and ordered them to pay tribute, a hundred away much prey, he returned with his army talents and ten thousand cori of wheat, and as back to Damascus. Now when the king of many of barley, every year, and so augmented Jerusalem knew that the Syrians were returned his kingdom, that his enemies could not de- home, he, supposing himself a match for the pise it, and his own people lived happily. king of Israel, drew out his army against him. and, joining battle with him, was beaten; and this happened because God was angry with him 3. Now there was at that time a prophet, whose name was Nahum, who spoke after this manner concerning the overthrow of the As-on account of his many and great enormities. syrians, and Nineveh: "Nineveh shall be a pool Accordingly, there were slain by the Israelites of water in motion;* so shall all her people be one hundred and twenty thousand of his men troubled, and tossed, and go away by flight; that day, whose general, Amaziah by name, while they say one to another, stand still, seize slew Zechariah the king's son in his conflict their gold and silver, for there shall be no one with Ahaz, as well as the governor of the kingto wish them well, for they will rather save their dom, whose name was Azricam. He also carlives than their money; for a terrible conten- ried Elkanah, the general of the troops of the tion shall possess them one with another, and tribe of Judah, into captivity. They also carlamentation, and loosing of the members, and ried the women and children of the tribe of their countenances shall be perfectly black Benjamin captives; and when they had gotwith fear. And there will be the den of the ten a great deal of prey, they returned to Sa lions, and the mother of the young lions. God maria. says to thee, Nineveh, that they shall deface thee, and the lion shall no longer go out from thee to give laws to the world." And indeed this prophet prophesied many other things besides these concerning Nineveh, which I do not think necessary to repeat; and I here omit them, that I may not appear troublesome to my readers, all which things happened about Nineveh, a hundred and fifteen years afterward; so this may suffice to have spoken of these matters. 2. Now there was one Obed, who was a prophet at that time in Samaria: he met the army before the city walls, and with a loud voice told them, "That they had gotten the victory, not by their own strength, but by reason of the anger God had against king Ahaz. And he complained, that they were not satisfied with the good success they had against him, but were so bold as to make captives out of their kinsmen the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He also gave them counsel to let them go home without doing them any harm, for that if they did not obey God herein they should be punished." So the people of Israel came together to their assembly, and considered of these matters, when a man whose name was Berechiah, and who was one of chief reputation in the government, stood up, and three others with him, and said, "We will not suffer the citizens to bring these prisoners into the city, lest we be all destroyed by God: we have sins enough of our own that we have committed against him, as the prophets assure us: nor ought we therefore to introduce the practice of new crimes. § 1. Now Jotham died when he had lived forty-one years, and of them reigned sixteen, and was buried in the sepulchres of the kings; and the kingdom came to his son Ahaz, who proved most impious towards God, and a trans-When the soldiers heard that, they permitted gressor of the laws of his country. He imi- them to do what they thought best. So the tated the kings of Israel, and reared altars in Je- forenamed men took the captives and let them rusalem, and offered sacrifices upon them to go, and took care of them, and gave them proidols; to which also he offered his own son as visions, and sent them to their own country, a burnt-offering, according to the practices of without doing them any harm. However these the Canaanites. His other actions were also four went along with them, and conducted them of the same sort. Now as he was going on as far as Jericho, which is not far from Jerusain this mad course, Rezin, the king of Syria lem, and returned to Samaria. and Damascus, and Pekah the king of Israel, who were now at amity with one another, made war with him: and when they had driven him into Jerusalem, they besieged that eity a long while, making but a small progress on account of the strength of its walls: and when he king of Syria had taken the city Elath, upon the Red Sea, and had slain the inhabitants, he peopled it with Syrians, and when he had alain those in the [other] garrisons, and the Jews in their neighborhood, and had driven CHAPTER XII. Dow, upon the death of Jotham, Ahaz reigned in his stead; against whom Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, made war; and how Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, came to the assistance of Ahaz, and laid Syria waste, and removing the Damascenes into Media, placed other nations