ASS 



ASS 



I Chron. V. 26.). t'lis "-as the time, accordliiff to fir Tfaac 

 Newton, when tlic Aflyrian empire arofe. 'i'liiis he inter- 

 prets the words " fiiice the time of the kings of AfTyvia" 

 (Nchem. ix. 32.) ; i. e. fince the time of ttic kingdom of Af- 

 fyria, or fince the rife of that empire. But though this was 

 the period in whicli tlie Affyrians afHiifled Ifrael, it is not fo 

 evident that the time of the kings of A (fyria mu.1 ntcefTarily 

 be \uiderllood of the rife of the Atfyrian empire. However 

 Newton thus reafons ; and obferves, " that Pul and his iue- 

 ceffors afflie\.c?d Ifrael, and conquered the nations round about 

 them ; and upon the ruin of many fmall and ancient king- 

 doms crciftcd their empire, conquering; tlie Medes, as wAl as 

 Other nations." It is further arjjucd that God by the pro- 

 phet Amos, in the reigu of Jeroboam, about ten or twenty 

 j'ears before the reign of Pul (fee ch. vi. 13, 14.), threatened 

 to raife up a nation againft Ifrael ; and that as Pul reigned 

 prefently after the prophecy of Amos, and was the firfl upon 

 record who began to fulfil it, he may be jullly reckoned 

 the firll conqueror and founder of this empire. See I Chron. 

 V. 26. Pul was fucceedcd on ihc throne of Affyria by his 

 elder fon Tiglathpilefer, and at the fame time he left Baby- 

 lon to his younger fon Nabonafiiar, B. C. 747. Of the con- 

 quefts of this fecond king of Alfyria againft the kings of 

 Ifrael and Syri.ij when he took Damafcus and captivated 

 the .Syrians, we have an account in 2 Kings, xv. 29. 37. 

 xvi. 5. 5. I Chron. v. 26. Amos, i. 5. Jofeph. Ant. 1. 9. c. 13., 

 by which the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled, and from 

 which it appears that the empire of the Affyrians was now 

 become great and powerful. The next king of Aflyria 

 was Shalmancfer or Salmanaifar, who fuccecded Tighuh-pi- 

 Icfer, B. C. 729, and invaded Phoenicia, took the city of 

 Samaria, and B. C. 721 carried the ten tribes into captivity, 

 placing them in Chalach and Chabor, bv the river Gazon, 

 and in the cities of the Medes. Jof. Ant. 1. 9. c. 14. 2 Kings, 

 xvii. 6. Shalmancfer was fucceedcd by Sennacherib, B. C. 

 719 ; and in the year B. C. 714 he was put to flight, with 

 great (laughter, by the Ethiopians and Egyptians. In the 

 year B. C. 711, the Medes revolted from the Affyrians ; Sen- 

 nacherib was (lain ; and he was fuccecded by his fon Efar- 

 Haddon, Afferhadon, Afordan, Aflaradin, or Sarchedon, by 

 which names he is called by different writers. Ke began 

 his reign at Nineveh in the year of Nabonaffar 42 ; and 

 in the year 68 extended it over Babylon. He then carried 

 the remainder of the Samaritans into captivity, and peopled 

 Samaria with captives brought from Ijveral parts of his 

 kingdom, and in the year of Nabonaffar 77 or 78, he feems 

 to have put an end to the reign of the Ethiopians over 

 Egypt. " In the reign of Sennacherib and A(fer-Hadon," 

 fays fir I. Newton, " the AflTyrian empire ftems arrived at its 

 grcatncfs ; being united imder one monarch, and containing 

 Affyria, Media, Apollonlatis, Sufiana, Chaldaea, Mefopo- 

 tamia, Cilicia, Syria, Plioinicia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and part 

 of Arabia ; and rcaehing eaflvvard into Elymais, and Parx- 

 tscene, a province of the Medes, and if Clialach and Chnbor 

 be Colchis and Iberia, as lome think, and as may fcem proba- 

 ble from the circumcifion ufed by thofe nations till the days 

 of Herodotus (1. ii. c. 104), we are alfo to add thefe two 

 provinces, with the two Annenias, Pontus, and Cappadocia, 

 as far as to the river Halys. For Herodotus (l.i. c. 72. 

