- 105-
200, 150 of their captive inhabitants, men and women; of the taking of immense booty,
and
the annexation - probably only nominal, and, in any case, temporary - of the conquered
districts to the domains of the small potentates on the sea-board, friendly to Assyria. It is
to this expedition that Isaiah 10:28-34 refers, as indeed the whole prophecy in the tenth
chapter of Isaiah applies to the war of Sennacherib against Judah.*
- English critics generally - comp. Professor Cheyne's Commentary on Isaiah, p. 66 (1st
Ed.) - have applied this chapter to the expedition of Sargon on account of the reference in
Isaiah 10:9 to Hamath, Arpad, Samaria, and Damascus, which were taken, not by
Sennacherib, but by Sargon. But the mention of these places occurs similarly in 2 Kings
18:34. For an explanation of it we refer to our subsequent remarks on that passage.
Beyond Ascalon it was scarcely safe for Sennacherib to advance much further. The
Egypto-Ethiopian army was expected in front; behind him, yet unconquered, was Ekron,
and on his flank the strong fortress of Jerusalem, with the whole flower of the Judaean
army and the hired auxiliaries to whom the Assyrian monuments refer. It was therefore a
wise strategic movement on the part of Sennacherib to turn aside and lay siege to
Lachish, the modern Umm Lakis.*
- We remember it as the place to which Amaziah fled, and where he was murdered (2
Chronicles 25:27).
It was still a continuation of his advance in the direction of Egypt, although a departure
from the straight road to it, and it would oblige the Egyptian army to make a
disadvantageous digression inland, thus removing it from the main basis of its operations.
But in Lachish, Sennacherib also held a strong position both against Ekron and
Jerusalem, the latter being at the apex of an isosceles triangle, of which Ekron and
Lachish form the extremities of the base. Thus he would be able to turn upon either one
or the other line converging upon Lachish, or else to move rapidly upon Gaza. On the
other hand, Hezekiah, seeing the success of the Assyrian advance, and perhaps despairing
of a timely approach of the Egyptian army, sought to make his peace with Sennacherib,
and sent to Lachish the embassy and tribute of which we read in 2 Kings 18:14-16. It
was, no doubt, on this occasion also that Hezekiah set at liberty the captive king of
Ekron, according to the Assyrian records, and sent him to Sennacherib.
After this point the Assyrian inscriptions purposely become confused, and mix up a series
of different events, with the evident intention of conveying a false impression and
(^)