ing space, had taken courage and were acting on the offensive in
many quarters; when it was thus perhaps quite within the range of
probability that some one of their numerous foes might shortly appear in
arms before the place, it struck them with fear and consternation. The
alarm communicated itself from the city to the palace; and his trembling
attendants "came and told the king of Nineveh," who was seated on his
royal throne in the great audience-chamber, surrounded by all the pomp
and magnificence of his court. No sooner did he hear, than the heart of
the king was touched, like that of his people; and he "arose from his
throne, and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with
sackcloth and sat in ashes." Hastily summoning his nobles, he had a
decree framed, and "caused it to be proclaimed and published through
Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither
man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor
drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry
mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and
from the violence that is in their hands." Then the fast was proclaimed,
and the people of Nineveh, fearful of God's wrath, put on sackcloth
"from the greatest of them even to the least of them." The joy and
merriment, the revelry and feasting of that great city were changed into
mourning and lamentation; the sins that had provoked the anger of the
Most High ceased; the people humbled themselves; they "turned from their
evil way," and by a repentance, which, if not deep and enduring, was
still real and unfeigned, they appeased for the present the Divine
wrath. Vainly the prophet sat without the city, on its eastern side,
under his booth woven of boughs, watching, waiting, hoping (apparently)
that the doom which he had announced would come, in spite of the
people's repentance. God was more merciful than man. He had pity on the
"great city," with its "six score thousand persons that could not
discern between their right hand and their left," and, sparing the
penitents, left their town to stand unharmed for more than another
century.

The circumstances under which Tiglath-Pileser II., ascended the throne in
the year B.C. 745 are unknown to us. No confidence can be placed in the
statement of Bion and Polyhistor which seems to have been intended to
refer to this monarch, whom they called Beletaras--a corruption perhaps
of the lat