The Cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament; - The Search For ...

SECOND BOOK OF KINGS XVIII. 305
confirm it in the most satisfactory manner. I can therefore 3ii
only regard the theory of the two Rawlinsons as erroneous,
in which they endeavour to distinguish between a "first" 3 12
successful campaign of Sanherib , and a second later cam-
paign which turned out unfavourably, because in the "first"
invasion he speaks of a victory and not of a defeat sus-
tained in battle with the Aegyptians.* There is absolutely
to the payment of tribute. The fact that nevertheless subsequently
the Assyrian despatches an army to Jerusalem to urge the surrender
of that important stronghold is not at all inconsistent with the previous
payment of tribute by the Jew. The circumstances had in the mean-
time altered : the Aegyptians had come in sight. Sanherib must there-
fore have been very anxious for the possession of Jei'usalem and
hence the attempt to induce the king by means of the military
demonstration to surrender the fortress (comp. the text). Again we
have by no means any right to infer that because the passage XVIII.
14— 16 is missing in the Book of Isaiah (as well as in the Chronicles)
it was therefore a later interpolation, or that both passages, that in
Isaiah and that in the Book of Kings, were borrowed from a third
common source (Nowack, Floigl). The omission of the passage verses
14— 16, which had previously occupied a place in this entire section
(2 Kings XVIII—XX. Is. XXXVI—XXXIX), is to be explained in the
same way as the ornate silence of the Chronicler respecting the actual
capture of Judaean towns by the Assyrian (2 Kings XVIII. 13; Is.
XXXVI. 1) and the transformation of this fact into the deliberate
though unrealized intention of the Assyrians to do this: "and he
(Sanherib) encamped against the fortified towns and purposed to open
them to his entry" v'?^ UVD"^ "IDN'1 (^ Chrou. XXXII. 1)! Just
T •• • T I:
:
as, in this case, the fact that the Judaean towns were conquered
by the Assyrian is passed over in silence in majorem Judaeorum
gloriam, so similarly the redactor of the Book of Isaiah withholds from
his readers the fact of the Jewish king's humiliation and his payment
of tribute.—The answer to the further question, respecting the origin of
the passage (2 Kings XVIII. 14— 16) under consideration, is altogether
independent of the above result. On the relation of 2 Kings XVIII.
13—XX. 19 to Is. XXXVI—XXXIX, as well as the relation of the
Chronicler to the canonical Book of Kings, consult de Wette-Schrader,
Einleitung ins Alte Testament 8t'' ed. §§ 260, 221 note, 231.
* See Sir Henry Rawlinsou in G. Kawlinsou's History of Herodotus
20