith's transcendent dower, We feel that we are greater than we know."

WORDSWORTH.

"G.o.d shall help her, and that when the morning dawns."--PSALM xlvi. 5.

In spite of the humble submission of Hezekiah, it is a surprise to learn from Isaiah that Sennacherib--after he had accepted the huge fine and fixed the tribute, and departed to subdue Lachish--broke his covenant.[560] He sent his three chief officers--the Turtan, or commander-in-chief, whose name seems to have been Belemurani;[561] the Rabsaris, or chief eunuch;[562] and the Rabshakeh, or chief captain[563]--from Lachish to Hezekiah, with a command of absolute, unconditional surrender, to be followed by deportation. By this conduct Sennacherib violated his own boast that he was "a keeper of treaties."

Yet it is not difficult to conjecture the reason for his change of plan.

He had found it no easy matter to subdue even the very minor fortress of Lachish; how unwise, then, would it be for him to leave in his rear an uncaptured city so well fortified as Jerusalem! He was advancing towards Egypt. It was obviously a strategic error to spare on his route a hostile and almost impregnable stronghold as a nucleus for the plans of his enemies. Moreover, he had heard rumours that Tirhakah, the third and last Ethiopian king of Egypt, was advancing against him, and it was most important to prevent any junction between his forces and those of Hezekiah.[564] He could not come in person to Jerusalem, for the siege of Lachish was on his hands; but he detached from his army a large contingent under his Turtan, to win the Jews by seductive promises, or to subdue Jerusalem by force. Once more, therefore, the Holy City saw beneath her often-captured walls the vast beleaguering host, and "governors and rulers clothed most gorgeously, hors.e.m.e.n riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men." Isaiah describes to us how the people crowded to the house-tops, half dead with fear, weeping and despairing, and crying to the hills to cover them, and bereft of their rulers, who had been bound by the archers of the enemy in their attempt to escape. They gazed on the quiver-bearing warriors of Elam in their chariots, and the serried ranks of the s.h.i.+elds of Kir, and the cavalry round the gates. And he tells us how, as so often occurs at moments of mad hopelessness, many who ought to have been crying to G.o.d in sackcloth and ashes, gave themselves up, on the contrary, to riot and revelry, eating flesh, and drinking wine, and saying: "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die."[565] The king alone had shown patience, calmness, and active foresight; and he alone, by his energy and faith, had restored some confidence to the spirits of his fainting people.

Although the city had been refortified by the king, and supplied with water, the hearts of the inhabitants must have sunk within them when they saw the a.s.syrian army investing the walls, and when the three commissioners--taking their station "by the conduit of the upper pool which is in the highway of the fuller's field"--summoned the king to hear the ultimatum of Sennacherib.

The king did not in person obey the summons; but he, too, sent out his three chief officers. They were Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who, as the chamberlain (_al-hab-baith_), was a great prince (_nagid_); Shebna, who had been degraded, perhaps at the instance of Isaiah, from the higher post, and was now secretary (_sopher_); and Joah, son of Asaph, the chronicler (_mazkir_), to whom we probably owe the minute report of the memorable scene. No doubt they went forth in the pomp of office--Eliakim with his robe, and girdle, and key.[566] The Rabshakeh proved himself, indeed, "an affluent orator," and evinced such familiarity with the religious politics of Judah and Jerusalem, that this, in conjunction with his perfect mastery of Hebrew, gives colour to the belief that he was an apostate Jew. He began by challenging the idle confidence of Hezekiah, and his vain words[567]

that he had counsel and strength for the war. Upon what did he rely?

On the broken and dangerous bulrush of Egypt?[568] It would but pierce his hand! On Jehovah? But Hezekiah had forfeited his protection by sweeping away His _bamoth_ and His altars! Why, let Hezekiah make a wager;[569] and if Sennacherib furnished him with two thousand horses, he would be unable to find riders for them! How, then, could he drive back even the lowest of the a.s.syrian captains? And was not Jehovah on their side? It was He who had bidden them destroy Jerusalem!

That last bold a.s.sertion, appealing as it did to all that was erroneous and abject in the minds of the superst.i.tious, and backed, as it was, by the undeniable force of the envoy's argument, smote so bitterly on the ear of Hezekiah's courtiers, that they feared it would render negotiation impossible. They humbly entreated the orator to speak to "his servants" in the Aramaic language of a.s.syria, which they understood,[570] and not in Hebrew, which was the language of all the Jews who stood in crowds on the walls. Surely this was a diplomatic emba.s.sy to their king, not an incitement to popular sedition?

The answer of the Rabshakeh was truly a.s.syrian in its utterly brutal and ruthless coa.r.s.eness. Taking up his position directly in front of the wall,[571] and ostentatiously addressing the mult.i.tude, he ignored the representatives of Hezekiah. Who were they? asked he. His master had not sent him to speak to them, or to their poor little puppet of a king, but to the people on the wall, the foul garbage of whose sufferings of thirst and famine they should share.[572] And to all the mult.i.tude the great king's[573] message was:--Do not be deceived.

