Endnote 4 – Jerusalem Under Siege

Donald B. Redford, “Taharqa in Western Asia and Libya,” Eretz Israel 24 (1993), pp. 188–191. See Shea, “The New Tirhakah Text and Sennacherib’s Second Palestinian Campaign,” AUSS 35 (1997), pp. 181–187. Lines 10 and 11 of this text tell of the victory that he claimed: “They were destined for a severe and grievous blow, the work of my hands … I had no compassion on the least of them nor [on the most influential of them?]. (Soon they were) fleeing before me with fear pulsating through their limbs … I forced (?) his confederates to the ground all at once.” From this victory Tirhakah claims to have brought back captives to Egypt, where he settled them to work for him. This he tells of in line 13. Then comes the reference to the high Nile in line 14, “The inundation came as a cattle-thief, although for many years (it had been in) abeyance.” This high Nile can be dated to Tirhakah’s 6th year, according to Kawa Stela V (Macadam, Temples of Kawa, pp. 22–32). The quotations of the inscription here are taken from Redford, “Taharqa in Western Asia.”