sins of Israel, and the extent to which they carried their idolatry, are strikingly delineated. It may be mentioned, that the tribe of Naphtali is said to have been carried away by Tiglath-pileser, 2 Kings xv. 29. In the book of Tobit, however, the writer who was of that tribe, ascribes his captivity to Enemessar, or Shalmaneser. See Tobit i. 1, 2. Besides the final subversion of the kingdom of Israel by this prince, Josephus preserves a passage from the archives of Tyre, from which it appears that the Assyrian king overrun Phenicia also, and received the submission of the whole country except Tyre. The elder Tyre, (Pale-tyrus,) Sidon, Acre, and other towns, seem to have been glad of the opportunity of exchanging the yoke of their neighbour for that of a foreign power; for they assisted the Assyrians with a fleet of sixty ships, which the Tyrians defeated with only twelve ships. Upon this, Shalmaneser advanced to Tyre, and kept it in a state of blockade for five years, when his death occasioned the undertaking to be discontinued. He was succeeded in his kingdom by SENNACHERIB, whose reign, according to Hales, extended from 714 to 710 B. C. As soon as this prince was settled on the throne, he renewed a demand which had been exacted by his father from Hezekiah, king of Judah, and upon his refusal to comply, he declared war against him, and invaded Judah with a mighty army. Hezekiah acknowledged his offence, and offered to submit to any tribute the king should impose upon him. Accordingly, he paid the stipulated sum of 300 talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, (in the whole amounting to 285,8121. sterling,) to raise which, he exhausted the royal and sacred treasuries, and stripped off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the temple were overlaid, which, to this pious king, must have been a grievious necessity indeed, 2 Kings xviii. 13—16. The Assyrian monarch, however, regarding neither the sanctity of oaths nor treaties, still pushed on his conquests. Nothing was able to withstand his power, and Jerusalem was reduced to the utmost extremity. While he himself was ravaging the whole country, and reducing the important frontier towns toward Egypt, (which he determined to invade, because So, king of Egypt, had encouraged Hoshea to revolt, with promises of assistance he did not perform, and now, perhaps, renewed to Hezekiah, as may be gathered from 2 Kings xviii. 21,) he sent three of his generals, Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, with a great host, to besiege Jerusalem, and to summon Hezekiah to surrender. They came to the very walls, and there not only ridiculed his expectations from Egypt, but his faith in Jehovah. They also exhorted the people to desert their prince, and promised them plenty and security, under the rule of their master; and threatened utter destruction unless they submitted to his yoke, 2 Kings xviii. 17-35. At this message from the Assyrian monarch, Hezekiah was deeply distressed. He saw that the situation of himself and people was a very critical one, and that nothing but a display of Divine power, manifested on behalf of Jerusalem, could save them. With outward tokens, therefore of humiliation, and deep emotions of godly sorrow, he repaired to the temple, accompanied by his nobles, to seek that aid. From hence he sent to solicit the intercession of the prophet Isaiah on their behalf and received an immediate reply, that Sennacherib should be constrained to depart from them, and should die by the sword, 2 Kings xix. 1-7; Isa. xxxviii. 1—7. At this critical juncture, Hezekiah fell sick of the plague. He was brought to the brink of the grave, and a message from God bade him prepare to leave the world. In this distress, Hezekiah again resorted to prayer, and received in answer, a declaration, that on the third day he should be perfectly restored, and that fifteen years should be added to his life. For the confirmation of his faith, the shadow of the sun was carried back ten degrees; that is, the light was protracted in a miraculous manner, in token of his recovery, 2 Kings xx. 1-11; Isa. xxxviii. Shortly after this event, as we are told by Herodotus, the king of Assyria invaded Egypt, but without success. [See the History of the Egyptians, page 137.] His account, however, is evidently a caricature of the miraculous deliverance promised to Hezekiah, for the blasphemies of the Assyrians. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land," 2 Kings xix. 7. See also Isa. xxxi. 8, 9. The rumour which Sennacherib heard, was, that Tirhakah, king of Cush, or Arabian Ethiopia, was come out to fight against him on his passage homewards, 2 Kings xix. 9. Sennacherib was resolved to meet Tirhakah, and, through the medium of Rabshakeh, he sent a boasting letter to Hezekiah, defying the God of Israel, and threatening Jerusalem with eventual destruction, although he was now compelled to break up the siege. The conduct of Hezekiah, when he received this letter, is very pleasing; and it would be well for Christians to follow his example in the hour of distress. He hastened to the throne of grace; he spread its contents before the Lord, and ardently besought him to interpose, for his own name's sake. His prayer prevailed. The prophet was again commissioned to confirm the promise, and to assure him of speedy relief. On that night, the promise was fulfilled. As they lay slumbering in their tents, and probably dreaming of victory and revenge, the angel of the Lord smote in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, 2 Kings xix. 35. Sennacherib