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SCULPTURED CAPTIVES, 
who, as soon as he was settled on his throne, went over into 
Syria; and thence falling upon the remainder of Israel, made a 
treaty with Hoshea; allowing him to be king, and sparing the 
people, on condition that he paid him tribute, and acknowledged 
his country the vassal of Assyria. This took place about ten 
years after the expedition of Tiglath-pileser. But in the course 
of a very few years more, Hoshea was spirited up by So-Sabacan, 
king of Egypt, to attempt throwing off the yoke of Assyria, by 
refusing to pay the customary tribute. In chastisement of this 
rebellion, Salmaneser marched a large army into Samaria, and 
overthrowing all opposed to him, took Hoshea captive, " shut 
him up, and bound him ; and carried Israel away into Assyria, 
and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, 
and in the cities of the Medes.” (2 Kings, ch. xviii.) 
In turning from this account in the Scriptures, to the sculpture 
on the rock, the one seemed clearly to explain the other. In 
the royal figure, I see Salmaneser, the son of the renowned 
Arbaces, followed by two appropriate leaders of the armies of his 
two dominions, Assyria and Media; carrying the spear and the 
bow. Himself rests on the great royal weapon of the East, revered 
from earliest time as the badge of supreme power: “ Behold, I 
do set my bow in the cloud!” Genesis. — Besides, he tramples 
on a prostrate foe; not one that is slain, but one who is a captive: 
this person, not lying stretched out and motionless; but ex¬ 
tending his arms in supplication. He must have been a king; 
for on none below that dignity would the haughty foot of an 
Eastern monarch condescend to tread. Then we see approach 
nine captives, bound, as it were, in double bonds, in sign of a 
double offence. We may understand this accumulated trans¬ 
gression, on recollecting, that on the first invasion of Israel by 
