unimportant, and it was possible that the disasters which had befallen
the Kaldâ would tend to cool the ardour of the allies. An unforeseen
circumstance opportunely rekindled their zeal, and determined them to
try their fortune.

[Illustration: 023.jpg MAP OF THE CAMPAIGN OF SENNACHERIB IN JUDEA]

The inhabitants of Ekron, dissatisfied with Padî, the chief whom the
Assyrians had set over them, seized his person and sent him in chains to
Hezekiah.*

* The name of the city, written Amgarruna, is really
Akkaron-Ekron.

To accept the present was equivalent to open rebellion, and a
declaration of war against the power of the suzerain. Isaiah, as usual,
wished Judah to rely on Jahveh alone, and preached against alliance
with the Babylonians, for he foresaw that success would merely result in
substituting the Kaldâ for the Ninevite monarch, and in aggravating the
condition of Judah. "All that is in thine house," he said to Hezekiah,
"and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall
be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy
sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take
away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon."
Hezekiah did not pay much heed to the prediction, for, he reflected,
"peace and truth shall be in my days," and the future troubled him
little.* When the overthrow of Merodach-baladan had taken place, the
prophet still more earnestly urged the people not to incur the vengeance
of Assyria without other help than that of Tyre or Ethiopia, and
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, spoke in the same strain; but Shebna, the