- 148-
centuries past. The disappointment of these hopes must have shown that, even as Israel
had at the first held the land, not by the power of man, but by the Divine appointment, so
would no combination, however hopeful, succeed in restoring what only the God of Israel
could bestow. And this has its lessons for the future, as well as in the past.
It has already been stated that Assyria was no longer able to suppress any attempts at
independent action in Palestine. Under the brilliant but cruel reign of Asurbanipal (the
son of Ezar-haddon) Assyria had reached the highest point of its might; but with it also
commenced the decay of the cumbrous empire. Its beginning may be dated from the
rebellion of Sammughes (Saosduchin, i.e., Samul-sum-iskun), the brother of Asurbanipal
and viceroy of Babylon. That rebellion was indeed crushed, and its author perished in the
flames, the victor himself assuming the crown of Babylon. But already other forces were
in the field. Elam-Persia, the latest conquest of Assyria, rose in rebellion. These armies
were indeed vanquished in two or rather three wars; but from the east the Medes invaded
Assyria. The attack was unsuccessful, and cost the Median king, Phraortes, his life. But
over Western Asia and far down to Egypt the power of Assyria was lost. And from the
north of the Black Sea, from the steppes of Russia, the Scythians swept down and overran
the country to the shores of the Mediterranean, and down to the borders of Egypt. There
Psammetichus succeeded in buying them off, and the majority of the barbarians returned
northwards. Some writers have supposed that they came into conflict with Josiah, and
that Jeremiah 4:5-6:30, as well as some of the utterances of Zephaniah, refer to this, and
that the presence of the invaders was perpetuated in the later name of Scythopolis for
Beth-Shean. But this is, to say the least, doubtful. When, after many years, the
Medes succeeded in finally repelling the Scythians, Assyria was utterly exhausted, and
the fall of Nineveh at hand.
- Comp. Judith 3:11; 2 Maccabees 12:29, etc.
** Kautzsch in Riehm's Hand-Worterb. II. p. 1445b.
*** The actual number stated is twenty-eight years, but this seems exaggerated. The
twenty-eight years would be between 633 and 605 B.C.
But before that an event had taken place of special importance in the history of Judah.
The decline of Assyria had naturally rekindled the hopes of Egypt, its rival for the empire
of the ancient world. Hitherto it had always been worsted in the contests with Assyria.
But now, Pharaoh-Necho (really Necho II.), the son of Psammetichus (the founder of the
twenty-sixth, Saite dynasty), resolved to attack the Assyrian power. To us a special
interest attaches to Necho, since he was the first to attempt joining the Red Sea with the
Mediterranean, although he had finally to desist from the enterprise.*
(^)