Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings The star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Or, as it is in the Acts of the Apostles: "I will carry you away beyond Babylon."-Acts vii. 43. This prince is simply called Shalman in Hos. He was the successor of Tiglath-pileser, X. 14. and, according to Dr. Hales, his reign extended from 726 to 714 B.C. In the fifth year of his reign, B.C. 722, the king of Israel having rebelled against him, Shalmaneser invaded Israel, and besieged Samaria, which he took, B.C. 719; and fulfilling the prophecies of Amos and the other prophets, referred to in a previous page, he transported the chief of the people of the seven western tribes beyond Assyria, and planted them in Media, 2 Kings xvii. 5, 6, whither his father had transplanted the Transjordanite, or eastern tribes. Thus was completed the captivity of the ten revolted tribes, in the course of twenty-one years, that is, from 740 to 719 B.C. On the policy of the Assyrian monarchs in transplanting their captives thither, Dr. Hales remarks: "The geographical position of Media was wisely chosen for the distribution of the great body of the captives; for, first, it was so remote, and so impeded and interspersed with great mountains and numerous and deep rivers, that it would be extremely difficult for them to escape from this natural prison, and return to their own country. And, second, they would also be opposed in their passage through Kir, or Assyria Proper, not only by the native Assyrians, but also by their enemies, the Syrians, transplanted thither before them. And, third, the superior civilization of the Israelites, and their skill in agriculture and in the arts, would tend to civilize and improve those wild and barbarous regions. And, fourth, they could safely be allowed more liberty, and have their minds more at ease than if they were subject to a more rigorous confinement nearer to their native country." The causes for the captivity of Israel are stated, 2 Kings xvii. 7-23, where the judgments, says the author of the Kings of Judah and Israel,* are fully vindicated, while the sins of Israel, and the extent to which they carried their idolatry, are strikingly delineated. It may be mentioned, that the tribe of Naphtali is said to have been carried away by Tiglathpileser, 2 Kings xv. 29. In the book of Tobit, however, the writer, who was of that tribe, ascribes his captivity to Enemessar, or Shalmaneser. See Tobit i. 1, 2. Besides the final subversion of the kingdom of Israel by this prince, Josephus preserves a passage from the archives of Tyre, from which it appears that the Assyrian king overrun Phenicia also, and received the submission of the whole country except Tyre. The elder Tyre, (Palæ-tyrus,) Sidon, Acre, and other towns, seem to have been glad of the opportunity of exchanging the yoke of their neighbour for that of a foreign power; for they assisted the Assyrians with a fleet of sixty ships, which the Tyrians defeated with only twelve ships. Upon this, Shalmaneser advanced to Tyre, and kept it in a state of blockade for five years, when his death occasioned the undertaking to be discontinued. He was succeeded in his kingdom by SENNACHERIB, whose reign, according to Hales, extended from settled on the throne, he renewed a demand 714 to 710 B.C. As soon as this prince was which had been exacted by his father from Hezekiah, king of Judah, and upon his refusal to comply, he declared war against him, and inacknowledged his offence, and offered to submit vaded Judea with a mighty army. Hezekiah to any tribute the king should impose upon him. Accordingly, he paid the stipulated sum of 300 talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, (in raise which, he exhausted the royal and sacred the whole amounting to 285,812l. sterling,) to treasuries, and stripped off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the temple were overlaid, which, to this pious king, must have been a grievous necessity indeed, 2 Kings xviii. 13—16. The Assyrian monarch, however, regarding neither the sanctity of oaths nor treaties, still pushed on his conquests. Nothing was able to withstand his power, and Jerusalem was reduced to the utmost extremity. While he himself was ravaging the whole country, and reducing the important frontier towns toward Egypt, (which he determined to invade, because So, king of Egypt, had encouraged Hoshea to revolt, with promises of assistance he did not perform, and now, perhaps, renewed to Hezekiah, as may be gathered from 2 Kings xviii. 