Thereafter occurred the great deliverance.[592] In some way--we know not and never shall know how--by a blast of the simoom, or sudden outburst of plague, or furious panic, or sudden assault, or by some other calamity,[593] the host of Assyria was smitten in the camp, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand, including their chief leaders, perished. The historian, in a manner habitual to pious Semitic writers, attributes the devastation to the direct action of the "angel of the Lord";[594] but as Dr. Johnson said long ago, "We are certainly not to suppose that the angel went about with a sword in his hand, striking them one by one, but that some powerful natural agent was employed."[595] The Forty-Sixth Psalm is generally regarded as the _Te Deum_ sung in the Temple over this deliverance, and its opening words, "God is our refuge and strength," are inscribed over the cathedral of St. Sophia at Constantinople. It is usually supposed that this overwhelming disaster happened to the host of Assyria _before Jerusalem_. This, however, is not stated; and as the capture of Lachish was an urgent necessity, it is probable that the Turtan led back the forces which had accompanied him, and took them afterwards to Libnah.[596] Yet, since Libnah was but ten miles from Jerusalem, the Jews could not feel safe for a day until the mighty news came that the "Angel of God spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed, And the eyes of the sleepers waxed heavy and chill, And their breasts but once heaved, and for ever grew still." When the catastrophe which had happened to the main army and the flight of Sennacherib became known, the scattered forces would melt away.