ABSTRACT
Between the Syro-Ephraitic war and the accession of Sennacherib to the throne of Nineveh the power of Assyria had been steadily on the increase. During the three years of suspense that intervened between the embassy of Merodach Baladan to Hezekiah and the defeat of the forces of Egypt and Ethiopia at Eltekeh, Isaiah had never wavered in his judgment on the insensate folly of the rulers of Judah. Blessed is Israel, when the turmoil of the present has passed away for ever, and all corners of the land are again the scene of the yearly routine of simple husbandry. Notwithstanding the hard conditions laid upon Hezekiah, the changes were, in a certain sense, of good omen for the future of the state. Hezekiah's refusal was of course equivalent to a renewed declaration of war. The culminating points of the world's history are not always those which are inscribed in boldest characters in the common records of mankind.
