416 Mark Leuchter Esarhaddon’s vassal treaties and the very nature of Israel’s relationship to their deity is fashioned upon the Assyrian vassal-suzerain model (21). The sudden appearance of the 70-year oracle concerning Tyre in Isa 23,15-18 would therefore find a ready antecedent in the literature that circulated during Esarhaddon’s reign, and likely draws directly from the terminology of Black Stone inscription, a text that would have been well known to Josianic audiences emerging from Assyria’s shadow in the last quarter of the 7th century (22). We may conclude, then, that Isa 23,15-18 derives from the Josianic period, but it should not be understood as a strictly chronological reference to the time separating Sennacherib’s campaign from the early period of Josiah’s reign. Rather, the adoption of the 70-year motif in the divine chastisement of Tyre is a rhetorical device that conveys to its audience a form of divine discourse that would have demanded attention and commanded authority: it is YHWH, not a Mesopotamian deity, who stands behind the fate of nations and city-state such as Tyre. As such, YHWH’s chosen king, Josiah, is the herald of the deity’s will. Assurbanipal’s death in 627 provided an opportunity for Josiah to assert Judean political and cultural independence and envision dominance over other regions. Yet however weakened it may have been, Assyria did not die with Assurbanipal. Josiah’s audience stood at a crossroads and was faced with a life or death decision — to return to their authentic traditions or to remain submissive to the specter of Assyria. The interpolation of Esarhaddon’s terminology into texts rooted in Israelite tradition would, hopefully, help the nation to indeed choose life (Deut 30,15-20) and avoid incurring the wrath of YHWH and divine judgment (23). In time, the force of this rhetoric would dominate national thought to the exclusion of competing ideologies (24). In that sense, Josiah and his scribes were successful. For Josiah himself, unfortunately, Armageddon would come only too soon. Hebrew College Mark LEUCHTER 160 Herrick Rd. Newton, MA 02459, USA (21) WEINFELD, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 115-138. See also D.M. CARR, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart. Origins of Scripture and Literature (Oxford 2005) 140. (22) LEUCHTER, “Jeremiah’s 70 Year Prophecy”, 514-516. (23) On the influence of Assyrian rhetorical forms on this passage, see T.A. LENCHAK, Choose Life! A Rhetorical-Critical Investigation of Deuteronomy 28:69-30:20 (AnBib; Rome 1993) 23-24. (24) See B. HALPERN, “Brisker Pipes Than Poetry: The Development of Israelite Monotheism”, Judaic Perspectives on Ancient Israel (ed. J. NEUSNER ET AL.) (Philadelphia 1987) 98-102.