"Call ye not conspiracy all that this people calleth conspiracy.
What they fear do not fear, nor be filled with dread.
The Lord of Hosts, Him regard as the conspirator!
Let Him be your fear and your dread!"




CHAPTER V.

_The Survival of the Fittest._


While Isaiah was thus attempting to influence the two parties in
Jerusalem, exactly what he had warned Ahaz of happened. The Assyrian
forces made a speedy march into Syria, with Damascus as the point of
attack. The combined Syro-Israelitish army, upon hearing of
Tilgath-Pileser's new move, abandoned the siege of Jerusalem and hurried
back to defend their own countries.

The great Assyrian conqueror easily subdued all the land about
Damascus and finally besieged the city itself. Rezin offered him
desperate resistance, but it was useless. Tiglath-Pileser destroyed
all the forests, fruit groves and fertile fields in the vicinity of
the city, until both food and water failed the defenders.

In a last sally from the doomed city, the Syrian troops were literally
cut to pieces. Rezin escaped with his life, and, disguised and alone,
re-entered Damascus. But he was caught, brought before Tiglath-Pileser
and put to death.