Hezekiah cannot save you. Jehovah will not save you. Come to terms with me, and give me hostages and pledges and a present, and then live in happy peace and plenty until I come and deport you to a land as fair and fruitful as this. How should Jehovah deliver them? Had any of the G.o.ds of the nations delivered them out of the hands of the King of a.s.syria? "Where are the G.o.ds of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the G.o.ds of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have the G.o.ds of Samaria delivered Samaria out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"[574]

It was a very powerful oration, but the orator must have been a little disconcerted to find that it was listened to in absolute silence. He had disgracefully violated the comity of international intercourse by appealing to subjects against their lawful king; yet from the starving people there came not a murmur of reply. Faithful to the behest of their king in the midst of their misery and terror, they answered not a word. Agamemnon is silent before the coa.r.s.e jeers of Thersites. "The sulphurous flash dies in its own smoke, only leaving a hateful stench behind it!" And in this att.i.tude of the people there was something very sublime and very instructive. Dumb, stricken, starving, the wretched Jews did not answer the envoy's taunts or menaces, because they would not. They were not even in those extremities to be seduced from their allegiance to the king whom they honoured, though the speaker had contemptuously ignored his existence. And though the Rabshakeh had cut them to the heart with his specious appeals and braggart vaunts, yet "this clever, self-confident, persuasive personage, with two languages on his tongue, and an army at his back,"

could not shake the confidence in G.o.d, which, however unreasonable it might seem, had been elevated into a conviction by their king and their prophet. The Rabsak had tried to seduce the people into rebellion, but he had failed.[575] They were ready to die for Hezekiah with the fidelity of despair. The mirage of sensual comfort in exiled servitude should not tempt them from the scorched wilderness from which they could still cry out for the living G.o.d.

Yet the a.s.syrian's words had struck home into the hearts of his greatest hearers, and therefore how much more into those of the ignorant mult.i.tudes! Eliakim and Shebna and Joah came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. And when the king heard it, when he found that even his submission had been utterly in vain, he too rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth,[576] and went into the only place where he could hope to find comfort, even into the house of the Lord, which he had cleansed and restored to beauty, although afterwards he had been driven to despoil it. Needing an earthly counsellor, he sent Eliakim and Shebna and the elders of the priests to Isaiah. They were to tell him the outcome of this day of trouble, rebuke, and contumely; and since the Rabshakeh had insulted and despised Jehovah, they were to urge the prophet to make his appeal to Him, and to pray for the remnant which the a.s.syrians had left.[577]

The answer of Isaiah was a dauntless defiance. If others were in despair, he was not in the least dismayed. "Be not afraid"--such was his message--"of the mere words with which the boastful boys of the King of a.s.syria have blasphemed Me.[578] Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a rumour,[579] and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."

Much crestfallen at the total and unexpected failure of the emba.s.sy, and of his own heart-shaking appeals, the Rabshakeh returned. But meanwhile Sennacherib had taken Lachish, and marched to Libnah (Tel-es-Safia), which he was now besieging.[580] There it was that he heard the "rumour"

of which Isaiah had spoken--the report, namely, that Tirhakah, the third king of the Ethiopian dynasty of Pharaohs,[581] was advancing in person to meet him. This was B.C. 701, and it is perhaps only by antic.i.p.ation that Tirhakah is called "King" of Ethiopia. He was only the general and representative of his father Shabatok, if (as some think) he did not succeed to the throne till 698.

It was impossible for Sennacherib under these circ.u.mstances to return northwards to Jerusalem, of which the siege would inevitably occupy some time. But he sent a menacing letter,[582] reminding Hezekiah that neither king nor G.o.d had ever yet saved any city from the hands of the a.s.syrian destroyers. Where were the kings, he asked again, of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivvah? What had the G.o.ds of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden in Tela.s.sar done to save their countries from Sennacherib's ancestors, when they had laid them under the ban?[583]

Again the pious king found comfort in G.o.d's Temple. Taking with him the scornful and blasphemous letter, he spread it out before Jehovah in the Temple with childlike simplicity, that Jehovah might read its insults and be moved by this dumb appeal.[584] Then both he and Isaiah cried mightily to G.o.d, "who sitteth above the cherubim," admitting the truth of what Sennacherib had said, and that the kings of a.s.syria had destroyed the nations, and burnt their vain G.o.ds in the fire. But of what significance was that? Those were but G.o.ds of wood and stone, the works of men's hands.[585] But Jehovah was the One, the True, the Living G.o.d. Would He not manifest among the nations His eternal supremacy?

And as the king prayed the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, and he sent to Hezekiah this glorious message about Sennacherib:--

"The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee."[586]

The blasphemies, the vaunts, the menacing self-confidence of Sennacherib, were his surest condemnation. Did he count G.o.d a cypher?

It was to G.o.d alone that he owed the fearful power which had made the nations like gra.s.s upon the housetops, like blasted corn, before him.

