placed garrisons therein, sufficient to put a stop to all incursions of the Arabs, which might that way be made upon him, before he would begin that siege; for, otherwise, he could not have been able to carry it on with success.

In the same year that Samaria was taken,m MardocEmpadus began his reign at Babylon. He was the son of Belesis, or Baladin, or Nobanassar (for by all these names was he called,) and was the same," who in Scripture is called Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan. But, after the death of his father, several other princes had succeeded in Babylon before the crown came to him. For Nobanassar dying when he had sat in the throne fourteen years, after him reigned Nadeus two years; and after him Chinzerus and Porus jointly five years; and then after them Jugæus five years. But of these there being nothing on record besides their names in the canon of Ptolemy, we have not hitherto taken any notice of them. After Jugæus succeeded Mardoc-Empadus, in the twenty-seventh year after the beginning of his father's kingdom in Babylon, and reigned twelve years.

While Salmaneser was engaged in the siege of Samaria, Hezekiah took the opportunity of recovering what had been lost from his kingdom in the reign of his father. And therefore, P making war upon the Philistines, he not only regained all the cities of Judah, which they had seized during the time that Pekah and Rezin distressed the land, but also dispossessed them of almost all their own country, excepting Gaza and Gath.

As soon as the siege of Samaria was over, Salmaneser sent to Hezekiah to demand the tribute, An. 720. which Ahaz had agreed to pay for the kingHezek. 8. dom of Judea, in the time of Tiglath-Pileser,

his father; but Hezekiah trusting in the Lord his God, would not hearken unto him; neither did he pay him any tribute, or send any presents unto him; which would immediately have brought Salmaneser upon him with all his power, but that he was diverted by another war.

m Canon Ptolemæi.

n Isa. xxxix, 1. p 2 Kings xviii, 8. Josephus Antiq. lib. 9, c. 13.

o Canon Ptolemæi. q 2 Kings xviii, 7.

For Elulæus, king of Tyre, seeing the Philistines brought low by the war which Hezekiah had lately made upon them, laid hold of the opportunity of reducing Gath again under his obedience, which had sometime before revolted from him. Whereupon the Gittites, applying themselves to Salmaneser, engaged them in their cause; so that he marched with his whole army against the Tyrians. Whereon Sidon, Ace, (afterwards called Ptolemais, and now Acon,) and the other maritime towns of Phoenicia, which till then had been subject to the Tyrians, revolted from them, and submitted to Salmaneser. But the Tyrians, having, in a sea-fight, with twelve ships only, beaten the Assyrian and Phoenician fleets both joined together, which consisted of sixty ships, this gave them such a reputation in naval affairs, and made their name so terrible in this sort of war, that Salmaneser would not venture to cope with them any more at sea; but turning the war into a siege, left an army to block up the city, and returned into Assyria. The forces which he left there much distressed the place, by stopping their aqueducts, and cutting off all the conveyances of water to them. To relieve themselves in this exigency, they digged wells, from whence they drew up the water, and by the help of them held out five years; at the end of which Salmaneser dying, Hezek. 13. this delivered them for that time. But they being over puffed up with this success, and growing very insolent hereon, this provoked that prophecy against them in the twenty-third chapter of Isaiah, which foretold the miserable overthrow, that should afterwards happen unto them; and was accordingly effected by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, as will be hereafter shewn.

An, 715.

In the ninth year of Hezekiah, died Sabacon, or So, king of Egypt, after he had reigned in that country, s eight years, and Sevechus, his son, whom Herodotus" calleth Sethon, reigned in his stead.

r Annales Menandri apud Josephum Antiq. lib. 9, c. 14. et contra Appionem, lib. 1. s Africanus apud Syncellum, p. 74. u Africanus, lib. 2.

t Africanus, p. 74. .

An. 714.

Salmaneser, king of Assyria, being dead, after he had reigned fourteen years, Sennacherib, his son, succeeded him in the kingdom, and reign- Hezek. 14. ed about eight years. He is the same whom the prophet Isaiah (c. xx, 1,) called Sargon. As soon as he was settled in the throne, he renewed the demand, which his father had made upon Hezekiah for the tribute, which Ahaz had agreed to pay in the reign of Tiglath-Pileser, his grandfather; and, his refusal to comply with him herein, denounced war against him, and marched with a great army into Judea to fall upon him. This was in the fourteenth year of the reign of king Hezekiah.

on

In this same year, Hezekiah, falling sick of the pestilence, had a message from God, by the prophet Isaiah, to set his house in order, and prepare for death; but, on his hearty prayer to God, he obtained another message from him, by the same prophet, which promised him life for fifteen years longer, and also deliverance from the Assyrians, who were then coming against him; and, to give him thorough assurance hereof, by a miraculous sign, God did, at his request, make the sun go backward ten degrees upon the sundial of Ahaz. And, accordingly, a lump of figs having been, by the prophet's direction, made into a plaster, and laid to the pestilential boil, he recovered within three days, and went up to the house of God, to return thanks unto him for so wonderful a deliv

erance.

Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon (the same who in Ptolemy's canon is called Mardoch-Empadus) hearing of this miraculous recovery, sent ambas- An. 713. sadors unto him, to congratulate him hereon; Hezek. 15. which Hezekiah was much pleased with.

Their coming on this occasion, seemeth principally to have been for two reasons. The first, to inquire about the miracle of the sun's retrogradation, (for the Chaldeans, being above all other nations then given to the study of astronomy, were very curious in their inquiries after such matters;) and the other, to enter into

v Tobit i, 15. w 2 Kings xviii. 2 Chron. xxxii. Isa. xxxvi. x 2 Kings xx. 2 Chron. xxxii, 24. Isa. xxxviii. y 2 Kings xx. Isa. xxxix.

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an alliance with him against Sennacherib, whose growing power the Babylonians had reason to fear, as well as the Jews. And to make the Babylonians put the greater value upon his alliance on this account, seems to be the reason, that Hezekiah shewed those ambassadors from them all the riches of his house, his treasures, his armoury, and all his stores and strength for war. But by this he having expressed the vanity and pride of his mind, God sent him, by the prophet Isaiah, a rebuking message for it, and also a prophecy of what the Babylonians should afterwards do unto his family, in order to the humbling of that pride, with which his heart was then elated.

Towards the end of the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib came up with a great army against the fenced cities of Judah, and took several of them, and laid siege to Lachish, threatening Jerusalem itself next. Whereon Hezekiah, taking advice of his princes and chief counsellors, made all manner of preparations for its defence; repairing the walls, and making new ones, where they were wanting, and fortifying them with towers, and all other works and buildings, necessary for their defence. And he provided also darts and shields in great abundance, and all other arms and artillery, which might be any way useful for the defending of the place, and the annoying of the enemy on their coming against it. And he caused all the people to be enrolled and marshalled for the war, that were fit and able for it; placing over them captains of experience, to instruct them in all military exercises, and to conduct and lead them forth against the enemy, whenever there should be an occasion for it. And he took care also to stop up all the wells, that were without the walls of Jerusalem, for a great compass round the city, and diverted all brooks and water-courses from coming that way; thereby to distress the enemy for want of water, should they come and set down before that place. And farther, to strengthen himself the more, against so potent and formidable an enemy, he entered into alliance with the king of Egypt for their mutual dez 2 Kings xx. 2 Chron. xxxii. Isa. xxxvi.

fence. But the prophet Isaiah condemned this alliance, as carrying with it a distrust in God, telling the Jews, that they should confide in him alone for their deliverance, who would himself come down to fight for Mount Zion, and deliver and preserve Jerusalem from the power of the enemy, that was then risen up against it: and that whatsoever trust they should place in Egypt, should all come to nothing, and be of no benefit to them, but rather turn to their shame, their reproach, and their confusion; and so in the event it accordingly happened.

However, Sennacherib being informed of all these preparations, which Hezekiah had made for his defence, and perceiving thereby how difficult a work it would be to take so strong a city, when so well appointed, and provided for its defence, he became inclined to hearken to terms of accommodation; and therefore, on Hezekiah's sending to treat with him, it was agreed, that Hezekiah paying unto him three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold for the present, and duly rendering his tribute for the future, there should be peace. But when Sennacherib had received the money, he had little regard to this agreement, but soon after broke it, and again renewed the war as will be hereafter shown. However, for the present, he gave him some respite, and marched against Egypt; and, the better to open his way into that country, he sent Tartan, one of his generals, before him to take Ashdod, or Azotus: from the taking of which place, the prophet Isaiah dates the beginning of the war which Sennacherib had with the Egyptians; wherein, according as that prophet had foretold, he much afflicted that people three years together, destroying their cities, and carrying multitudes of them into captivity. At that time Sevechus, the son of Sabacon, or So, the Ethiopian, was king of

a Isa. xxx, xxxi.

C

b An Hebrew talent, according to Scripture, Exod. xxxviii, 25—27, containing three thousand shekels, and every shekel being three shillings of our money, these three hundred talents of silver must contain of our money, one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds, and the thirty talents of gold, two hundred and sixteen thousand pounds. So the whole sum here paid by Hezekiah amounted to three hundred fifty-one thousand pounds of our money. ¡c Isa. xx, 1. d Isa. xx, 3, 4. Josephus Antiq. lib. 10, c. 1, 2.