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There are one or two items of interest on the slab (No. 28) that we would point out
(the elevated throne of the King, with its carving and embroidery, and its footstool) as
worthy of notice. Before Sennacherib are brought the captives, who kneel humbly before
him. What they may expect is only too graphically presented, for two men are being put
to death before the very eyes of the King, a mother is seen kissing a baby as she drives in
a cart; does this mean "good-bye"? The way in which the history of Sennacherib comes
into the prophecy of Isaiah shows that Sennacherib is a foreshadowing of the yet future
and final enemy of the Jews--Antichrist; who, however, like his cruel type, will be
"broken without hand".
We now pass round the gallery. The bulk of the sculptures consists of a long series of
slabs representing the Lion hunts, and the hunting of other animals by Ashur-bani-pal,
King of Assyria.
Descending the stairway into the basement, we find another series of sculptural slabs
where the various methods employed in the warfare of the period are depicted. In a case
at the end of the room are bronze bands of the gates of the temple built at Tell-Balawat,
and record the conquest of Shalmaneser 2: Carchemish, Ararat, Tyre and Sidon are
mentioned, and Shalmaneser depicts his penetration to the source of the Tigris and the
ceremonies that were performed there. The records pictured upon these gates supplement
those of the "Black Obelisk" which we have already considered. Dr. Pinches, when
reading a paper before the Biblical Archaeological Society, said that each bronze band
measuring eight feet in length contained at least half as many representations as are found
in the whole Nimroud Gallery of the British Museum. There is a great deal of detail in
the representations, and by carefully observing all that is depicted a most accurate
description is obtained of the methods adopted in besieging a city, the engines, battering
rams and weapons used, the camp, the commissariat, the pontoons that cross the rivers
are all clearly shown. There is, as usual, no compunction in leaving a lasting record of
the great cruelty with which their unhappy captives were treated. In order that he may
have the name of a "great conqueror" Shalmaneser boasts that he burned one hundred
towns in one expedition. Among the titles assumed by this King is "the hope of the
world"!
How blessed to turn away from such exhibitions of human enmity to Him who is
indeed and in the fullest sense THE HOPE of the world, and the Prince of the kings of the
earth.