in their room. 3. Ilereupon king Ahaz, having been so thoroughly beaten by the Israelites, sent to Tiglath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, and sued for assistance from him in his war against the Israelites, and Syrians, and Damascenes, with a promise to send him much money; he sent himn also great presents at the same time. Now this king, upon the reception of those ambassadors, came to assist Ahaz, and made war upon the Syrians, and laid their country waste, and took Damascus by force, and slew Rezin their king, *This passage is taken out of the prophet Nahem, ch. ii. the Hebrew original [and not of the Greek version;] as aise 8-13, and is the principal, or rather the only one that is we learn, at his Hebrew copy considerably differed from given us almost verbatim, but a little abridged, in all Jose- ov Se all three texts particularly set down, and compar sephus's known writings: by which quotation we learned togeth, in the essay on the Old Testamen page 187. what he himself always asserts, viz. that he made use of and transplanted the people of Damascus into he upper Media, and brought a colony of As■yrians, and planted them in Damascus. He also afflicted the land of Israel, and took many captives out of it. While he was doing thus with the Syrians, the king Ahaz took all the gold that was in the king's treasures, and the silver, and what was in the temple of God, and what precious gifts were there, and he carried them with him, and came to Damascus, and gave it to the king of Assyria, according to his agreement. So he confessed he owed him thanks for all they had done for him, and returned to Jerusalem. Now this king was so sottish, and thoughtless of what was for his own good, that he would not 'eave off worshipping the Syrian gods when he was beaten by them, but he went on in worshipping them, as though they would procure him the victory; and when he was beaten again, he began to honor the gods of the Assyrians; and he seemed more desirous to honor any other gods than his own paternal and true God, whose anger was the cause of his defeat; nay, he proceeded to such a degree of despite and contempt [of God's worship,] that he shut up the temple entirely, and forbade them to bring in their appointed sacrifices, and took away the gifts that had been given to it. And when he had offered these indignities to God, he died, having lived thirty-six years, and of them reigned sixteen; and he left his son Hezekiah for his successor. CHAPTER XIII. How Pekah died by the treachery of Hoshea, who was a little after subdued by Shalmanezer; and how Hezekiah reigned instead of Ahaz; and what actions of piety and justice he did. 1. About the same time, Pekah, the king of Israel, died, by the treachery of a friend of his, whose name was Hoshea, who retained the kingdom nine years' time, but was a wicked man and a despiser of the divine worship. And Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, made an expedition against him, and overcame him, (which must have been because he had not God favorable or assistant to him,) and brought him to submission, and ordered him to pay an appointed tribute. Now in the fourth year of the reign of Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, began to reign in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abijah, a citizen of Jerusalem. His nature was good, and righteous, and religious; for when he came to the kingdom, he thought that nothing was prior, or more necessary, or more advantageous to himself, and to his subjects, than to worship God. Accordingly, he called the people together, and the priests and the Levites, and made a speech to them, and said, "You are not ignorant, how by the sins of my father, who transgressed that sacred honor which was due to God, you have had experience of many and great miseries, while you were corrupted in your mind by him, and were induced to worship those which he supposed to be gods: I exhort you, therefore, who have learned by sad experience how dangeras a thing impiety is, to put that immediately out of your memory, and to purify yourselves from your former pollutions, and to open the temple to these priests and Levites who are here convened, and to cleanse it with the accus tomed sacrifices, and to recover all to the an cient honor which our fathers paid to it; for by this means we may render God favorable and he will remit the anger he hath had to us." 2. When the king had said this, the priests opened the temple; and when they had set in order the vessels of God, and cast out wha was impure, they laid the accustomed sacrifices upon the altar. The king also sent to the country that was under him, and called the people to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread, for it had been intermitted a long time, on account of the wickedness of the forementioned kings. He also sent to the Israelites, and exhorted them to leave off their present way of living, and return to their ancient practices, and to worship God, for that he gave them leave to come to Jerusalem, and to celebrate, all in