Part 34 (2/2)
The unstable Ahaz had sought a.s.sistance from the Baal, and ”made his son to pa.s.s through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen”.[513] Then he resolved to purchase the sympathy of one of the great Powers. There was no hope of a.s.sistance from ”the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt”, for the Ethiopian Pharaohs had not yet conquered the Delta region, so he turned to ”the bee that is in the land of a.s.syria ”.[514] a.s.syria was the last resource of the king of Judah.
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of a.s.syria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up and save me out of the hand of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of a.s.syria. And the king of a.s.syria hearkened unto him: for the king of a.s.syria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir[515] and slew Rezin.[516]
Tiglath-pileser recorded that Rezin took refuge in his city like ”a mouse”. Israel was also dealt with.
In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of a.s.syria, and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to a.s.syria. And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.[517]
Tiglath-pileser recorded: ”They overthrew Paqaha (Pekah), their king, and placed Ausi'a (Hoshea) over them”. He swept through Israel ”like a hurricane”. The Philistines and the Arabians of the desert were also subdued. Tribute was sent to the a.s.syrian monarch by Phoenicia, Moab, Ammon, and Edom. It was a proud day for Ahaz when he paid a visit to Tiglath-pileser at Damascus.[518] An a.s.syrian governor was appointed to rule over Syria and its subject states.
Babylon next claimed the attention of Tiglath-pileser. Nabona.s.sar had died and was succeeded by his son Nabu-nadin-zeri, who, after reigning for two years, was slain in a rebellion. The throne was then seized by Nabu-shum-ukin, but in less than two months this usurper was a.s.sa.s.sinated and the Chaldaeans had one of their chiefs, Ukinzer, proclaimed king (732 B.C.).
When the a.s.syrian king returned from Syria in 731 B.C. he invaded Babylonia. He was met with a stubborn resistance. Ukinzer took refuge in his capital, Shapia, which held out successfully, although the surrounding country was ravaged and despoiled. Two years afterwards Tiglath-pileser returned, captured Shapia, and restored peace throughout Babylonia. He was welcomed in Babylon, which opened its gates to him, and he had himself proclaimed king of Sumer and Akkad.
The Chaldaeans paid tribute.
Tiglath-pileser had now reached the height of his ambition. He had not only extended his empire in the west from Cappadocia to the river of Egypt, crippled Urartu and pacified his eastern frontier, but brought a.s.syria into close union with Babylonia, the mother land, the home of culture and the land of the ancient G.o.ds. He did not live long, however, to enjoy his final triumph, for he died a little over twelve months after he ”took the hands of Bel (Merodach)” at Babylon.
He was succeeded by Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), who may have been his son, but this is not quite certain. Little is known regarding his brief reign. In 725 B.C. he led an expedition to Syria and Phoenicia.
Several of the va.s.sal peoples had revolted when they heard of the death of Tiglath-pileser. These included the Phoenicians, the Philistines, and the Israelites who were intriguing with either Egypt or Mutsri.
Apparently Hoshea, king of Israel, pretended when the a.s.syrians entered his country that he remained friendly. Shalmaneser, however, was well informed, and made Hoshea a prisoner. Samaria closed its gates against him although their king had been dispatched to a.s.syria.
The Biblical account of the campaign is as follows: ”Against him (Hoshea) came up Shalmaneser king of a.s.syria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of a.s.syria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt,[519] and brought no present to the king of a.s.syria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of a.s.syria shut him up and bound him in prison.
”Then the king of a.s.syria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.”[520]
Shalmaneser died before Samaria was captured, and may have been a.s.sa.s.sinated. The next a.s.syrian monarch, Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), was not related to either of his two predecessors. He is referred to by Isaiah,[521] and is the Arkeanos of Ptolemy. He was the a.s.syrian monarch who deported the ”Lost Ten Tribes”.
”In the ninth year of Hoshea” (and the first of Sargon) ”the king of a.s.syria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into a.s.syria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”[522] In all, according to Sargon's record, ”27,290 people dwelling in the midst of it (Samaria) I carried off”.
