What Syria’s Revived Civil War Means for the Region

What Syria’s Revived Civil War Means for the Region

The surprise rebel offensive that has seized Aleppo and threatens other regime-held territories could mark a further weakening of Iran's regional sway but also spur a new cycle of violence and instability.

Expert Brief by Steven A. Cook

Last updated December 5, 2024 9:00 am (EST)

Steven A. Cook is Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa studies and Director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars at the Council on Foreign Relations.

How did opposition fighters gain control of Syria’s second-largest city eight years after they were routed? How significant is this?

During the height of the conflict in Syria nearly a decade ago, Aleppo was divided between government-controlled and rebel areas, but with the help of Russian airpower and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was able to regain control over the entire city by the end of 2016.  Since about that time, conflict in Syria was static with the rebels largely confined to the Idlib governate, which is adjacent to the Aleppo governate.

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Syria

Syrian Civil War

Clearly, the armed opposition to Assad has taken advantage of the fact that Israel has done significant damage to Iran’s so-called axis of resistance, especially Hezbollah. A greatly weakened Hezbollah and a Russia distracted by its fight in Ukraine make it harder to defend the Assad regime. That does not mean that Hezbollah or the Russians will not help. Both are deeply invested in Syria, but they do not have the forces they had in 2015 and 2016 that were used to crush the insurgency. 

After Aleppo’s fall, Assad’s grip on power seems tenuous. A major question is what is happening in Damascus. There were unconfirmed reports not long after Aleppo fell that Assad and his family were in Moscow, that there were scuffles on the streets of the capital, that different units of the Syrian army were in conflict, and most dramatically, that the presidential palace was overrun. Most of these reports are likely the result of disinformation, but what is happening within the councils of power in Damascus will be critical for how this new phase of the Syrian conflict unfolds.

Are these fighters capable of holding control of Aleppo and expanding their military campaign against the regime?

No doubt the battle lines have changed and Syria is an active war zone again. But it is important to be cautious about gauging the prospects for the groups that have taken Aleppo and the city of Hama as well. There are no international journalists in Syria and the reports coming out of the country are likely to be rife with misinformation and disinformation.

So far, we know that the rebellion—an amalgam of extremist groups, Turkey-backed fighters, and Kurds (though not necessarily organized Kurdish forces)—has wrested control of Aleppo and Hama and is driving toward other cities. The primary group behind the offensive is believed to be Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham (known as HTS or Tahrir al-Sham), which emerged at the outset of the Syrian civil war. It is an offshoot of an Al Qaeda affiliate called Jabhat al Nusra. HTS is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

In Aleppo, Syrian government forces melted away. Whether the rebel groups can consolidate their gains depends on the response from the regime, the Russians, Hezbollah, and any other groups the Iranians might deploy to help Assad. There are reports that Russian forces in Syria have undertaken airstrikes to support the regime. However, it remains to be seen whether the government and its allies can mount a significant defense.

The Factions Vying for Control in Syria

Estimated areas of control as of December 5, 2024

A map of territorial control in Syria showing it divided among several factions

Controlling groups

Goals

Preserve and expand regime control

Assad government and aligned forces (including Iran and Russia)

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allies

Overthrow Assad; establish Islamist regime

Turkish-backed groups

Counter Kurdish presence and autonomy in Syria

Syrian Kurds and aligned groups

Establish autonomous Kurdish region; counter Turkey and aligned forces; counter IS with U.S. support

U.S. and aligned Syrian opposition

Counter IS remnants; support Syrian Kurds; oppose Assad-aligned forces

Islamic State (IS)

Overthrow Assad; establish Islamic Caliphate

Note: Areas of control are estimated from news reports and are approximate.

Sources:  Live Universal Awareness Map; CFR research.

What are the prospects for Russian forces coming to Assad’s aid like they did in 2016?

Russia is, of course, fully engaged in its fight in Ukraine, but it does have forces in Syria including warplanes and attack helicopters, military police, and soldiers that are spread across twenty bases. Much of the Russian military support for Assad came in the form of indiscriminate bombing of rebel areas from the air, while Hezbollah supported the regime on the ground. It is possible—indeed likely—that Russia will use the Hmeimim air base in northwestern Syria to do much of the same. Air power alone will not likely be sufficient to beat back the rebels. With government forces unable or unwilling to fight the insurgency and Hezbollah unable to muster the same forces it once did, the Russians find themselves in a difficult situation in Syria. There is no question that Moscow will want to defend its position in Syria, but it is unclear yet whether that includes defending Assad.

What is the response of other outside actors involved in Syria, including Turkey, Israel, Iran, and the United States?

Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was supposed to meet with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Sunday but instead flew to Damascus to assess the situation in Syria. Before turning to Moscow, Bashar al-Assad sought support from Tehran after the 2011 Syrian uprising proved beyond his control. Iran is deeply invested in Syria with dozens of military bases and other facilities because the country is critical to Tehran’s support for Hezbollah—whether as a pipeline for weapons, a place to manufacture weapons, or a command post for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders who coordinate with the Lebanese militant group. Iran’s strategic position in the region was already deteriorating; the rebel attack on Aleppo and the apparent renewed threat to the Assad regime put it further in jeopardy.

Turkey. The Turkish government has in recent years sought to normalize ties with Syria. This is a major turnaround for Ankara, which demanded an end to the Assad regime after the 2011 civil war began and occupied territory in Syria’s northwest. It seems likely that the Turks are now reassessing their overtures to the regime. If President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his advisors believe that Assad is likely to fall, Turkey could renew its effort to be uniquely influential in a successor government in Damascus. Based on Erdoğan’s previous approach to the Arab uprisings more than a decade ago, this means support for Islamist groups. A considerable role for Turkey in a post-Assad Syrian would help the Turks manage the problem (for them) of Kurdish autonomy in Syria. It would also help facilitate the return of millions of mostly Kurdish refugees that have made their way to Turkey over the last dozen years seeking safety from the war.

If Turkey were to renew its push for regime change in Damascus, it would put Ankara once again in conflict with major Arab states such as Iraq and the United Arab Emirates who have already indicated support for Assad. Presumably, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also support the Syrian regime given their wariness of the Islamist political groups that have enjoyed Turkish support.

Israel. Breaking the Iran-Syria axis would not doubt benefit Israeli security by undermining the weapons pipeline to Hezbollah. At the same time, Assad’s possible fall poses significant challenges to Israel, especially if Turkish-backed Islamists were to come to power in Syria. Of course, much has to happen before Assad falls. For the moment, Assad’s problems in Syria are Iran’s problems in Syria and that is good for Israel.

United States. The are currently 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria clustered around a base in al Tanf. They are there to help what is known as the Syrian Democratic Forces contain the Islamic State. The rebel takeover of Aleppo and other areas does not change this mission; in fact, the extremist elements within the rebellion could make this mission more urgent.  It remains an open question whether those forces will remain after U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. During his first term, he twice vowed to withdraw those forces, but instead under pressure from advisors opted to redeploy some of them. Consistent with his “America First” worldview, he may opt this time to withdraw them regardless of the situation in Syria, which currently does not pose a threat to Americans or the American homeland.