one body, the feast of unleavened bread; and this, he said, was by way of invitation only, and to be done of their own good will, and for their own advantage, and not out of obedience to him, because it would make them happy. But the Israelites, upon the coming of the ambassadors, and upon their laying before them what they had in charge from their own king, were so far from complying therewith, that they laughed the ambas sadors to scorn, and mocked them as fools: as also they affronted the prophets who gave them the same exhortations, and foretold what they would suffer if they did not return to the wor ship of God, insomuch that at length they caught them, and slew them: nor did this degree of transgression suffice them, but they had more wicked contrivances than what have been described: nor did they leave off, before God, as a punishment for their impiety, brought them under their enemies; but of that, more hereafter. However, many there were of the tribe of Manasseh, and of Zebulon, and of Issachar, who were obedient to what the prophets exhorted them to do, and returned to the worship of God. Now all these came running to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, that they might worship God [there.] 3. When these men were come, king Hezekiah went up into the temple, with the rulers and all the people, and offered for himself seven bulls, and as many rams, with seven lambs, and as many kids of the goats. The king also himself, and the rulers, laid their hands on the heads of the sacrifices, and permitted the priests to complete the sacred offices about them. So they both slew the sacrifices, and burnt the burnt-offerings, while the levites stood round about them, with their musical instruments, and sung hymns to God, and played on their psalteries, as they were instructed by David to do, and this while the rest of the priests returned the music, and sounded the trumpets which they had in their hands: and when this was done, the king and the multitude threw themselves down upon their face, and wor shipped God. He also sacrificed seventy bulls, of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and quite He also granted the multitude sacrifices to feast demolished the government of the Israelites, and upon, six hundred oxen, and three thousand transplanted all the people into Media and Perother cattle; and the priests performed all things sia, among whom he took king Hoshea alive, according to the law. Now the king was so and when he had removed these people out of pleased herewith, that he feasted with the peo- this their land, he transplanted other nations ple, and returned thanks to God. But as the out of Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is feast of unleavened bread was now come, [still] a river of that name in Persia,) into Sawhen they had offered that sacrifice which is maria, and into the country of the Israelites called the Passover, they after that offered other So the ten tribes of the Israelites were removsacrifices for seven days. When the king had ed out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven bestowed on the multitude, besides what they years after their forefathers were come out of sanctified of themselves, two thousand bulls, the land of Egypt, and possessed themselves and seven thousand other cattle, the same thing of this country, but eight hundred years after was done by the rulers; for they gave them a Joshua had been their leader, and, as I have althousand bulls, and a thousand and forty other ready observed, two hundred and forty years, cattle. Nor had this festival been so well ob- seven months, and seven days, after they had served from the days of king Solomon, as it revolted from Rehoboam the grandson of Dawas now first observed with great splendor and vid, and had given the kingdom to Jeroboam. magnificence: and when the festival was end- And such a conclusion overtook the Israelites, ed, they went out into the country, and purged when they had transgressed the laws, and it, and cleansed the city of all the poliation of would not hearken to the prophets, who foreidols. The king also gave order that the daily told that this calamity would come upon them, sacrifice should be offered, at his own charges, if they would not leave off their evil doings. and according to the law; and appointed that What gave birth to these evil doings was that the tithes and the first-fruits should be given sedition which they raised against Rehoboam, by the multitude to the priests and Levites, the grandson of David, when they set up Jerothat they might constantly attend upon divine boam, his servant, to be their king, who by sinservice, and never be taken off from the wor-ning against God, and bringing them to imitate ship of God. Accordingly, the multitude his bad example, made God to be their enemy, brought together all sorts of their fruits to the while Jeroboam underwent that punishment priests and the Levites. The king also made which he justly deserved. garners and receptacles for these fruits, and 2. And now the king of Assyria invaded all