God’s Vengeance on Sennacherib
In his resistance to Sennacherib, king Hezekiah was upheld and guided by the celebrated prophet Isaiah, whose book has been preserved in the Bible. Isaiah assured his sovereign that God’s fiat of destruction was gone forth against the Assyrians for their blasphemy. Their host was at that moment gathering for the second time under the walls of Jerusalem; their camp lay close at hand. Yet Isaiah declared they should not shoot one arrow against the walls.
Even so it came to pass. Just what were the earthly means used for the divine vengeance we do not know. It may have been some deadly plague, some poisonous gas inhaled. The Bible tells us only that the angel of the Lord “smote” them, “cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains.” Sennacherib and a few hundred fled back in terror into Assyria. When the people of Jerusalem looked forth next morning, there was nothing left of the mighty Assyria army but the empty camps, and a vast host of dead bodies. As Byron sings of this stupendous supernal intervention in the affairs of men: “And the might of the Gentile, un smote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”
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