And because G.o.d knew his rage and tumult, G.o.d would treat him as Sargon his father had treated conquered kings:--

"I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips.[587] And I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest." He had thought to conquer Egypt:[588] instead of that he should be driven back in confusion to a.s.syria.

It was but a plainer enunciation of the truths which Isaiah had again and again intimated in enigma and parable. It was the fearless security of Judah's lion; the safety of the rock amid the deluge; the safety of the poor brood under the wings of the Divine protection from "the great Birds'-nester of the world"; the cras.h.i.+ng downfall of the lopped Lebanonian cedar, while the green shoot and tender branch out of the withered stump of Jesse should take root downward and bear fruit upward.[589]

And the sign was given to Hezekiah that this should be so.[590] This year there should be no harvest, except such as was spontaneous; for in the stress of a.s.syrian invasion sowing and reaping had been impossible. The next year the harvest should only be from this accidental produce. But in the third year, secure at last, they should sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.[591] And though but a remnant of the people was left out of the recent captivity, they should grow and flourish, and Jerusalem should see the besieging host of a.s.syria no more for ever; for Jehovah would defend the city for His own sake, and for His servant David's sake.

Thereafter occurred the great deliverance.[592] In some way--we know not and never shall know how--by a blast of the simoom, or sudden outburst of plague, or furious panic, or sudden a.s.sault, or by some other calamity,[593] the host of a.s.syria was smitten in the camp, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand, including their chief leaders, perished. The historian, in a manner habitual to pious Semitic writers, attributes the devastation to the direct action of the "angel of the Lord";[594] but as Dr. Johnson said long ago, "We are certainly not to suppose that the angel went about with a sword in his hand, striking them one by one, but that some powerful natural agent was employed."[595]

The Forty-Sixth Psalm is generally regarded as the _Te Deum_ sung in the Temple over this deliverance, and its opening words, "G.o.d is our refuge and strength," are inscribed over the cathedral of St. Sophia at Constantinople.

It is usually supposed that this overwhelming disaster happened to the host of a.s.syria _before Jerusalem_. This, however, is not stated; and as the capture of Lachish was an urgent necessity, it is probable that the Turtan led back the forces which had accompanied him, and took them afterwards to Libnah.[596] Yet, since Libnah was but ten miles from Jerusalem, the Jews could not feel safe for a day until the mighty news came that the

"Angel of G.o.d spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he pa.s.sed, And the eyes of the sleepers waxed heavy and chill, And their b.r.e.a.s.t.s but once heaved, and for ever grew still."

When the catastrophe which had happened to the main army and the flight of Sennacherib became known, the scattered forces would melt away.

All the a.s.syrians who escaped were now hurrying back[597] to Nineveh with their foiled king. Sennacherib seems to have occupied himself in the north, except so far as he was forced to fight fiercely against his own rebel subjects. He never recovered this complete humiliation.

He never again came southwards. He survived the catastrophe for seventeen or twenty years,[598] and fought five or six campaigns; but at the end of that period, while he was wors.h.i.+pping in the house of Nisroch or a.s.sarac (a.s.sur), his G.o.d,[599] he was murdered by his two sons Adrammelech (Adar-malik--"Adar is king") and Sharezer (Nergal-sarussar--"Nergal protect the king"),[600] who envied him his throne. They escaped into the land of Ararat, but were defeated and killed by their younger brother Esarhaddon (a.s.sur-akh-iddin--"a.s.sur bestowed a 'brother'") at the battle of Hani-Rabbat, on the Upper Euphrates. He succeeded Sennacherib, and ultimately avenged on Egypt his father's overwhelming disaster. He is perhaps the "cruel lord" of Isa. xix. 4, and it is not unnatural that he should have prevailed against his parricidal brothers, for we are told that in a previous battle at Melitene he had shown such prowess that the troops then and there proclaimed him King of a.s.syria with shouts of "This is our king."[601] He reigned from B.C. 681-668, and in his reign a.s.syria culminated before her last decline.[602] He was the builder of the temple at Nimrd, and erected thirty other temples. Babylon and Nineveh were both his capitals,[603] and he had previously been viceroy of the former.

The glorious deliverance in which the faith and courage of the King of Judah had had their share naturally increased the prosperity and prestige of Hezekiah, and lifted the authority of Isaiah to an unprecedented height. Hezekiah probably did not long survive the uplifting of this dark cloud, but during the remainder of his life "he was magnified in the sight of all nations."[604] When he died, all Judah and Jerusalem did him honour, and gave him a splendid burial.

Apparently the old tombs of the kings--the catacomb constructed by David and Solomon--had in the course of two and a half centuries become full, so that he had to be buried "in the ascent of the sepulchres," perhaps some niche higher than the other graves of the catacomb, which was henceforth disused for the burial of the kings of Judah. We have had occasion to observe the many particulars in which his reign was memorable, and to his other services must be added the literary activity to which we owe the collection and editing, by his scribes, of the Proverbs of Solomon. His reign had practically witnessed the inst.i.tution of the faithful Jewish Church under the influence of his great prophetic guide.[605]