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CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I.— The Disruption of the Kingdom, 8-13 
 
 1. Its remote causes.—2. Immediate occasion.—3. Com¬ 
 parison of the two Kingdoms. 
 
 Chapter II.—The Reign of Rehobo am and that 
 
 of Abijah, .13-17 
 
 4. Rehoboam’s first measures.—5. Shishak’s invasion.— 
 6. Rest of Rehoboam’s reign.—7. The reign of Abijah, 
 son and successor of Rehoboam. 
 
 Chapter III.— The Reign of Asa, . . . 17-22 
 
 8. His character and his zeal for reform.—9. Time of 
 peace.—10. Cushite war.—11. Azariah’s address: Asa’s 
 covenant.—12. Attack of Baasha.—13. Last illness. 
 
 Chapter IV.— 1 The Reign of Jehoshaphat, . 22-35 
 
 14. His reforms.—15. Alliance with Ahab.—16. Improve¬ 
 ment of his marine.—17. Confederacy against Judah.— 
 18. Campaign against Moab.—19. Jehoshaphat’s char¬ 
 acter. 
 
 Chapter V.— The Reigns of Jehoram and Ahaziah : 
 
 also the Usurpation of Athaliah, . 35-40 
 
 20. The cruelty and idolatry of Jehoram.—21. Calami¬ 
 ties due to his conduct.—22. Reign of Ahaziah.— 
 23. His death.—24. The usurpation of Athaliah—her 
 measures.—25. Her overthrow. 
 
 Chapter VI.— The Restoration, . . . 40-48 
 
 26. Joash’s early reign.—27. Declension and death.— 
 28. Early policy of Amaziah.—29. Results of victory.— 
 30. His death. 
 
8 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter VII.— The Reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, 48-52 
 
 31. Early training and successes of Uzziah.—32. Home 
 administration.—33. His sin and punishment.—34. Ca¬ 
 lamities of his reign. — 35. Character of Jotham.— 
 
 36. His works. 
 
 Chapter VIII.— The Reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, 53-63 
 
 37. The wickedness of Ahaz.—38. His apostasy.— 
 39. Syro-Israelite war. — 40. Ahaz and Assyria. — 
 41. Revival of religion in Hezekiah’s reign.—42. The 
 great Passover.—43. Extermination of idolatry.—44. His 
 wars.—45. First invasion by Sennacherib.—46. Second 
 invasion by Sennacherib.—47. Hezekiah’s sickness.— 
 
 48. His error and his death. 
 
 Chapter IX.— The Reigns of Manasseh, Josiah, 
 
 and his Successors, .... 63-81 
 
 49. Time of reaction.—50. Manasseh’s punishment and 
 repentance.—51. Brief reign of Amon.—52. Reforma¬ 
 tion of religion in the reign of Josiah.—53. Discovery of 
 a copy of the law.—54. War with Necho.—55. Reign of 
 Shallum.—56. Reign of Eliakim.—57. Short reign of 
 Coniah.—58. Zedekiah reigns as vassal of Babylon.— 
 59. Zedekiah’s fate. 
 
THE KINGS OF JUDAH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 1. ITS REMOTE CAUSES. The revolt of the ten 
 tribes took place, according to the common chrono¬ 
 logy, in the year 975 b.c. Its seeds, however, had 
 been sown at an early period, in the mutual jealousies 
 of certain tribes. Ephraim had envied Judah, and 
 Judah had vexed Ephraim. Judah was the more 
 numerous tribe, and had the larger inheritance. But 
 Ephraim had advantages of its own. It enjoyed the 
 more choice and central position. It had also the 
 honour of great names. Joshua, who had led the people 
 into the lan d of promise, sprang from Ephraim. Samuel 
 was a native of Mount Ephraim. For three centuries 
 and a half, too, the national sanctuary had been at 
 Shiloh, within the confines of that tribe. And the 
 men of that tribe had highly distinguished them¬ 
 selves in the war with Midian, securing the fords of 
 Jordan and beheading the two Midianite princes, 
 Oreb and Zeeb. Nor were the Ephraimites slow to 
 advance their claims. And though their proud self- 
 assertion was severely chastised by Jephthah, the 
 embers of strife between them and the men of Judah 
 continued to .smoulder. Till David’s accession the 
 superiority inclined to Ephraim. But under David 
 and Solomon the scale was turned. When Jerusalem 
 was made the ecclesiastical centre in place of Shiloh, 
 and the civil capital in place of Shechem, the rivalry 
 became keener. During the latter part of Solomon’s 
 
10 
 
 reign, the feeling, which had been kept in check for 
 a time, was stimulated by the oppressive taxation, 
 the forced labour, and the enormous burdens which 
 he imposed upon the people in the provinces. So 
 matters hastened to a crisis. 
 
 2. IMMEDIATE OCCASION (1 Kings xii. 1-20). 
 Matters were ripe for a revolt when Rehoboam was 
 about to ascend the throne at Shechem, 0 in the 
 Ephraimite territory, the selection of which may 
 have been an attempt at conciliation on Reho- 
 boam’s part. 6 His inauguration was seized on as 
 the fit occasion. Representatives of the people, 
 with Jeroboam at their head, came demanding a 
 remission of the heavy imposts under which they 
 
 a Shechem had been an ancient gathering-place of the tribes and a 
 centre of union from the time of Joshua. Abimelech made it his 
 royal residence during his usurped reign of three years; and though 
 afterwards destroyed by him, it appears soon to have been restored. 
 
 Besides its central position, Shechem could be conveniently reached 
 by the trans-Jordanic tribes, by means of the Jordan fords not far 
 distant. The situation of Shechem is extremely beautiful. At the 
 end of the narrow valley between Ebal and Gerizzim, nestling at the 
 base of the latter, and partly overhung by its precipices, stood the 
 ancient city; while the verdure of the valley, the foliage of the trees 
 —the slender vine, the broad-leafed fig, the snowy flowers of the 
 olive—the adundant springs of delicious water, and the numerous 
 gardens, make it one of the most delightful spots in Palestine. 
 
 6 A different cause for the choice of Shechem as the place of 
 Rehoboam’s inauguration or coronation, is given by a distinguished 
 Hebrew commentator. He affirms that as Shechem belonged to 
 Ephraim, and as Jeroboam was an Ephraimite, and as, moreover, the 
 prediction of Ahijah the Shilonite, the prophet at this period of the 
 northern kingdom, it was the partisans of Jeroboam that pitched on 
 that place, in order to make sure of being in the best position for 
 elevating their compatriot to the throne. It may farther be noted 
 that a very slight emendation of the original, and an emendation 
 favoured by the three oldest versions, brings the 2nd verse of the 
 12th chapter of 1 Kings into harmony with 2 Chron. x. 2. The verse in 
 question would then read, “And it came to pass, when Jeroboam, the 
 son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, whither he had fled from King 
 Solomon, heard,” not of the meeting at Shechem, but of the death of 
 Solomon, “ that Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.” Farther, a com¬ 
 parison of the 3rd verse with the 20th of the same chapter, makes it 
 clear that the persons who, as we read in the former verse, “ sent and 
 called him,” were merely the members of the Shechemite assembly, in 
 order to appoint him their spokesman with Rehoboam; while the 
 persons who “ sent and called him," according to the statement of the 
 latter verse, were all Israel, for the purpose of making him king. 
 
11 
 
 were groaning. The haughty Rehoboam, rejecting th e 
 counsel of the seniors, who urged him to humour the 
 people so far as to yield to them for once, and acting 
 on the advice of the young men, refused the applica¬ 
 tion with threats of yet greater exactions.® The old 
 revolutionary cry of Sheba, “ To your tents, 0 Israel,’ 7 
 was raised, and the disruption became an accom¬ 
 plished fact. Adoram, as being well acquainted 
 with the people’s grievances, was sent with pro¬ 
 posals of redress. But he was stoned to death. 
 
 3. COMPARISON OF THE TWO KINGDOMS. 
 The northern kingdom, known as that of Samaria, 
 Ephraim, or Israel, greatly surpassed the southern 
 in population and extent of territory. Its fertile soil 
 and fresh and lovely scenery also contrasted favour¬ 
 ably with the more sober pasture and corn-land of 
 the south. It contained, too, many places of great 
 importance. The schools of the prophets were there 
 —Ramah, Bethel, and Gilgal. The principal scenes 
 of prophetic activity were there. Iddo, Amos (though 
 from Tekoa in Judah), Micaiah, Jonah, Hosea, 
 Elijah, and Elisha all ministered there.| In a military 
 point of view it was also superior, with its cavalry 
 organised in two divisions, its army well officered, 
 and its great skill in archery (Psalm lxxviii. 9). But, 
 on the other hand, Judah was comparatively free 
 from some grave drawbacks under which Israel 
 laboured, such as the stigma of rebellion and the 
 evil repute of open defection from the national wor¬ 
 ship, which drove numbers of priests, Levites, and 
 the religiously disposed to transfer their interest to 
 Jerusalem and Judah (2 Chron. xi. 13-16). The 
 northern sovereigns also were inferior, on the whole, 
 to those of Judah. Of most of the former it is 
 written, “ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 
 walked in the way of Jeroboam, who made Israel to 
 
 a The term scorpions (1 Kings xii. 11) is taken by some as a strong 
 figure of speech, by others as referring to the prickly scorpion-plant 
 which inflicted sharp wounds, by others still to a particular kind of 
 whip furnished with iron points and hooks. 
 
