The Expositor's Bible Part 52

608.--Death of Josiah in the battle of Megiddo against Pharaoh Necho.

The dates and names of a.s.syrian kings as given in _Records of the Past_ (ii. 207, 208) do not exactly accord with these in all cases.

B.C.

Tiglath-Pileser II. 950 a.s.sur-dan II. 930 Rimmon-Nirari II. 911 Tiglath-Uras II. 889 a.s.sur-natzu-pal 883 Shalmaneser II. 858 a.s.sur-dain-pal (a rebel) 825 Samsi-Rimmon II. 823 Rimmon-Nirari III. 810 Shalmaneser III. 781 a.s.sur-dan III. 771 a.s.sur-Nirari 753 Tiglath-Pileser III. (Pul) 745 Shalmaneser IV. (an usurper) 727 Sargon (Jareb?) (usurper) 722 Sennacherib 705 Esar-haddon I. 681 a.s.sur-bani-pal 668 * * * * * *

Destruction of Nineveh under Esar-haddon II., or Sarakos 606

INSCRIPTION OF SHALMANESER II. ON THE BLACK OBELISK IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM[919]

It begins with an invocation to the G.o.ds Rimmon, Adar, Merodach, Nergal, Beltis, Istar, and proceeds:--

"I am Shalmaneser, the strong king, king of all the four Zones of the Sun, the marcher over the whole world, ... who has laid his yoke upon all lands hostile to him, and has swept them like a whirlwind."

It tells of his campaigns against the Hitt.i.tes etc., etc.

The allusion to Jehu runs as follows:--

"The tribute of Yahua, son of Khumri, silver, gold, bowls of gold, vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, sceptres for the king's hand, staves, I received."

This inscription is supplemented by another on a monolith found at Karkh, twenty miles from Diarbekr (_Records_, iii 81-100), which mentions the battle of Karkar, with its slaughter of fourteen thousand of the enemy, among whom was Sirlai--_i.e._, Ahab of Israel.

II

TIGLATH-PILESER II. (CIRC. B.C. 739)

In his Records he mentions no less than five Hebrew kings--Azariah, Jehoahaz (Ahaz), Menahem, Pekah, Hoshea--as well as Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre, etc. His name perhaps means "He who puts his trust in Adar." See _Records of the_ _Past_, v. 45-52; Schrader, _Keilinschr._, pp. 149-151; G. Smith, _a.s.syrian Discoveries_, pp. 254-287.

Unfortunately the inscriptions are very mutilated and fragmentary.

III

Our chief knowledge of SARGON is from the great inscription in the Palace of Khorsabad. It is translated by Prof. Dr. Jules Oppert, _Records of the Past_, ix. 1-21. The king's inscription at Bavian, north-east of Mosul, is in the same volume, pp. 21-28, translated by Dr. T. G. Pinches. See, too, _id._, vii. 21-56, xi. 15-40.

The Khorsabad inscription has these pa.s.sages:--

"The great G.o.ds have made me happy by the constancy of their affection; they have granted me the exercise of my sovereignty over all kings."

He says:--

"I besieged and occupied the town of Samaria; I took twenty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty of its inhabitants captive. I took from them fifty chariots, but left them the rest of their belongings.

I placed my lieutenants over them; I renewed the obligations imposed upon them _by one of the kings who preceded me_." [Tiglath-Pileser, whom Sargon does not choose to name.]

"Hanun, King of Gaza, and Sabaco, Sultan of Egypt, allied themselves at _Raphia_ to oppose me. I put them to flight. Sabaco fled, and no one has seen any trace of him since. I imposed a tribute on Pharaoh, King of Egypt."

He tells us that he defeated the usurper Ilubid of Hamath, who had been a smith; burnt Karkar; and flayed Ilubid alive.

He defeated Azuri and Jaman of Ashdod, and his most persistent enemy, Merodach-Baladan, son of Jakin, King of Chaldaea.

He ends with a prayer that a.s.sur may bless him.

IV

Bellino's Cylinder comprises the first two years of SENNACHERIB. It is translated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 22-32. It was published by Layard in the first volume of _British Museum Inscriptions_, pl. 63. The facsimile of it was made by Bellino.

It begins:--

"SENNACHERIB, the great king, the powerful king, the king of a.s.syria, the king unrivalled, the pious monarch, the wors.h.i.+pper of the great G.o.ds, ... the n.o.ble warrior, the valiant hero, the first of all kings, the great punisher of unbelievers who are breakers of the holy festivals.

"a.s.sur, my lord, has given me an unrivalled monarchy. Over all princes he has raised triumphantly my arms.

"In the beginning of my reign I defeated Marduk-Baladan, King of Babylon, and his allies the Elamites, in the plains near the city of Kish. He fled alone; he got into the marshes full of reeds and rushes, and so saved his life."

(He proceeds to narrate the spoiling of Marduk's camp, and his palace in Babylon, and how he carried off his wife, his harem, his n.o.bles.)

We see here an ill.u.s.tration of the vaunting tones of this king which are so faithfully reproduced in 2 Kings xviii.

His Bull Inscription, chiefly relating to his defeats of Merodach-Baladan, is translated by Rev. J. M. Rodwell (_Records of the Past_, vii. 57-64).

V

The Taylor Cylinder, so called from its former possessor, is a hexagonal clay prism found at Nineveh in 1830, and now in the British Museum (translated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 33-53).

The first two campaigns of Sennacherib are related as on the Bellino Cylinder. The Taylor Cylinder narrates campaigns of his first eight years.

The story of the third campaign narrates the defeat of Elulaeus, King of Sidon; the tribute of Menahem, King of Samaria; the defeat of Zidka, King of Askelon; the revolt of Ekron, which deposed the a.s.syrian va.s.sal Padi, and sent him in iron chains to Hezekiah; the battle of Egypt and Ethiopia at Altaqu (Eltekon, Josh. xv. 59), and the capture of Timnath. Of Hezekiah the king says:--

"And Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet, forty-six of his strong cities, castles, and smaller towns, with warlike engines, I captured; 200,500 people, small and great, male and female, horses, sheep, etc., without number, I carried off. Himself I shut up like a bird in a cage inside Jerusalem. Siege-towers against him I constructed. I gave his plundered cities to the kings of Ashdod, Ekron, and Gaza. I diminished his kingdom; I augmented his tribute.

The fearful splendour of my majesty had overwhelmed him. The hors.e.m.e.n, soldiers, etc., which he had collected for the fortification of Jerusalem his royal city, now carried tribute, thirty talents of gold, eight hundred of silver, scarlet, embroidered woven cloth, large precious stones, ivory couches and thrones, skins, precious woods; his daughters, his harem, his male and female slaves, unto Nineveh, my royal city, after me he sent; and to pay tribute he sent his envoy."

He then narrates his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh campaigns against Elam, etc. His eighth was against "the children of Babylon, wicked devils," etc. He ends by describing the splendour of the palace which he built.

VI

An inscription of ESAR-HADDON, found at Kouyunjik, now in the British Museum, mentions his receipt of the intelligence of his father's murder by his unnatural brothers, while he was commanding his fathers army on the northern confines.

"From my heart I made a vow. My liver was inflamed with rage.

Immediately I wrote letters, saying I a.s.sumed the sovereignty of my Father's House." He prayed to the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses; they encouraged him, and in spite of a great snowstorm he reached Nineveh, and defeated his brother, because Istar stood by his side and said to their army, "An unsparing deity am I" (_Records of the Past_, iii, 100-108).

VII