Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

But they 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, that 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 Rabshakeh.

LESSON LXXVI.

SENNACHERIB'S LETTER.

B.C. 714.— ISAIAH Xxxvii. 1-18; 2 KINGS xix. 18, 19.

And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy.

It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers

to Hezekiah, saying,

Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?

Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have

* A breath of terror.

LXXVII.]

THE ANSWER TO SENNACHERIB.

ΙΟΙ

destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?

Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying,

O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth

Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, aud see and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. .

Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,

And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.

Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

LESSON LXXVII.

THE ANSWER TO SENNACHERIB.

B.C. 713.-2 KINGS xix. 20— - 34.

Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.

:

I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.

For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

LESSON LXXVIII.

NAHUM'S PROPHECY AGAINST NINEVEH.

B.C. 713.-SELECTIONS FROM NAHUM.

Another prophet's voice joined that of Isaiah in foretelling-not so much the present defeat of Sennacherib, but the future fall of Nineveh-Nahum the Elkoshite, apparently so called from a little village in Galilee, and possibly an Israelite captive in Assyria, uttered a prophecy, the date of which is much questioned, but which the wisest judges have shown to have been almost certainly the encouragement of the faithful during this terrible stress of anxiety.

The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth;

The LORD revengeth and is furious;

The LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries,

And he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

* Or, ring.

LXXVIII.] NAHUM'S PROPHECY AGAINST NINEVEH.

The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power,

And will not at all acquit the wicked:

The LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of his feet.

He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry,

And drieth up all the rivers :

103

Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt,

And the earth is burned at his presence,

Yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

Who can stand before his indignation?

And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?

His fury is poured out like fire,

And the rocks are thrown down by him.

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble;

And he knoweth them that trust in him.

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the
place thereof,

And darkness shall pursue his enemies.
What do ye imagine against the LORD?
He will make an utter end:

Affliction shall not rise up the second time.
For while they be folden together as thorns,
And while they are drunken as drunkards,
They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

*

The shield of his mighty men is made red,
The valiant men are in scarlet:

The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his pre-
paration,

And the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

The chariots shall rage in the streets,

They shall justle one against another in the broad ways:

They shall seem like torches,

They shall run like the lightnings.

He shall recount his worthies:

They shall stumble in their walk;

They shall make haste to the wall thereof,

And the defence shall be prepared.

The gates of the rivers shall be opened,

And the palace shall be dissolved.

The brave men are prepared with scarlet shields and chariots armed with steel. At the report of the enemy the chariots are hastily brought forth, raging and jostling in the streets, swift as a flash of lightning; and the Assyrian king, waking from his drunken sleep, counts his bravest men, but they only go forth to stumble and fall, while the enemy approach the wall under their defence-a covering of planks, with skins over them—under

which the men were guarded from the missiles from the walls; but after all it is by the river gates that her ruin comes. Here the prophet continues to describe that the citizens shall be led captive, and calls to her foes

Take ye the spoil of silver,

Take the spoil of gold,

and foretells her complete emptiness, when she shall be void and waste. He asks

Where is the dwelling of the lions,

And the feeding-place of the young lions,
Where the lion, even the old lion,
Walked, and the lion's whelp,

And none made him afraid?

The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps,
And strangled for his lionesses,

And filled his holes with prey,

And his dens with ravin.

Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts,

And I will burn her chariots in the smoke,

And the sword shall devour thy young lions:

And I will cut off thy prey from the earth,

And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

The courts of the old Lion-there, buried deep in sand, lie the courts of the Lion, guarded at every doorway by the huge winged lion figures, and on the slabs that adorned the walls hunting scenes of the lion carved out, lions struggling against the spears of Assyrian kings, rolling over slain, or biting the arrows that transfixed them in their agony. No figure of an animal is so often repeated as the lion with bristling mane and mighty paws. Indeed the lion was the emblem of the empire; and Nahum goes on to describe the career of conquest and cruelty of Sennacherib as like that of a lion going out for his prey. But the sentence of the LORD is against him. He and his young lions shall be devoured, and finally—

Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria :

Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust:

Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

There is no healing of thy bruise;

Thy wound is grievous:

All that hear the bruit* of thee shall clap the hands over thee,

For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

* Report.