IlECRNT ORIENTAL DISCOVERIES ON OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. 175 



The Assyrians in Contact with Israel. 



Testimony to the Veracity of the Biblical Historians. 



The points at which the Assyrians came into touch with 

 Israel are intensely interesting, but do not raise as a rule any 

 highly controversial questions. They simply show wherever 

 the Assyrians touch Israel that the story contained in the 

 Historical Books of the Old Testament is a real, genuine, 

 honest history which — unlike the boastful records of the 

 Assyrian monarchs — places on record defeats as well as 

 victories — national humiliation as well as the nation's triumphs. 

 It is all very well for Dr. Driver to say — as he does — that 



" No one for instance has ever doubted that there were kings of 

 Israel (or Judah) named Ahab, and Jehu, and Pekah, and Ahaz, 

 and Hezekiah ; or that Tiglath-Pileser, and Sennacherib, led 

 expeditions into Palestine — the mention of these (and such like) 

 persons and events in the Assyrian annals has brought to light 

 many additional facts about them, which it is an extreme satisfac- 

 tion to know, but it has only ' confirmed ' what no critic has 

 questioned." 



Perhaps so — and perhaps not ; the point need not now detain 

 us. But whether any critic did, or did not, question these 

 things, they questioned this — the bond fides of the compilers of 

 these Historical Books. These writers — so the critics say — 

 worked them over to give them a particular character, which 

 was not the true one that they ought to bear. It is important, 

 then, to note that wdien these writers can be tested as to veracity 

 by these Assyrian monuments, they come well out of the 

 test. 



ConcejJtion of the Character of the Assyrians by the Classiccd 



Writers. 



It is a curious point what an erroneous view the classical 

 writers of antiquity seem to have conceived of the Assyrian 

 character. To them Assyrian " seems to have meant every- 

 thing voluptuous and effeminate. But the Biblical writers 

 knew them better. 



"Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place 

 of the young lions ; .where • the lion, even the old lion, walked, and 

 the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid 1 The lion did tear in 

 pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses ; and 

 filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin." 



