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343 And Isaiah the Prophet sent back to Hezekiah the "word of Yahweh" against the haughtiness of Sennacherib, who dared "raise his voice to revile the God of Israel, He who is enthroned upon the Cherubim." Therefore, the Prophet declared, Jerusalem shall be spared and Sennacherib - shall be punished. "And it came to pass that night that the Angel of the Lord came and smote the camp of the Assyrians, all one hundred and eighty five thousand of them ... And Sennacherib turned and went back to Nineveh; and while he was_prostrating himself in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adarme- lech and Sharezer slew him with a sword, escaping to the land of Ararat; and his son Esarhaddon became king after him." (The manner of Sennacherib's death and the succession by Esarhaddon are corroborated by Assyrian chronicles). This reprieve of Jerusalem was only temporary. The divine plan for a global catharsis still was in effect; except that now the chastising had to continue with Assyria itself. The pro- cess, as we have mentioned, began in 626 B.C.; and the divine rod to achieve that, Babylon, attained its own imperial reach under the king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 B.C). Their wayward ways—the social injustices, the insincere sacrifices, the worship of idols—would bring upon them due punishment, the Prophets forewarned the kings and people of Judaea. It would bring upon them Yahweh's wrath in the form of a "great and ferocious nation, coming from the north." It was in the very first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, that Jeremiah made explicit the oracle of punish- ment against the nation of Judah, the dwellers of Jerusalem, and all the neighboring nations: So sayeth Yahweh, Lord of Hosts: Because ye have not hearkened to my words, I will send for and fetch all the tribes of the north; The word of Yahweh [shall be] to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. And I shall bring them to this land against its people and against all the neighboring nations. Prophets of an Unseen God