196 SHAWn ZeLIG ASTeR apparent Assyrian invincibility poses to the doctrine of yHWH’s om- nipotence. He addresses directly the Assyrian claims of empire and imperial ideology in many of his prophecies. In 7,17 and 8,5-8, prophecies which relate to the period of the Syro-ephramite crisis in 738-734, he describes Assyria as having been sent by yHWH 70. Isa 19,19, with its unique mention of a “monument to the LoRD on the border of egypt”, seems to appropriate and attribute to yHWH the stele established by Tiglath-Pileser III on the border between egypt and the Land of Israel during his 734 campaign 71. In Isaiah 10,5-34, which seems to date to the period of Sargon, an anti-Assyrian theology is articulated, in which motifs which express Assyrian power in the royal inscriptions are re-formulated to indicate Assyria’s coming defeat 72. This approach reaches its height in the narrative of the events of Sennacherib’s campaign, which subverts Assyrian expressions of power in Isa 37,24-26 73. Such expressions are subverted to express the enduring power of yHWH in Isa 2,5-22, a prophecy which seems unrelated to any specific event, but rather a reflection on a series of Assyrian campaigns 74. But Hosea nowhere engages with the challenges that Assyrian imperial ideology poses to “yHWH-alone” monotheism. Perhaps Israel’s long experience with expressions of Assyrian imperial ideology led Israelites, including Hosea’s audience, to take such expressions “with a grain of salt”, and to view them more cynically and critically. It is interesting that in contrast to the many studies of Isaiah’s in- teraction with Assyrian royal inscriptions, only some of which are cited above, Hosea’s use of phrases taken from Assyrian sources or his re- sponses to Assyrian claims of empire have not received great attention 70 MACHInIST, “Assyria and its Image in the First Isaiah”, 728. 71 Summary Inscription 8, line 18’. For a fuller discussion of this passage, see S.Z. ASTeR, “Isaiah 19: The Burden of egypt and neo-Assyrian Imperial Policy”, JAOS 135 (2015) 453-470. 72 on the dating of parts of this passage, see J.J.M. RoBeRTS, First Isaiah (Hermeneia; Minneapolis, Mn 2015) 166; and on the use of Assyrian material, see M. CHAn, “Rhetorical Reversal and Usurpation: Isaiah 10:5-34 and the Use of neo-Assyrian Royal Idiom in the Construction of an Anti-Assyrian Theology”, JBL 128 (2009) 717-733. 73 S.Z. ASTeR, “What Sennacherib Said and What the Prophet Heard: on the Use of Assyrian Sources in the Prophetic narrative of the Campaign of 701 BCe”, Shnaton 19 (2009) 105-124 (Hebrew), and in the same narrative, W. GALLAGHeR, Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah, 205-216. 74 S.Z. ASTeR, “The Image of Assyria in Isaiah 2:5-22: The Campaign Motif Reversed”, JAOS 127 (2007) 249-278.