other wall without" - probably that which inclosed the lower city - as well as "Millo, in the city of

David," probably a strong tower with fortified buildings at the western side of the Tyropoeon, or

Valley of Cheesemongers.

* For a quite different location of Hezekiah's work at Siloah, comp. Herzog's Real-Encykl, vol. vi.,

p. 567.

** The Lxx. had evidently read, instead of "through the midst of the land," "in the midst of the

*** So in all probability the text should be emendated (see the Vulgate).

Similarly, arms of defense were prepared and officers appointed. Best of all, he gathered his men

and captains, and encouraged them with the chief of all comforts, the assurance that Another,

greater and stronger than all the might of Assyria, was with them, not "an arm of flesh," but

Jehovah their God, to help them and to fight their battles.

When from this account we turn to the prophetic narrative in Isaiah 22, we feel that it had not been

always so (ver. 11), but that through the admonitions of the p rophet, what had been at first

confidence in the strength of their defenses, became transformed into trust in the living God.

Indeed, the prophet could not have sympathized with the whole previous policy of Hezekiah,

which led up to the humiliating embassy to Lachish. But now he could bring them the assurance of

Divine deliverance in that mood of spiritual repentance which was the outcome of his

ministrations, and which appeared most fully during the siege of Jerusalem, and at the later

summons for its surrender. We shall have to revert to this when telling of Hezekiah's bearing

towards the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan, who visited the Jewish capital before these

events, probably some time before the commencement of this campaign.

The second event recorded in Scripture is the embassy of Hezekiah to Lachish, and the tribute

there imposed upon him of "three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold" (2 Kings

18:14 -16). The impost, although not greatly differing from that which Menahem had to pay to

Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:19), was heavy, amounting in gold to 200,000 pounds, and in silver to

110,000 pounds* and it necessitated the surrender of all the treasures in the Temple and the

palace. It is remarkable that neither in the prophecy of Isaiah nor in the Book of Chronicles** do

we find any reference to the embassy of Hezekiah nor to the tribute which he sent. Probably both

were viewed as the sequence of a course disapproved, which, however, had no real bearing on the

events that followed, and which only because of their spiritual import, came within range of the

object of the narrative.

* On the Assyrian inscriptions Sennacherib describes the tribute as thirty talents of gold and eight

hundred talents of silver, the latter, no doubt, of "light weight" (for there were two kinds of talent

in Assyrian reckoning), which would be equal to three hundred Jewish talents.

** But in 2 Chronicles 32:9 we have the notice that Sennacherib was laying siege to Lachish.

The third event recorded in Holy Scripture is the detachment of the "great host" against Jerusalem,

with all the events connected with it. Of this we have an account alike in the Book of Kings, in

that of Chronicles, and in the prophecies of Isaiah.*

* But we note that in the two latter such historical details as the designations of all the leaders of

the Assyrian expedition, given in 2 Kings 18:I7, are wanting.

The lead of the Assyrian expedition and the conduct of negotiations were entrusted to the

"Tartan," which was the official tit le of the Assyrian commander-in-chief (comp. Isaiah 20:1), "the

Rabh-Saris" - probably the translation of an Assyrian official title, which in Hebrew means "chief