distributed them to every one of the priests Syria and Phoenicia in a hostile manner. The and Levites, and to their children and wives. naine of this king is also set down in the arAnd thus did they return to their old form of chives of Tyre, for he made an expedition divine worship. Now when the king had set- against Tyre, in the reign of Eluleus; and Metled these matters after the manner already de-nander attests to it, who, when he wrote his scribed, he made w. upon the Philistines, and Chronology, and translated the archives of Tyre beat them, and pos essed himself of all the into the Greek language, gives us the following enemies' cities from Gaza to Gath; but the king history: "One whose name was Eluleus, reignof Assyria sent to him, and threatened to over-ed thirty-six years: this king, upon the revolt turn all his dominions, unless he would pay him the tribute which his father paid him formerly; but king Hezekiah was not concerned at his threatenings, but depended on his piety towards God, and upon Isaiah the prophet, by whom he inquired, and accurately knew all future events. And thus much shall suffice for the present concerning this king Hezekiah. CHAPTER XIV. of the Citteans, sailed to them, and reduced them again to submission. Against these did the king of Assyria send an army, and in a hostile manner overran all Phoenicia, but soon made peace with them all, and returned back: but Sidon and Ace, and Palætyrus, revolted; and many other cities there were which delivered themselves up to the king of Assyria. Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not subHow Shalmanezer took Samaria by force, and mit to him, the king returned, and fell upon how he transplanted the Ten Tribes into Me- them again, while the Phoenicians had furnishdia, and brought the nations of the Cutheans ed him with threescore ships, and eight huninto their country [in their room.] dred men to row them; and when the Tyrians §1. When Shalmanezer, the king of Assy-enemies' ships were dispersed, they took five had come upon them in twelve ships, and the ria, had it told him, that [Hoshea,] the king of hundred men prisoners, and the reputation of Israel had sent privately to So, the king of all the citizens of Tyre was thereby increased; Egypt, desiring his assistance against him, he but the king of Assyria returned, and placed was very angry, and made an expedition against Samaria, in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not admitted [into the city] by the king, he besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth year This siege of Samaria, though not given a particular account of, either in our Hebrew or Greek Bibles, or in Jose phus, was so very long, no less than three years, that it was noway improbable but that parents, and particularly mothers, might therein be reduced to eat their own children as the law of Moses had threatened upon their disobedience, Levit. xxvi. 29; Deut. xxviii. 53-57, and as was accomplished in the other shorter sieges of both the capital cities, Jerusalem and Samaria, the former mentioned, Jer. xix. 9, Antiq. b. ix. chap v. sect. 4; and the latter, 2 Kings vi. 26-29. guards at their rivers ana aqueducts, who the king of Assyria, and desired him to sna should hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. them some of those priests of the Israelites This continued for five years, and still the Ty- whom he had taken captive. And when he rians bore the siege, and drank of the water thereupon sent them, and the people were by they had out of the wells they dug." And this them taught the laws, and the holy worship of is what is written in the Tyrian archives con- God, they worshipped him in a respectful man. cerning Shalmanezer the king of Assyria. ner, and the plague ceased immediately; and indeed they continued to make use of the very same customs to this very time, and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutheans, but in the Greek tongue Samaritans. And when they see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that they are changed, and allied to them, and call them kinsmen, as though they were derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance with them; but when they see them falling into a low condition, they say they are noway related to them, and that the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or marks of kindred from them, but they declare that they are sojourners, that come from other countries. But of those we shall have a more seasonable opportunity to discourse hereafter. 3. But now the Cutheans, who removed into Samaria, (for that is the name they have been called by to this time, because they were brought out of the country called Cuthah, which is a country of Persia, and there is a river of the same name in it,) each of them, according to their nations, which were in number five, brought their own gods into Samaria, and by worshipping them, as was the custom of their own countries, they provoked Almighty God to be angry and displeased at them; for a plague seized upon them, by which they were destroyed; and when they found no cure for their miseries they learned by the oracle that they ought to worship Almighty God, as the method for their deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to BOOK X. