2 Kings 19:25

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.

Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it. Here comes the prophet's response to the Assyrian's boasting. The purport of it is, that Sennacherib was merely an instrument in the hands of Yahweh, to accomplish His purposes of providential judgment.

Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps ...

This divine description of Sennacherib's career receives a striking illustration from that king's own monumental account of his rapid course of conquest, which has rarely been paralleled in history except by Napoleon the Great. 'In my third (i:e., regnal) year, I went up to the country of the Khetta, or Hittites (a name denoting Phoenicia, Palestine, etc.) Euliya, king of Sidon (the Eluloeus of Menander), had thrown off the yoke of allegiance. On my approach from Abiri, he fled to Yetnana which is on the seacoast (the Rhinocolura of the Greeks). I reduced his entire country. The places which submitted to me were Sidon the greater and Sidon the less, Beth-zitta (the city of Olives) - unknown; Saripat (Sarepta), Mahallat (an ascent), Husuva (Tyre), Akzib (Ecdippa), and Akka (Accho, Acre).

I placed a new prince on the throne instead of Euliya, and imposed on him the regulated amount of tribute. The kings of the seacoast all repaired to my presence in the neighbourhood of Husuva (Tyre), and brought me their accustomed tribute.' The names of these kings-all maritime princes-are only found upon Colonel Taylor's cylinder, and same of them are unfortunately illegible. 'Sika of Ascalon, who did not come to pay me homage, the gods of his house and his treasures, his sons and his daughters, and his brothers of the house of his father, I seized, and sent off to Nineveh. I placed another chief on the throne of Ascalon, and I imposed on him the regulated amount of tribute.' All these achievements were performed during the spring and summer. 'In the autumn of that year' he continues, 'certain other cities, among which was Ekron the inhabitants of which were attached to Hezekiah, and which had refused to submit to my authority, I took and plundered.' Then he describes his progress southward, until he reached Al...ku, or Allkahis (Lachish) (Rawlinson's 'Outlines of Assyrian History,' p. 35:)