12 
 
 sin; ” while the latter reckoned in their number 
 men more or less distinguished for piety, as Asa, 
 Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, the re¬ 
 pentant Manasseh, and the consistent Josiah. It is 
 not strange, therefore, that the kingdom of Judah 
 should have survived that of Israel about 130 years; 
 or that during the two centuries and a half from the 
 Disruption to the Captivity there should have been 
 no less than nine changes of dynasty and nineteen 
 kings in Israel, while in Judah there were only 
 twelve kings and no change of dynasty. The fre¬ 
 quent alteration of capital, too, (Shechem rebuilt by 
 Jeroboam, Tirzah to which he removed, Jezreel 
 chosen by Ahab, Samaria built by Omri, being 
 severally so honoured), tended to weaken the sense 
 of unity and stability in the northern kingdom. 
 Judah had indeed a narrower sea-board, but it was 
 less exposed to foreign invasion, and above all had 
 the great advantage of possessing the capital of the 
 Davidic line. If the north had the superiority in 
 area, physical outline, and material resources, the 
 south possessed more of the elements of moral 
 strength and religious unity. The two kingdoms 
 thus situated were obviously exposed to danger 
 from the first. Not only had they internal ele¬ 
 ments of disintegration, but they were compara¬ 
 tively small. The area of both together was rather 
 under 13,000 square miles, and thus not quite equal 
 to that of Holland, or to the six northern counties 
 of England. The population, too, if we reckon three 
 millions and a half for Israel, and a million and three 
 quarters for Judah, did not exceed five millions and 
 a quarter, only a trifle over that of Ireland, according 
 to the present census. And their situation on the 
 highway between the most powerful empires of 
 ancient times—Egypt on the south, and the great 
 monarchies of Assyria and Babylon to the eastward 
 (not to speak of Syria on the north)—made them now 
 the bone of contention between rival states, and again 
 the battle-ground on which they contended. 
 
13 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Show that tribal jealousy was the remote cause of 
 the Disruption. 
 
 2. What fomented the hostile feeling ? 
 
 3. The term “ scorpions ” in Rehoboam’s reply has 
 been variously explained. 
 
 4. State and explain the names by which the north¬ 
 ern kingdom was known. 
 
 5. In what respects had it the superiority ? 
 
 C. Specify the countervailing advantages of the 
 southern kingdom. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REIGN OF REHOBOAM AND THAT OF HIS SON 
 
 ABIJAH. 
 
 4. REHOBOAM’S FIRST MEASURES (1 Kings 
 xii. 21-24 ; 2 Chron. xi. 1-17). When the revolt 
 took place, Rehoboam at once raised a formidable 
 force of 180,000 men, with the view of quelling it. 
 But Shemaiah, the prophet of Judah at the time, and 
 styled “ the man of God ” (an expression frequent in 
 Kings, but seldom found elsewhere), forbade the 
 enterprise. Thus arrested, Rehoboam set about 
 securing what he still retained. He strengthened his 
 kingdom, however, not so much on the northern 
 frontier against Israel, as by a line of fortresses 
 to the south and west against the more powerful - 
 monarchy of Egypt. And in these he settled his 
 sons. 
 
 5. SHISHAK’S INVASION (1 Kings xiv. 25-28 ; 2 
 Chron. xii. 1-12). Early in the reign of Rehoboam, 
 the Jews and the Egyptians came into collision. 
 
14 
 
 During the previous reign, the two kingdoms had 
 been on friendly terms, which were strengthened by 
 the marriage affinity between Solomon and the 
 daughter of Pharaoh. We do not know what brought 
 about the change, whether it was the accession of a 
 new Egyptian dynasty (the twenty-second), or the in¬ 
 trigues of Jeroboam, or what else. One thing is 
 certain, that Shishak, that is, Sheshonk I., the first 
 Pharaoh of Egypt certainly identified, invaded Judea 
 in the fifth year of Behoboam, with an army made 
 up of Egyptians, Lydians from the west, Sukkiims 
 (these being either Arabs or cave-dwellers) from the 
 east, and Ethiopians from the south—a formidable 
 force of 1200 chariots, 60,000 cavalry, and infantry 
 almost without number. Shishak entered Jerusalem, 
 and this was the first capture of the Holy City. He 
 plundered the house of the Lord and the king’s 
 house, carried away with other treasures the shields 
 of gold which Solomon had made, and reduced the 
 people to vassalage. Special interest attaches to 
 this campaign through the confirmation it receives 
 from an inscription on the walls of the great temple 
 of Karnak, where in the proud enumeration of 
 Shishak’s conquests are found words recording his 
 successful invasion of Palestine, and sculptured figures 
 of captives with unmistakably Jewish features. 
 
 6. REST OF REHOBOAM’S REIGN (1 Kingsxiv. 
 29-31 ; 2 Chron. xi. 13-23 ; xii. 13-16). Few events 
 of importance signalised the rest of Behoboam’s 
 reign. The enmity between the rival kingdoms 
 showed itself in petty raids. Their rivalry at the 
 same time took a still more unhappy form. “ They 
 also,” it is said of Judah, “built them high places, 
 and images, and groves on every high hill, and under 
 every green tree.” In the beginning of his reign 
 Behoboam had dealt wisely. At a later period he 
 forsook the law of the Lord. Three years after he 
 ascended the throne, a general declension took place. 
 But the Egyptian invasion served as a salutary 
 
15 
 
 chastisement, and both sovereign and subjects 
 humbled themselves. Eehoboam’s main defect, how¬ 
 ever, was his lack of consistency of purpose. “ He 
 prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.” Yet on his 
 repentance “ the wrath of the Lord turned from him,” 
 and the covenant mercies of David were not denied 
 to him. “ He slept with his fathers, and was buried 
 in the city of David : and Abijah his son reigned in 
 his stead.” The prophets of Judah in this reign were 
 Shemaiah and Iddo. a 
 
 7. THE REIGN OF ABIJAH, SON AND SUC¬ 
 CESSOR OF REHOBOAM (1 Kings xv. 1-8; 2 
 
 Chron. xiii.). Being the son of Rehoboam by Maacah 
 or Micaiah, daughter of Uriel and Tamar, a daughter 
 of Absalom, Abijah was a lineal descendant of^David 
 on both the father’s side and the mother’s. A longer 
 form of his name is Abijahu. It was also changed 
 to Abijam, as we have it in Kings. Such changes 
 of name were common in Old Testament times, as we 
 see from the cases of Abram, Jacob, Bethel, and many 
 more. Though Rehoboam had been forbidden to go to 
 war for the recovery of the revolted tribes, Abijam 
 had no such prohibition to deter him. 6 The opposing 
 armies soon met at Mount Zemaraim, south of Bethel, 
 Beitin, in the range of Ephraim, and near the confines of 
 
 a From 1 Kings xiv. 21, and 2 Chron. xii. 13, we learn that Rehohoam 
 “reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem,” and that he was “forty and 
 one years old when he began to reign.” This has been supposed to be 
 inconsistent with the statement made in 2 Chron. xiii. 7, and the old 
 Greek version inserts after 1 Kings xii. 24, an addition to the Hebrew 
 text, representing him as sixteen years when he came to the throne. 
 But the terms “ young ” and “ tender hearted” (in2 Chron. xiii. 7) may 
 refer not to his age but to his want of experience and decision of 
 purpose, meaning “young to his work” and “deficient in spirit.” 
 Some, however, maintain that the number forty-one is a copyist’s error 
 for twenty-one, an ill-formed or faded limb of one of the letters used 
 as numerals making this difference in the statement of years. 
 
 6 In the brief narrative of Abijam in Kings, it has appeared strange 
 to some that the war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam should be 
 referred to. Some have supposed that the name Rehoboam must be 
 altered to that of Abijam. But this is quite unwarranted, for the 
 notice in the 6th verse of chap. xv. shows that he inherited the war 
 from his father, while in the 7th verse the war between Abijam him¬ 
 self and Jeroboam is plainly stated. 
 
16 
 
 tlie two kingdoms. The forces of Abijam were posted 
 on the mountain, and those of Jeroboam at its base. 
 Speaking as the champion of his people, Abijam 
 charged Jeroboam with rebellion, and Israel with 
 abetting him, and both prince and people with break¬ 
 ing the covenant—a covenant of salt or perpetual 
 covenant, by which God gave the kingdom of Israel 
 to David and his sons. He upbraided them with the 
 gross idolatry of the golden calves, which Jeroboam 
 made them for gods, with the setting aside of the 
 Aaronic priests and ministering Levites, and the 
 institution of a spurious and contemptible order. He 
 reminded them that in Judah the pure worship of 
 Jehovah was maintained, and that God, therefore, 
 would be on the side of Judah. But while Abijam 
 was speaking, Jeroboam and his army had been 
 acting. They had drawn an ambuscade round the 
 men of Judah, and had beset them behind and 
 before. In this perilous position the men of Judah 
 had recourse to prayer. In faith that their prayers 
 would be heard, the priests sounded with the 
 trumpets, and the soldiers gave a shout like that at 
 Jericho of old. The result was a decisive victory, 
 spite of Jeroboam’s superior numbers and general¬ 
 ship. There fell down slain of Israel 500,000 men. 
 Abijam followed up this great success, pursuing 
 the fugitive Jeroboam and his shattered host, and 
 capturing Bethel, Jeshonah, and Ephraim, with their 
 townships. Jeroboam was completely crippled, and 
 did not venture to renew the war all the days of 
 Abijam. Of Abijam himself, however, it is said that 
 “ his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, 
 as the heart of David his father” (1 Kings xv. 3). 
 His apparent zeal did not keep him from walking 
 in B-ehoboam’s evil way, and after a reign of three 
 years he died. 
 
17 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. In what direction did Rehohoam strengthen his 
 kingdom ? 
 
