[596] It is, however, perfectly possible that a contingent was left on guard. "Where is the [past] terror? Where is he that rated the tribute? Where is he that received it?" (Isa. xxxiii. 18). "At the noise of the tumult the people flee" (Isa. xxxiii. 3); "At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep" (Psalm lxxvi. 6). Comp. Psalm xlviii. 4-6. [597] This is the meaning of "he departed, and went, and returned." [598] Not, only fifty-five days, as we read in Tobit i. 21. [599] Jos., _Antt._, X. i. 5: "In his own temple to Araskê"; LXX., Ἀσαράχ; Isa. xxxvii. 38. One guess connects the word with Nesher, "the eagle-god," often seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Lenormant calls him "the god of human destiny." [600] Alex. Polyhistor _ap._ Euseb., i. 27; Kimchi _ad_ 2 Kings xix. 37. Buxtorf (_Bibl. Rabbinic._) says that Sennacherib entered the temple to ask his counsellors why Jehovah favoured Israel. Being told that it was because of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, he said, "Then I will offer my two sons." Rashi adds that they slew him to save their own lives. (See Schenkel and Riehm, _s.v._ "Sanherib"--both articles by Schrader). [601] See Schrader in Riehm's _Handwörterbuch_, _s.vv._ "Sanherib," "Asarhaddon." Esarhaddon, judging from what is called "Sennacherib's will," in which the king leaves him splendid presents, seems to have been a favourite of his father (_Records of the Past_, i. 136). He says that on hearing of his father's murder, "I was wrathful as a lion, and my soul raged within me, and I lifted my hands to the great gods to assume the sovereignty of my father's house." See Appendix I. [602] The Book of Tobit (i. 21) calls him Sarchedonas. [603] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. [604] 2 Chron. xxxii. 23. [605] Wellhausen, p. 116. [606] Herod., ii. 14. "Sin" (Tanis?), Ezek. xxx. 15. It lay in the midst of morasses, and some attribute the catastrophe to the malaria. [607] The deliverance is really connected with Tirhakah, whose deeds are recorded in a temple at Medinet Habou, but the jealousy of the Memphites attributed it to the piety of Sethos. See G. W. Wilkinson, _Ancient Egyptians_, i. 141; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 394. [608] _Antt._, X. i. 1-5. [609] Comp. 1 Sam. v., vi., where, after a plague, the Philistines sent an expiation of five golden mice. [610] We may add that even the Chronicler drops a veil over Sennacherib's actual capture of fortresses in Judah ("he _thought_ to win them for himself," 2 Chron. xxxii. 1: comp. 2 Kings xviii. 13; Isa. xxxvi. 1). [611] Isa. vi. 11-13. [612] Isa. v. 26-30. [613] Isa. vii. 18. [614] Isa. viii., xxviii. 1-15, x. 28-34. [615] Isa. xiv. 29-32, xxix., xxx. [616] Isa. i. 19, 20. [617] Isa. x. 33, xxix. 5-8, xxx. 20-26, 30-33. [618] Isa. xxxviii. 6. See for this paragraph an admirable chapter in Prof. Smith's _Isaiah_, pp. 368-374. [619] Isa. xlvii. 13. [620] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 531. [621] Isa. xl. 15. [622] Isa. xix. 24, 25.