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239 The next definite statement relating to the Old Testament is found in the records of Sargon II. In the first year of his reign (722 B.C.) he Records of says " The city Samaria I besieged,

Sargon

27,290 of its inhabitants I carried away captive fifty chariots in it I took for but the remainder [of the people] I allowed II.



myself



to retain their possessions. "

The depopulated

terri-

tory was repopulated, according to his own records as well as those of the Old Testament (II Kings xvii.), by the importation of peoples from several foreign countries. This combination of strange races formed the basis of the later Samaritans. This Sargon II., mentioned but once in the Old Testament (Isa. xx. 1), was a shrewd and powerful monarch. He carried out a successful campaign against Ashdod of Philistia, as one of the chief cities involved in a wide-spread coalition to throw off the yoke of Assyria (compare Isa. xxxix.). The foe was completely routed and Sargon proceeded to Babylon and completed his victory. Upon the death of Sargon II. (705 B.C.), his son Sennacherib ascended the throne. His first movement affecting Palestine occurred in 701 Sennach- B.C.; and he gives an admirable record He pressed erib. of the whole campaign. forward from Nineveh to the Mediterranean sea, and thence down the coast-line to Philis;

tia,

Assyriology Astarte

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

239

where he encountered determined

resistance.

He

overran the land of Judah, captured forty-six of strong fortresses, and carried off 200,150 captives. Hezekiah, king of Judah, was shut up in Jerusalem. Lachish and Libnah were taken after siege, and the Egyptian ally of Judah appeared on the scene. Sennacherib met, and claims to have defeated, their great army, but apparently took no advantage of his victory. Strangely enough, Sennacherib's next statement is to the effect that Hezekiah sent tribute, etc., its

No mention is made of any to Nineveh. It is interesting in this condisaster or of his return. nection to note that, although Sennacherib reigned twenty years after this (to C81), he records no furafter

him

In a Babylonian ther movements toward the west. chronicle it is recorded that " Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was murdered by his own son in an insurAs a result of rection " (compare Isa. xxxvii. 38). this uprising, Esarhaddon seized and held the throne,

and ruled from 681 to 668 b.c In a list of twenty-two vassal kings on the Mediterranean coast, Esarhaddon mentions Manasseh of Judah. His son and successor, Assurbanipal (668626 B.C.), likewise mentions the same king in his list

Babylon was his throne, and the world his realm. The captive Jews were his subjects, and served as his menials and vassals. queror and ruler.

civilized

The

close of his forty-three years' reign

was

fol-

lowed by a period of anarchy, until Nabonidus (555538 B.C.), the last king of the declining Babylonian monarchy, secured the throne. The rise of Cyrus in the East presented a new problem. Tribes, peoples, and kingdoms fell before him until he reached the walls of Babylon. Its population, weary of neglect during the reign of Nabonidus as well as of his faithlessness to the great gods of the city, threw wide open the city gates to welcome the advent of so benevolent and liberal a ruler. Cyrus paid his devotions to the gods of the land, and implored them to aid and promote his plans. Cyrus'

Jews to return to Jerusalem, in full accordance with the general policy in-

decree, authorizing the

was

—

augurated throughout his realm a policy designed in every way to conciliate his subjects. Other Points of Contact: In addition to this vast mass of historical data illustrative of the Old Testament, there is found much valuable material. The archeological facts of the Old Testament are invested with a new interest the geography of those old lands is now a new theme; the chronology of Israel's history, always difficult, has lost some of its uncertainties and the ethnography of the early set;



tlements has already become a fascinating study. The linguistic and exegetical value of the cuneiform documents is far beyond the most sanguine expectaAltogether the science of Assyritions of scholars. ology has opened up to the student of the Old Testament a new world which he must explore before he can appreciate many of its most interesting parts. Botta, Monument de For discoveries Ninive, 1847-50 Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, 1849; Nineveh and Babylon, 1853 Loftus, Chaldcea and Susiana,

Bibliography









Assyrian Discoveries, 1875; Ausgrabungen Rassam, J. P. Peters, Nippur, 1897-98 Asshur and the Land of Nimrod, 1897 Eogers, History On Monuments of Babylonia and Assyria-, 1901, i. 1-348. 1857; G. Smith,

in Sendschirli, 1893







J. F. McCurdv, History, Old Testament Prophecy, and the Monuments, 1894-1901; Sayce, Higher

relative to the



Criticism and the Monuments, 1894; F. Vigouroux, La Bible et les Decouvertes Modernes, 5th ed., 1889 Ball, Light from the East, 1899; Price, The Monuments and the Old Testament, 3d ed., 1902 Schrader, Die Keilinsehriften und das A. T. 2d ed., 1901 Delitzsch, Babel und Bibel, 1902.





J.

JR.

I.

M. P.

ASTARTE WORSHIP AMONG THE HE-

BREWS



Astarte

is

the Phenician

name

of the

In 647 a general revolt against the king of vassals. of Nineveh probably included Manasseh, who was Upon carried to Babylon (II Chron. xxxiii. 11-13). his submission he, like Necho of Egypt, was restored This closes the contact between Asto his throne. syria and Judah, and leaves upon the known documents of Assyria the names of ten kings of Israel and

Judah.

The

New

Babylonian Period:

The

great

founder of the new Babylonian empire was NebuThe inscriptions amply confirm the chadnezzar. Old Testament pictures of his greatness and devoHe was a shrewd gention to the gods of his land. eral, a wise administrator, and a world-wide con-

Astarte as a Sphynx. (From

PriBse d'Avennes,

" HiHtoire de l'Art Egyptien.'')

primitive Semitic mother-goddess, out of which the most important of the Semitic deities were devel" oped. She was known in Arabia as Athtar, " and in