 2. Describe fidly Shishak’s invasion. 
 
 3. Why does special interest attach to it ? 
 
 4. What salutary effect did the Egyptian invasion 
 produce ? 
 
 5. Where did the armies of Jeroboam and Abijah 
 meet ? 
 
 6. What charges did Abijah prefer against Jero¬ 
 boam and Israel ? 
 
 7. To what expedient did the men of Judah resort ? 
 
 8. The victory was gained in a manner similar to 
 one won at an early period of Jewish history. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE REIGN OF ASA. 
 
 8 . HIS CHARACTER AND HIS ZEAL FOR RE¬ 
 FORM (1 Kings xv. 9-16 ; 2 Chron. xiv. 1-5, 16-17). 
 Asa, the third king of Judah, is thus commended:—“ He 
 did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as 
 did David his father;” “ His heart was perfect with 
 the Lord all his days.” His career was a very long 
 and fairly prosperous one. For one and forty years 
 he ruled wisely. This better period of his reign 
 commenced with the close of Jeroboam’s reign, 
 ended with the beginning of Ahab’s, and covered 
 the reigns of Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri 
 in the north. He took at once the attitude of a re¬ 
 former, rooting out abominations that had grown up 
 before his time, and proving himself the uncom¬ 
 promising enemy of idolatry. He did not spare even 
 liis grandmother Maacah. She had made a “horror” 
 or hideous image for the idolatrous worship of 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 Ashtoreth, the Phoenician Venus. But he deposed 
 her from the rank of queen-mother, cut down her 
 idol, stamped it and burnt it, strewing its ashes on 
 the Kidron. He made vigorous efforts also to take 
 away the high-places or hill-sanctuaries, which, 
 though not for idol worship, and resorted to under 
 special circumstances as by Samuel (1 Samuel ix. 
 12-14), now interfered with the privileges pertaining 
 to the sanctuary at Jerusalem. From whatever 
 cause, however, enough of them remained to exercise 
 the activity of Jehoshaphat and subsequently of 
 Josiah in their removal. 
 
 9. TIME OF PEACE (2 Chron. xiv. 6-8). During 
 ten years Asa reaped the fruits of Abijam’s victory 
 over Jeroboam and of his own wise conduct; for we 
 read that “ the land was quiet ten years,” and further 
 that “ the land had rest, and he had no war in those 
 years, because the Lord had given him rest.” That 
 hostilities of a petty kind, however, did continue on 
 the border of the two kingdoms may be inferred from 
 the statement that “ there was war between Asa and 
 Baasha all their days.” Like a wise man, too, in this 
 comparatively peaceful time he prepared for war. 
 He fortified his territory with walls and towers, 
 gates and bars. He built fenced cities. He raised 
 his army to a war footing, amounting to 300,000 
 spearmen in Judah, and 280,000 bowmen in Benja¬ 
 min.” 
 
 10. CUSHITE WAR (2 Chron. xiv. 9-15). Butawar 
 of great magnitude now broke out. Zerah, a Cushite 
 (either an Ethiopian as the term generally signifies, 
 or an Egyptian), led against Judah the largest army 
 of which Scripture contains any account. This 
 enormous force, made up mainly of Ethiopians, and 
 said to amount to a million men and three hundred 
 war chariots, reminds one of the multitudes led by 
 Artaxerxes against the younger Cyrus, by Darius to 
 Arbela, or by Xerxes against Greece. With this 
 Zerah advanced to Mareshah in the lowland (after- 
 
19 
 
 wards called Maresa, now Merash, and famous in tlie 
 wars of the Maccabees), and invaded Asa’s kingdom.. 
 In this emergency Asa’s unfaltering trust in God ex¬ 
 pressed itself in the beautiful prayer which he is re¬ 
 corded to have offered before the engagement. The 
 battle was joined in the valley of Zephathali, near 
 Mareshah, in the south-west of Judah, and the Lord 
 gave His people the victory. The Ethiopians broke 
 and fled. The battle turned into a rout, and Asa and 
 his men pursued the Ethiopians as far as Gerar, some 
 twenty miles from the field of battle on the way to- 
 wardEgypt. This great victory, which secured Judah 
 from invasion by Egypt for upwards of three centuries, 
 is all the more remarkable as being the only occasion 
 on which the Hebrews met and conquered the forces 
 of Egypt or Assyria in the open field. Once again 
 they did thus face the foe when led by Josiah against 
 Neclio ; but the result was a crushing defeat. 
 
 11. AZARIAH’S ADDRESS: ASA’S COVENANT 
 (2 Chron. xv. 1-15). As Asa and his army were 
 returning flushed with victory, they were met by the 
 prophet Azariah, the son of Oded, who went forth to 
 congratulate them on their triumph. But Azariah 
 had also a further object in view. He rehearsed 
 the past in a noble address which was meant to 
 rouse them to a sense of their high destiny, to remind 
 them of the bitter fruits of previous departures 
 from God his law and his worship, and to exhort 
 them to perseverance in attachment to Jehovah for 
 the future. These admonitions were not lost. En¬ 
 couraged by them Asa prosecuted with still greater 
 vigour the work of reformation, rooting out idolatry 
 and restoring the altar of burnt-offering that stood 
 before the porch of the Lord. He also convened a 
 great assembly at Jerusalem, to which he gathered 
 not only Judah and Benjamin, but many devout per¬ 
 sons out of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon, who 
 flocked to him out of Israel “ when they saw that the 
 Lord his God was with him.” This took place in the 
 
20 
 
 fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, in the 3rd month, about 
 the season of Pentecost. It was the first renewal of 
 the national covenant on record; the next occurred 
 three centuries after in the reign of Josiah ; and a 
 third in the time of Nehemiah. After enormous 
 sacrifices, king and people bound themselves by oath 
 to “ seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their 
 heart and with all their soul.” It was a time of 
 revival and of great joy in Judah, and “ the Lord gave 
 them rest round about.” There was no more war, it is 
 added, till the five and thirtieth year of Asa’s reign. 
 
 12. ATTACK OF BAASHA (1 Kings xv. 16-22; 2 
 Chron. xvi. 1-10). A great accession of strength, 
 both moral and material, came to Judah by the 
 absorption of such numbers out of the kingdom of 
 Israel. This, no doubt, alarmed Baasha, King of 
 Israel, so that he bestirred himself to prevent a con¬ 
 tinuance of the drain on his kingdom. With this view 
 he fortified Ramah, er-Ram , as a military station. This 
 fortress commanding the main road from the north 
 to Jerusalem was well fitted to overawe Judah, like 
 Deceleia in Attica or Pylus in Messenia during the 
 Peloponnesian war, and to check the influx of Israel¬ 
 ites. The great mistake of Asa’s life was made at this 
 time. In order to counteract the project of his enemy, 
 he had recourse to doubtful human help, aggravating 
 the error by purchasing that help with the temple 
 treasures. He made an alliance with the Syrian 
 king, Benhadad of Damascus, who invaded Israel 
 and effected a counter-movement in favour of J udah. 
 Baasha had to withdraw from his design. The 
 materials he had collected for fortifying Ramah were 
 seized by Asa and utilised in building two frontier 
 fortresses—Geba, Jeba , farther north than Ramah, 
 and Mizpeh on the road from Samaria. Here also, as 
 we learn from the 41st chapter of Jeremiah, in order 
 to provide against want of water in time of siege he 
 dug a deep well or pit, which had a sad history three 
 centuries subsequently, for into it were cast the 
 
21 
 
 dead bodies of the 70 men treacherously slain by 
 Ishmael. But, though this alliance seemed to effect 
 all that was desired, it was a measure severely 
 censured by the prophet Hanani. And Asa’s treat¬ 
 ment of Hanani and some who sided with him was 
 another grave mistake in his career. Hanani’s faith¬ 
 fulness in picturing the evil results of Asa’s want of 
 trust in Jehovah was rewarded with imprisonment, 
 while those who sympathised with him were also 
 harshly used, the king’s passion venting itself in petty 
 persecutions. 
 
 13. LAST ILLNESS. (2 Kings xiv. 23, 24; 2 
 Chron. xvi. 11-14).—In his last illness, while suffer¬ 
 ing from the disease (gout, as it is thought), of which 
 he died, he repeated the great mistake of his life, 
 namely, “seeking not to Jehovah, but to the physi¬ 
 cians,” and relying less on Divine than human help. 
 Thus the three great mistakes recorded against him 
 were (1) his dependence on a foreign alliance ; (2) 
 his persecution of the prophet and his party ; (3) his 
 reliance on the skill of the physician more than on 
 the Most High. Each of these brought chastisement 
 in its train. The first act of folly incurred the 
 threatening, “ therefore from henceforth thou shalt 
 have wars ; ” the second was followed by the disease 
 in his feet of two years’ duration ; and the third by 
 the fatal termination of that disease. The second 
 half of his reign was not equal to the first. But 
 though his sun went down under a cloud, his subjects 
 remembered his great services, foreign and domestic, 
 political and religious ; and, overlooking his faults, 
 accorded him a funeral of great magnificence. The 
 words of Scripture referring to this are thought by 
 some to point to embalming and cremation. But 
 more probably they refer to the burning of spices— 
 a customary way of honouring the deceased of royal 
 rank, the special thing in Asa’s case being the quan¬ 
 tity and quality of those spices. Thus was he buried 
 in the sepulchres which he had previously prepared 
 for himself. 
 
22 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. With what kings of Israel was Asa contempo¬ 
 rary ? 
 
 2. How did he manifest his hatred of idolatry ? 
 
 3. How did he employ the ten years’ peace at the 
 beginning of his reign? 
 
 4. Several remarkable circumstances were connected 
 with the Cushite war ? 
 
 5. Repeat Asa’s prayer before the battle. 
 
 6. Give the substance of Azariah’s address after the 
 victory. 
 
 7. State the various renewals of the national cove¬ 
 nant. 
 
 8. Specify the three mistakes of Asa’s life and their 
 punishment. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 THE REIGN OF JEHOSHAPIIAT. 
 
