cided not to attack it until the rest of the kingdom had been
subjugated: with this object in view he pitched his camp before Lachish,
whence he could keep a watch over the main routes from Egypt where they
crossed the frontier, and then scattered his forces over the land of
Judah, delivering it up to pillage in a systematic manner. He took
forty-six walled towns, and numberless strongholds and villages,
demolishing the walls and leading into captivity 200,150 persons of all
ages and conditions, together with their household goods, their horses,
asses, mules, camels, oxen, and sheep;** it was a war as disastrous in
its effects as that which terminated in the fall of Samaria, or which
led to the final captivity in Babylon.***

* Isa. xxii. 8-11.

* An allusion to the sojourn of Sennacherib near Lachish is
found in 2 Kings xviii. 14-17; xix. 8, and in Isa. xxxvi. 2;
xxxvii. 8

*** It seems that the Jewish historian Demetrios considered
the captivities under Nebuchadrezzar and Sennacherib to be
on the same footing.

The work of destruction accomplished, the Rabshakeh brought up all his
forces and threw up a complete circle of earthworks round Jerusalem:
Hezekiah found himself shut up in his capital "like a bird in a cage."
The inhabitants soon became accustomed to this isolated life, but
Isaiah was indignant at seeing them indifferent to their calamities, and
inveighed against them with angry eloquence: "What aileth thee now,
that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? O thou that art full of
shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; thy slain are not slain
with the sword, neither are they dead in battle. All thy rulers fled
away together, they are made prisoners without drawing the bow; they are
come hither from afar for safety, and all that meet together here shall
be taken together."*

* [The R.V. gives this passage as follows: "They were bound
by the archers: all that were found of thee were bound
together, they fled afar off."--TR.]

The danger was urgent; the Assyrians were massed in their entrenchments
with their auxiliaries ranged behind them to support them: "Elam bare
the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the
shield (for the assault). And it came to pass that thy choicest valleys
were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at thy
gate, and he took away the covering of Judah."

[Illustration: 029.jpg SENN