Cave of Treasures

Historical source scan page 83

altars, and he cut in pieces the serpent of brass which Moses made in the wilderness, because the children of Israel used to worship it, and he abolished heathen practices in Jerusalem. In the fourth year of his reign, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up and carried away captive the rest of the children of Israel, and he sent them into Media, beyond Babel. [Note: Tiglath Pileser III having conquered Syria carried away into captivity the Israelitish tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. His successor Shelmaneser V, (727-722 B.C.) attacked Hosea, king of Israel, and conquered him and, because he was an ally of the king of Egypt, carried him off into captivity.] And in the twentieth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up and took all the cities and towns of Judah, but through the prayer of Hezekiah Jerusalem was saved. [Note: Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 705-681 B.C., having brought Padi from Jerusalem and made him king of Ekron, then marched on to attack. He captured 46 of Hezekiah's strongholds, and brought out from them 200,150 people, and horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and innumerable sheep. He then shut up Hezekiah like a caged bird in "Jerusalem the city of his sovereignty." Hezekiah's soldiers deserted, and he sent his envoy to Nineveh to pay his tribute to Sennacherib, viz. 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, eye-paint, couches and chairs of ivory, hides, tusks, precious woods, and his daughters with their attendants and musicians.] And Hezekiah became sick unto death [Fol. 34a, col. 2], and it was grievous unto him, and he wept. And there were certain men who blamed him, but why [his sickness] was grievous unto him they never troubled to acquaint themselves. Now the sorrow of Hezekiah [came upon him] because when he became sick unto death he had no son to reign after him. And when he looked with the eyes of his soul and saw that he had no son to reign after him, he was afflicted, and wept and said: Woe is me! for I must die childless, and that blessing which hath been given [unto us] for six and forty generations hath been cut off by me this day. I have become the destroyer of the kingdom of David, and the succession of the kings of Judah hath been cut off this day. This was [the cause of] the sorrow of Hezekiah. And after he recovered from his sickness he waited fourteen years, and [then] Manasseh was born to him. And Hezekiah 83 of 130