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO YEARS AND A HALF.-FROM THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES TO THE FIRST OF CYRUS. CHAPTER I. Ethiopians, he left his general Rabshakeh, and destroy Jerusalem. The names of the two two other commanders, with great forces, to other commanders were Tartan and Rabsaris. the walls, they pitched their camp, and sent 2. Now, as soon as they were come before How Sennacherib made an expedition against Hezekiah; what threatenings Rabshakeh made to Hezekiah when Sennacherib was gone against the Egyptians; how Isaiah the prophet encouraged him; how Sennacherib, having failed of success in Egypt, returned thence to Jerusa-messengers to Hezekiah, and desired that they lem; and how, upon his finding his army de- might speak with him; but he did not himself stroyed, he returned home; and what befell him come out to them for fear, but he sent three of a little afterward. § 1. It was now the fourteenth year of the government of Hezekiah, king of the two tribes, when the king of Assyria, whose name was Sennacherib, made an expedition against him with a great army, and took all the cities of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin by force; and when he was ready to bring his army against Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to him beforehand, and promised to submit, and pay what tribute he should appoint. Hereupon Sennacherib, when he heard of what offers the ambassadors made, resolved not to proceed in the war, but to accept of the proposals that were made him, and if he might receive three nundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, he promised that he would depart in a friendly manner; and he gave security upon oath to the ambassadors that he would then do him no harm, but go away as he came. So Hezekiah submitted, and emptied his treasures, and sent the money, as supposing he should be freed from his enemy, and from any further distress about his kingdom. Accordingly, the Assyrian king took it, and yet had no regard to what he had promised; but while he himself went to the war against the Egyptians and his most intimate friends; the name of one was Eliakim, who was over the kingdom and Shebna, and Joah the recorder. So these men came out, and stood over against the commanders of the Assyrian army; and when Rabshakeb saw them, he bade them go and speak to Hezekiah in the manner following: that "Sennacherib, the great king,* desires to know of hin. on whom it is that he relies and depends in flying from his lord, and will not hear him, nor admit his army into the city? Is it on account of the Egyptians, and in hopes that his army would be beaten by them? Whereupon he lets him know, that if this be what he expects, he is a foolish man, and like one who leans on a broken reed, while such a one will not only fall down, but will have his hand pierced and hurt by it. That he ought to know he makes this expedition against him by the will of God, who hath granted this favor to him, that he shall overthrow the kingdom of Israel, and that in the very same manner he shall destroy those that are his subjects also." When Rab shakeh had made this speech in the Hebrew *This title of Great King, both in our Bibles, 2 Kings xviti. 19; Isaiah xxxvi. 4; and here in Josephus, is the very samse that Herodotus gives this Sennacherib, as Spanheim takes notice on this place. tor.gue, for he was skilful in that language, prophet Isaiah said, that "God had heard hi Eliakim was afraid lest the multitude that prayer, and that he should not be besieged at heard him should be disturbed, so he desired this time by the king of Assyria;* and that for him to speak in the Syrian tongue; but the the future he might be secure of not being at general, understanding what he meant, and all disturbed by him; and that the people might perceiving the fear that he was in, he made his go on peaceably, and without fear, with their answer with a greater and a louder voice, but husbandry and other affairs." But after a little in the Hebrew tongue; and said, that "since while, the king of Assyria, when he had failed they all heard what were the king's commands, of his treacherous designs against the Egyptthey would consult their own advantage in de-ians, returned home without success, on the livering up themselves to us, for it is plain that following occasion: he spent a long time in the both you and your king dissuade the people siege of Pelusium; and when the banks that he from submitting by vain hopes, and so induce had raised over against the walls were of a them to resist: but if you be courageous, and great height, and when he was ready to make think to drive our forces away, I am ready to an immediate assault upon them, he heard deliver to you two thousand of these horses that Tirhaka, king of the Ethiopians, was comthat are with me, for