Hezekiah was a very brave man, and when Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, sent an army against Jerusalem, his speech to the people, telling them to be strong and courageous, for God would help them and fight for them, was not unlike that of Joshua when he exhorted the Israelites to trust in God, at the time when they were about to enter the land of Canaan. [Image: SENNACHERIB, KING OF ASSYRIA.] The prophet Isaiah lived during the reign of Hezekiah. At one time when the king was very sick he prayed to God that his life might be spared. God told Isaiah to tell him that He had heard his prayer, and that He would heal him, and prolong his life for fifteen years. When Isaiah had delivered God's message, Hezekiah asked for a sign that these things should be done, and Isaiah said that he might decide whether the shadow upon the sundial should go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees. Hezekiah replied that it was an easy thing for the shadow to go forward ten degrees, and asked that it might go backwards. God moved the shadow as the king had asked, and he accepted it as a sign that his life was to be spared and his days lengthened. [Image: GOD MOVED THE SHADOW BACKWARDS.] Josiah was only eight years old when he came to the throne of Judah. He served God while yet a child, and devoted his life to His service. He reigned for more than thirty years, and was killed at last by an arrow while defending his kingdom against Necho, King of Egypt. [Image: "JOSIAH WAS ONLY EIGHT YEARS OLD."] [Image: JOSIAH WAS KILLED BY AN ARROW.] In spite of the repeated warnings of God's prophets, the people continued to worship idols, until as a punishment the kingdom was entirely broken up. After a siege lasting sixteen months, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, took the city of Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and carried away as prisoners all the inhabitants who had survived the horrors of the siege. This was the end of the Kingdom of Judah, and the beginning of the period known as "the captivity." For some time after the separation of Israel from Judah, there was war between the two kingdoms, but later they formed an alliance to prevent the King of Syria from encroaching upon them. Still later the old enmity broke out again. There were nineteen Kings of Israel in all, and city after city became the capital of the kingdom, until in the time of its sixth king Samaria became the seat of government. Omri was the King who built Samaria, The monarchs who preceded him were conspicuous for evil doing, but Omri exceeded them in wickedness. The reign of his son Ahab was still worse, and of this King of Israel the Bible says, _"Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the Kings of Israel that were before him."_ [Image: RUINS OF SAMARIA. From a photograph.]