actual year of the first campaign or to the following year.

Hezekiah had devoted his declining years to religious reformation, and
the organisation of his kingdom under the guidance of Isaiah or the
group of prophets of which Isaiah was the leader. Judah had increased
in population, and had quickly recovered its prosperity; when Hezekiah
died, about 686 B.C., it had entirely regained its former vigour, but
the memory of the disasters of 701 was still sufficiently fresh in the
minds of the people to prevent the change of sovereign being followed
by a change of policy. Manasseh, who succeeded his father, though he
did not walk, as Hezekiah had done, in the ways of the Lord, at least
remained loyal to his Assyrian masters. It is, however, asserted that
he afterwards rebelled, though his reason for doing so is not explained,
and that he was carried captive to Babylon as a punishment for this
crime: he succeeded, nevertheless, in regaining favour, and was
reinstated at Jerusalem on condition of not repeating his offence. If
this statement is true, as I believe it to be, it was probably after the
Egyptian campaign of 673 B.C.* that his conspiracy with Baal took place.

* The fact of Manasseh's captivity is only known to us from
the testimony of 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10-13, and most modern
critics consider it apocryphal. The moral development which
accompanies the narrative, and the conversion which follows
it, are certainly later additions, but the story may have
some foundation in fact; we shall see later on that Necho
I., King of Sais, was taken prisoner, led into captivity,
and received again into favour in the same way as Manasseh
is said to have been. The exile to Babylon, which at one
time appeared to demonstrate the unauthenticity of the
passage, would be rather in favour of its authenticity.
Esarhaddon was King of Babylon during the whole of his
reign, and the great works which he executed in that city
obliged him, we know, to transport thither a large
proportion of the prisoners whom he brought back from his
wars.

The Assyrian governors of the neighbouring provinces easily crushed
these attempts at independence, but, the islands of Tyre being secure
from attack, they were obliged to be content with establishing a series
of redoubts along the coast, and with prohibiting the Tyrians from
having access to the mainland.

The promptit