Greatness of Sargon--His campaigns--Defeat of Egypt at the battle of Raphia--Ashdod--Defeat of Merodach-Baladan--Grandeur of Sennacherib--His invasion of Judæa--Earlier collisions--His campaigns--1. Against Babylon--2. Against Elam--3. Against the Hittites and Philistines--Defeat of the Ethiopian Tirhakah at Altaqu--Heavy mulct imposed on Hezekiah--Siege of Lachish--Sennacherib breaks his compact--Distress of Jerusalem. CHAPTER XXVIII THE GREAT DELIVERANCE (B.C. 701) 331 Embassy of the Turtan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh--Misery and licence in the city--The conference--Oration of the Rabshakeh--Its effect on the king's ministers and on the people--Taunting insults of the Rabshakeh--Faithfulness and self-control of the people--Heroic faith of Isaiah--Failure of the embassy--Sennacherib's threatening letter--Hezekiah's prayer--Isaiah promises deliverance in the name of Jehovah--The sign--The angel of death--Scene of the catastrophe--The Egyptian tradition of Sethos and the mice--Death and burial of Hezekiah--The campaign as recorded on the Assyrian monuments--The triumph of indomitable faith--Grandeur of Isaiah--Wane of Assyria--Beautiful tolerance of Isaiah. CHAPTER XXIX MANASSEH (B.C. 686-641) 351 The name Manasseh--His tender age--Influence of evil counsellors--Heathenising party--Their dislike of Hezekiah's reformation and of the exclusive worship of Jehovah--Tendency to trust in sacrifices and asceticism--Sanctification of licence--Arguments of the heathenisers--Disparagement of the work of Isaiah--Doubts and disbelief--Influence of the _bamoth_-priests--Reliance on Assyria--The immoral and idolatrous reaction--1. Restoration of the _bamoth_, and arguments in their favour--2. Adoption of Phœnician nature-worship--3. Assyrian Sabaism and star-worship--Connivance of the priests--4. Canaanite Moloch-worship--5. Mesopotamian Shamanism--6. The _Asherah_--Denunciation of the prophets--Persecution and the shedding of innocent blood--Asserted captivity, repentance, and reforming energy of Manasseh--Difficulties of the story--Reign of Amon (B.C. 641-639)--Wretchedness of his reign--Zephaniah and Jeremiah--Murder of Amon. CHAPTER XXX JOSIAH (B.C. 639-608) 374 Three vast movements--Jeremiah's earlier prophecies--The state of society--The Scythians--Prophecies of Ezekiel--Herodotus--The fate of Nineveh--Rise of the Chaldæans--Habakkuk. CHAPTER XXXI JOSIAH'S REFORMATION 385