Footnotes

1.
Deut. ii. 23, Jer. xlvii. 4, Amos ix. 7.
2.
Brugsch, “History of Egypt” (Eng. Tr.) I, p. 158.
3.
Brugsch, “History of Egypt” (Eng. Tr.), I, pp. 309-311.
4.
Called Anab, “(the city of) grapes,” in Josh. xi. 21.
5.
The invention of the existing Masoretic system of vowel-points and accents is ascribed to Mokha of Tiberias (a.d. 570) and his son Moses, who are said to have based it on a system invented shortly before by Akha the Babylonian. Only a very few MSS. are known written in the Babylonian system of punctuation.
6.
A coin from Gaza, of the fourth century b.c., is now in the British Museum, on one side of which is the figure of the Canaanitish Baal in a chariot of fire, but otherwise with the attributes of the Greek Zeus, and with the word YHU (i.e., Yahu or Yeho) written above him in old Phœnician letters.
7.
The Assyrian inscriptions show that the true form of the name of the king of Damascus was Rezon, like that of the founder of the kingdom (1 Kings xi. 23), the Biblical form with i being due to the same vocalic change as that in Toi (2 Sam. viii. 9) by the side of Tou (1 Chr. xviii. 9), or Hiram (1 Kings v. 1) by the side of Huram (2 Chr. ii. 11). Hezion in 1 Kings xv. 18 is probably a copyist's error for Rezon.
8.
Compare 2 Kings xv. 29.
9.
The name of Baladan in 2 Kings xx. 12 (and Isa. xxxix. 1) is due to the error of a copyist, like Berodach for Merodach. His eye must have run back to the name of Merodach-baladan in the preceding line. Merodach-baladan means “Merodach has given a son,” and without “Merodach” would be incomplete.
10.
“That day” in the A. V. should be corrected into “to-day” (Isa. x. 32).
11.

The following chronological table will enable the reader to understand without difficulty the order of the events described in the preceding chapter:—

b.c.

1130. Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I, in Assyria: campaigns in Syria and Cilicia.

900. Recovery of Assyria after a period of decline.

858. Accession of Shalmaneser II.

853. Battle of Karkar.

851. Death of Ahab.

850. Campaign of Shalmaneser against Hadadezer (Ben-hadad II).

845. Campaign against Hadadezer.

843. Murder of Hadadezer by Hazael.

841. Campaign against Hazael; tribute paid to Shalmaneser by Jehu.

823. Shalmaneser II succeeded by Samas-Rimmon.

810. Samas-Rimmon succeeded by Rimmon-nirari.

804. Damascus captured by the Assyrians: tribute paid by Samaria.

781. Rimmon-nirari succeeded by Shalmaneser III.

773. Campaign against Damascus.

745. April. Pul, who takes the name of Tiglath-Pileser II, usurps the Assyrian throne.

743-40. War with Hamath; submission of Uzziah; fall of Arpad.

738. Tribute paid to the Assyrians by Menahem and Rezon.

734. Damascus besieged; the tribes beyond the Jordan carried away; Jehoahaz (Ahaz) of Judah becomes an Assyrian vassal.

733 (? 729). Pekah put to death; Hosea succeeds.

732. Damascus taken; Rezon slain. Ahaz at Damascus.

727. Tiglath-Pileser succeeded by Shalmaneser IV.

722. Sargon seizes the throne and captures Samaria.

721. Merodach-baladan conquers Babylonia.

720. Hamath conquered; Sabako (So) of Egypt defeated at Raphia.

712. Embassy of Merodach-baladan to Hezekiah.

711. Capture of Jerusalem and Ashdod by Sargon.

710. Merodach-baladan driven from Babylonia.

705. Murder of Sargon; his son Sennacherib succeeds on the 12th of Ab.

704. Merodach-baladan holds Babylon for six months.

701. Campaign against Judah; battle of Eltekeh; retreat of Sennacherib from Jerusalem.

681. Murder of Sennacherib; accession of Esar-haddon.

676. Manasseh appears among the Assyrian tributaries. Egypt conquered.

670. Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus) associated in the government on the 12th of Iyyar.

668. Esar-haddon dies; Assur-bani-pal succeeds on the 27th of Ab.

665. Destruction of Thebes (No-Amun) by the Assyrians.

?606. Fall of Nineveh, Esar-haddon II or Sarakos being the last king.

12.
See Jer. xlvii. 1.
13.
Compare Ezek. xxvii. 18.
14.

The following chronological table will assist the reader in understanding the sequence of events in the preceding chapter:—

b.c.

609. Battle of Megiddo; Josiah slain; Pharaoh Necho overruns Western Asia.

606. Necho defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadrezzar; foundation of the Babylonian empire.

604. Nebuchadrezzar succeeds his father Nabopolassar.

599. Jerusalem captured; Jehoiachin sent to Babylon.

588. Destruction of Jerusalem; murder of Gedaliah.

567. The Babylonians overrun Egypt, then governed by Amasis.

561. Nebuchadrezzar succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach.

559. Nergal-sharezer, son of Bel-sum-iskun, seizes the Babylonian crown.

555. Nergal-sharezer succeeded by Laborosoarchod.

555. The crown seized by Nabonidos, son of Nabu-balatsu-ikbi.

552. The dream of Nabonidos.

549. Conquest of Astyages of Ekbatana (Media) by Cyrus, king of Elam.

548. Death of “the king's mother” (Nitokris).

538. Overthrow and death of Nabonidos; Cyrus occupies Babylon.

529. Death of Cyrus and accession of Kambyses.

521. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, elected to the throne of Persia.

520-19. Revolt of Babylon under Nidinta-Bel.

513. Second revolt of Babylon under Arakha.

15.
“The wood of the great prince.”
16.
Literally, “I took the framework.”