S2 REV. JOHN Ur.QUHAKT_, ON THE BEAKING OF EECENT 



Hezekiah appears to have sliared. Sennacherib tells how it 

 was suppressed, and says, " And as for Hazaqiau (Hezekiah) of 

 the land of the Yaudaa (the Jews), who had not submitted to 

 my yoke, forty-six of his strono; cities, fortresses, and small 

 towns which were ronnd them, which were innumerable .... 

 I besieged and captured." He then speaks of the siege of 

 Jerusalem itself, apparently mixing up intentionally a later and 

 unsuccessful attempt with the trilnite which Hezekiah paid 

 him. That tribute is said to have been 30 talents of gold and 

 800 talents of sil\ er along with a number of things which are 

 not mentioned in the Scripture account, but which no doubt 

 formed part of the treasure sent to the Assyrian king. The 

 siege, the Scripture tells us, was resolved upon afterwards and 

 had to be raised. Sennacherib contirms that account by his 

 silence. He dues not take the city. He does not lead away 

 captives from it. He punishes neither the king nor his nobles. 

 Sennacherib, in another inscription, indicates his plea for the 

 expedition against Jerusalem. He says, " He himself, like a bird 

 in a cage, inside Jerusalem his royal city I shut him up ; siege 

 towers against him I constructed, lor he had given connnand to 

 renew the bulwarks of the great gate of his city."* Hezekiah 

 had in this way given fresh offence to his powerful and 

 overbearing foe. 



A discrepancy apparently exists between the two accounts of 

 the tribute. The Assyrian, while agreeing with the Scripture 

 narrative in regard to the weight of the .i:old, speaks of a much 

 larger silver tribute — 800 talents instead of 300. This long 

 i'ormed a serious difficulty, but is now cleared away. The 

 Hebrew silver talent was heavier than the Assyrian, in the 

 proportion of 8 to ."), so that the bOO of the one account is the 

 exact equivalent of the 300 of the other.t From the above 

 one conclusion alone can be drawn. There is absolutely no trace 

 of legend or of the distortions of tradition in the lUblical 

 account. It is as well inf(jrnied and as accurate as the Assyrian ; 

 and it is absolutely free from the vainglorious boastfulness 

 which permeates and mars the great king's inscriptions. 



A small det>ail illustrates the exactitude of the Scripture 

 references. We are told that Hezekiah sent his tribute to 

 Sennacherib at Lachish, a city to tlie south-west of Jerusalem 

 which lay upon the Assyrian king's way to Egypt. There are 

 various other Scripture references to his siege of that city ; but 



l*n'('ord)i of the Past, vol. i, pp. 40, 41. 

 t See Evetts, New Liyht on the Bible, p. 347. 