This work represents the views and opinions solely of the author. The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher, and takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/what-syrias-revived-civil-war-means-region

The ancient city of On

Abdel-Rahman Sherief

Last updated: February 12, 2013 2:34 pm

Abdel-Rahman Sherief

The remaining Sesostris I obelisk 

The remaining Sesostris I obelisk

On, known today as Heliopolis or Ain-Shams, was considered the first Egyptian capital during the predynastic period and was the birthplace of the first ancient Egyptian mythology.

On was the place where creation itself was believed to take place, the spot where life began, according to Egyptian myths. On was the home of the first and the mightiest Egyptian god of all, Atum, who was believed to have risen from the Benben stone in the great temple of On to light up the dark and empty universe.

Atum was believed to be the source of all other gods, like Shu, the god of air, which he exhaled out of his nose and Tefnut, the god of moisture, which flew from his mouth, to name but a few.

According to the old beliefs people came from Atum’s tears when he cried as a result of his pain and exertions.

On’s priests and astronomers were believed, according to Herodotus and many other historians, to be the inventors of the annual calendar that we use today and the city was the centre of science, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. Students came from all over the world to study with its priests and scholars.

Even after the reunification of Egypt and the establishment of the city of Memphis by King Menes who wanted a new capital for Egypt, On retained its religious prestige and its priests were renowned for their skills in science and magic.

The magnificence of On gradually faded through the ages. The Greek philosopher Strabo mentioned that by the first century BC the temples were deserted and the town became uninhabited. Many of the city’s beautiful obelisks were taken to adorn European cities, including Rome and London.

The city is believed to have been razed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar who attacked Egypt in 591BC and 567 BC but there are other theories; it may have been demolished a century earlier by the Assyrians or decades later by the Persians.

The destruction of the city of On meant the destruction of all traces of the existence of the temple of the sun god Ra, the birthplace of writing, and the centre of mathematics and astronomy where the finest philosopers of Greece studied.

The only thing that remains of On is an obelisk built by the pharaoh Sesostris I.

The obelisk was one of a pair built to commemorate the 13th jubilee of Sesostris in 1940 BC, but sometime in the 12th century its twin fell, leaving the Sesostris obelisk standing alone as the only evidence of On’s magnificence. In modern times the obelisk is a site of annual pilgrimage for Egyptian peasants who gather there to celebrate the spring festival of Sham El-Nesim.

Recent tomb discoveries made on the site of On relate to the priests of the great temple, but many of the city’s treasures and sites are hiding beneath the Al-Matariyya suburb, waiting for large-scale excavations projects that may reveal the secrets of the ancient Egyptian city of On.

https://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/02/11/the-ancient-city-of-on/ 

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.[3] CFR is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership has included senior politicians, secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, corporate directors, CEOs, and prominent media figures.

CFR meetings convene government officials, global business leaders, and prominent members of the intelligence and foreign-policy communities to discuss international issues. CFR publishes the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs since 1922. It also runs the David Rockefeller Studies Program, which makes recommendations to presidential administrations and the diplomatic community, testifies before Congress, interacts with the media, and publishes research on foreign policy issues.

Michael Froman is the organization's 15th president.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations

Knight of Malta (SMOM), Alexander M. Haig, Jr., 1981 ##3* According to the 1989 Arts and Entertainment video, The Men Who Killed Kennedy: The Coverup, Lt. Colonel Alexander M. Haig (1963) contributed to the cover-up—the Great Jesuit Cover-up—of the Kennedy Assassination. For his obedience he was later promoted to the rank of General and subsequently named as the Commander of NATO in Europe. As a result of his continued obedience to the Black Pope, the Papal Caesar and the Archbishop of New York, Haig was appointed to the high office of Secretary of State under honorary Shriner and Knight of Malta President Ronald Reagan in 1981. With the endorsement of former Kentucky Senator John Sherman Cooper who had been a member of the Jesuit-educated, high-level Freemason and President Lyndon Johnson’s Warren Commission overseen by 33rd Degree Freemason Chief Justice Earl Warren, we see Council on Foreign Relations member and Knight of Malta Alexander Haig answering questions during his confirmation hearings. To his right sits SMOM/CFR member Joseph A. Califano, Jr.; to his left sits his wife, Dame of Malta Pat Haig; and immediately behind him sits his younger brother in clerical collar, Knight of Malta Francis R. Haig, S.J.—the Jesuit behind the Watergate Scandal and the removal of President Richard M. Nixon! Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy, Alexander M. Haig, Jr., (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984).

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://ia802505.us.archive.org/28/items/EricJonPhelpsVaticanAssassins3rdEdition/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

Mary D. Stifflemire

January 31, 1921 - August 11, 2015

Mary D. Stifflemire, of 43 West McKinsey Rd. in Severna Park, MD, died August 10th of natural causes. She was 94.

Born in New Bern, NC, January 31, 1921, to William F and May H Dunn, Mary had four brothers: William, John, Robert and Roger Dunn. She was 10 years old when her family relocated from New Bern to Washington, DC. The family resided on Clifton St. in NW Washington, DC, and Mary graduated from Central High School. Mary later lived on Quincy Street and on Eastern Avenue in NE Washington, DC, from 1954 to 1980, when she relocated to Fort Lauderdale, FL. She was married to Kenneth H. Ramey in 1941. They later divorced, and she remarried, to Paul F. Stifflemire in 1950. They were also divorced. Mary lived in Pompano Beach, FL with her longtime companion, Arvis “Bill” Lyman from 1984 until his death in 2004. She relocated to Maryland in 2009.

Mary’s professional career included positions as secretary to then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by several years as secretary to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces. She was secretary to Brent Skowcroft, National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon. She also served as secretary to Alexander Haig, then the Military Assistant to the Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger. She accompanied President Nixon and Mr. Kissinger on several important foreign missions, including the 1972 talks in Beijing that began the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China, and the signing in January 1973 of the Paris Peace Accords that formally ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Mary was an active synchronized swimmer, performing with the Aqua Gems at the Ambassador Hotel in Washington, DC. She was a certified Red Cross swimming instructor and won numerous swimming medals in the Florida Senior Games.

Mary is survived by two sons, Kenneth Ramey, 73, of Bunker Hill, WV, and Paul Stifflemire, 64, of Arnold, MD. She leaves behind six granddaughters: Talia Ramey of College Park, MD; Victoria Ramey of Germantown, MD; Holly Stifflemire of Pepperell, MA; Heidi Crone of Cincinnati, OH; Heather Stifflemire of Framingham, MA; and, Grace Stifflemire of Arnold, MD. Mary also leaves two great-granddaughters, Ella and Cassidy Crone, and two great-grandsons, Anthony and Dominic Ramey.