21,) he sent three of his generals, Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, with a great host, to besiege Jerusalem, and to summon Hezekiah to surrender. They came to the very walls, and there not only ridiculed his expectations from Egypt, but his faith in Jehovah. They also exhorted the people to desert their prince, and promised them plenty *This work is published by the Religious Tract Society, and the reader is referred to it as containing the Jewish history of this period. and security, under the rule of their master; and threatened utter destruction unless they submitted to his yoke, 2 Kings xviii. 17—35. At this message from the Assyrian monarch, Hezekiah was deeply distressed. He saw that the situation of himself and people was a very critical one, and that nothing but a display of Divine power, manifested on behalf of Jerusalem, could save them. With outward tokens, therefore, of humiliation, and deep emotions of godly sorrow, he repaired to the temple, accompanied by his nobles, to seek that aid. From hence he sent to solicit the intercession of the prophet Isaiah on their behalf, and received an immediate reply, that Sennacherib should be constrained to depart from them, and should die by the sword, 2 Kings xix. 1-7; Isa. xxxvii. 1-7. At this critical juncture, Hezekiah fell sick of the plague. He was brought to the brink of the grave, and a message from God bade him prepare to leave the world. In this distress, Hezekiah again resorted to prayer, and received in answer, a declaration, that on the third day he should be perfectly restored, and that fifteen years should be added to his life. For the confirmation of his faith, the shadow of the sun was carried back ten degrees; that is, the light was protracted in a miraculous manner, in token of his recovery, 2 Kings xx. 1-11; Isa. xxxviii. Shortly after this event, as we are told by Herodotus, the king of Assyria invaded Egypt, but without success. [See the History of the Egyptians, page 49.] His account, however, is evidently a caricature of the miraculous deliverance promised to Hezekiah, for the blasphemies of the Assyrians. "Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land," 2 Kings xix. 7. See also Isa. xxxi. 8, 9. The rumour which Sennacherib heard, was, that Tirhakah, king of Cush, or Arabian Ethiopia, was come out to fight against him on his passage homewards, 2 Kings xix. 9. Sennacherib was resolved to meet Tirhakah; and, through the medium of Rabshakeh, he sent a boasting letter to Hezekiah, defying the God of Israel, and threatening Jerusalem with eventual destruction, although he was now compeiled to break up the siege. The conduct of Hezekiah, when he received this letter, is very pleasing; and it would be well for Christians to follow his example in the hour of distress. He hastened to the throne of grace; he spread its contents before the Lord, and ardently besought him to interpose, for his own name's sake. His prayer prevailed. The prophet was again commissioned to confirm the promise, and to assure him of speedy relief. On that night, the promise was fulfilled. As they lay slumbering in their tents, and probably dreaming of victory and revenge, the angel of the Lord smote, in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, 2 Kings xix. 35. Sennacherib now returned to Nineveh, where, being exasperated by his defeat, he inflicted many cruelties upon his subjects, and especially upon the captive Israelites. The author of the book of Tobit thus speaks of these cruelties: "And if the king Sennacherib had slain any, when he was come, and fled from Judea, I buried them privily; for in his wrath he killed many; but the bodies were not found, when they were sought for of the king. And when one of the Ninevites went and complained of me to the king, that I buried them, and hid myself; understanding that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear. Then all my goods were forcibly taken away, neither was there any thing left me, beside my wife Anna and my son Tobias," Tobit i. 18-20. The cruelties of Sennacherib were not, however, long continued. As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, (signifying “king of flight," and corresponding to Jove, the "god of flight," among the Greeks,) he was assassinated by two of his sons; who, after committing the sanguinary deed, escaped into the land of Armenia; while a third son, Esarhaddon, reigned in his stead. The death of Sennacherib is alluded to, Isa. xxxi. 8, where it is said, "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; And the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him." At this juncture, when the Assyrians were weakened by so great a blow, the Babylonians and the Medes revolted. Merodach-baladan reigned over Babylon; and, soon after his accession, he sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, to congratulate him on his recovery. Hezekiah was flattered by this