Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

716, prosperity, Samaria, redistribution, olive, 7th, Ahaz, internal, Lachish, Ephraimite, loyalty, Rezin, regional, Biblical, Sennacherib, Ephraim, national, gates, prisoner, Aram, incursions, jar, centralization, petty, Tiglath, Egypt, Sargon, divinely, Jerusalem, Hebrew, rump, literacy, 8th, Judah

•

Assyria has now conquered               Samaria

•

reduced the Kingdom of Israel to a small,           petty kingdom

•

within a couple decades, they would do the same to Israel's southern neighbor, the Kingdom of           Judah

•

the Syro-                    Ephraimite War

•

took place in the       8th century BC

•

Assyria was a great                 regional power

•

the smaller nations of Syria (        Aram) and the northern Kingdom of Israel (              Ephraim) formed a coalition against Assyria

•

King Pekah of Israel joined King           Rezin of Aram-Damascus in an attempt to place a new ruler on the throne in                   Jerusalem

•

this was an anti-Assyrian coalition

•

the                 Biblical authors present a very Jerusalem-centered view of these events

•

the end of the rule of               Tiglath Pileser III (727 BC) marks the beginning of Judah as an independent kingdom in its own right

•

King Ahaz rules from 731 to       716 BC

•

King Hezekiah (son of         Ahaz)

•

13th king of Judah

•

reign 715 - 686 BC

•

one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the             Hebrew Bible

•

an age of state                             centralization

•

a growing                 national pride in the Kingdom of Judah

•

cities           gates became impressive

•

water supply was protected

•

reigns of Ahax and Hezekiah were a time of great                 internal development

•

Judah blooming with texts and signs of more widespread                 literacy

•

stamped       jar handles attest to an infrastructure that controlled the transport of olive oil, wine, and other precious commodities

•

in many ways, Judah's                     prosperity was a result of Assyria's expansion

•

destroyed Judah's more powerful northern competitors

•

Assyria might have been using Judah economically as a source of           olive oil production

•

however, after destroying Israel's olive oil production, Assyria also destroyed that of Judah

•

at first Judah pursued peace an demonstrated               loyalty to the Assyrian empire

•

but eventually revolted

•

first with the help of           Egypt

•

then after the death of             Sargon II in 705, Judah made a renewed effort to rebel

•

but Sargon's son,                       Sennacherib, once becoming ruler, laid waste to Judah's richest region

•

destroyed its means of olive oil production

•

included the destruction of               Lachish

•

horrifying reliefs in British Museum showing this

•

Assyrians besieged Lachish and deported its population

•

Sennacherib makes Hezekiah a                 prisoner in his own city, "like a bird in a cage"

•

the Biblical account fails to mention the great devastation at Lachish [lah-KEESH]

•

presents Jerusalem as being                 divinely rescued, Isiah plays a large role in that

•

after Sennacherib

•

Judah was reduced to a "        rump state in the hill country"

•

ironically, the city of Jerusalem became densely populated throughout the       7th century

•

due to                     incursions from the north, from Israel

•

although some archeologists say this was more just a                             redistribution of population within Judah