A wake will be held at the Barranco & Sons, P.A. Funeral Home in Severna Park Maryland on Friday August 14, 2015 from 4:00PM to 8:00PM. A funeral mass will be celebrated at St. John the Evangelist Church, Saturday August 15 at 10:00AM. Mary will be buried with her father and mother at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Audubon Society.

https://www.barrancofuneralhome.com/obituary/3271963

The Jesuits — 1914 – 1945 1096 CFR Members and Students, Jesuit Georgetown University, 2000 #396 

Standing top left, CFR Member Condoleezza Rice is being introduced to speak. Annual Report: Council on Foreign Relations, (New York: The Harold Pratt House, 2001) p. 12. 2. The Masonic British agents of the Order, having created London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), were now working in conjunction with the Order’s Masonic American agents ruling the CFR at 58 East 68th Street in New York. Backed by the wealth and power of America, the Protestant British Empire would be more effectively used than formerly during the Nineteenth Century—“the British Century.” The Empire, usurped by the Jesuits during the reign of King George III, would be used by the Black Pope (ruling the English Monarchy and “Smokin’ Winston” Churchill) as another one of the Order’s “Swords of the Church” during the Jesuit General’s Second Thirty Years’ War and his ensuing Cold War.

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://ia802505.us.archive.org/28/items/EricJonPhelpsVaticanAssassins3rdEdition/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

Himmler used the Jesuits as the model for the SS, since he found they had the core elements of absolute obedience and the cult of the organisation.[59][60] Hitler is said to have called Himmler "my Ignatius of Loyola".[59] As an order, the SS needed a coherent doctrine that would set it apart.[61] Himmler attempted to construct such an ideology, and deduced a "pseudo-Germanic tradition" from history.[61] Himmler dismissed the image of Christ as a Jew and rejected Christianity's basic doctrine and its institutions.[62] Starting in 1934, the SS hosted "solstice ceremonies" (Sonnenwendfeiern) to increase team spirit within their ranks.[63] In a 1936 memorandum, Himmler set forth a list of approved holidays based on pagan and political precedents meant to wean SS members from their reliance on Christian festivities.[64] In an attempt to replace Christianity and suffuse the SS with a new doctrine, SS-men were able to choose special Lebenslauffeste, substituting common Christian ceremonies such as baptisms, weddings and burials. Since the ceremonies were held in small private circles, it is unknown how many SS-members opted for these kind of celebrations.[65]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology_of_the_SS 

From modest beginnings the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons), became a virtual state within a state in Nazi Germany, staffed by men who perceived themselves as the “racial elite” of Nazi future.

In the Nazi state, the SS assumed leading responsibility for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence collection and analysis. The SS controlled the German police forces and the concentration camp system. The SS conceived and implemented plans designed to restructure the ethnic composition of eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet Union.

From 1939, the SS assumed responsibility for “solving” the so-called Jewish Question; after 1941, its leadership planned, coordinated and directed the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question. This “solution” was the annihilation of the European Jews, which we now refer to as the Holocaust

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss 

2 §1. The character and charism of the Society of Jesus arise from the Spiritual Exercises which our holy father Ignatius and his companions went through. Led by this experience, they formed an apostolic group rooted in charity, in which, after they had taken the vows of chastity and poverty and had been raised to the priesthood, they offered themselves as a HOLOCAUST to God,[2] so that serving as soldiers of God beneath the banner of the cross and serving the Lord alone and the Church his spouse under the Roman Pontiff, the vicar of Christ on earth,[3] they would be sent into the entire world[4] for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine. [5]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf 

20. It is better and safer to make alliance and amity with [Moslem] Turks, [Communist] Infidels, or [Talmudic and anti-Torah, Zionist] Jews, than with [Reformation Bible-believing] Heretic Protestants [and Baptists], because they may draw us into the errors of their novelties. {1}

Absolutist Papal Maxims of the Jesuits

World, the: 1. It is proper to our vocation: to go to diverse places and live in whatever part of the world and to be sent wherever the greater service of God and the help of souls can be hoped for [82, 92, 304, 308, 588, 603, 605, 626, 749]; to this purpose is directed the vow of special obedience to the supreme pontiff regarding missions, FI no. 3 [603, 605], 2 §1; consequently a complete availability, mobility, and universality are necessary, 110, 121 4°, 242 §3, 246 7°, 248, 259, 411; at the service of which is chastity, 144 §2; consequently our community is a community for dispersion, 255 §1, 312, 314 §2, 315, 317; thus also the need for communicating with different cultures of the world and for insertion into them, 99 §2, 106 §2, 110, 111, 246 2°; and for promoting that perfect and open cooperation among the members of the entire Society, of whatever province or region they may be, 396 §2. See also Cooperation, interprovincial and supraprovincial; Culture(s); Insertion 2. God is present in the world: exercising the ministry of healing and reconciliation, 246 4°; thus he is there to be sought and found, 223 §§3-4; the world, in great part afflicted with atheism and injustice and increasingly divided by diverse economic, social, and ethnic systems and by other sources of division and opposition, 59 §2, 223 §3, 246 4° 3. The world, as distinguished from religious life: is to be left behind, trampled underfoot, and renounced [30, 50, 53, 61, 66, 297]; it is to be despised because of the love for and imitation of Christ [101]; contempt for it assists in the union of minds and hearts [671]: customs which smack of the world are not to be introduced, 322. 

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms 

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts 

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES SAINT LOUIS, 1996 

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf 

Luke 21:24

1599 Geneva Bible

24 And they shall fall on the [a]edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Luke 21:24 Word for word, mouth, for the Hebrews call the edge of a sword the mouth, because the edge biteth.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2021%3A24&version=GNV

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created under the National Security Act of 1947, which President Truman signed on July 26, 1947. The CIA officially came into existence on September 18th that same year, which is when we celebrate our birthday.

With the passage of the 1947 Act, Truman achieved his goals of modernizing and unifying America’s armed services, and, by creating a centralized intelligence agency, reformed our intelligence capabilities. To protect American’s civil liberties, he made sure to clearly divide intelligence roles between domestic and foreign: FBI would handle anything domestic, while CIA was limited to foreign intelligence only. Furthermore, the Act specified that CIA would have no police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers.

President Truman appointed Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter as the first CIA director, known as the Director of Central Intelligence. He had been the Director of one of our immediate “ancestors,” called the Central Intelligence Group. The CIG was a bureaucratic anomaly with no independent budget, no statutory mandate, and staffers assigned from other departments of the government. America needed a peacetime, centralized intelligence agency with its own budget and mandate. That’s why Truman replaced the CIG and created the CIA.

The 1947 Act loosely defined CIA’s mission into four broad tasks:

The 1947 Act was relatively unchanged until 2004. President Bush, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, made major updates to the 1947 act, including the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

If you’re interested, you can find out more about what is called “the National Security Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of December 2004” on the DNI’s website.

