nd
presents to Ashur my lord, were speaking treason. The people and their
evil chiefs, to fight against me, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, a prince
who could not save them, their presents carried and besought his
alliance." In all probability, Judah did not become involved seriously
at this time. But the death of Sargon in 705 seems to have been a
signal for revolt in many parts of the Assyrian empire. His son and
successor, Sennacherib, gave these rebellions his immediate attention;
until 702 {138} he was kept busy in the East, but in that year he
turned westward, and by 701 was ready to attack Judah. The campaign
and the remarkable deliverance of Jerusalem on that occasion are
recorded at length in 2 Kings 18, 19, and Isa. 36, 37. The account of
the same campaign by the Assyrian king is, from the standpoint of Old
Testament history, perhaps the most interesting historical inscription
left by an Assyrian ruler. It is found in the so-called Taylor
Cylinder,[15] column 2, line 34, to column 3, line 41. The most
interesting portion reads:

To the city of Ekron I went; the governors
[and] princes, who had committed a transgression, I killed and
bound their corpses on poles around the city.
The inhabitants of the city, who had committed sin and evil,
I counted as spoil; to the rest of them
who had committed no sin and wrong, who had
no guilt, I spoke peace. Padi
their king, I brought forth from the
city of Jerusalem; upon the throne of lordship over them
I placed him. The tribute of my lordship
I laid upon him. But Hezekiah
of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke,
I besieged 46 of his strong cities, fortresses, and small cities
of their environs, without number, [and]
by the battering of rams and the assault of engines,
by the attack of foot soldiers, mines, breaches, and axes,
I besieged, I took them; 200,150 men, young [and] old, male
and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen
and sheep without number I brought out from them,
I counted them as spoil. [Hezekiah] himself I shut up like
a caged bird in Jerusalem

{139}

his royal city; the walls I fortified
against him [and] whosoever came out of the gates of the
city, I turned
back. His cities, which I had plundered, I separated from
his land
and gave them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod,
to Padi, king of Ekron, and to Sil-Bel,
king of Gaza, and [thus] diminished his territory