 14. HIS REFORMS. (2 Chron. xvii. 1).—Asa 
 was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat’s 
 reign, lasting a quarter of a century, was one of great 
 prosperity, and distinguished for progress and reform. 
 He established a system of national education, basing 
 it on the Word of God. For this purpose he ap¬ 
 pointed five commissioners of education, consisting of 
 five princes, assisted by two priests and nine Levites, 
 the actual teachers. These were to visit the cities of 
 Judah and instruct the people, or see that they 
 were instructed in the “ Book of the Law of the 
 Lord.” The administration of justice also claimed the 
 king’s attention. Though actually coming after the 
 alliance with Ahab and Jehu’s reproof in point of 
 time, it may be mentioned here with his other re¬ 
 forms. He appointed, or rather reappointed, minor 
 
courts of justice, removing abuses ; lie also organised 
 superior courts of judicature for the final settlement 
 of causes, both civil and ecclesiastical, throughout 
 the cities of his kingdom ; and established at the 
 same time a supreme court of appeal in the capital. 
 Thus there lay an appeal from the minor courts to 
 the provincial, and from the provincial to the decision 
 of the metropolitan court. Of the last-named, one 
 department was for all the king’s matters, criminal 
 and civil, and over this Zebadiah presided ; another 
 was for all matters of the law, that is, all religious 
 concerns, and of this Amariah was the president. 
 Heads of houses now shared judicial functions with 
 the Levites, while to the latter were allotted the in¬ 
 ferior offices of the court. Neither did he neglect 
 the army, but raised it to a state of great efficiency 
 under five generals of distinction. The size of this 
 army, indeed, is so great, reaching to the high figure 
 of 1,160,000 men, that many good authorities have 
 suspected that an error has crept into the numbers. 
 If to the soldiers of Judah proper, however, and to 
 the light-armed troops of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 which attached itself to Judah very soon after the 
 disruption of the kingdom, we add a contingent 
 from Simeon, the bulk of which tribe seems to have 
 been led naturally to adhere to its near neighbour 
 by reason of its position to the south of Judah, and 
 another contingent from the tribe of Han, which 
 occupied the district to the north-west of Judah, and 
 naturally threw in its lot with the southern king¬ 
 dom, and, besides all this, a force of auxiliaries 
 from the tributaries, namely, the Philistines and the 
 Arabians, we may be in a position to account per¬ 
 haps at once for the number of generals and the 
 almost incredible multitude of men making up this 
 vast army of Jelioshaphat. Of this army he made 
 Jerusalem the headquarters; at the same time he 
 fortified the fenced cities, making them garrison 
 towns, and stationed a strong force on the northern 
 
24 
 
 frontier against the possibility of danger from that 
 quarter, His reforms were thus threefold—educa¬ 
 tional or religious, judicial, and military. Re¬ 
 spected at home, he was feared abroad ; his own 
 people showed their loyalty and love by presents, 
 the Philistines in the west paid him tribute in silver, 
 the Arabs on the east brought him tribute in flocks 
 of sheep and goats, while the Edomites in the south 
 continued steady in their allegiance. Superior to his 
 pious father Asa in devotion and activity, he fell but 
 little short of David himself, the great founder of his 
 line. “The Lord was with Jehoshaphat,” it is 
 written, “ because he walked in the first ways of his 
 father David, and sought not unto Baalim; but 
 sought to the Lord God of his father David, and 
 walked in his commandments, and not after the 
 doings of Israel” (2 Chron. xvii. 3, 4). a 
 
 15. ALLIANCE WITH AHAB. (1 Kings xxiii.; 
 2 Chron. xviii).—In an evil hour he entered into an 
 alliance with the house of Ahab by marrying his son 
 Jehoram to Athaliah, the wicked daughter of wicked 
 parents, Ahab and Jezebel. This occurred in the 
 thirteenth year of his reign, just sixty years after the 
 separation at Shechem took place, and the consequent 
 estrangement of Judah and Israel began. The ex¬ 
 cuse for this affinity was probably the growing power 
 of the northern kingdom of Syria, of which the 
 capital was Damascus, and the consequent peril 
 
 a As regards these verses it is necessary to notice a correction and 
 an explanation. The explanation is, that the term Baalim is a 
 plural form; and that the plural number of the noun points to the 
 different forms of Baal-worship, as we read, e.g., of Baal-Peor, Baal- 
 Zebub, Baal-Berith. Jehoshaphat, therefore, is declared to have 
 avoided all and every form of Baal-idolatry. The correction which is 
 proposed is to omit the name “David.” The reasons for this omis¬ 
 sion are that the word is absent from several of the Hebrew manu¬ 
 scripts, that it is absent also from the old Greek version, and that the 
 first ways of David are nowhere else contrasted with his last ways; 
 while the earlier part of Asa’s reign was, as we have seen, unquestion¬ 
 ably superior to the later portion of the same. The corrected reading, 
 therefore, would give the sense that Jehoshaphat walked in the 
 ways of his own father Asa, such as these ways were in the earlier 
 and better years of Asa. 
 
25 
 
 both to Israel and Judali. Then came the fatal day of 
 Bamoth Gilead, to which his alliance with Ahab led, 
 and from which he narrowly escaped with his life. 
 Ahab had gained two great victories over the Syrian 
 King Benhadad II., but had not got back, it would 
 seem, the towns which Benhadad had stipulated to 
 restore. Accordingly, after an interval of three years, 
 Ahab took advantage of a visit of Jehoshaphat to 
 urge a joint expedition in order to regain Bamoth - 
 Gilead (the heights of Gilead), es-Salt , a strong for¬ 
 tress on the east of Jordan, commanding the district 
 of Argob, afterwards Trachonitis, now Lejah, and the 
 cities of Jair. Though still retained by Syria, it now, 
 by terms of treaty, belonged of right to Ahab. But 
 the relation of the two rival kings was now changed. 
 A treaty offensive and defensive was formed with a 
 joint military expedition as the result. The graphic 
 description of the antecedent circumstances, the con¬ 
 sultation of the four hundred prophets that promised 
 victory, the prediction of Micaiah that Israel would 
 be as sheep without a shepherd, the consequent dis¬ 
 guise of Ahab, his mortal wound from a random 
 bow-shot, belong more to the history of Israel and 
 its king. After this defeat of the allies, and Jeliosha- 
 phat’s deliverance out of his perilous position, the 
 prophet Jehu, probably son of that Hanani, who had 
 rebuked Asa for his alliance with Benhadad, ad¬ 
 ministered to the King of Judah a well-merited re¬ 
 proof for his alliance. But though he received this 
 rebuke in a proper spirit, and set himself with in¬ 
 creased earnestness to the internal improvement of 
 his kingdom, the alliance was continued during the 
 two succeeding reigns. Perhaps a sense of honour 
 prevented Jehoshaphat from breaking it off. Yet 
 the consequences were evil, and only evil. 
 
 16. IMPROVEMENT OF HIS MARINE. (1 
 Kings xxii. 48 ; 2 Chron. xx. 36). —He now turned 
 his attention to develop the resources of his king¬ 
 dom by sea, and revive the maritime commerce 
 
26 
 
 commenced in the time of Solomon, but afterwards 
 discontinued. Edom was at this period a depen¬ 
 dency of Judah, and governed by a viceroy, as 
 we learn from the brief notice in Kings, “There 
 was then no king in Edom, a deputy was king.” 
 This gave Jehoshaphat easy access to the Red Sea. 
 In the execution of his project he built a fleet at 
 Eziongeber, at the north end of the eastern gulf of 
 the Red Sea, for the purpose of trading to Tarshish 
 (not the Spanish town, but a port on the Persian 
 Gulf or Red Sea), and to Ophir, or rather of trading 
 with ships of Tarshish—an expression resembling 
 that of our East Indiaman—to Ophir. But in an 
 evil hour he admitted Aliaziah to co-operation, 
 though the prophet Eliezer warned him of the 
 disastrous consequences. Ahaziah having been 
 allowed to take part in building, had of course 
 a share in those ships. But scarce had the ves¬ 
 sels of the united navy cleared the port, when a 
 storm shattered them against the rocky ledge outside. 
 A second attempt of a like kind was made at 
 Elath, to which he had transferred his marine, and 
 proved more successful for the time. But on this 
 occasion Jehoshaphat declined Ahaziah’s help. 
 