The importance of the 1947 National Security Act cannot be overstated. It created our Nation’s first peacetime intelligence agency, reflected America’s acceptance of its position as a world leader, and it remained a cornerstone of our national security policy for 75 years… and counting.

~ Molly

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/ask-molly-the-national-security-act-of-1947/

Molly

fem. proper name, a diminutive of Moll, which is a familiar form of Mary.

molly (n.1)

a common 18c. colloquial term for "homosexual man" or "man who is deemed effeminate, a sissy," by 1707, perhaps 1690s. The fem. proper name Molly or Moll served as a type-name of a low-class girl or prostitute in old songs and ballads (perhaps in part for the sake of the easy rhymes).

But the colloquial word also resembles Latin mollis "soft," which also had been used classically in a specific pejorative sense in reference to men, "soft, effeminate, unmanly, weak," in Cicero, Livy, etc. A 1629 publication from the Catholic-Protestant theological disputes, "Truth's triumph ouer Trent," written in English with swerves into Latin, at one point describes the denizens of Hell as fideles fornicarios, adulteros, molles, and so forth, and molles is translated parenthetically in the text as "effeminate." Molly House as a term for a brothel frequented by gay men is attested in a court case from 1726.

also from 18c.

molly (n.2)

seabird, 1857, short for mollymawk, mallemuck, from Dutch mallemok, from mal "foolish" + mok "gull."

also from 1857

https://www.etymonline.com/word/molly

Operation Mockingbird is an alleged large-scale program of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that began in the early years of the Cold War and attempted to manipulate domestic American news media organizations for propaganda purposes. According to author Deborah Davis, Operation Mockingbird recruited leading American journalists into a propaganda network and influenced the operations of front groups. CIA support of front groups was exposed when an April 1967 Ramparts article reported that the National Student Association received funding from the CIA.[1] In 1975, Church Committee Congressional investigations revealed Agency connections with journalists and civic groups.

In 1973, a document referred to as the "Family Jewels"[2] was published by the CIA containing a reference to "Project Mockingbird", which was the name of an operation in 1963 which wiretapped two journalists who had published articles based on classified material.[3] The document does not contain references to "Operation Mockingbird".[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

"And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."

Revelation 18:2

"Both Mario and Maria (as well as their equivalents in other Romance languages) are derived from the Latin male name Marius. But, Maria was also the Latinised form of the name of Jesus' mother, which would have been, in Aramaic, מרים, or, in the Latin alphabet, Maryam or Miriam."

https://englishlanguagethoughts.com/2020/12/13/mario/#:~:text=Both%20Mario%20and%20Maria%20(as,Latin%20alphabet%2C%20Maryam%20or%20Miriam

Marius is a male given name, a Roman family name, and a modern surname.

The name Marius was used by members of the Roman gens Maria. It is thought to be derived from either[citation needed] the Roman war god Mars or from the Latin root mas or maris meaning "male". It may also derive from the Latin word mare meaning "sea", the plural of which is maria.

In Christian times, it was syncretized as a masculine form of the unrelated feminine given name Maria, from the Hebrew Miriam, Aramaic variant Mariam, and used alongside it.

Today, the name Marius is a common given name in Romania, Norway, and Lithuania. The name is also used in the Philippines, France, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

The Greek name Marios (Μάριος), the Italian and Spanish name Mario, the Polish name Mariusz, and the Portuguese name Mário are all derived from Marius."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_(name)

"Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio[b] on 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the 8th century papacy of Syrian pope Gregory III."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis 

"Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus: a ROMAN work of the entire Society, 304 §2" 

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms 

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Mollie Steimer (Ukrainian: Моллі Штаймер; November 21, 1897 – July 23, 1980) was a Ukrainian anarchist activist. After settling in New York City in 1913, she quickly became involved in the local anarchist movement and was caught up in the case of Abrams v. United States. Charged with sedition, she was eventually deported to Soviet Russia, where she met her lifelong partner Senya Fleshin and agitated for the rights of anarchist political prisoners in the country. For her activities, she and Fleshin were again deported to western Europe, where they spent time organising aid for exiles and political prisoners, and took part in the debates of the international anarchist movement. Following the rise of the Nazis in Europe, she and Fleshin fled to Mexico, where they spent the rest of their lives working as photographers.

Early life and activism

On November 21, 1897, Mollie Steimer was born in Dunaivtsi, a village in the south-west of the Russian Empire.[1] At the age of 15, she and her family emigrated to the United States, settling in a ghetto of New York City and setting to work at a garment factory.[2] At this time, she started to read radical political literature, such as Women and Socialism by August Bebel and Underground Russia by Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky.[1]

By the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Steimer had gravitated towards anarchism, inspired by the works of the Russian anarchists Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.[3] Together with other Jewish anarchists, Steimer helped form a clandestine collective called Der Shturm ("The Storm"), which published radical works in the Yiddish language. Following some internal conflict, in January 1918, the group reorganized and launched a new monthly journal titled Frayhayt ("Freedom"),[4] which published articles by Jewish radicals such as Georg Brandes and Maria Goldsmith.[5] The journal's motto was a Henry David Thoreau quote: "That government is best which governs not at all" (Yiddish: Yene regirung iz di beste, velkhe regirt in gantsn nit).[6]

Several of the collective's members, including Steimer, lived and worked together in a six-room apartment on Harlem's East 104th Street.[7] Due to the political repression brought by the Espionage Act of 1917 and the tense political climate that preceded the First Red Scare, the collective was forced to distribute Frayhayt in secret,[8] as it had been among the papers banned by the federal government for its anti-war and far-left political stances.[9] By the summer of 1918, the group had drawn the attention of the authorities after they had begun distributing leaflets denouncing the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and calling for a social revolution in the United States by means of a general strike.[10]

Arrest, trial and imprisonment

Steimer herself distributed thousands of leaflets around New York.[11] On August 23, 1918, she distributed copies around the factory she worked in and threw a handful of the leaflets out of an upper window, which alerted the police.[12] Steimer was arrested after police received information from an informant within the Frayhayt group. Their apartment was subsequently raided and a number of their other members were arrested, on charges of conspiracy, under the Sedition Act of 1918.[13] During their trial, which came to be known as the case of Abrams v. United States, Steimer gave a speech in which she declared:[14]

By anarchism, I understand a new social order, where no group of people shall be governed by another group of people. Individual freedom shall prevail in the full sense of the word. Private ownership shall be abolished. Every person shall have an equal opportunity to develop himself well, both mentally and physically. We shall not have to struggle for our daily existence as we do now. No one shall live on the product of others. Every person shall produce as much as he can, and enjoy as much as he needs—receive according to his need. Instead of striving to get money, we shall strive towards education, towards knowledge. While at present the people of the world are divided into various groups, calling themselves nations, while one nation defies another — in most cases considers the others as competitive — we, the workers of the world, shall stretch out our hands towards each other with brotherly love. To the fulfillment of this idea I shall devote all my energy, and, if necessary, render my life for it.