embassy; and in the pride of his heart he made a vain display of his grandeur, and exhibited to the wondering ambassadors his palaces and treasures. For this vanity, Isaiah was commissioned to reprove him, and to denounce a woe upon him and his people. The very men to whom he had paid his court were to seize upon the treasures he had exhibited, and to reduce his descendants to the most abject bondage, 2 Kings XX. 12-19. ESARHADDON. This king is the "great and noble Asnapper" of Ezra iv. 10; the Sargon of Isa. xx. 1; the Sarchedonus of Tobit i. 21; and the Asaradin of Ptolemy. His reign commenced, according to Dr. Hales, B. c. 710. Esarhaddon came to his throne at a season of general rebellion and revolt of the provinces of Assyria. The Medes led the way, and, after a severe battle, regained their liberty, and retained their independence. They were followed by the Babylonians, Armenians, and others. From this cause, Esarhaddon had full employment on his hands for many years. At length, however, in the thirtieth year of his reign, or B. c. 680, he recovered Babylon, and annexed it to his former dominions.* great disorder and confusion after Merodach-baladan; at least, if we may judge from the recurrence of tive reigns and two interregnums of ten years, all in the course of twenty-nine years, preceding its reduction again under the Assyrian yoke. We are unacquainted with the story of these kings of Babylon; for their names, and that of others, the reader is referred to the table given at the conclusion of this history, from the pen of Dr. Hales, who framed it from a careful comparison of Scripture with Ptolemy's Canon of the reigns of the contemporary kings * The government of Babylon seems to have fallen into of Babylon. As soon as he had re-established his dominion, and confirmed his authority at home, Esarhaddon undertook an expedition against the states of Phenicia, Palestine, Egypt, and Ethiopia, to avenge his father's defeat, and to recover the revolted provinces on the western side of the Euphrates. For three years, he ravaged those countries, and brought away many captives; fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt," Isa. xx. 3, 4. That the country of Palestine might not become a desert, he sent colonies of idolatrous people, taken out of the countries beyond the Euphrates, to dwell in the cities of Samaria; thereby fulfilling another prophecy : " And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people," Isa. vii. 8. This was the precise space of time which elapsed between the prediction and the event: and the people of Israel did then, B. c. 675, truly cease to be a visible nation; the remnant being mixed and confounded with other nations. About two years after, Esarhaddon invaded and ravaged Judea; and the captains of his host took Manasseh the king alive, and bound him with fetters, and carried him away captive, with many of the nobles and people, to Babylon. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11. Manasseh, however, having afterwards been brought to a sincere and lively repentance, obtained his liberty, and returned to Jerusalem. This is a lively instance of the grace of God, and true repentance. Reader, let it not pass by unimproved. We all need repentance, for " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:" all have provoked his just wrath and indignation. How comforting, then, is the example before us, that God is merciful! and still more comforting is the assurance of the apostle, that, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John i. 9. Like Manasseh, then, return to the Lord, and that without delay; for, "By nature's law, what may be, may be now; In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise, This peradventure, infamous for lies, As on a rock of adamant, we build Our mountain hopes; spin out eternal schemes, And, big with life's futurities, expire."-YOUNG. Our hopes should be fixed on Christ; for "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins," Acts v. 31. In him alone our help is found; and whoever neglects to flee to him, neglects his best interests for time and for eternity. Cilicia, Syria, Phenicia, Judea, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, unto the borders of Ethiopia, or Abyssinia; such, at least, were possessed by his grandson Nabuchodonosor, as may be gathered from Judith i. 6—10. Esarhaddon is ranked by Ptolemy, in his Canon, among the Babylonian kings, probably because he made it his chief residence during the last thirteen years of his reign, which he did, by way of preventing another defection. By Diodorus and Justin he is called Sardanapalus; and they confound him with the last king, Sarac, who perished in the overthrow of Nineveh, about B. C. 