ORIENTAL DISCOVERIES ON OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 



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brought upon them the captains of the king of Assyria who 

 took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, 

 and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he 

 besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before 

 the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him, and he was 

 intreated of Him, and heard his supplication, and brought him 

 again to Jerusalem into his kingdom." " The reader is aware," 

 says Schrader in his reference to the above, " that this passage 

 has been the subject of much discussion. Objections were 

 raised by the critics to a statement which had no place in the 

 Book of Kings, and it was thought that this passage should be 

 severed from the narrative, as being altogether unhistorical."* 

 One ground upon which that conclusion was based, was the 

 belief that in Manasseh's time (697-641 B.C.) there was no 

 connection between Assyria and Judah. This has been shown 

 to be a delusion. Esarhaddon (681-668 B.C.) conquered the 

 whole of Syria and Egypt towards the close of his reign ; and 

 in the list of tributary kings, he gives the name of MUiassi 

 sar mat Jaiidi, tliat is, " Manasseh king of the country of Judah." 

 This king is also mentioned in the same way by Assurbanipal 

 (668-626 B.C.). This last known king of Assyria tells how 

 news was brought to him of Tirhakah's invasion of Egypt. 



Over these tilings," he says, " my heart was bitter and much 

 afflicted. By the command of Assur and the goddess Assuritu, 

 I gathered my powerful forces, which Assur and Ishtar had 

 placed in my hands ; to Egypt and Ethiopia I directed the 

 march. In the course of my expedition, twenty-two kings of 

 the side of the sea and middle of the sea, all tributaries 

 dependent upon me, to my presence came and kissed my feet.^t 

 In a supplementary inscription, Assurbanipal names these 

 tributary kings, and " Manasseh, king of Judah," is on the list. 

 Manasseh, therefore, had the long: reig;n attributed to him, 

 -extending from the time of Sennacherib to the days of Assur- 

 banipal. It also follows that, in Manasseh's reign, the hold 

 of Assyria upon Judah was firm and continuous. 



There are five other points in regard to which the inscriptions 

 fnrnish welcome information. (1) The Scripture narrative 

 plainly implies that Manasseh, described by both Esaihaddon 

 and his son as a fathful tributary of Assyria, rebels at the end 

 -of his reign. About that very time a widespread conspiracy 

 was organised by a brother of Assurbanipal. An inscription of 



* Cuneiform Inscriptions, etc., vol, ii, p. 53. 

 t Geo. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, p. 317. 



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