The rapidity of their conquests ought to have enabled them to discern the invisible hand which conducted them. But, says one of these kings(11) in the name of the rest, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: And I have removed the bounds of the people and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped."(12)
But this monarch, so august and wise in his own eye, how did he appear in that of the Almighty? Only as a subaltern agent, a servant sent by his master: "The rod of his anger, and the staff in his hand."(13) God's design was to chastise, not to extirpate his children. But Sennacherib "had it in his heart to destroy and cut off all nations."(14) What then will be the issue of this kind of contest between the designs of God, and those of this prince?(15) At the time that he fancied himself already possessed of Jerusalem, the Lord, with a single blast, disperses all his proud hopes; destroys, in one night, an hundred four score and five thousand of his forces; and putting "a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his lips",(16) (as though he had been a wild beast,) he leads him back to his own dominions, covered with infamy, through the midst of those nations, who, but a little before, had beheld him in all his pride and haughtiness.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, appears still more visibly governed by a Providence, to which he himself is an entire stranger, but which presides over all his deliberations, and determines all his actions.
Being come at the head of his army to two highways, the one of which led to Jerusalem, and the other to Rabbah, the chief city of the Ammonites, this king, not knowing which of them it would be best for him to strike into, debates for some time with himself, and at last casts lots. God makes the lot fall on Jerusalem, to fulfil the menaces he had pronounced against that city, _viz._ to destroy it, to burn the temple, and lead its inhabitants into captivity.(17)