Isaiah and the Campaign of Sennacherib1

Sargon's son and successor, Sennacherib, was a general no less able than Sargon himself. After a swift conquest of rebellious subjects in the east Sennacherib turned to the west. Down the Mediterranean coast he marched, taking city after city as he passed. Phoenicia and Philistia were quickly reduced to subjection. Judah lay off the main route of the march, but toward her Sennacherib turned after his coast campaign. In one of his inscriptions the Assyrain monarch tells us that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, then upon the throne of Judah, saw forty-six of his fortified cities fall into the hands of the Assyrians. Sending messengers to treat with the conqueror, Hezekiah purchased temporary peace at the cost of a tribute so vast as to impoverish the kingdom, but the relief was of short duration. Sennacherib feared to trust a Palestinian king. In a little while his armies appeared at the gates of Jerusalem demanding unconditional surrender.

Previous to this fresh invasion we find no allusions to Isaiah after we saw him walking the streets of Jerusalem in the garb of a captive of war, reminding the people of the fate which awaited the nation in whom they were seeking to put their trust. Perhaps the earlier overtures of Hezekiah were the result of his wise counsels. We cannot believe that he was silent or without influence during · those years. But a terrible crisis was now at hand. Isaiah maintained more firmly than ever his belief that Jehovah was but punishing and disciplining Judah, and that he would not allow his city to fall into the hands of the enemy. He could not conceive of Jehovah without a city in which to dwell. The sight of the people rushing to the Temple with their offerings, crowding its courts, and falling over each other in their eagerness to approach Jehovah, and to placate him with offerings disgusted him and filled him with despair. He arraigned and pleaded:

I 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
For Jehovah hath spoken;

1*Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.): Study the map as before. Note with care the extent of the territory of Assyria at this time. One of the phenomenal events of history is the downfall of this nation, soon to become apparent.

2 Isaiah 1:2-26 (Am. Standard Rev. Ver., by permission, with revisions).

II

III

IV

V

I

"I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against me.

5 The ox knoweth his owner,

And the ass his master's crib;
But Israel doth not know,

My people doth not consider." I

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
IO A seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly:
They have forsaken Jehovah,

They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
Why will ye be still stricken,

From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it;

But wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes:

They have not been closed, neither bound up,

20 Neither mollified with oil.3

Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire;
Your land, strangers devour it in your presence,
And it is desolate, like the overthrow of Sodom.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,
25 As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a remnant,
We should have been as Sodom, we should have been like
unto Gomorrah.” 4

Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom;

Give ear unto the teaching of our God, ye people of
Gomorrah.

30 "What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices?"

saith Jehovah.

Strophe 1: Let all the world see that my people have ceased to know me.

3 Strophe 3: You are a sick and wounded nation. Why do you continue in your way of independence courting fresh injury?

4 Strophe 4: Your city stands alone and unprotected. Only by a remnant are we saved from the total destruction which visited Sodom and Gomorrah.

VI

VII

VIII

IX

I

"I am sated with the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;

And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of he-goats.

"When ye come to appear

before me,

Who hath required this at your hand, to trample my

courts?

35 Bring no more the vain oblation;

It is a loathsome incense unto me;

New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn meeting.

"Your new moons and your appointed feasts
40 My soul hateth:

They are a cumbrance to me;

I am weary of bearing them.
When ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you:

45 Yea, when ye make many prayers,
I will not hear:1

"Your hands are full of blood.
Wash you, make you clean;

Put away the evil of your doings

50 From before mine eyes;

Cease to do evil:

Learn to do well.
Seek justice,

Relieve the oppressed,

55 Judge the orphan,

Plead for the widow.2

"Come now, and let us reason together,"

Saith Jehovah;3

'If your sins be as scarlet,

60 Can they be as white as snow?

If they be red like crimson

Can they be as wool?

Strophes 5, 6, 7: Your multitudinous sacrifices and ceremonials avail nothing and are a weariness to me.

2 Strophe 8: I will not accept your petitions until they are presented with clean hands and pure hearts.