by the meaning “mud,” which attaches to the name of Libnah as well as to that of Pelusium.  Oppert upheld his opinion, and identified the Libnah of the biblical narrative with the Pelusium of Herodotus.  It is probable that each of the two nations referred the scene of the miracle to a different locality.

The Hebrews did not hesitate to ascribe the event to the vengeance of Jahveh, and to make it a subject of thankfulness.  They related that before their brutal conqueror quitted the country he had sent a parting message to Hezekiah:  “Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.  Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?  Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezepk, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?  Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arpad, and the King of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?” Hezekiah, having received this letter of defiance, laid it in the temple before Jahveh, and prostrated himself in prayer:  the response came to him through the mouth of Isaiah.  “Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come unto this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with a shield, nor cast a mount against it.  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this city, saith the Lord.  For I will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake and for My servant David’s sake.  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four-score and five thousand:  and when men arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."*

* 2 Kings xix. 8-35; Isa. xxxvii. 8-36; this is the second tradition of which mention has been made, but already amalgamated with the first to form the narrative as it now stands.

The Egyptians considered the event no less miraculous than did the Hebrews, and one of their popular tales ascribed the prodigy to Phtah, the god of Memphis.  Sethon, the high priest of Phtah, lived in a time of national distress, and the warrior class, whom he had deprived of some of its privileges, refused to take up arms in his behalf.  He repaired, therefore, to the temple to implore divine assistance, and, falling asleep, was visited by a dream.  The god appeared to him, and promised to send him some auxiliaries who should ensure him success.  He enlisted such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, shopkeepers, fullers, and sutlers, and led them to Pelusium to resist the threatened invasion.  In the night a legion of field-mice came forth, whence no one knew, and, noiselessly spreading throughout the camp of the Assyrians, gnawed the quivers, the bowstrings, and the straps of the bucklers in such a way that, on the morrow, the enemy, finding themselves disarmed, fled after a mere pretence at resistance, and suffered severe losses.  A statue was long shown in the temple at Memphis portraying this Sethon:  he was represented holding a mouse in his hand, and the inscription bade men reverence the god who had wrought this miracle.*