from PART II - THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND THE BLACK SEA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
HEZEKIAH'S LATER YEARS
Sennacherib failed to take Jerusalem in 701 B.C., and Judah remained an independent state, but the kingdom had been weakened, Sennacherib having laid waste, as he put it in monumental inscriptions on a bull colossus and a stone slab, ‘the wide district of Judah’. Pudu-ilu of Ammon, Kammusu-nadbi of Moab and Aiarammu of Edom had all escaped such devastation by paying tribute to Sennacherib without delay, and it seems likely that they now saw an opportunity to take advantage of the weakness of Judah. Levels II at Beersheba and VIII at Arad were destroyed at about this time, and though this might have been part of Sennacherib's operation, both cities lie rather far south of the area in which the Assyrians seem mainly to have conducted their campaign. It might well be that they mark an incursion of the Edomites, who indeed seem to have suffered an encroachment on the part of Judah earlier in Hezekiah's reign (I Chron. 4:41–3). That the Edomites were a threat in this area at about this time is suggested by a letter found in level VIII at Arad. This appears to have been sent by two officers, Gemariah and Nehemiah, in a military outpost to their superior Malkiah, presumably in Arad, and it states that the king should know that, thanks to trouble from the Edomites, they have been unable to send something (the text at that point is damaged). If the destruction of level VIII was the result of Edomite action this could have been a presage of the coming threat to the weakened state.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.