606; which, Dr. Hales says, is the grand error which has chiefly perplexed and embarrassed the Assyrian chronology, and given rise to the supposed double capture of Nineveh. This learned writer proves the position he here takes, thus: 1. "Athenæus relates, from Clitarchus, that Sardanapalus died of old age, after he had lost the Syrian or Assyrian empire." He lost the empire, as recorded, in his youth, but he recovered it in his age. 2. His statue was erected at Anchiale, in Cilicia, with this inscription: "Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes [Sennacherib], built Anchiale, in Tarsus, in one day. Stranger, eat, drink, and play; for all other human concerns are not worth this;" which word this referred to a fillip, which the statue was in the attitude of giving with his fingers. To this inscription the apostle evidently alluded, when, writing to the Corinthians, he said, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die:" and to which he replied, in the following iambic of Menander, "Evil communications corrupt good manners," 1 Cor. xv. 32, 33. Thus intimating, from a better heathen authority, that the conversation of such sensualists as scoff at the hope of another life, is subversive not only of religion, but of sound morality. 3. Herodotus, also, so well skilled in Assyrian affairs, records the following curious incident: "Some robbers, who were solicitous to get possession of the immense treasures of Sardanapalus, king of Nineveh, which were deposited in subterraneous apartments, began, from the place where they lived, to dig under ground, in a direction towards them. Having taken the most accurate measurement, they continued their mine to the palace of the king: as night approached, they regularly emptied the earth into the Tigris, which flows near Nineveh, and at length accomplished their purpose." This would demonstrate, that the second Sardanapalus could not be meant; for he perished with his trea sures. NINUS. According to Syncellus, a prince of the name of Ninus succeeded Sardanapalus at Nineveh ; and we learn from Ptolemy, that Saosduchin, who was either his son or his deputy, succeeded him also at Babylon. According to Dr. Hales, they began their reign B. c. 667. Nothing is known concerning this Ninus: he was succeeded in his empire by Esarhaddon was a great and prosperous prince. He appears not only to have recovered all the revolted provinces of Assyria, except Media, but to have added thereto Babylonia, Mesopotamia, | or Saosduchin, whose accession is dated B. C. 658. NABUCHODONOSOR, In the twelfth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, he declared war against Arphaxad, or Phraortes, king of the Medes, and he summoned all the states of his mighty empire to his aid. The western and southern provinces of Cilicia, Phenicia, Judea, Moab, Ammon, and Egypt, refused to obey the summons, and to furnish him with troops, and they even insulted and ill-treated his ambassadors. This caused a delay of five years in his projected invasion of Media, at the end of which time, B. c. 641, he took the field, when he defeated the Median army near Ragau, or Rages, took Arphaxad prisoner, and slew him the same day. After this, he stormed Ecbatana, his capital, demolished its towers, and ravaged its palaces, and then returned to Nineveh, where he feasted his troops for four months. He was himself attacked and defeated by a powerful Scythian army, who possessed themselves of Upper Asia, and ruled with great rigour for twenty-eight years. At the end of this time, B. C. 612, Cyaxares massacred their chieftains at a banquet, and shook off their yoke. The design which Cyaxares had formed, of reducing Nineveh, was now renewed. He formed an alliance with Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, who, taking advantage of the disaster of Holofernes, had also recovered his independence; and a marriage having been concluded between Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nabopolassar, and Amytis, the daughter of Cyaxares, the kings of Babylon and Media jointly besieged Nineveh. According to Justin, Sardanapalus was a most effeminate prince, who betrayed great cowardice on the revolt of the Medes, and, instead of defending his crown, fled, after a feeble resistance, to his palace, and burned himself and his treasures in a pile erected for that purpose. Diodorus, however, gives a more probable account of the downfal of Nineveh. He states, that, relying upon an ancient prophecy, that Nineveh should never be taken until the river became its enemy, Sardanapalus omitted nothing that prudence and courage could suggest for his defence and secu Flushed with this victory, in the ensuing spring, B. c. 640, Nabuchodonosor sent Holofernes