 17. CONFEDERACY AGAINST JUDAH (2 Chron. 
 xx.). Though the King of Judah did not fall with 
 his ally at Ramoth, his prestige was lessened. The 
 consequence was that the Ammonites, Moabites, cer¬ 
 tain of the Maonites, and a tribe of Edomites from 
 beyond the Dead Sea (from Edom, not Syria, ac¬ 
 cording to the common reading), combined and 
 penetrated into the kingdom of Judah as far as the 
 gardens of Engedi (“ spring of the gazelle ”) Ain Jidy. 
 The soldiers of this league were so numerous that 
 the King of Judah was threatened with ruin. In 
 this emergency the pious king betook himself to God. 
 He proclaimed a fast, the first proclamation of the 
 kind that we read of. The people assembled in great 
 numbers out of all the cities of Judah to seek the 
 
27 
 
 Lord in the temple at Jerusalem. The king himself 
 engaged in solemn supplication, pleading the al¬ 
 mighty power of God, his covenant relation to Israel, 
 and gift of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, his friend 
 (an expression first used here, and based on the 
 patriarch’s intercession for Sodom as a man with his 
 friend), His service and sanctuary established among 
 them, His promise to hear His people’s prayers in 
 time of peril, the intention of their enemies to dis¬ 
 inherit or exterminate Israel. While the king was 
 speaking he was heard. The prophetic spirit came 
 down upon Jahaziel, a Levite, with the divine assur¬ 
 ance of success that would come without striking a 
 blow. The words of this answer, a Stand ye still 
 and see the salvation of the Lord,” recalled those 
 of Moses and the deliverance at the Red Sea. Je- 
 hoshaphat then led his army to Tekoa, Tekua , after the 
 following short and significant address :—“ Believe 
 in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established \ 
 believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” They 
 marched against the enemy not with the war-cry or 
 shout of battle, but—strange sight to see !—with a 
 choir in front of the host singing Jehovah’s praise. 
 Meantime dissension broke out in the ranks of the 
 enemy; after the slaughter of the Edomites, the 
 Moabites and the Ammonites turned their arms 
 against each other. The liers-in-wait were pro¬ 
 bably the Seirites, a detachment of the Edomite con¬ 
 tingent, who, taking the singing for the signal of 
 attack, mistook their friends for the enemy. When 
 the men of Jndah reached and looked out from the 
 watch-tower in the wilderness, they saw the slaugh¬ 
 tered masses of the enemy, and had only to descend 
 to gather the spoils, which, consisting of riches, gar¬ 
 ments , and precious vessels, were so considerable that 
 the process lasted three whole days. Thanksgivings 
 succeeded the victory. On the fourth day they 
 assembled in a valley thence called Berachah (or 
 
28 
 
 “Blessing”), north-west of Tekoa, to bless the Lord 
 for His merciful deliverance. a 
 
 18. CAMPAIGN AGAINST MOAB (2 Kings iii.). 
 One result of this victory was that “ the realm 
 of Jehoshaphat was quiet.” Another effect, how¬ 
 ever, which it had was to encourage Jehoram, king 
 of Israel, to attempt what his brother Ahaziah had 
 failed to effect, namely, the reduction of Moab. With 
 this view he sought the aid of Jehoshaphat and the 
 vassal king of Edom. Notwithstanding the former 
 remonstrances of the prophet and the disasters at 
 Ramoth-Gilead and Eziongeber, Jehoshaphat con¬ 
 sented. Jehoram’s renunciation of idolatry may 
 have induced him to comply, or the dread of Moab 
 renewing hostilities. In planning this campaign, the 
 first point which J ehoshaphat and J ehoram had to 
 settle was the line of march. The direct route for 
 Judah and Israel would have been to meet some¬ 
 where near Jericho, cross the Jordan, travel south 
 down the eastern side of the Dead Sea till they 
 reached the Arnon, the northern border of Moab 
 proper, and thus enter the territory. But this would 
 have interfered with their joining the Edomite forces. 
 Consequently “ they fetched a compass of seven 
 days’ journey,” or about a hundred miles round the 
 south extremity of the Dead Sea, and across the 
 
 a Several of the Psalms are thought to refer to these wonderful 
 events. Some suppose, e.g., that the 83d Psalm may apply to the 
 hostile confederacy, “For they consult together with one consent, 
 they are confederate against thee: the tents of Edom and the Ish- 
 raaelites, Moat) and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon, and Amalek; ” 
 that the 46th Psalm may apply to the danger; and that the 48th 
 may refer to the deliverance. Whether these Psalms bear directly or 
 not on these particular events, they speak of themes most suitable for 
 such emergencies—the sure refuge of God’s people, and their succour 
 in distress. “ For, lo! the kings were assembled, they marched on 
 together. They beheld, so they marvelled, they were terrified, be¬ 
 wildered they hasted away.” The camping ground of the allies was 
 at the end of a wady, or dry torrent-bed in the wilderness of Tekoa; 
 and as the town of Tekoa, ten miles due south from the Holy City, was 
 situated on the verge of the desert, and built upon a hill of consider¬ 
 able elevation, the prospect thence extended even to Jerusalem in the 
 distance. 
 
29 
 
 plain where the north of the land of Edom and the 
 south of Moab touched each other. Thus they effected 
 a junction with the Edomite troops; but “ there 
 was no water for the host and for the cattle that 
 followed them ; ” and this meant certain destruc¬ 
 tion unless relief were found and the evil remedied. 
 At this critical juncture Elisha, the attendant on 
 Elijah, or, as it is expressed in Scripture language, 
 “ who poureth water on the hands of Elijah ”, ap¬ 
 peared in the camp of Israel. After a stern denun¬ 
 ciation of Jehoram, he gave directions which issued 
 in relief. Trenches were dug in the valley. A cloud 
 burst on the far-off hills of Edom, and soon a copious 
 rain filled the streams that now poured down into 
 the plain, there was enough, and more than enough, 
 for the “ cattle ”—the animals for slaughter and for 
 the “beasts”, that is, those of burthen. Next day, 
 by the time of the morning sacrifice, the thirst of man 
 and beast in the camp of the allies had been slaked. 
 But more was yet in store for them. Their ene¬ 
 mies, the Moabites, seeing the water tinged red by 
 the red earth of the trenches and the rays of the 
 rising sun, and fancying it was blood, concluded that 
 something similar to their own recent disaster the 
 year before had occurred, and that the allies had 
 turned their arms against each other. They hurried 
 in disorder to spoil the slain; but now a scene of 
 real slaughter ensued. Such of the Moabites as 
 escaped fled to their own land, hotly pursued by the 
 army of the allies, who turned the war into one of 
 extermination, demolishing the cities, marring the 
 corn-land with stones, stopping the wells of water, 
 and felling the fruit trees. Nor did they stay their 
 work of destruction till they reached the strong for¬ 
 tress of Kir-haraseth. There was perpetrated a deed 
 shocking enough to fill all hearts with horror. Mesha, 
 king of Moab, with seven hundred chosen men, 
 sallied forth from the fortress to cut his wav to the 
 camp of Edom ; but they were driven back. Then, 
 
30 
 
 as a last resource, the king offered in sacrifice his own 
 son and heir-apparent for a burnt-offering to Clie- 
 mosh, the Moloch of Moab, to propitiate his anger 
 and procure his aid. The spirit that dictated this 
 sacrifice is embodied in Micah’s inquiry, “Shall I 
 give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of 
 my body for the sin of my soul 1” As the ghastly 
 sacrifice was offered on the city walls in the full 
 view of besiegers and besieged, the indignation of 
 Jews and Edomites, as well as of the Moabites 
 themselves, was roused against Israel for forcing the 
 besieged to this extremity. This ended the war; 
 the siege was raised ; the besiegers, fearful of Divine 
 vengeance, withdrew without taking the fortress or 
 subduing Moab. 
 
 [More than ordinary interest belongs to this war, 
 from the fact that the famous Moabite stone, dis¬ 
 covered a few years ago, was set up by this same 
 Mesha. The inscription on it records the deliver¬ 
 ance just narrated, and sheds light on some matters 
 of importance, among which we may notice the fol¬ 
 lowing :— 
 
 (1.) Though David was in part of Moabite de¬ 
 scent, his great-grandmother having, been Ruth the 
 Moabitess, and though he found an asylum and pro¬ 
 tection for his parents with the King of Moab, yet, 
 from some unknown cause, he afterwards inflicted a 
 severe and even cruel chastisement on the people of 
 that land, massacring two-thirds of the inhabitants 
 and making the remainder tributary. According to 
 a Jewish tradition David’s vengeance was provoked 
 by the treachery of the Moabites in foully murder¬ 
 ing his parents; but we find no proof of this 
 treachery. From this chastisement, however, the 
 Moabites soon recovered, and regaining their free¬ 
 dom, either in the reign of Solomon, through the 
 influence of his Moabite wives, or at the division of 
 the kingdom in the reign of Rehoboam, in conse¬ 
 quence of its weakened condition at that time, they 
 
31 
 
 developed remarkable powers and enjoyed a large 
 measure of prosperity. Omri, we learn from this 
 monolith, subjugated them again. During Omri’s 
 reign and that of his son Ahab, Moab remained in 
 subjection. The words of the inscription referring 
 to this are, “ Now Omri, King of Israel, oppressed 
 Moab many days. . . . His son succeeded him, and 
 he also said, I will oppress Moab. ... Now Omri 
 took the land Medeba, and the enemy occupied it in 
 his days and in the days of his son forty years.” 
 Owing to the military importance of the place, 
 Omri occupied Medeba (now Madeba ), fortifying it 
 for a centre of operations. Ahab, it is inferred, 
 aggravated the oppression, exacting an increased 
 annual tribute. 
 
 The common notion, therefore, that the Moabites 
 continued in vassalage from the days of David on¬ 
 ward till the time of Jehoram is incorrect. 
 
 (2.) Immediately on the death of Ahab, Moab 
 revolted, while Mesha headed the revolt and waged 
 a war of independence. As Ahaziah made no effort 
 during the two years of his reign, Mesha employed 
 this time to great advantage, and captured, reforti¬ 
 fied, and regarrisoned one stronghold after another. 
 Thus we read again in the inscription, “ And Che- 
 mosh had mercy on it (Moab) in my days; and I 
 built Baal-Meon and made therein the ditch, and I 
 built Kirjathaim . . . and the King of Israel forti¬ 
 fied Ataroth, and I assaulted it and captured it, and 
 killed all the warriors of the wall, and I removed 
 from it all the spoil, and offered it before Chemosh 
 in Kirjath ; and I placed therein the men of Siran 
 and the men of Mochrath. And Chemosh said to 
 me, Go take Nebo against Israel. And I went in 
 the night, and I fought against it from the break of 
 dawn till noon, and I took it, and slew in all 7000 
 men.” 
 
