Now could any writer have described all this, even a century afterwards, if nothing of the kind had occurred? The event, if true, must have been well known, and remembered; and if untrue, no one living near the time and place would have thought of inventing it. And (what renders the argument still stronger) all this is stated to have occurred, not among savages, but among a fairly civilised nation and in a literary age. Next as to _the destruction of the Assyrian army_. Here it will be remembered that when Sennacherib came to attack Jerusalem, he publicly, and in the most insulting manner, defied the God of Israel to deliver the city out of his hand (probably about B.C. 701).[128] We then read how Isaiah declared that God accepted the challenge, and would defend Jerusalem, and would not allow it to be destroyed. '_I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake._' And the sacredness of the city is very strongly insisted on. [Footnote 128: 2 Kings 18. 28-35; 19. 10, 34.] Now it is inconceivable that this could have been written after Jerusalem had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar in _B.C._ 598; though there is no real inconsistency in God's preserving the city in the one case, and not in the other. For Nebuchadnezzar is always represented as being, though unconsciously, God's servant in punishing the Jews; while Sennacherib openly defied Jehovah. Then comes the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army, probably by pestilence;[129] and the extreme fitness of this, after Sennacherib's challenge, must be obvious to everyone. Moreover, such a very public event, if untrue, could not have been recorded till long afterwards; yet, as we have seen, the narrative could not have been written long afterwards. Sennacherib does not of course allude to it himself in his inscriptions, for kings never like to record their own defeats; but this is no reason for doubting that it occurred, especially as it is confirmed by the Babylonian historian Berosus.[130] And even Sennacherib himself, though he mentions the campaign, and says that he shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem, never claims to have taken the city. [Footnote 129: Comp. 2 Kings 19. 35; 1 Chron. 21. 12.] [Footnote 130: Quoted by Josephus, Antiq. x. 1.]