OF TERROR
cut off their precious lives (as one cuts) a string. Like the many waters of a storm, I made (the contents of) their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth. My prancing steeds harnessed for my riding, plunged into the streams of their blood as (into) a river. The wheels of my war chariot. . . were bespattered with blood and filth. With the bodies of their warriors I filled the plain, like grass" (D. D. Luckenb ill, An cien t Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Vol. II, pp. 118, 127). But let us look closely at our day to see if we have at all ad vanced from such violence. The news media daily tell of multiple murders in families, often by a member of the family or a near relative. No one knows when he will read of the violent overthrow of a government in some part of the world. Demonstrations on be- Page 5
pierre was so pronounced that Christian worship was again per mitted. The land of France, however, had no monopoly on seemingly boundless violence and terror. Centuries before, the great empire of Assyria symbolized violence of the worst sort. It is not without cause that the Ninevites themselves said in response to the preaching of Jonah: "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence (italics ours) which is in his hands" (Jonah 3 :8 , NASB). Hear Sennacherib's own descriptions: "The . . . royal residence cities, together with 34 small cities of their environs, I be sieged, I captured, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire." But the account becomes more vivid: "I cut their throats like lambs. I
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