 (3.) Jehoram on his accession determined to repair 
 the losses of his house, and recover those who had 
 
32 
 
 been thus emancipated. For this purpose he took 
 the field in person and fortified Jahaz, a place famous 
 of old for Israel’s victory over Sihon, by which they 
 made themselves masters of the country from Arnon 
 ( Wady Mojeb ) to Jabbok, gushing brook (now Wady 
 Zurka), the whole mountain district of Gilead (hard 
 rocky region , the modern Belka). From this fortified 
 centre he meant to operate in all directions. But he 
 soon found his campaign in the north was likely to 
 be fruitless, and that singly he was no match for 
 Mesha. The record of this runs on the stone as 
 follows :—“ And the King of Israel (Jehoram) forti¬ 
 fied J ahaz, and occupied it, when he made war 
 against me ; and Chemosh drove him out before me, 
 and I took from Moab 200 men, all its poor, and 
 placed them in Jahaz, and I took it to annex it to 
 Dibon.” 
 
 (4.) Jehoram having by this time discovered his 
 mistake in invading the northern district of the 
 country of Moab, and his inability without allies to 
 contend with Mesha and his Moabites, organised the 
 expedition of the three allied armies—Israel, Judah, 
 and Edom—and penetrated into the southern dis¬ 
 trict. But though the allies were successful for a 
 time, and inflicted frightful carnage on the Moabites, 
 destroying their cities and devastating their country, 
 yet, strange to say, they did not stay to reap the 
 fruits of victory or follow up their successes ; on the 
 contrary, they withdrew very unaccountably. There 
 is a mystery about that withdrawal. In the Biblical 
 narrative there is only an obscure hint of the cause 
 which has been variously understood, but which, 
 interpreted in the light of this stone monument, 
 leaves little doubt that the indignation spoken of 
 was the anger of the Moabites roused to fury by 
 what they had both seen and suffered, and resulting 
 in the defeat of the allies ; or the indignation of the 
 Almighty, as the expression elsewhere is restricted 
 to the Divine indignation, brought about that result. 
 
33 
 
 At all events, the retreat of these kings, whether 
 caused by their defeat or otherwise, was to the King 
 of Moab a relief, and, if not an actual victory, equi¬ 
 valent to one. It was to Mesha a source of thank¬ 
 fulness and triumph, as also the occasion of his erect¬ 
 ing this stone, as he distinctly informs us in the 
 fourth and fifth lines of the inscription :—“ And I 
 erected this stone to Chemosh at Korka, a stone of 
 salvation, for he saved me from all despoilers, and let 
 me see my desire upon all my enemies.” These 
 despoilers and enemies were obviously the allied 
 sovereigns, Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, the King of 
 Edom, and Jehoram, the commander-in-chief, with 
 their combined hosts. 
 
 (5.) The period of rest enjoyed by Moab from this 
 invasion by the three allies, nearly nine centuries b.c. 
 till the period referred to in the burden of Moab by 
 Isaiah chapters xv. and xvi., usually dated 726 b.c., 
 allows time for a development of resources, material, 
 military, and agricultural, as also for an extension of 
 their territory not otherwise easily or satisfactorily 
 accounted for. The Moabites themselves, having 
 expelled the Emims, originally occupied the east of 
 the Dead Sea and lower Jordan as far north as the 
 Jabbok ; but the Amorites expelled them from the 
 country north of the Arnon, leaving the south 
 Arnonic region, the modern Kerek , as the proper 
 territory of Moab ; and the Amorites in their turn 
 were dispossessed by the Israelites, and the land 
 north of the Arnon to the Jabbok, now the Belka, 
 became the portion of Gad and Reuben. Now in the 
 chapters of Isaiah referred to, we find the Moabites 
 again in possession of that same territory north of 
 the Arnon, which had been taken from them by the 
 Amorites, and from the latter by Israel; and not 
 only so, but greatly advanced in wealth, population, 
 power, and civilization. How and when was all this 
 achieved 1 Mainly, we answer, through the enter¬ 
 prise of Mesha, and during the long peace of more 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 than a century and a half which followed the retire¬ 
 ment of the allies. 
 
 We must be excused for dwelling so long on the 
 Moabite inscription, on the ground that it not only 
 bears directly on the war in which Jehoshaphat was 
 implicated through the King of Israel, and especially 
 on the singular termination of that war, but also 
 because it tends to explain the brief and obscure 
 notices which the Old Testament gives of a transac¬ 
 tion in which the King of Judah played a distin¬ 
 guished part. It elucidates and confirms the truth 
 of interesting statements made by Scripture in refer¬ 
 ence to Moab, and particularly to the relation of that 
 land and its inhabitants to the people of Palestine.] 
 
 19. JEHOSHAPHAT’S CHARACTER. Thechief 
 blot on Jehoshaphat’s character was his connection 
 with Ahab. To this may be added his toleration of 
 the high places. One passage indeed affirms that he 
 took them away, while another admits they were not 
 taken away, the explanation being that the former 
 refers to his exertions for their removal, the other to 
 the only partial success of those exertions. With these 
 abatements Jehoshaphat stands high among the good 
 kings of Judah. His career was an honourable one. 
 As a man, he was eminently pious ; as a friend, 
 he was singularly faithful, even against his own 
 apparent interest; as a king, he was the father of 
 his people, devoting his best energies to their well¬ 
 being. 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Describe Jehoshaphat's reforms , educational , judi¬ 
 cial, and military. 
 
 2. Mention the date and probable cause of his 
 alliance with Ahab % 
 
 3. What led to the joint expedition against Ramoth- 
 Gilead? 
 
 4. What change had taken place in the relation oj 
 the Kings of Judah and Israel? 
 
35 
 
 5. How did he endeavour to improve his marine? 
 To what extent was the attempt successful ? 
 
 6. The pleas used hy him , in his supplication on the 
 occasion of the confederacy against Judah , were God’s 
 power to help , a pledge of help , and a promise to help. 
 
 7. Give a full account of the campaign against 
 Moab. 
 
 8. The Moabite stone confirms in several particulars 
 the sacred record ? 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THY REIGN OF JEHORA.M. 
 
 20. HIS CRUELTY AND IDOLATRY (2 Kings 
 viii. 16-24; 2 Chron. xxi). Jehoshaphat was suc¬ 
 ceeded in the throne by his son Jehoram, the husband 
 of Athaliah. And it is noteworthy that now for a 
 time the names of the two royal houses are identical. 
 In Israel they are Ahaziah and Jehoram, both 
 sons of Ahab ; in Judah, Jehoram and Ahaziah, 
 son and grandson respectively of Jehoshaphat. 
 J elioram’s reign began in the fifth year of his 
 namesake of Israel, his father having associated him 
 with himself in the government some three years. 
 This may have been occasioned by Jehoshaphat’s 
 absence in the war against the confederates of Moab, 
 Ammon, and Edom. Jehoram reigned alone five 
 years, and so in all eight years. His reign was 
 commenced in blood. It was closed by a foul disease, 
 and in deep disgrace. Among his first acts was the 
 murder of his six brothers. To this he was no doubt 
 instigated by his wicked wife, Athaliah, a daughter of 
 Jezebel. Soon after he set up the worship of Baal and 
 Ashtoreth, the dual idolatry of the Phoenicians, with 
 its licentious rites, first introduced into Israel by 
 Jezebel, his mother-in-law, and now encouraged in 
 Judah by Athaliah, his wife. Of the baleful con- 
 
36 
 
 sequences that were certain to ensue, Jehoram had 
 full warning by a letter from the prophet Elijah.® 
 
 21. CALAMITIES DUE TO JEHORAM’S CON¬ 
 DUCT (2 Chron. xxi. 8-11; 16-20). The consequences 
 of which the prophet warned Jehoram were not long 
 delayed. First came the revolt and loss of Edom. 
 With this dependency was lost the only remaining 
 seaport in the Idumsean territory—that of Elath (now 
 Akaba ), on the Red Sea, and thus a fatal blow was 
 dealt to the commerce of the southern kingdom. 
 Then Libnah, a strongly fortified city in the maritime 
 lowland of Judah, one of the fenced cities given to 
 Jehoram’s brethren, and a Levitical city besides, 
 renounced allegiance. Next the Philistines and 
 the Arabians, who were willing tributaries to his 
 godly father Jehoshaphat, not only invaded the 
 land, but stormed his own palace, plundered his 
 treasures, and murdered or carried captive his 
 wives and children, all save one. The climax 
 of his misfortune was the frightful disease which, 
 after two years’ torture, cut him off in the prime 
 of life. No one loved him while he lived, no one 
 lamented him when he died. “ He departed without 
 being desired,” without the usual burning in his 
 honour, and without the customary burial in the 
 royal tomb. 
 
 a There is some difficulty about the authorship of this prophetic 
 letter. The question is whether its author was Elijah the Tishbite, 
 whose sphere was generally in the northern kingdom, or a different 
 prophet of the same name who belonged to Judah. Some think that 
 Elijah the Tishbite, foreseeing the declension and disasters of the 
 southern kingdom, and caring jealously for the purity of divine 
 worship in Judah no less than in Israel, wrote this letter before his 
 death, and left it to be afterwards delivered. A more probable ex¬ 
 planation, however, is that the account of Elijah’s translation in 
 Kings is inserted by the writer of that book out of chronological order 
 for the purpose of completing and concluding the notice of Elijah’s 
 ministry, before passing on to that of Elisha’s; while the words “ who 
 poured water on the hands of Elijah,” which, as they stand in the 
 common version, imply a past ministration or attendance, may apply 
 to the present. Elijah may thus have been living during part of 
 Jehoram’s reign, and Elisha, who, as we have seen, was applied to by 
 the allies in their war with Moab, may have commenced his public 
 prophetic office before his master’s translation. 
 
