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237 and the Philistines. 690)

Assumptio Mosis

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

237

is

The policy of Hezekiah (719Egypt and assist in a general

J.

to creat with

combination against Assyria after the accession of Sennacherib (705-681). In 701 Sennacherib invades Palestine, devastates Judah, and deports many people, but is. diverted from the siege of Jerusalem by a plague in his army, so that he leaves Vassalage Palestine and does not return, c. Esarof haddon, the best of the Assyrian kings It rebels Judah. (681-668), conquers Egypt. and is reconquered by Assurbanipal Judah (668-626), but regains its freedom about 645. and the West generally remain quiescent. In 650 a great revolt against Assyria rages from Elam to the Mediterranean, in 'which Manasseh of Judah joins (according to II Chron. xxxiii. 10-13), and is made captive for a time. d. Assyria declines rapidly. Cimmerians and Scythians invade the empire. The Me-

Destruction of Assyria,

dians, assisted by the Chaldeans, finally destroy Nineveh and divide the empire between them. Before the catastroplie,

Pharaoh Necho

II.

of

Egypt

in-

vades Syria. Josiah of Judah (639608), who proceeds against him, is slain at Megiddo. The official and to some extent the popular religion of Judah was greatly affected by Assyrian influence, especially under Ahaz and Manasseh. Assyria occupies a prominent place both in the historical and in the prophetical literature of the Old Testament. The narrators were well informed as to the Assyrian events to which they refer and are most discerning and explicit in regard to occasions

on which the religion of

Assyria

and

fluenced

by

Israel was in-

Assyria, as in the innova-

tions introduced by Ahaz and Manasseh (II Kings xvi. 18 xxiii. 11, 12), or

the O. T. Literature, when a great deliverance was wrought, as under Hezekiah (II Kings xviii., xix.), or when Israel's independence or actual exist;

Since (II Kings xv. 29, xvii.). the historians wrote under the influence of the view of Hebrew history taken by the Prophets, Assyria is regarded by them from the prophetic point of view. But the Hebrew narrative is usually so objective that any higher purpose involved in the part played by the Assyrians is not specially indicated, except in the general statement with regard to the guilt of Samaria

ence was imperiled

Kings xvii. 7 et seq.). The Prophets, on the other hand,

(II

are international, or rather world-wide, seers, and connect all events as they occur with the controlling divine purpose. In their theory of affairs, while Israel as Assyria the chosen people was always the spe-

Lord's care and inthe other nations are not beyond His regard; and their political and military movements which concern the weal of Israel are made to subserve His purpose and the establishment of His kingdom. This general conception ex-

and the Prophets.

cial object of the terest,

plains the watchfulness with which the Prophets viewed the gradual advance of the Assyrian empire Into the secure possession of Syria and Palestine. Asdeed, it may be said that in a certain sense the syrian policy occasioned Hebrew written prophecy. Amos, the first of the literary prophets who prothe active sovereignty of the Lord over the

claimed

Assyria

nations of the earth (Amos ix. 7), based his warnings to his people on the ground that God was to raise up against them a nation that would carry them captive beyond Damascus and lay waste their whole country (v. 27, vi. 14); indicating that the Assyrians were to take the place in the discipline of Israel formerly held by the Arameans of Damascus, and to outdo them in the work of punishment. This atti-

tude toward Israel with its threat of a national catastrophe was consistently maintained by succeeding prophets until the end of the Assyrian empire. As political complications increased, the Prophets were led to play not merely a theoretical but a practical part. In their capacity as political mentors they rebuked their people for intriguing with Assyria (Hosea v. 13, viii. 9), and foretold the Amos, consequence (viii. 10; ix. 3, 17; x. 5 et Hosea, and seq.). They thus assumed a twofold Micah. attitude toward the great Assyrian problem. On the one hand, it was necessary to warn their people against entanglement with Assyria, because (1) it would only result more surely in their absorption by the stronger power, and (2) it would bring Israel under religious as well as On the political subjection to the suzerain power. other hand, it was equally necessary to point out the inevitable loss of home and country at the hands of the Assyrian invaders. When the prophetic lessons had been thrown away upon northern Israel, and Samaria had become an Assyrian province, the admonition was impressed more strongly than ever upon the kingdom of Judah (Micah i. Isa. xxviii.). When, under Tiglath-pileser I. Sargon, and Sennacherib, judah, after the first false step of Ahaz (II Kings xvi. 7), became bound hand and foot to Assyria, and her end seemed near, it was the task of

,

Isaiah to show how these antithetic points of view were reconciled in the great doctrine of God's justice supreme overall. That is to say, divine justice was bringing Israel under the Assyrian rod, and would finally call the oppressor himself to acIsaiah and count when his allotted work should Nahum. be done (Isa. x. 5 et seq.). The scour-

ging of Judah and Jerusalem by Sennacherib,

and the

retreat of his plague-stricken

army

partial demonstration of the truth of the prophetic word, which was fully vindicated at last by the destruction of Nineveh and the fall of Assyria (Nahum). See the articles As(II

Kings

xviii., xix.),

were

syriology and the old testament archeology,

Biblical. RiRTinfiRAPHY- Geoeraphy Schrader, K.O.F. Giessen, 1878 Delattre, Deltochf Wo Lau das Parodies? Leipsic, 1881; Assyriennes, VAsie Occidentale dans les Inscriptions Suleimana, Sandschak Brussels 1885 A. Billerbeck, Das



Leipsic

Oeseh

History: Tiele, Babyloniscli - Assynsche 1898. Gotha 1886-88; Hommel, Oesch. Babylmuens und

wTncSe? VflKfrtftticf.es Tcxthuch zum Alien

New t J. Ball, Ught ^^TheOldTestamenUn 1899;

Monuments. 3__vok, New >rk, 1894-1900 Tiaht Light im onl (Tie Holy Land. London, 1894; C.



Z aE%A7«^in Resea7ci^7 London {h7lAgU <

l

.London,

Testa-

Evetts,

Price 1897 of the Old Testament. ChleaRO, 1899; Archeology. LonDriver in Hogarth, Authority and of Babylonia don 1899 Beligion: Jastrow, The Religion Records Boston, 1898. Translations of texts: 1873-81, London, Birch, by S. of the Past, lOyols.. edited

The Monuments and

SB

SSrto,