that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!  Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.  When your princes shall be at Tanis, and your messengers shall come to Heracleopolis,* [Heb.  Hanes.—­Tr.] you shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit you....  For Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose:  therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still."* He returned, unwearied and with varying imagery, to his theme, contrasting the uncertainty and frailty of the expedients of worldly wisdom urged by the military party, with the steadfast will of Jahveh and the irresistible authority with which He invests His faithful servants.  “The Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit; and when the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they shall all fail together.  For thus saith the Lord unto me, Like as when the lion growleth, and the young lion over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds be called forth against him, he will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them:  so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon Mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof.  As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem:  He will protect and deliver it.  Turn ye unto Him from whom ye have deeply revolted, O children of Israel."**

     * Isa. xxx. 1-5, 7.  In verses 4, 5, the original text
     employs the third person; I have restored the second person,
     to avoid confusion.

     ** Isa. xxxi. 3-6.

No one, however, gave heed to his warnings, either king or people; but the example of Phoenicia soon proved that he was right.  When Sennacherib bestirred himself, in the spring of 702 B.C., either the Ethiopians were not ready, or they dared not advance to encounter him in Coele-Syria, and they left Elulai to get out of his difficulties as best he might.  He had no army to risk in a pitched battle; but fondly imagined that his cities, long since fortified, and protected on the east by the range of Lebanon, would offer a resistance sufficiently stubborn to wear out the patience of his assailant.  The Assyrians, however, disconcerted his plans.  Instead of advancing against him by the pass of Nahr-el-Kebir, according to their usual custom, they attacked him in flank, descending into the very midst of his positions by the col of Legnia or one of the neighbouring passes.* They captured in succession the two Sidons, Bit-ziti, Sarepta, Mahalliba, Ushu, Akzib, and Acco:  Elulai, reduced to the possession of the island of Tyre alone, retreated to one of his colonies in Cyprus, where he died some years later, without having set foot again on the continent.  All his former possessions on the mainland were given to a certain Eth-baal, who chose Sidon for his seat of government, and Tyre lost by this one skirmish the rank of metropolis which she had enjoyed for centuries.** This summary punishment decided all the Syrian princes who were not compromised beyond hope of pardon to humble themselves before the suzerain.  Menahem of Samsi-muruna,***