of a people that cannot profit you.... For Egypt helpeth in
vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth
still."* He returned, unwearied and with varying imagery, to his theme,
contrasting the uncertainty and frailty of the expedients of worldly
wisdom urged by the military party, with the steadfast will of Jahveh
and the irresistible authority with which He invests His faithful
servants. "The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh,
and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he
that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they
shall all fail together. For thus saith the Lord unto me, Like as when
the lion growleth, and the young lion over his prey, if a multitude of
shepherds be called forth against him, he will not be dismayed at their
voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of
hosts come down to fight upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof.
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem: He will
protect and deliver it. Turn ye unto Him from whom ye have deeply
revolted, O children of Israel."**

* Isa. xxx. 1-5, 7. In verses 4, 5, the original text
employs the third person; I have restored the second person,
to avoid confusion.

** Isa. xxxi. 3-6.

No one, however, gave heed to his warnings, either king or people; but
the example of Phoenicia soon proved that he was right. When Sennacherib
bestirred himself, in the spring of 702 B.C., either the Ethiopians were
not ready, or they dared not advance to encounter him in Coele-Syria,
and they left Elulai to get out of his difficulties as best he might.
He had no army to risk in a pitched battle; but fondly imagined that his
cities, long since fortified, and protected on the east by the range of
Lebanon, would offer a resistance sufficiently stubborn to wear out
the patience of his assailant. The Assyrians, however, disconcerted his
plans. Instead of advancing against him by the pass of Nahr-el-Kebir,
according to their usual custom, they attacked him in flank, descending
into the very midst of his positions by the _col_ of Legnia or one of
the neighbouring passes.* They captured in succession the two Sidons,
Bit-ziti, Sarepta, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzib, and Acco: Elulai, reduced
to the possession of the island of Tyre alone, retreated to one of his
colonies in Cyprus, where he died some years later, without having set
foot