Other cares and other efforts than the maintenance of a wide dominion, the erection of splendid palaces, the restoration of impressive works of art, the preparation of magnificent furniture, occupied a small region which obeyed the lords of that military power, and those palaces,--the kings of Asshur. The kingdom of Israel, though not annihilated by the arms of Assyria, was thoroughly broken by them. Twenty years after, Judah escaped the same disaster, but not without the severest wounds. It was laid waste at that time throughout its whole extent; the cities were taken or garrisoned; 200,000 of the inhabitants were carried away. Only the metropolis was maintained and saved. Afterwards, in the last years of Hezekiah, and under the reign of his son Manasses (he ascended the throne in 697 B.C.), the land remained unmolested by the Assyrians for more than 20 years, till Esarhaddon undertook to subjugate Syria again to the dominion of Assyria, which his father had given up after raising the siege of Jerusalem. Some years after this Manasses joined the attempt of Tyre to resist the king of Asshur with the help of Tirhaka (p. 154). We do not know what Judah had to suffer for this attempt of the king: we only learn from the Hebrews that Manasses was carried away captive, but at a later time restored to his kingdom. In any case Judah beheld for the space of 20 years the armies of Assyria on their march to and from the Nile (673-653 B.C.).[417] In the first centuries after the settlement of the Hebrews in Canaan, the rites of the Syrians had in isolated instances forced their way in beside the worship of Jehovah. Under Saul, David, and Solomon the worship of Jehovah was established and organised, and took firm root. The earliest prophets, after the division of the kingdom, opposed the introduction of the worship of Baal in Israel with the fiercest zeal. In the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah, the renewed advances of these rites had been successfully met by the great prophets with the deepened and purified conception of the national deity. And now these hostile tendencies once more met in the severest conflict. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that Manasses did not follow the example of his pious father; that he turned back after the way of his grandfather Ahaz; that he restored the worship of Baal, dedicated a place for fire-offerings in the valley of Ben Hinnom, and burnt his son to Moloch. On the roof of the royal palace and in the court of the temple altars were set up, and priests established, "who burnt incense to the sun, the moon, the zodiac, and all the host of heaven;" courtesans and women who wove tents dwelt in the buildings of the temple, and the king even set up the statue of Astarte (Istar) in the temple itself. In vain did the priests set themselves in opposition to this movement; in vain did the prophets announce: "The line and the plummet of destruction will be drawn over Jerusalem as over Samaria." Manasses caused those who opposed his