37 
 
 22. REIGN OF AHAZIAH (2 Kings viii. 25-29,and 
 ix. 27-29 ; 2 Chron. xxii.). The fifth king of Judah 
 was Ahaziah, son of Jehoram and Athaliah, and thus 
 grandson of Ahab, and nephew of the Jehoram who 
 succeeded his brother Ahaziah on the throne of Israel. 
 He is indifferently called Ahaz-iah and Jeho-ahaz, 
 names of the same import. The statement (2 Chron. 
 xxii. 2) that he was forty-two years of age when 
 he ascended the throne and succeeded his father, 
 who died at the age of forty years, is commonly 
 supposed to be a copyist’s error for twenty-two years 
 of age. Ahaziah was not designated by his father 
 as his successor (his elder brothers having been 
 captured by the Arabians), but was invested by the 
 people themselves. He only reigned one year ; and 
 the record of that brief reign is summed up in one 
 sentence—“ He walked in all the ways of the house of 
 Ahab.” His alliance with his uncle, the King of Israel, 
 involved him in war with the Syrian king, Hazael, 
 who defeated them and their combined forces at 
 Ramoth. Jehoram, severely wounded, retired to 
 Jezreel, the royal residence of his father, now occupied 
 by his mother Jezebel, and Ahaziah joined him there. 
 We see how closely Ahaziah attached himself to the 
 throne of Ahab and how powerful was the evil 
 influence which his kindred of that family exercised 
 over him. “ His mother,” it is said, “ was his 
 counsellor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil 
 in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab : 
 for they were his counsellors after the death of his 
 father to his destruction.” Here is the spectacle of 
 a man enticed to evil by his relatives, and worse, by 
 his own mother. 
 
 23. HIS DEATH (2 Kings ix. 27-29 ; 2 Chron. 
 xxii. 5-9). Meantime the army at Jezreel declared 
 in favour of Jehu, who advanced at his peculiarly 
 furious pace against the allied sovereigns. In ex¬ 
 pectation of some important message, they had gone 
 out to meet him. Soon they were made aware of 
 
38 
 
 the turn matters had taken. At once both fled, 
 Jehoram crying to his nephew, “ There is treachery, 
 O Ahaziah.” The King of Israel perished on the 
 spot. The King of Judah was wounded, but escaped 
 for the time. He made good his flight, as we learn 
 by comparing Kings and Chronicles, first to Me- 
 giddo ; thence, for better care and concealment per¬ 
 haps, he made his way to Samaria. Being brought 
 back, however, to Megiddo, he was put to death by 
 Jehu’s order. This revolution, the work of a single 
 day, put an end to the wicked house of Ahab and the 
 dynasty of Omri in Israel, while it proved little less 
 fatal to Judah. The royal house of the one was 
 completely exterminated, that of the other was 
 brought close to the verge of extinction. But the 
 agent of this destruction did not stop here. He 
 swept along like a whirlwind, with terrible speed and 
 pitiless determination. First he slew the queen- 
 mother Jezebel, then the seventy sons of Ahab, next 
 forty-two relatives of Ahaziah, and last, “ all the 
 prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests.” 
 The acts of this bloody tragedy are enlivened, now 
 by a stroke of satire, then by a touch of grim humour, 
 as when Jezebel asks, “Had Zimri peace who slew 
 his master?” or when Jehu says with an evident 
 sneer, “Ahab served Baal a little ; but Jehu shall 
 serve him much ; ” or when he sends the ironical 
 challenge to the guardians of Ahab’s children, to look 
 out the best and meetest of their master’s sons, to 
 enthrone him, and fight for their master’s house. 
 Thus ends the first period of ninety-one years, reach¬ 
 ing from the disruption to the revolution 884 b.c. 
 
 24. THE USURPATION OF ATHALIAH—HER 
 MEASURES (2 Kings xi. 1-3 ; 2 Chron. xxii-10-12). 
 Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, was 
 the only individual left of the wicked and ill-fated 
 house. Being the wife of Jehoram and mother of 
 Ahaziah, she probably acted as regent during her 
 son’s absence at Jezreel, and thus occupied a vantage 
 ground for her subsequent usurpation. Inheriting 
 
39 
 
 the fierce and murderous spirit of her mother Jezebel, 
 she no sooner heard of the revolution effected by 
 Jehu and the death of her son King Ahaziah, than 
 she put to death all the seed-royal—her own grand¬ 
 children—except one. This child, then an infant, 
 Joash by name, was saved by his aunt Jehosheba, 
 daughter of Jehoram, sister of Ahaziah, though by 
 a different mother, and wife of Jehoiada the high- 
 priest, and was secreted in the temple for the period 
 of six years, during which the usurpation of Athaliah 
 lasted. Already in her husband’s life-time, Athaliah 
 had done her best to introduce the idolatrous Baal- 
 worship which her parents had practised in the 
 northern kingdom. She failed, however, to subvert 
 the temple service, for it was in connection with it 
 that she was at length overthrown. Her usurpation 
 was hurtful to various interests. The house of God, 
 in especial, sustained much damage, as we shall gather 
 from the breaches made in it, and from the time and 
 expense required for their repair. Sacred vessels 
 and instruments of service were appropriated to 
 Baal, who had now his sanctuary (reared, it would 
 seem, in part with materials torn from the temple), 
 as well as images and altars, with the apostate 
 priest Mattan as minister. 
 
 25. HER OVERTHROW (2 Kings xi. 4-21; 2 
 Chron. xxiii. 1-18). In the seventh year Jehoiada 
 thought the time had come to show the people their 
 king. He concerted measures with the centurions 
 of the royal guard, and others. With their help, he 
 collected a strong reserve of Levites and chief men out 
 of the cities of J udah, probably at one of the yearly 
 festivals. After producing the young king and 
 binding them by the solemnity of an oath to allegiance 
 he allotted them their posts. The arrangements 
 being completed, the spears and shields of King 
 David, that his own sacred weapons might be em¬ 
 ployed in the restoration of his descendant, were 
 placed in the hands of the guard, and the first 
 coronation (properly so called) on record took place. 
 
40 
 
 The young king, raised on a royal stand or platform, 
 had the crown put on his head, the testimony placed 
 in his hand, and the holy anointing oil poured on 
 his person. Then proclamation was made amid 
 clapping of hands, blowing of trumpets, and the cheers 
 of the multitude, Levites and people shouting, “ God 
 save the king.” Meantime Athaliah, roused by the 
 acclamations, hastened, unguarded and with the un¬ 
 daunted spirit of her race, from the palace to the 
 temple, rent her robes, and cried out, “ Treason, 
 treason ! ” But in vain. The cry awakened no 
 sympathy. She was carried out into the Kidron 
 valley, where the fatal blow was struck that ended 
 the short and sinful career of this unfortunate queen. 
 Seldom has such a mighty movement been carried 
 out with so little bloodshed. In addition to Athaliah 
 herself, Mattan was the only person that suffered 
 death. 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Narrate the chief facts in the reign of Jelioram. 
 
 2. What were the disast7'ous consequences of his 
 misrule ? 
 
 3. What is the Scripture record of AhazialHs reign ? 
 
 4. How long time intervened between the Disruption 
 and the Revolution? How was the latter brought 
 about ? 
 
 5. Describe the character of Athaliah, her usurpa¬ 
 tion and overthrow. 
 
 6. Mention a singular circumstance connected with 
 this important revolution. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 
 26. dOASH’S EARLY REIGN (2 Kings xi. 17; 
 xii. 16; 2 Cliron. xxiv. 1-14). The youthful 
 
41 
 
 Joash was thus placed on his ancestral throne? 
 and Jehoiada became regent during his minority 
 Joash was the sole surviving descendant of 
 David, Jehoram had put all his brethren to death, 
 while his own sons, with one exception, perished in 
 the irruption of the Philistines and Arabians. 
 Ahaziah alone escaped, and his sons, with exception 
 of Joash, had been slain by Athaliah, their grand¬ 
 mother ; while his remoter relatives met their fate by 
 the hand of Jehu. Thus on the brittle thread of the life 
 of the child Joash the covenant of God and the con¬ 
 tinuance of David’s line seemed now to be suspended. 
 But that covenant stood, and the lamp of David’s 
 house ceased not to burn. Along with the royal 
 restoration, too, the priestly order was revived in 
 Jehoiada.** What the prophets had done to oppose 
 idolatry and to keep alive the true religion in the 
 kingdom of Israel, the priest and attending Levites 
 had now in great part accomplished in the kingdom 
 of Judah. The reign of Joash thus commenced with 
 promise. During the regency all went well. The 
 idolatrous worship of Baal was abolished \ his 
 temple, altars, and monuments throughout the land 
 were destroyed, and the worship of Jehovah restored. 
 On attaining his majority Joash set his heart on 
 repairing the temple. It had now stood three centuries 
 and a half, and decay had come with the lapse of 
 time, and by the destructions of the enemy. He 
 began by raising the necessary means. But here a 
 double difficulty had to be overcome. The money 
 payable to the sanctuary, including the half-shekel 
 due by all above 20 years of age, Exod. xxx. 13, 
 the money of the dedicated things, and the free-will 
 offerings had been carelessly remitted and the sums 
 paid had been partly diverted from their proper 
 object. A remedy was found for this, with the 
 
 a Stanley asserts that he was the first that got the title of High 
 Priest. The title The Priest or Head Priest, though 1 ess frequently Great 
 or High Priest, however, was in use long before. 
 