with an army of 120,000 foot, and 12,000 horse, to chastise the states that had refused their assistance in the Median war. The commands which Holofernes received were of the most rigorous nature; and, acting upon them, he proved himself a cruel conqueror. He ravaged and reduced Cilicia and Syria, and part of Arabia, Ammon, and Edom; destroying with a high hand the fair fruits of the earth, and smiting the inhabi-rity. He sent his children, and a great part of his tants with the edge of the sword. These severe measures awed the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, and of all the sea-coast unto Azotus and Askelon. In the spirit of fear, therefore, they sent ambassadors to Holofernes, to solicit peace. Holofernes granted it; but he put garrisons into their towns, and obliged them to furnish recruits for his army. He also destroyed the barriers on their frontiers, and cut down their sacred groves; and he destroyed "all the gods of the land, that all nations should worship Nabuchodonosor only, and that all tongues and tribes should call upon him as god," Judith iii. 8. The little state of Judea, it would appear, still preserved its independence. Accordingly, after Holofernes had spent a full month in the plain of Esdraelon, on its confines, waiting to collect the carriages of his army, he encamped in the valley over against Bethulia, the key to the hill country of Judea, with an army increased to 170,000 foot, resolving to reduce it to the allegiance of Nabu chodonosor. The particulars of the siege of Bethuliah, and its final deliverance by the heroine Judith, with the death of Holofernes, and defeat of his hosts, are recorded in the book that hears her name; but as that book is of somewhat doubtful authority, the details are here passed over. Nabuchodonosor died about four years after, or B. c. 636; and he was succeeded by the last king of Nineveh, SARAC, OR SARDANAPALUS. This prince ascended the throne at a time when revolt and rebellion raged throughout the empire. The Medes once more took up arms, and they soon regained Ecbatana, and the territory they had lost. Nor did they stop here. Revenge, that evil composition of pride and cruelty, inflamed the warlike Cyaxares their king, and he attacked and defeated the Assyrians, and besieged Nineveh. His first attempts, however, proved abortive. treasures, to his intimate friend Cotta, governor of Paphlagonia, and provided ammunition and provisions for the defence and support of the inhabitants. At length, after the confederates had besieged the city for two years without effect, an unusual overflow of the Tigris, occasioned by heavy rains in the mountains of Ararat and sources of the river, occurred, and the water rising up to the city, threw down twenty furlongs of its great wall. Sarac, struck with dismay and despair at the unexpected fulfilment of the prophecy, burned his concubines, his treasures, and himself, upon a great pile, in the court of the palace, to avoid falling into the hands of the confederate kings. The enemy entered by the breach, sacked the city, and razed it to the ground, after it had stood for about 1,900 years. [See the section on Nineveh.] This event took place about B. C. 606; after which, Assyria was governed by the monarchs of Babylon; for the power of Assyria was now passed away as a shadow. CHAPTER V. THE KINGDOM OF ASSYRIA. PART II.BABYLONIAN ADMINISTRATION. NABOPOLASSAR. THE capture of Nineveh rewarded the Medes with independence, and the Babylonians with empire. The essential power of Assyria was, however, in the hands of the Babylonians before this transaction took place: it was only the crowning act, which placed Nabopolassar in the position of undisputed master of the empire. The Babylonians and the Medes having destroyed Nineveh, became so formidable, that they drew upon themselves the jealousy of their neighbours. Pharaoh-nechoh, king of Egypt, was so alarmed at their power, that, to stop their progress, he marched towards the Euphrates, at the head of a powerful army, and made several conquests. [See the History of the Egyptians, page 52.] In the fourth year after this expedition, Nabopolassar, observing, that since these conquests of Nekus, all Syria and Palestine had shaken off their allegiance to him, and that his years and infirmities would not permit him to march in person against the rebels, associated his son Nebuchadnezzar with him in the empire. This young prince, B. c. 604, revenged his father's quarrel upon Nekus. He invaded Egypt, and stripped him of all his conquests, from the Euphrates to the Nile, so effectually, that the king of Egypt no more invaded his neighbours. 