I have not shewed them."

Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which
thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to
Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And thy sons shall
they take away; they shall be servants in the palace of the king of
Babylon."

Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, "Good is the word of the Lord which
thou hast spoken."

{269}{270}

[Illustration]
ON THE ROAD FROM JERUSALEM TO JERICHO.
From a photograph in the possession of Rev. Louis F. Giroux of the
American International College, Springfield, Mass., and used by his
kind permission.
[End illustration]

{271}

He said moreover, "For there shall be peace and truth in my days."

(This king of Babylon was soon after defeated by the king of Assyria
and driven out of Babylon. For some time he hid himself among the
swamps in the southern part of his kingdom, but later was captured and
killed.)

III

DELIVERANCE FROM THE ASSYRIANS

(About ten years after the king of Babylon had sent his messengers to
Hezekiah there was a revolt against Assyria in Palestine. Hezekiah, in
spite of the opposition of Isaiah, was deep in the plot. When
Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, heard of the revolt, he sent his
armies to Palestine to punish the kings who had dared to defy him.
Judah and the other small kingdoms were not able to meet the Assyrian
armies. The whole land was in terror, and Hezekiah, the king, who had
been so eager for war, was glad enough, now that it had actually come,
to seek the wise counsel of the prophet.)

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, that
Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities
of Judah and took them. And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from
Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood
by the conduit of the upper pool in the high way of the fuller's
field. Then came forth to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over
the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the
recorder. And Rabshakeh said unto them, "Say ye now to Hezekiah, 'Thus
saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this
wherein thou trustest? I say, thy counsel and {272} strength for the
war are but vain words: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou hast
rebelled against me? Behold, thou trustest upon the sta