waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down to the west side of the city of David.1 And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

Hezekiah's Sickness (2 Kings xx. 1-11). In those days. was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him: "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying: "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight." And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out of the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying: "Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake."

And Isaiah said: Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah: "What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?" And Isaiah said: "This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?" And Hezekiah answered: "It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees." And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.

1 waters of Gihon. Now called the Virgin Spring. Its waters were brought by a rock-cut tunnel through the Temple hill to the Pool of Siloam within the city wall. In 1880 an inscription was discovered, recording the completion of this tunnel.

Embassy of Merodach-baladan (2 Kings xx. 12-19). At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them all the house of his precious things,

the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.

Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him: "What said these men ? and from whence came they unto thee?" And Hezekiah said: "They are come from a far country, even from Babylon." And he said: "What have they seen in thine house?" And Hezekiah answered: "All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them." And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah : "Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah: "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken." And he said: "Is it not so, if peace and truth be in my days?'

1 Merodach-baladan was a Chaldean prince who had made himself master of Babylon in 721 B. c. In 710 he was expelled by Sargon. The real purpose of his embassy to Hezekiah was probably to form an alliance against the Assyrians. He recovered his throne again for a few months in 702 B. C., but was finally overthrown by Sennacherib, just before the latter's great western campaigia.

Sennacherib's Invasion of Judah (2 Kings xviii. 13-37; xix. 1-9, 35-37; xx. 20, 21). Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying: "I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear." And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah

king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

1 Sennacherib's record of this invasion is inscribed on one of the colossal bulls which stood in the grand entrance to the palace at Kouyunjik. We here learn that Hezekiah's revolt was part of a concerted movement in which many Philistine and Phoenician cities also took part, with the support of Egypt. Sennacherib records that he first invaded Phoenicia, subduing Sidon and other towns, upon which Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom submitted; that he then invaded the Philistine country, reduced the rebellious cities, and defeated the Egyptian army which had come to their relief. He then turned upon Judah, and took forty-six of its towns, which he apportioned among the Philistine kings that had remained loyal. Hezekiah, he says, "like a bird in a cage, I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city," until he submitted to pay 30 talents of gold and 800 of silver, and to send his daughters and concubines as hostages to Nineveh.

And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rabsaris and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish' to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up, and when they were come to Jerusalem, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field. And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

And the Rab-shakeh said unto them: "Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? Thou sayest (but they are but vain words), I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Lo, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. But if ye say unto me, We trust in the Lord our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? Now therefore, I pray thee, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. How then wilt thou turn away the face of one of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen ? Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it ? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it."

Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto the Rab-shakeh: "Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall." But the Rab-shakeh said unto them: "Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own water with you?

Then the Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying: "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria: Thus saith the king, Let not

1 Sennacherib was then besieging Lachish (2 Chron. xxxii. 9). The Tartan was the commander-in-chief; the Rabsaris, perhaps the chief eunuch; and the Rab-shakeh, the chief of the captains.

Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand: neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern: until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The Lord will deliver us. Hath of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the

any

gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Where are the gods of the land of Sa

maria ?

have

they delivered

Samaria out of

mine hand?

Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that

Assyrian Chariot of the time of Sennacherib.

have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?" But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, "Answer him not.”

Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of the Rab-shakeh.

And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went