On October 25, 1918, Steimer and her co-defendants were found guilty, with Steimer herself being sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $500 fine (equivalent to $10,000 in 2023).[15] With support from both radicals and liberals, notably including Zechariah Chafee and other legal scholars of Harvard University,[16] the sentence was appealed and the defendants were released on bail.[17] Steimer returned to activism, for which she was arrested multiple times over the following year.[18] On March 11, 1919, during a police raid against the Russian People's House on New York's East 15th Street, Steimer was arrested on charges of incitement and subsequently transferred to Ellis Island.[19] Following a hunger strike against the conditions of her solitary confinement, Steimer was released before she could be deported, although the government kept her under surveillance. Back in New York, she met Emma Goldman, with whom she developed a lifelong friendship.[20]

On October 30, 1919, Steimer was arrested again and imprisoned on Blackwell's Island. For six months, she was again held in solitary confinement,[21] which she likewise protested with another hunger strike and by loudly singing revolutionary songs. When the Supreme Court upheld her conviction, her co-defendants informed her of a plan to flee the country into exile, but Steimer herself refused to cooperate, as she did not want to dishonor the workers who had paid her $40,000 in bail (equivalent to $703,000 in 2023).[22] In April 1920, Steimer was transferred to Jefferson City, Missouri, where she was held for a year and a half.[23] For her penal labor, she was required to manufacture 100 jackets per day. She found this task difficult, injuring her arm while attempting to fulfil the quota, but persevered to not bring "further persecution" against her family.[24]

During her time in prison, Steimer's brother died from influenza and her father from shock.[25] She attempted to support her mother and surviving siblings, but her appeal for compassionate release was rejected by the Supreme Court. Instead, the Workers' Defense Union established a relief fund in her name, raising $1,000 (equivalent to $20,000 in 2023) for her family.[26]

On August 22, 1920, two years after her arrest for anti-war agitation, she celebrated news of an international mass strike against the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, declaring: "At last our great hope, our beautiful ideal of international workers solidarity for the coming good of humanity, is coming true!"[27] She also wrote letters inquiring about the condition of her fellow imprisoned anarchists, although she remained pessimistic about the possibility of their release.[28]

Her lawyer managed to secure her release, on the condition of her deportation. But she initially refused to accept this, due to her staunch opposition to state borders and her concern for fellow political prisoners of the United States.[29] Nevertheless, after some convincing, she arrived back at Ellis Island, where she eagerly awaited her chance to participate in the Russian Revolution.[30]

Deportation and exile

On November 24, 1921, Steimer and her co-defendants were deported to the Russian Soviet Republic on the Estonia.[31] By the time they arrived in Moscow, on December 15, 1921, they found that the Russian anarchist movement had been thoroughly repressed.[32] Emma Goldman had left for exile,[33] Peter Kropotkin had died of old age and both the Kronstadt rebellion and the Makhnovist movement had been suppressed by the Red Army, while hundreds more anarchists were still held in the prisons of the Cheka.[32] Despite the climate of political repression, Steimer made a new home in Petrograd, where she met and fell in love with Senya Fleshin, a veteran of the Makhnovist movement.[34] Together they established an organization to aid political prisoners in Russia,[35] for which they were arrested on November 1, 1922, and sentenced to exile in Siberia. But after they carried out a hunger strike, they were released on November 18, on the condition that they remain in Petrograd and report regularly to the authorities. Despite these conditions, they continued their activities, and were again arrested on July 9, 1923. Following another hunger strike and protests made to Leon Trotsky by anarcho-syndicalist delegates of the Profintern, they were again released, although this time they were to be deported.[36] When ACLU founder Roger Nash Baldwin received news of Steimer's treatment, he declared himself "moved humanly to condemn both governments involved [the United States and Soviet Union] and to give her such aid as I can."[37]

On September 27, 1923, Steimer and Fleshin were deported to Germany,[38] where they were reunited with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in Berlin. From the German capital, Steimer wrote articles about her experiences in Russia for the British anarchist newspaper Freedom, to which she denounced the authoritarianism of the Communist Party.[39] The couple also continued their activities in aiding Soviet political prisoners, now as members of the International Workers' Association. In 1924, they joined their fellow exile Volin to Paris, where they established a mutual aid society for anarchist exiles from all countries and participated in the debate around the Platform, which Steimer criticised as authoritarian.[40] During this period, Steimer also met a number of other anarchists, including Harry Kelly, Rose Pesotta, Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkop, and was briefly reunited with her co-defendants Jack and Mary Abrams, who had also left Russia out of disillusionment with the Revolution.[41]

In 1929, the couple briefly returned to Berlin, where Fleshin worked as a photographer.[42] However, following the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in 1933, they returned to Paris to escape rising antisemitism.[43] In the wake of the invasion of France by Nazi Germany, on May 18, 1940, Steimer was sent to a concentration camp,[44] on account of her Jewish heritage and her anarchist political beliefs.[45] She remained at Camp Gurs for six months before finally being released. She then fled south from Nazi-occupied France to the area controlled by the collaborationist French State.[46] Once she was reunited with Fleshin in Marseilles, the couple escaped across the Atlantic to Mexico.[45]

Later life

In Mexico City, the couple operated a photographic studio, became close with a group of Spanish anarchist exiles and were once again reunited with Jack and Mary Abrams. In 1963, Steimer and Fleshin retired to Cuernavaca, where they kept up with the development of the international anarchist movement and received visitors from the United States. In the late 1970s, Steimer was interviewed by a number of film crews about Emma Goldman and her anarchist convictions, to which she remained a stalwart into her old age.[47]

Steimer died of heart failure in her Cuernavaca home on July 23, 1980, aged 82.[48] Fleshin died less than a year later.[47]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollie_Steimer

The Rose-Croix Adepts respected the dominant, hierarchical, and revealed religion. Consequently they could no more be the enemies of the Papacy than of legitimate Monarchy; and if they conspired against the Popes and Kings, it was because they considered them personally as apostates from duty and supreme favorers of anarchy. What, in fact, is a despot, spiritual or temporal, but a crowned anarchist? One of the magnificent pantacles that express the esoteric and unutterable part of Science, is a Rose, of Light, in the centre of which a human form extends its arms in the form of a cross. Commentaries and studies have been multiplied upon the Divine Comedy, the work of Dante, and yet no one, so far as we know, has pointed out its especial character. The work of the great Ghibellin is a declaration of war against the Papacy, by bold revelations of the Mysteries. The Epic of Dante is Johannite and Gnostic, an audacious application, like that of the Apocalypse, of the figures and numbers of the Kabalah to the Christian dogmas, and a secret negation of every thing absolute in these dogmas. His journey through the supernatural worlds is accomplished like the initiation into the Mvsteries of Eleusis and Thebes. He escapes from that gulf of Hell over the gate of which the sentence of despair was written, by reversing the positions of his head and feet, that is to say, by accepting the direct opposite of the Catholic dogma; and then he reascends to the light, by using the Devil himself as a monstrous ladder. Faust ascends to Heaven, bv stepping on the head of the vanquished Mephistopheles. Hell is impassable for those only who know not how to turn back from it. We free ourselves from its bondage by audacitv. His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His Heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like the Pantacle of Ezekiel. Tn the centre of this cross blooms a rose, and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first time publicly expounded and almost cateeoricallv explained.

