The expedition against Ashdod took place in B.C. 711, during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and is the one referred to in the twentieth chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet denounces the conduct of Egypt. The way in which Isaiah speaks of the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, in this and other chapters, is remarkably justified by the account given in the Assyrian inscriptions. Egypt is described in the annals of Sargon as a weak power, always stirring up revolts against Assyria, and unable to help or shield the revolters. “In those days” (remarks Mr George Smith, from whose larger work we are here quoting) “Egypt was truly a broken reed. The account which Sargon gives of the turning of the fountains and water-courses to protect the city of Ashdod strikingly parallels the similar preparations of Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxxii.); and it is a curious fact that Hezekiah’s preparations had been made only two years before, according to the ordinary chronology.”
As remarked by Mr St Chad Boscawen, the political significance of the embassy of Berodach Baladan (2 Kings xx. 12) is at once apparent when viewed in the light of the monumental inscriptions; and the atmosphere of intrigue, rebellion, and stern vengeance is very clearly apparent in the writings both of the Hebrew and the Assyrian scribe. It was this embassy, in B.C. 712, which brought about the invasion of Judea and the siege of Jerusalem in B.C. 711, by Sargon. The prophecies of Isaiah (chapters x. and xi.), so long unsolved mysteries, are now found to be clear and detailed records of this lost incident in Oriental history.
“Sargon” claimed descent from an ancient hero named Bel-bani; and he assumed the name of an old Babylonian monarch--Sargon of Agadé, who was worshipped as a demi-god--but his own name was not really Sargon. When he stormed the city of Samaria, he carried away, he tells us, 27,000 of the Israelites into captivity. The kingdom of Samaria was suppressed, and those Israelites who were not deported were placed under an Assyrian governor. Thus the Bible account of the captivity of the ten tribes is confirmed. And as to Judah, when we come to the Babylonian annals of the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, we find confirmation of the statement that he destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the inhabitants of that city into captivity.