They (the Israelites) left all the commandments of the Lord their G.o.d, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and wors.h.i.+pped all the host of heaven (the stars), and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pa.s.s through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. And the king of a.s.syria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.... And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth (Cuthah) made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made As.h.i.+ma, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharites burnt their children in fire to Adram-melech and Anam-melech, the G.o.ds of Sepharvaim.
A number of the new settlers were slain by lions, and the king of a.s.syria ordered that a Samaritan priest should be sent to ”teach them the manner of the G.o.d of the land”. This man was evidently an orthodox Hebrew, for he taught them ”how they should fear the Lord.... So they feared the Lord”, but also ”served their own G.o.ds ... their graven images”.[523]
There is no evidence to suggest that the ”Ten Lost Tribes”, ”regarding whom so many nonsensical theories have been formed”, were not ultimately absorbed by the peoples among whom they settled between Mesopotamia and the Median Highlands.[524] The various sections must have soon lost touch with one another. They were not united like the Jews (the people of Judah), who were transported to Babylonia a century and a half later, by a common religious bond, for although a few remained faithful to Abraham's G.o.d, the majority of the Israelites wors.h.i.+pped either the Baal or the Queen of Heaven.
The a.s.syrian policy of transporting the rebellious inhabitants of one part of their empire to another was intended to break their national spirit and compel them to become good and faithful subjects amongst the aliens, who must have disliked them. ”The colonists,” says Professor Maspero, ”exposed to the same hatred as the original a.s.syrian conquerors, soon forgot to look upon the latter as the oppressors of all, and, allowing their present grudge to efface the memory of past injuries, did not hesitate to make common cause with them. In time of peace the (a.s.syrian) governor did his best to protect them against molestation on the part of the natives, and in return for this they rallied round him whenever the latter threatened to get out of hand, and helped him to stifle the revolt, or hold it in check until the arrival of reinforcements. Thanks to their help, the empire was consolidated and maintained without too many violent outbreaks in regions far removed from the capital, and beyond the immediate reach of the sovereign.”[525]
While Sargon was absent in the west, a revolt broke out in Babylonia.
A Chaldaean king, Merodach Baladan III, had allied himself with the Elamites, and occupied Babylon. A battle was fought at Dur-ilu and the Elamites retreated. Although Sargon swept triumphantly through the land, he had to leave his rival, the tyrannous Chaldaean, in possession of the capital, and he reigned there for over eleven years.
Trouble was brewing in Syria. It was apparently fostered by an Egyptian king--probably Bocchoris of Sais, the sole Pharaoh so far as can be ascertained of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, who had allied himself with the local dynasts of Lower Egypt and apparently sought to extend his sway into Asia, the Ethiopians being supreme in Upper Egypt. An alliance had been formed to cast off the yoke of a.s.syria.
The city states involved Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, Samaria, and Gaza.
Hanno of Gaza had fled to Egypt after Tiglath-pileser came to the relief of Judah and broke up the league of conspirators by capturing Damascus, and punis.h.i.+ng Samaria, Gaza, and other cities. His return in Sargon's reign was evidently connected with the new rising in which he took part. The throne of Hamath had been seized by an adventurer, named Ilu-bi'di, a smith. The Philistines of Ashdod and the Arabians being strongly pro-Egyptian in tendency, were willing sympathizers and helpers against the hated a.s.syrians.
Sargon appeared in the west with a strong army before the allies had matured their plans. He met the smith king of Hamath in battle at Qarqar, and, having defeated him, had him skinned alive. Then he marched southward. At Rapiki (Raphia) he routed an army of allies.
Shabi (?So), the Tartan (commander-in-chief) of Pi'ru[526] (Pharaoh), King of Mutsri (an Arabian state confused, perhaps, with Misraim = Egypt), escaped ”like to a shepherd whose sheep have been taken”. Piru and other two southern kings, Samsi and Itamara, afterwards paid tribute to Sargon. Hanno of Gaza was transported to a.s.shur.
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