For the first time, because Ouillaume de Lorris, who died in 1260, five years before the birth of Alighieri, had not completed KNIGHT KADOSH. 823 his Roman de la Rose, which was continued by Chopinel, a half century afterward. One is astonished to discover that the Roman de la Rose and the Divina Commedia are two opposite forms of one and the same work, initiation into independence of spirit, a satire on all contemporary institutions, and the allegorical formula of the great Secrets of the Society of the Roses-Croix.

The important manifestations of Occultism coincide with the period of the fall of the Templars ; since Jean de Meung or Chopinel, contemporary of the old age of Dante, flourished during the best years of his life at the Court of Philippe le Bel. The Roman de la Rose is the Epic of old France. It is a profound book, under the form of levity, a revelation as learned as that of Apuleius, of the Mysteries of Occultism. The Rose of Flamel, that of Jean de Meung and that o'f Dante, grew on the same stem.

Swedenborg's system was nothing else than the Kabalah, minus the principle of the Hierarchy. It is the Temple, without the keystone and the foundation.

Cagliostro was the Agent of the Templars,- and therefore wrote to the Free-Masons of London that the time had come to begin the work of re-building the Temple of the Eternal. He had introduced into Masonry a new Rite called the Egyptian, and endeavored to resuscitate the mysterious worship of Isis. The three letters L.\ P.'. D.\ on his seal, were the initials of the words "Lilia pedibus destrue;" tread under foot the Lilies [of France], and a Masonic medal of the sixteenth or seventeenth century has upon it a sword cutting off the stalk of a lily, and the words "talem dabit ultio messem," such harvest revenge will give.

A Lodge inaugurated under the auspices of Rousseau, the fanatic of Geneva, became the centre of the revolutionary movement in France, and a Prince of the blood-royal went thither to swear the destruction of the successors of Philippe le Bel on the tomb of Jacques de Molai. The registers of the Order of Templars attest that the Regent, the Due d' Orleans, was Grand Master of that formidable Secret Society, and that his successors were the Due de Maine, the Prince of Bourbon-Conde, and the Due de Cosse-Brissac.

The Templars compromitted the King; they saved him from the rage of the People, to exasperate that rage and bring on the catastrophe prepared for centuries ; it was a scaffold that the vengeance of the Templars demanded. The secret movers of the French Revolution had sworn to overturn the Throne and the Altar upon the Tomb of Jacques de Molai. When Louis XVI. was executed, half the work was done; and thenceforward the \rmy of the Temple was to direct all its efforts against the Pope. Jacques de Molai and his companions were perhaps martyrs, but their avengers dishonored their memory. Royalty was regenerated on the scaffold of Louis XVI., the Church triumphed in the captivity of Pius VI., carried a prisoner to Valence, arid dying of fatigue and sorrow, but the successors of the Ancient Knights of the Temple perished, overwhelmed in their fatal victory.

Morals and Dogma

by Albert Pike

https://ia800902.us.archive.org/20/items/MoralsAndDogmaAlbertPikeTheCouncil1871/Morals%20and%20Dogma%2C%20Albert%20Pike%2C%20The%20Council%20%281871%29.pdf

Rosicrucianism is a theosophy advanced by an invisible order of spiritual knights who in spreading Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Gnosis seek to enliven and to preserve the memory of Divine Wisdom, understood as a feminine flame of love called Sofia or Shekhinah, exoterically given as a fresh unfolded rose, yet, more akin to the blue fire of alchemy, the blue virgin. Rosicrucians have no organisation and there are no recognizable Rosicrucian individuals, but the order makes its presence known by leaving behind engrammatic writings in the genre of Hermetic-Platonic Christianity.

The historical roots of Hermeticism is to be located in Ancient Egypt. 

Long before the rise of Christianity, Hermetic texts were structured around the belief that organisms contain sparks of a Divine mind unto which they each strive to attend. Things easily transform into others, thereby generating certain cyclical patterns, cycles that periodically renew themselves on a cosmic scale. These transformations of life and death were enacted in the Hermetic Mysteries in Ancient Egypt through the gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris. In the Alexandrian period these myths were reshaped into Hermetic discourses on the transformations of the self with Thot, the scribal god. These discourses were introduced in the west in 1474 when Marsilio Ficino translated the Hermetic Pimander from the Greek. The story of Christian Rosencreutz can be seen as a new version of these mysteries, specifically tempered by German Paracelsian philosophy on the Lion of the darkest night, a biblical icon for how the higher self lies slumbering in consciousness." 

Rose Cross Over The Baltic: The Spread of Rosicrucianism In Northern Europe

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vWI_uTVg5lzNCDm16itq-PLSavozNR_F/view?usp=sharing

Rosa Jesuitica, oder Jesuitische Rottgesellen, das ist, Eine Frag ob die Zween Orden, der ganandten Ritter von der Neerscharen Jesu, und der Rosen-Creuzer ein einiger Ordensen: per J. P. D. a S. Jesuitarum Protectorum. Prague, 1620.” (4to).

This is a truly curious tract upon the “relations of the Jesuits and the Rosicrucians."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dT28PyPUPfqDfC0iVg7nGFsle8vYBXLf/view?usp=sharing

The history of the Giglio of Florence

August 16, 2013 9:25 am 27018

Giglio of Florence: The story behind the lily that turned out not be a lily at all.

The city of Florence has proudly carried the Giglio of Florence on her coat of arms for almost a thousand years. The origin of the lily symbol however is even more ancient and can be traced back to the ruling class of the Roman Empire. It is possible that the Florentine version was derived from that symbol, but there are also other legends surrounding the origin.

One of the stories tells that Florence was founded in 59 BC by the Romans in the period of the flower celebrations in honor of the goddess Flora and another that the city was named after its founder Florinus da Cellino: Florentia (Latin for flowering).

The simplest explanation for the symbol of Florence is that it was derived from the flower that traditionally grows in the area around the city: Iris Fiorentina.

One thing is certain: the Giglio of Florence (Florentine lily) is not a lily, but a stylized iris.

This beautiful white flower was first applied to the city’s coat of arms in the 11th century; it was white on a red background. After the bloody battle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which ended in 1250 with a victory for the Guelphs, they switched the colors as a sign of their power, thus creating the famous symbol of the red giglio on a white background.

In the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri describes the eve of this event as follows: ‘The lily of the flagpole was not yet reversed and not colored red by division…’

The new arm was so important to Florence that in 1252 it graced the first Florin that was ever created.