 I. vii. c. 63.) tells us, that the people of Cappadocia, as far 

 ss to that river, were call -d Syrians by the Greeks, both 

 before and after the days of Cyrus ; and that the Affyrians 

 were alfo called Syrians by the Greeks." Affer-Hadon was 

 fuccecded in the year B. C. 668, by Saofduchinus. At this 

 time Manaffeh was allowed to letarn home and fortify Jcru- 

 falem : and the Egyptians alfo, after the Affyrians had ha- 

 rafled Egypt and Ethiopia three years (Ifai. xx. 3, 4.), were 



o 



fet at liberty. Saofduchinus, after a reign of twenty years, 

 was fuccecded at Babylon, a.id probably at Nineveh alio, by 

 Chyniladon, in the year B. C. 647. This Chyniladon is fup- 

 pofed by Newton to be the Nabuchadonofor mentioned in the 

 book of Judith (i. i — 15.), who made war upon Arphaxad 

 king of the Medes, and though defertcd by his auxiliaries 

 of Cilicia, Damafcus, Syria, Phoenicia, Moab, Amnion, and 

 Egypt, routed the army of the Medes, and fiew Arphaxad. 

 Tliis Arphaxad is fuppofcd to be either Dcjoces, or 

 his fon Phraortcs, mentioned by Herodotus (1. i. c. 102.> 

 Soon »ftcr the death of Phraortes in the year B. C. 635, the 

 Scythians invaded the Medes and Perfians ; and in 625, 

 Nabupalaffar, the commander of the forces of Chyniladon 

 in Chalda-a, revolted from him, and became king of liabylon. 

 Chyuiladon was either then, or foon after, fuccecded at 

 Nineveh by the lafl king of Affyria, called Sarac by Poly- 

 hiilor. Tlie authors of the Univcrfal Hillory fuppofe Saof- 

 duchinus to have been the Nabuchadonofor of Scripture, and 

 Chyniladon or Chynaladan to have been the Sarac of Poly- 

 hiflor. At length Nebuchadnezzar, the fon of Nabopolaf- 

 far, married Amyite, the daughter of Aflyages king of tlic 

 Medes, and fitter of Cyaxeres ; and by this marriage the two 

 families having contracted affinity, they coufpired againft 

 the Affyrians. Nabopalaflfar being old, and Aflyages dead, 

 their fons Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxeres led the armies of 

 the two nations againft Nineveh ; flew Sarac, deftroyed' 

 the city, and (liartd the kingdom of the Affyrians. This 

 viftory the Jews refer to the Chaldeans ; the Greeks, tt> 

 the Ivledes ; Tobit (xiv. 15.), Polyhiftor (apud Eufcb. in 

 Ciiron.), Jofephus (1.x. c. 2. § 2. p. 435.), and Ctefias (apud 

 Diod. Sic. 1. ii. c. 24. p. 78.), to both. With this viftory 

 commenced the great fucceffcs of Nebuchadnezzar and 

 Cyaxeres, and it laid the foundation of the two collateral 

 empires of the Babylonians and Medes, which were branches 

 of the Affyrian empire ; and hence the time of the fall of the 

 Affyrian empire is determined, the conquerors being then in 

 their youth. In the reign of Joliah, when Zcphaniah pro- 

 phefied, Nineveh and the kinsjdom of Affyria were ifanding, 

 and their fall wasprediftedby that prophet, Zepll. i. 3. and 

 ii. 13. And in the end of his reign, Pharaoh Necho king of 

 Egypt, the fucccffor of Pfammitichus, went up againft the 

 king of Affyria to the river Euphrates, to fight againft Car- 

 chemifli or Circutium, and in his way thither flew Jofiah 

 (2 Kings, xxiii. 29. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20.) ; and therefore the 

 laft king of Affyria was not yet flain. But in the third and 

 fourth year of Jehoiakim, thefucceffor of Jofiah, the two con- 

 querors having taken Nineveh and finiflied their war in Affy- 

 ria, profecuted their conquefts weftward ; and leading tlicir 

 forces ngainfl the king of Egypt, as an invader of their right 

 of conquefl, they beat him at Carchcmifh, and took from him 

 whatever he had recently taken from the Affyrians (2 Kings, 

 xxiv. 7. Jer. xlvi. 2. Eupolemus apud Eufeb. Pra?p. 1. ix. 

 c. 35.) ; and therefore we cannot err, fays fir Ifaac Newton, 

 above a year or two, if we refer the deftruftion of Nineveh, 

 and fall of the Affyrian empire, to thethird year of Jehoiakim, 

 or the 140th, or according to Blair the 141ft year of Na- 

 bonaflfar, that is the year 607 B. C. Newton fuggefts, that 

 the name of the lafl king Sarac might have been contrafted 

 from Sarchedon ; as this name was from Afferhadon, Affer- 

 hadon-Pul, or Sardanapalus : but how, fays his learned 

 commentator, bifiiop Horfley, is this confident with what he 

 has fo fully proved in the preceding difcufiion of this fubjeft, 

 that Afferhadon had two fuccefforsat Nineveh, Saofduciiiniis 

 and Chyniladon } or with his affertion, that Sarac, the laft 

 Affyrian king, was the fucccffor of Chyniladon ? 



Blair, in his Chronological Tables, ftates the commence- 

 ment of the reign of Pbul, in the year 777 B. C. ; tlie 



fucceffioa 



