No

that Hezekiah showed them not.' The ambassadors departed, and Merodach-Baladan's costly gift was added to Hezekiah's treasures, and doubtless the congratulatory epistles were carefully placed among the royal records. Whether ostentation alone, or a politic desire to enhance his importance as an ally in the eyes of the king of Babylon, influenced Hezekiah in the display of his wealth to the foreigners, we know not, but terrible was the rebuke he received from the Almighty. sooner had the Babylonian ambassadors departed than another ambassador presented himself at the court sent by the King of all kings. He came not in princely attire with a retinue of attendants, nor carried he with him any flattering letters or costly presents. No mantle covered his aged shoulders, and his feet were bare. It was the inspired Isaiah. Conscience-stricken, Hezekiah, for the first time, we may suppose, trembled in the presence of his beloved and revered counsellor, friend, and guide, and in all humility received the awful message from God, 'Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' Surely not for an act of pride on the

part of her king, who, though very excellent, was still prone to ostentation, the peculiar weakness of his race and age, was Judah doomed to suffer as terrible calamities as have ever darkened the page of history. The Almighty is a just and merciful God, and though grieved and angry with His servant, who it is feared regarded his riches much in the same spirit as Nebuchadnezzar did his magnificent city, it is reasonable to suppose that the Divine message delivered to Hezekiah by Isaiah was but a reminder of the already pronounced curse upon Judah for her idolatries and rebellion in the days of Ahaz. From the consternation which the message caused, we may infer that God designed at once to execute judgment against Judah, but the prayers and tears of the king and people prevailed, and Isaiah was commissioned to tell Hezekiah that the evil should not come upon Judah in his days. Tempered with many sad forebodings must have been the relief of the nation upon the proclamation of the second Divine message, and with trembling arms would many a mother press her infant to her breast, and pray that her child might be taken from the evil to come. But soon the prospect of calamities at a future indefinite period was hidden by a cloud darker, because nearer. Suddenly it burst over Judah; for in the same year, the fourteenth of Hezekiah, 'did Sen

fenced cities of Judah, and took them.'1 The temerity of Hezekiah in refusing some years before to pay the Assyrian tribute would at once have brought down upon him the vengeance of the indignant Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, had not that monarch been then absorbed in the siege of Tyre. For five years the Tyrians, though suffering the greatest hardships, heroically held out against their terrible foes. Then was Shalmaneser called upon to surrender to one mightier than himself-death. The siege was raised, and Tyre, relieved from her enemies, became once more a joyous city,' and her merchants princes and the honourable of the earth.'s But though delaying her vengeance upon Hezekiah, Assyria had no thought of submitting to insult and pecuniary loss, and the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign beheld Judah ravaged by the Assyrian army under the command of the great Sennacherib. Trembling for the safety of Jerusalem, terrified, and for a time losing his faith in God, Hezekiah sent to Sennacherib, then before Lachish, saying, 'I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest upon me will I bear.'4 The sum demanded by Sennacherib, on the payment of which he promised to depart from Judah, was three hundred thousand talents of silver and thirty talents of

1 2 Kings, xviii. 13.

2 Isa. xxiii. 7.

gold.'

upon receiving it,

more to molest It would appear his word for a

With great difficulty Hezekiah collected the required sum, which was, according to Josephus, sent to Sennacherib, who, bound himself by an oath no Judah, but to leave the country. that the Assyrian monarch kept time, and marching into Egypt attempted to subdue her; but Hezekiah placed very little confidence in the honour of his formidable foe, and resolved to be prepared as far as possible for a future invasion. He consulted his princes and chief officers, and by their advice repaired the old wall, and built a new one, fortifying the latter with strong towers. He also, among other precautionary measures, caused all the wells outside the city for a great compass to be stopped, and all the brooks and water-courses to be diverted from their natural channels, so that they might not flow towards the city, excepting through a conduit, which would supply Jerusalem during a siege with water, but the enemy beyond the walls would suffer from the want of it.

Whilst Hezekiah was engaged in these great undertakings, Sennacherib was ravaging Egypt. City after city fell before him. At length he was intimidated. When besieging Pelusium he heard that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, one of the greatest heroes of antiquity, who ruled over not only the Arabian, and African or Ethiopian Cush,

but also Egypt, was coming up with a great force against him. Sennacherib at once raised the siege, and quitting Egypt, returned to Judah, and again attacked Lachish. There is a tradition which was related by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus, that while the king of Assyria laid siege to Pelusium, a great multitude of mice were, at the prayer of the king of Egypt, sent by Vulcan into the Assyrian camp, and in one night ate all the soldiers' shieldstraps, quivers, and bow-strings, so that finding themselves without arms for the carrying on of the siege, the Assyrians made a rapid retreat. And there stood in the temple of Vulcan a stone statue of that Egyptian king having a mouse in his hand, and speaking by an inscription to the following effect 'Let him who looks on me reverence the gods.'

:

It was about three years after its first siege that Lachish was again attacked by an almost countless multitude of Assyrians. But Sennacherib was impatient to be in possession of Jerusalem; so still retaining an immense army he sent three of his captains, 'Tartan, and Rabsaris, and Rab-shakeh, from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem.'1 Before commencing any attack Rab-shakeh demanded a parley with Hezekiah, who sent as his delegates three of his state officers, his secretary, his recorder, and his steward. The Assyrian general stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the high