your use, if you can set ing, and bringing great forces to aid the Egyptas many horsemen on their backs, and show ians, and was resolved to march through the your strength; but what you have not, you desert, and so fall directly upon the Assyrians, cannot produce. Why, t.ierefore, do you de- this king Sennacherib was disturbed at the lay to deliver up yourselves to a superior force, news, and, as I said before, left Pelusium, and who can take you without your consent? al- returned back without success. Now, conthough it will be safer for you to deliver your-cerning this Sennacherib, Herodotus also says, selves up voluntarily, while a forcible capture, when you are beaten, must appear more dangerous, and will bring further calamities upon you." in the second book of his histories, "How this king came against the Egyptian king, who was the priest of Vulcan, and that, as he was besieging Pelusium, he broke up the siege on the following occasion: this Egyptian priest prayed to God, and God heard his prayer, and sent a judgment upon the Arabian king." But in this Herodotus was mistaken, when he cal ed this king, not the king of the Assyrians, but of the Arabians, for he saith, that "a multitude of mice gnawed to pieces in one night both the bows and the rest of the armor of the Assyrians, and that it was on that account that the king, when he had no bows left, he drew off his army from Pelusium." And Herodotus does indeed give us this history; nay, and Berosus, who wrote of the affairs of Chaldea, makes mention of this king Sennacherib, and that he ruled over the Assyrians, and that he made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt; and says thus:+ 3. When the people, as well as the ambassadors, heard what the Assyrian commander said, they related it to Hezekiah, who thereupon put off his royal apparel, and clothed himself with sackcloth, and took the habit of a mourner; and, after the manner of his country, he fell upon his face, and besought God, and entreated him to assist them, now they had no other hope of relief. He also sent some of his friends, and some of the priests, to the prophet Isaiah, and desired that he would pray to God, and offer sacrifices for their common deliverance, and so put up supplications to him, that he would have indignation at the expectations of their enemies, and have mercy upon his people. And when the prophet had done accordingly, an oracle came from God to him, and encouraged the king and his friends that 5. "Now when Sennacherib was returning were about him; and foretold, that "their ene- from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem: he found mies should be beaten without fighting, and his army under Rabshakeh his general, in danshould go away in an ignominious manner, ger [by a plague,] for God had sent a pestilenand not with that insolence which they now tial distemper upon his army; and on the very show, for that God would take care that they first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore and should be destroyed." He also foretold, that five thousand, with their captains and generals, "Sennacherib the king of Assyria should fail of were destroyed. So the king was in a great his purpose against Egypt, and that when he dread, and in a terrible agony at this calamity, came home he should perish by the sword." *What Josephus says here, how Isaiah the prophet assur4. About the same time also the king of As-ed Hezekiah, that "at this time he should not be besieged syria wrote an epistle to Hezekiah, in which he said, "He was a foolish man in supposing that he should escape from being his servant, since he had already brought under many and great nations; and he threatened, that when he took him, he would utterly destroy him, unless he now opened the gates, and willingly received his army into Jerusalem." When he read this epistle, he despised it on account of the trust that he had in God, but he rolled up the episdle, and laid it up within the temple. And as ne made his farther prayers to God for the city and for the preservation of all the people, the by the king of Assyria; that for the future he might be secure of being not at all disturbed by him; and that [afterward] the people might go on peaceably and without fear with their husbandry and other affairs," is more distinct in our other copies, both of the Kings and of Isaiah, and deserves very great consideration. The words are these: "This shall be a sign unto thee; ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itse f and the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof," 2 Kings xix. 20; Isa. xxxvii. 30; which seems to me plainly to design a sabbatic year, a year of Ju bilee next after it, and the succeeding usual labors and fruits of them on the third and following years. That this terrible calamity of the slaughter of the 185,000 Assyrians is here delivered in the words of Rerosus the Chal dean, and that it was certainly and frequently foretold by the Jewish prophets, and that it was certainly and undeniably ac complished, see Authent. Rec. part ii. page 858. |