The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

100 THE CUNEIFOBM INSCRIPTIONS AND TEE 0. T.
year Nowack makes to synchronize with the third (or
fourth) of Hezekiah's reign. But, in the first place,
there is not the faintest allusion to this event in the oracle
we are now examining; in chap. XX. 1 the case is alto-
gether different. In the second place, neither the annals
408 nor the triumphal inscriptions say anything whatever about
a conquest of Juda. Certainly nothing is said of a dis-
graceful defeat sustained on this occasion by the Jews.
There is only one passage in the records of Sargon
that makes any reference to Juda as a country subjugated
by him. This occurs in the NimrHd-inscription (Layard
33, 8) which comes from the palace of Asurnasirabal , in
which Sargon resided during the earlier portion of his
reign. See the passage above in Vol. I, p. 178. This
inscription, however, mentions as one of the Great King's
exploits the subjugation of the land Karalla which, accord-
ing to the annals, coincides with the 6"' year of the king's
reign (716 B. C). Not yet have we in this document
any reference to the taking of Ashdod. It is evident that
the conquest of Juda, alluded-to in the NimrHd-inscription,
cannot refer to an event occurring at the time when
Ashdod was taken. And, when we come to the account
of the capture of Ashdod itself, we have no mention of
any enterprise of Sargon against Juda nor is it to be
found In any of his later inscriptions, not even in Geo.
Smith's cylinder (see above p. 93 footnote) where (1. 32 fi".)
we are only told, that Juda and other lands were *spea-
king treason". Also in the passage of the sacred record,
in which reference is made to the siege and capture of
Ashdod (Is. XX. 1), there is not the smallest hint of an
expedition of Sargon against Juda - Jerusalem. Accor-
dingly the date advocated by Nowack for the oracle of