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

10 TEE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND TEE 0. T.
Sipar had no independent ruler. This by no means ex-
cludes the possibility that the conquest of Sipar had abready
occurred some time before, particularly after the first cam-
paign of Sargon against Babylonia (721 B. C); indeed
it renders the assumption essentially probable. Compare
too 2 Kings XVII, 24 and my remarks on that passage.
See also Keilinsch. und Gesch. p. 428 note.
XIX. 8. Libna, a spot, whose position is uncertain.
We must at any rate seek for it in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Lakish, perhaps to the West of that town.
326 If it is Tell-es-Safijeh, North-North-West of Eleutheropolis,
that is meant, and lying about mid -way between that
town and the Timnath mentioned in the cuneiform text,
it follows that Sanherib was at this moment in full
retreat.
9. And when he heard of Tirkaka (Hj^ri'lJI), king ofAethiopia
(tt'lD), that it was said : see, he has marched forth to fight
with you In Sanherib's inscription the name of this Aethio-
pian king is not mentioned, but we become acquainted
with it in an inscription of Asurbanipal, where in the
Assyrian transcription it is pronounced Tar-ku-u (see
Smith's Assurbanipal 15, 52 ; 19, 85 etc.*). It is, however,
* Asurbanipal, successor of Asarhaddon, opeos the account of his
campaign against the revolted Aegyptians in the following words :
I-na mah-ri-i gir-ri-ja a-na mat Ma-gan u m. Mi-luh-ha lu-u
al-lik. Tar-ku-u sar m. Mu-sur (u) m. Ku-u-si §a Asur-ah-iddin
sar mat A§§ur abu ba-nu-u-a apikta-§u is-ku-nu-ma i-bi-lu
mS,t-su u su-u Tar-ku-u da-na-an Asur Istar u ili rabiiti bi'li-ja
im-si-ma it-ta-kil a-na i-muk ra-ma-ni-su i. e. "In my first cam-
paign I marched against Makan and Miluhha. Tirhaka, king of Aegypt
(and) Aethiopia, on whom Asarhaddon, king of Assyria, the father,
my begetter, had inflicted a defeat and had taken possession (^^2)
of his land, this Tirhaka despised (1,*m./«) the might of Asur, Istar and