In 1811, Napoleon tried to banish the giglio from Florence, but this led to such violent protests that he soon decided to give the Florentines their beloved symbol back.

Il Giglio Fiorentino can be found on countless places in the city. On old coats of arms on historic buildings, but also on the numerous (company) logos like that of the municipality of Florence, the Fiorentina football club and the ice cream parlor around the corner from my home.

Florence and her giglio have been inseparable for 10 centuries and that is not going to change any time soon.

https://www.intoflorence.com/history-giglio-florence/

The oldest written evidence of rose cultivation comes from a tablet discussing the Akkadian king Sargon I’s military campaign to the west. Sargon brought rosebush saplings with him on the campaign so rose cultivation could begin in these newly acquired territories soon after his conquest. It was an act of supreme confidence and evidence of roses’ importance to Akkadian culture.

https://deathscent.com/2022/02/18/rosalia/

Sargon

SARGON sär’ gŏn (סַֽרְגֹ֖ון; Akkad. šarrukēn, “the king is legitimate”).

The name is found only once in the Bible (Isa 20:1) where it refers to Sargon II of Assyria (721-705 b.c.). This Sargon was the son of Tiglath-pileser III, successor to his brother Shalmaneser V, and father of Sennacherib. His reign is amply known from his inscrs. at Khorsabad and from letters and historical texts found at Nineveh and Nimrud. Although he is named only once in the OT, his campaigns are of importance for understanding the historical background of the prophecies of Isaiah.

Sargon II claimed the fall of Samaria (721 b.c.), which had been besieged by his predecessor Shalmaneser V for three years (2 Kings 17:5, 6) until his death in 722 b.c. According to Sargon’s records, he deported 27,290 people from the area of Samaria to Mesopotamia. During the first part of his reign he faced serious domestic problems which were settled only by grant of privileges to the citizens of Assur. In the following year (720 b.c.) Ilu-bihdi of Hamath led Arpad, Damascus, and Pal. into revolt. Sargon defeated this anti-Assyrian coalition near Qarqar in N Syria. In 720 b.c. the kingdom of Judah, under Ahaz, together with Philistia, Edom, and Moab, submitted to vassalage and paid tribute. In the following years, people deported from Babylonia, Hamath, and elsewhere were resettled in Samaria; these, with others brought in later, mingled with the surviving Israelite population, and their descendants years later were known as the Samaritans.

Sargon had scarcely completed the reduction of Samaria when he was greeted by a rebellion in Babylonia in 720 b.c. led by the Chaldean prince Marduk-apal-iddina (Biblical Merodach-baladan who ruled 721-711 b.c.) in Babylonia not simply as a barbarian chieftain but as a great Mesopotamian monarch who left behind traces of his building activities in various cities. Although backed by Humbanigash, king of Elam, an indecisive battle was fought at Der, between the Tigris and the Zagros, making it expedient for Sargon to leave Merodach-baladan as king in Babylonia. Thus Sargon lost control of Babylonia and did not regain it for c. twelve years.

Meanwhile, other campaigns claimed his attention. In Asia Minor, Mita (Midas), king of the Phrygian Mushki, proved a troublesome foe. A rebellion by the vassal state of Carchemish in Syria (717 b.c.) provoked Sargon to destroy that ancient center of Hitt. culture and deport its population, and subsequently to make various campaigns into Asia Minor. Sargon also turned on Urartu, already weakened by Tiglath-pileser III and now gravely threatened by the incursions of an Indo-Aryan barbarian people called the Cimmerians who were moving down from the Caucasus. Seizing the opportunity, Sargon broke the power of Urartu completely, thus removing an ancient rival—and Assyria’s strongest dike against the barbarian tide at the same time.

After 720 b.c. Sargon conducted no major campaign in Pal. This may have encouraged the restless vassals to imagine that he was a man who could be trifled with. By 713 b.c. Ashdod rebelled and other Philistine towns were drawn into the revolt and, as Sargon told it, Judah, Edom, and Moab were invited to join. That Egyp. aid had been promised is clear both from the Assyrian texts and the Bible (Isa 20). In fact, according to Isaiah 18, ambassadors of the Ethiopian king himself waited on Hezekiah, hoping to enlist his cooperation. Opinions were divided in Judah: to go or not. Isaiah was bitterly opposed, both calling on his king to give the Ethiopian envoys a negative answer, and symbolically illustrating (Isa 20) the folly of trusting in Egypt by walking about Jerusalem barefoot and clad only in a loincloth.

Sargon at this time was at the peak of power and preparing to reconquer Babylon. Ashdod, the center of revolt, was quickly taken by storm, and Judah, Moab, and Edom paid homage to the conqueror. The expected Egyp. aid failed completely to materialize and Judah was held in subjection. Later Hezekiah revolted against Sargon’s son, Sennacherib.

At the beginning of 710 b.c., Sargon was everywhere victorious. The whole of Syria-Pal. and most of the Zagros range were firmly in Assyrian hands; Urartu was dressing its wounds; the Egyptians were friendly; the Elamites and Phrygians were hostile but peaceful. Babylon, under Merodach-baladan, remained a thorn in the side of Assyria, and in 710 b.c. Sargon attacked it for the second time in his reign. It was a smashing victory, with Merodach-baladan fleeing to Elam for refuge, and the fame of Sargon continued to grow. The repeated efforts made by its enemies to undermine the Assyrian empire had been of no avail; at the end of Sargon’s reign it was larger and apparently stronger than ever.

As a war chief, Sargon liked to live in Kalḫu (Nimrud), the military capital of the empire, where he occupied, restored, and modified Ashurnasirpal’s palace. Moved by great pride, he soon decided to have his own palace in his own city. In 717 b.c. he laid the foundations of “Sargon’s fortress,” Dur-Sharrukin, a hitherto virgin site twelve m. NE of Nineveh, near the modern village of Khorsabad.

Ten years later the workmen completed a town which was square in plan, each side measuring c. one in. The palace itself stood on a sixty-ft. high platform overriding the city wall and comprised more than 200 rooms and thirty courtyards. The royal abode was richly decorated and the gates of the town were guarded by colossal bull-men. Evidence, however, indicates that the city was scarcely inhabited and almost immediately abandoned at the king’s death. One year after Dur Sharrukin was officially inaugurated, Sargon was killed (705 b.c.). His successors preferred Nineveh, and Khorsabad, deserted, fell slowly to ruins.

Bibliography Malamat, “The Historical Setting of Two Biblical Prophecies on the Nations,” IEJ, 1 (1950/51), 150ff.; G. Roux, Ancient Iraq, 257-262; H. W. F. Saggs, Iraq, 17 (1955), 146-149; H. Tadmor, “The Campaigns of Sargon II of Assyria,” JCS 12 (1958), 22-40; 77-100; W. W. Hallo, “From Qarqar to Carchemish: Assyria and Israel in the Light of New Discoveries,” BA, 23 (1960), 50-56.