now returned to Nineveh, where, being exasperated by his defeat, he inflicted many cruelties upon his subjects, and especially upon the captive Israelites. The author of the book of Tobit thus speaks of these cruelties: "And if the king Sennacherib had slain any, when he was come, and fled from Judea, I buried them privily; for in his wrath he killed many; but the bodies were not found, when they were sought for of the king. And when one of the Ninevites went and complained of me to the king, that I buried them, and hid myself; understanding that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear. Then all my goods were forcibly taken away, neither was there any thing left me, beside my wife Anna and my son Tobias," Tobit i. 18-20. The cruelties of Sennacherib were not, however, long continued. As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, (signifying "king of flight," and corresponding to Jove, the "god of flight," among the Greeks,) he was assassinated by two of his sons; who, after committing the sanguinary deed, escaped into the land of Armenia; while a third son, Esarhaddon, reigned in his stead. The death of Sennacherib is alluded to, Isa. xxxi. 8, where it is said, "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; And the sword, not of a man, shall devour him." At this juncture, when the Assyrians were weakened by so great a blow, the Babylonians and the Medes revolted. Merodach-baladan reigned over Babylon; and, soon after his accession, he sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, to congratulate him on his recovery. Hezekiah was flattered by this embassy; and in the pride of his heart he made a vain display of his grandeur, and exhibited to the wondering ambassadors his palaces and treasures. For this vanity, Isaiah was commissioned to reprove him, and to denounce a woe upon him and his people. The very men to whom he had paid his court were to seize upon the treasures he had exhibited, and to reduce his descendants to the most abject bondage, 2 Kings xx. 12—19. ESARHADDON. This king is the "great and noble Asnapper" of Ezra iv. 10; the Sargon of Isa. xx. 1; the Sarchedonus of Tobit i. 21; and the Asaradin of Ptolemy. His reign commenced, according to Dr. Hales, B. c. 710. Esarhaddon came to his throne at a season of general rebellion and revolt of the provinces of Assyria. The Medes led the way, and, after a severe battle, regained their liberty, and retained their independence. They were followed by the Babylonians, Armenians, and others. From this cause, Esarhaddon had full employment on his hands for many years. At length, however, in the thirtieth year of his reign, or B. C. 680, he recovered Babylon, and annexed it to his former dominions.* As soon as he had re-established his dominion, and confirmed his authority at home, Esarhaddon undertook an expedition against the states of Phenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and Ethiopia, to avenge his father's defeat, and to recover the revolted provinces on the western side of the Euphrates. For three years he ravaged those countries, and brought away many captives; fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot, *The government of Babylon seems to have fallen into great disorder and confusion after Merodach-baladan; at least, if we may judge from the recurrence of five reigns and two interregnums of ten years, all in the course of twenty-nine years, preceding its reduction again under the Assyrian yoke. We are unacquainted with the story of these kings of Babylon; for their names, and that of others, the reader is referred to the table given at the conclusion of this history, from the pen of Dr. Hales, who framed it from a careful comparison of Scripture with Ptolemy's Canon of the reigns of the contemporary kings of Babylon. three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt," Isa. xx. 3, 4. That the country of Palestine might not become a desert, he sent colonies of idolatrous people, taken out of the countries beyond the Euphrates, to dwell in the cities of Samaria; thereby fulfilling another prophecy: "And within three-score and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people," Isa. vii. 8. This was the precise space of time which elapsed between the prediction and the event: and the people of Israel did then, B. c. 675, truly cease to be a visible nation; the remnant being mixed and confounded with other nations. About two years after, Esarhaddon invaded and ravaged Judea; and the captains of his host took Manasseh the king alive, and bound him with fetters, and carried him away captive, with many of the nobles and people, to Babylon. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. Manasseh, however, having afterwards been brought to a sincere and lively repentance, obtained his liberty, and returned to Jerusalem. This is a lively instance of the grace of God, and true repentance. Reader, let it not pass by unimproved. We all need repentance, for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:" all have provoked his just wrath and indignation. How comforting, then, is the example before us, that God is merciful! and still more comforting is the assurance of the apostle, that, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John i. 9. Like Manasseh, then, return to the Lord, and that without delay; for, "By nature's law, what may be, may be now; As on a rock of adamant, we build Our mountain hopes; spin out eternal schemes, Our hopes should be fixed on Christ; for "Him hath Goa exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for |