2 Kings xxiv. This event was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. See chap. xlvi. The conquests of Nebuchadnezzar did not end here. He likewise entered Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and took it. At first, he caused Jehoiakim to be put in chains, with a design to have him carried to Babylon; but being touched with pity at his repentance and affliction, he restored him to the throne. Great numbers of the Jews, and, among the rest, some children of the royal family, were carried captive to Babylon, whither the treasures of the king's palace, and a part of the sacred vessels of the temple, were likewise transported. Among the captives may be mentioned the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, and Mordecai was carried thither some time afterwards. Thus was the judgment which God denounced, by the prophet Isaiah, to king Hezekiah, accomplished. See 2 Kings xx. 16-18. From this famous epoch, therefore, B. c. 605, which was the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, must be dated the captivity of the Jews at Babylon, so frequently and so emphatically foretold by Jeremiah. See Jer. xxii. 13-26; xxv. 11; xxvi. 20-23; xxix. 10; etc. etc. Towards the end of the year, B. c. 604, Nabopolassar king of Babylon died; and he was succeeded in his empire by his son NEBUCHADNEZZAR. They shall not lament for him, saying, He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, His doom is referred to more explicitly, also, in another passage: "Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: And in the night to the frost."-Jer. xxxvi. 30, 31. Accordingly, as we learn from Ezekiel, in his figurative description of Jehoiakim, as another rapacious lion's whelp, succeeding Shallum, that "The nations set against him on every side from the provinces, And spread their net over him: And they put him in ward in chains, Ezek. xix. 8, 9. That is, to Nebuchadnezzar, who "bound him," says the sacred historian, "in fetters," (foretold Hab. i. 6,) "to carry him to Babylon," 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6. It would appear, however, that Jehoiakim died before the king of Babylon's intentions could be carried into effect; and we may conclude that he was buried" with the burial of an ass," as a just reward for "his abominations," 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8. Jehoiakim was succeeded in his kingdom by Jehoiachin, who had not reigned more than three months and ten days, before Nebuchadnezzar sent his servants to besiege Jerusalem; and he surrendered himself into their hands, and was brought to Babylon, where he remained in captivity all his days, 2 Kings xxiv. 8-12; Jer. lii. 31-34. This event was predicted by Jeremiah, chap. xxii. 24-27; who, also, foretold the failure of his succession. "O earth! earth! earth! hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, A man that shall not prosper in his days: Sitting upon the throne of David, And ruling any more in Judah."-Jer. xxii. 29, 30. When Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jehoiachin, he appointed his uncle Zedekiah to reign in his stead, and none of his family reigned any more in Judah. Berosus says, that Nebuchadnezzar baving heard of his father's death while yet he was carrying on his conquests in Judea, left his Syrian, Phenician, Egyptian, and Jewish captives, with his heavy-armed troops and baggage, to the care of his friends or officers, to be conducted to BaZedekiah was neither more pious nor prosperbylon, and went thither himself with a small party across the desert, to take possession of the king-liance with the king of Egypt, he broke the oath ous than his predecessors. Having made an aldom, when he appointed the fittest stations in Babylonia to be colonized by the captives. In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Jehoiakim rebelled against him, whereupon his generals, who still remained in Judea, marched against him, and avenged the " innocent blood," which he and his people, following the example of Manasseh, had shed, 2 Kings xxiv. 2—4. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold his destruc tion in these words: "Therefore thus saith the Lord Concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; of fidelity he had taken to the king of Babylon. breach of faith. The latter, however, soon chastised him for his He invaded Judea with a great army, took most of the cities, and besieged Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxiv. 20; xxv. 1; Jer. xxxix. 1; Ezek. xxiv. 1, 2. This was in the latter end of the year B. C. 588. Early the next year, however, the Egyptians having made a show of coming to Zedekiah's relief, the Chaldeans broke up the siege of Jerusalem, and advanced to give them battle. But the Egyptians retired, and left the Jews to their |