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Sargon

Isaiah 20

1599 Geneva Bible

20 2 The three years captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia described by the three years going naked of Isaiah.

1 In the year that [a]Tartan came to [b]Ashdod, (when [c]Sargon king of Assyria sent him) and had fought against Ashdod, and taken it,

2 At the same time spake the Lord by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the [d]sackcloth from thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

3 And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years as a sign and wonder upon Egypt, and Ethiopia,

4 So shall the king of Assyria take away the captivity of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, both young men and old men, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

5 And they shall fear, and be ashamed of [e]Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their [f]glory.

6 Then shall the inhabitants of this [g]isle say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we be delivered?

Footnotes

Isaiah 20:1 Who was captain of Sennacherib, 2 Kings 18:17.

Isaiah 20:1 A city of the Philistines.

Isaiah 20:1 The Hebrews write that Sennacherib was so called.

Isaiah 20:2 Which signifieth that the Prophet did lament the misery that he saw prepared, before the three years that he went naked and barefooted.

Isaiah 20:5 In whose aid they trusted.

Isaiah 20:5 Of whom they boasted and gloried.

Isaiah 20:6 Meaning, Judea, which was compassed about with their enemies, as an isle with waters.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2020&version=GNV

2 Kings 17

1599 Geneva Bible

17 3 Hoshea King of Israel is taken, 4 And he and all his realm brought to the Assyrians, 18 for their idolatry. 25 Lions destroy the Assyrians that dwelt in Samaria. 29 Every one worshippeth the god of his nation, 35 Contrary to the commandment of God.

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine years.

2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, [a]but not as the kings of Israel, that were before him.

3 And Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.

4 And the king of Assyria found treason in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present unto the king of Assyria, [b]as he had done yearly: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and put him in prison.

5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went against Samaria, and besieged it three years.

6 ¶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the [c]Medes.

7 For when the children of Israel [d]sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and feared other gods,

8 And walked according to the fashions of the Heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel, and after the manners of the kings of Israel, which they used,

9 And the children of Israel had done secretly things that were not upright before the Lord their God, and throughout all their cities had built high places, both from the tower [e]of the watch, to the defensed city,

10 And had made them images and groves upon every high hill, and under every green tree,

11 And there burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen, whom the Lord had taken away before them, and wrought wicked things to anger the Lord,

12 And served idols: whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall do no such thing,

13 Notwithstanding the Lord testified to Israel, and to Judah [f]by all the Prophets, and by all the Seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments, and my statutes, according to all the Law, which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the Prophets.

14 Nevertheless they would not obey, but hardened their necks, like to the necks of their [g]fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.

15 And they refused his statutes and his covenant, that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies (wherewith he witnessed unto them) and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the heathen that were round about them: concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.

16 Finally they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the [h]host of heaven, and served Baal.

17 And they made their sons and their daughters [i]pass through the fire, and used witchcraft and enchantments, yea, [j]sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to anger him.

18 Therefore the Lord was exceedingly wroth with Israel, and put them out of his sight, and none was left but the tribe of Judah [k]only.

19 Yet Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked according to the fashion of Israel, which they used.

20 Therefore the Lord cast off all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his [l]sight.

21 [m]For he cut off Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat King: and Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin.

22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did, and departed not therefrom,

23 Until the Lord put Israel away out of his sight, as he had said [n]by all his servants the Prophets, and carried Israel away out of their land to Assyria unto this day.

24 And the king of Assyria brought folk from Babylon, and from [o]Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: so they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

25 ¶ And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they [p]feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew them.

26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent Lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the Priests whom ye brought thence, and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the manner of the God [q]of the country.

28 So one of the Priests, which they had carried from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

29 Howbeit, every nation made their gods, and put them in the houses of the high places, which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.

30 For the men of Babylon made [r]Succoth Benoth: and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

31 And the Avites made Nibhaz, and Tartak: and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech, and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.

32 Thus they feared the Lord, and appointed out Priests out of themselves for the high places, who prepared for them sacrifices in the houses of the high places.

33 They [s]feared the Lord, but served their gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried thence.

34 Unto this day they do after the old manner: they neither fear God, neither do after [t]their ordinances, nor after their customs, nor after the Law, nor after the commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob whom he named Israel,

35 And with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Fear none other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:

36 But fear the Lord which brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power, and a stretched out arm: him fear ye, and worship him and sacrifice to him.

37 Also keep ye diligently the statutes and the ordinances and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, that ye do them continually, and fear not other gods.

38 And forget not the covenant that I have made with you, neither fear ye other gods.

39 But fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hands of all your enemies.

40 Howbeit they obeyed not, but did after their old custom.

41 So these [u]nations feared the Lord, and served their images also: so did their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

Footnotes

2 Kings 17:2 Though he invented no new idolatry, or impiety as others did, yet he sought for help at the Egyptians, which God had forbidden.

2 Kings 17:4 For he had paid tribute for the space of eight years.

2 Kings 17:6 For at this time the Medes and Persians were subject to the Assyrians.

2 Kings 17:7 He setteth forth at length the cause of this great plague and perpetual captivity, to admonish all people, and nations to cleave to the Lord God, and only worship him for fear of like judgment.

2 Kings 17:9 Meaning, throughout all their borders.

2 Kings 17:13 Hebrew, by the hand of.

2 Kings 17:14 So that to allege the authority of our fathers or great antiquity, except we can prove that they were godly, is but to declare that we are the children of the wicked.

2 Kings 17:16 That is, the sun, the moon, and stars, Deut. 4:19.

2 Kings 17:17 Read 2 Kings 16:3.

2 Kings 17:17 Read of this phrase, 1 Kings 21:20, 25.

2 Kings 17:18 No whole tribe was left but Judah, and they of Benjamin and Levi, which remained, were counted with Judah.

2 Kings 17:20 Out of the land where he showed the greatest tokens of his presence and favor.

2 Kings 17:21 That is, God cut off the ten tribes, 1 Kings 12:16, 20.

2 Kings 17:23 Hebrew, by the hand of.

2 Kings 17:24 Of these peoples came the Samaritans, whereof mention is so much made in the Gospel, and with whom the Jews would have nothing to do, John 4:9.

2 Kings 17:25 That is, they served him not: therefore, lest they should blaspheme him, as though there were no God, because he chastised the Israelites, he showeth his mighty power among them by this strange punishment.

2 Kings 17:27 That is, how to worship him: thus the wicked rather than to lose their commodities will change to all religions.

2 Kings 17:30 Meaning that every country served that idol, which was most esteemed in that place whence they came.

2 Kings 17:33 That is, they had a certain knowledge of God, and feared him because of the punishment, but they continued still idolaters as do the Papist, which worship both God and idols: but this is not to fear God, as appeareth verse 34.

2 Kings 17:34 He meaneth this by the Israelites to whom God had given his commandments.

2 Kings 17:41 That is, these strangers which were sent into Samaria by the Assyrians.

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