42 
 
 approval of Jehoiada, in putting the management 
 of the funds into other hands, and adopting a 
 different method of allocating them. The half-shekel 
 tax and the voluntary offerings, as may be safely 
 inferred, took the place of the three kinds of contri¬ 
 butions already specified, and were deposited in a 
 chest provided for the special purpose of the repairs ; 
 while the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings went 
 to the use of the priests, and the surplus after the re¬ 
 pairs were finished was applied to the purchase of the 
 requisite vessels. In this way adequate means were 
 provided, the temple was restored, and the renovation 
 of the sacred pile was accompanied by a revival of 
 religion. Yet one drawback remained, the high- 
 places were not removed. The death of the faithful 
 Jehoiada at the extreme old age of 130 years followed, 
 27. DECLENSION AND DEATH(2Kingsxii. 17-21; 
 2 Chron. xxiv. 17-27). Matters now changed, and 
 Joash’s subsequent conduct belied the promise of his 
 early days. The princes of Judah, jealous of the priestly 
 order, not only turned the king aside from serving the 
 true God, but induced him to tolerate, if not to re-estab¬ 
 lish, the idolatrous worship of Baal. These men could 
 never have been more than half-hearted in the 
 worship of Jehovah. Now they followed their true 
 instincts, and the incense of their flattery told upon 
 the king. “ They made obeisance to the king,” and 
 he “ hearkened unto them.” But the worst was yet 
 to come. When this gross misconduct called forth 
 the remonstrance of Zechariah, the son and successor 
 of Jehoiada, Joash forgetful of the past, either 
 positively commanded or by some rash expression 
 (as in the case of Henry II. and Thomas k Becket), 
 induced the stoning of his cousin, the companion of 
 his youth—his once truest friend and the son of his 
 greatest benefactor. The place of the murder —“ be¬ 
 tween the temple and the altar ”—was the very spot 
 where J oash himself had been guarded by J ehoiada 
 and the Levites. He slew the son where he himself 
 
43 
 
 had been saved by the father. The inspired 
 narrator stigmatises the act thus : “ He remembered 
 not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had 
 done to him, but slew his son and our Lord him¬ 
 self quotes it as the last in a long list of bloody per¬ 
 secutions : “ From the blood of righteous Abel to 
 the blood of Zechariah who was slain between the 
 temple and the altar.” a Asa had gone the length of 
 imprisoning a prophet, and Amaziah afterwards 
 imposed silence, but neither ventured farther; it 
 remained for Joash to proceed to the deed of blood. 
 Retribution overtook the renegade king. Hazael, at 
 the head of the Syrian army, having overrun Israel in¬ 
 vaded Judah, and Joash purchased a temporary peace 
 with the vessels of the temple. But at the close of 
 the year Hazael returned, and with forces far inferior 
 in number defeated the army of Joash with great 
 slaughter, plundered the temple, slew the wicked 
 princes, and carried away immense booty to Da¬ 
 mascus. This discomfiture was soon followed by 
 severe bodily distemper. But the hand of assassina¬ 
 tion anticipated the work of disease. Two of his 
 servants slew Joash in the bed to which illness had 
 confined him. This was the first deed of regicide in 
 the kingdom of Judah, though that crime was not 
 uncommon in Israel. As if to relieve the horror 
 which it inspired we are informed that the perpe¬ 
 trators of it were foreigners, one the son of an 
 Ammonitess, and the other of a Moabitess. Joash 
 was a weak, vacillating character, reflecting the 
 varying influences around him. When they were 
 good, he was good ; when they changed, he changed. 
 
 a A contrast has been instituted between the dying utterance of 
 Zechariah and that of Stephen—the one as evincing the spirit of the 
 Old Dispensation, which is retributive justice; the other that of the 
 New, which is free grace. The last words of Zechariah before he 
 breathed his last were: “The Lord look upon it, and require it;” 
 the last words of Stephen before he gave up the ghost were: “ Lord, 
 lay not this sin to their charge.” The contrast may be carried a point 
 further. It is death with Zechariah: “when he died he said; ” but it 
 is sleep with Stephen: “when he had said this he fell asleep.” 
 
44 
 
 Without strength either of faith or of will, he became 
 the prey of designing men. His life was a failure. 
 His end came in sadness after he had reversed the 
 policy of the better part of his reign, contracted the 
 stain of bloodguiltiness, brought misery on the nation 
 in the Syrian war, and provoked at once the wrath 
 of God and the vengeance of man. But before dis¬ 
 missing the reign of this king, we may yet notice 
 three things. In the chastisement which God in¬ 
 flicted by the Syrians, the king is specially marked 
 out as a sufferer : for it is said, “ So they executed 
 judgment against Joash,” the royal treasures making 
 a large part of the sum sent to the Syrian king. The 
 princes who had instigated and abetted Joash in 
 liis sin are singled out as the first victims; for on the 
 approach of the Syrians, we learn that they “des¬ 
 troyed all the princes of the people from among the 
 people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the King 
 of Damascus.” And the flattery and falsehood that 
 had misled him in life, so turned to detestation and 
 disgust, that after death he was excluded from the 
 royal sepulchres. 
 
 Reign of Amaziah. 
 
 28. EARLY POLICY (2 Kings xiv. 1-7 ; 2 Chron. 
 xxv, 1-12.) The first act of Amaziah on his acces¬ 
 sion to the throne was to avenge the death of his 
 father. At the same time in obedience to the divine 
 injunction (Deuteronomy xxiv. 16), that “ the fathers 
 shall not be put to death for the children, neither 
 shall the children be put to death for the fathers,” 
 he exercised a clemency rare in the east, both then 
 and now, and exempted the children from the 
 penalty of their father’s crime. And though he did 
 not remove the high places, he began his reign with 
 some promise, “ doing that which was right in the 
 sight of the Lord,” though “not with a perfect 
 heart.” It was with a hesitating step, however, that he 
 pursued the course of right. His first enterprise was 
 
45 
 
 to regain the province of Edom, which had been lost 
 to Judah since the reign of Jehoram. To secure 
 this he made the most vigorous efforts. Having 
 taken the census and enrolled the men of Judah and 
 Benjamin from twenty years old and upwards, he 
 found they amounted to 300,000 fighting men, a 
 little more than half the number that composed the 
 army of Asa. This diminution was owing partly to 
 the destructive wars that had been waged in the in¬ 
 terval from Asa’s reign and in part to the decadence 
 of the kingdom, both material and moral. But not 
 satisfied with an army of such respectable dimensions, 
 he also hired 100,000 mercenary troops out of Israel 
 for the sum of 100 talents of silver or £45,000 of our 
 currency. This is the first mention of a mercenary 
 army in J ewisli history. But though the sum had 
 been paid and the soldiers had arrived, a prophet 
 was sent to forbid the use of these Israelite auxili¬ 
 aries, and the king was obliged reluctantly to dismiss 
 them. This dismissal was taken as a public affront, 
 and soon led to serious results. a With his own 
 troops, however, he gained a signal victory over the 
 enemy in the Yalley of Salt. In this Idumsean war 
 he slew 10,000 Edomites, made 10,000 prisoners 
 whom he cruelly hurled down the rocky precipices of 
 their native land, and took Sela or the Bock (pro¬ 
 bably the important city known by the name of 
 Petra), which he named J okteel, “ subdued by God,” 
 in token of the great difficulty of this arduous under¬ 
 taking, and in grateful acknowledgment of the 
 divine aid to which he owed his success. 
 
 29. RESULTS OF VICTORY. (2 Kings xiv. 8- 
 16 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 14-24).—This victory of Amaziah 
 
 a A somewhat parallel case occurs in Grecian history. When the 
 Spartans were harrassed by the Helots and Messenians at Ithome, 
 they sought aid a second time from the Athenians. When the succour 
 so earnestly sought and at length granted had arrived, we read that 
 
 the Spartans insulted them by sending them back, as men whom 
 they feared, but could not trust,” and that “ the Athenians returned 
 home swearing enmity against all who sided with the Spartans,” 
 
46 
 
 cost him dear if we look to the idolatry and ambition 
 which were among its consequences. Amaziah 
 brought home the idols of the Edomites; and in his 
 folly bowed down to them as his gods, though they 
 had been powerless to protect their former worship¬ 
 pers. This change in Amaziah’s faith was the turn¬ 
 ing point of his history. The prophet of the Lord, 
 reprimanding him for this stupid idolatry, asked 
 him, “ Why hast thou sought after the gods of the 
 people, which could not deliver their own people out 
 of thy hand 1 ” And the king’s reply showed how 
 far he was from being humbled. Elated, moreover, 
 with this victory, he challenged the powerful King 
 of Israel to battle. “ Come,” he said, “ Let us look 
 one another in the face,” that is, let us meet face to 
 face in battle. Though ambition was the cause, the 
 occasion may have been the misconduct of the dis¬ 
 banded Israelite mercenaries who, exasperated by 
 their dismissal, retaliated by ravaging the country 
 from Samaria even unto Bethoron, smiting three 
 thousand of the cities of Judah, and carrying off 
 much spoil. The proud descendant of Jehu ridiculed 
 Amaziah’s presumption in a scornful parable : “ The 
 thistle that was in Lebanon said to the cedar, Give 
 thy daughter as a wife to my son ; and there passed 
 by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trod down 
 the thistle. Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the 
 Edomites, and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast : 
 abide now at home ; why shouldst thou meddle to thy 
 hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah 
 with thee.” Amaziah, stung by the taunt, and 
 underestimating the strength of Joash, was not to 
 be dissuaded—he must fight. And yet Judah was 
 weak as compared with Israel, which under its pre¬ 
 sent king was fast recovering from past disasters ; 
 for Joash had restored the independence of his king¬ 
 dom, and reconquered much of his territory by three 
 great victories over Syria. The armies of Israel and 
 Judali met at Bethshemesh (“ house of the sun ”), 
 
47 
 
 now Ain-shems, fifteen miles from the capital of Judah. 
 There, on a low table-land, where two plains meet, 
 they engaged in fratricidal conflict. Amaziah was 
 defeated, and brought back a prisoner to Jerusalem. 
 Thus, by a strange irony of events, he was replaced on 
 the paternal throne by the very man he expected to 
 lead in chains. A singular circumstance in the case is 
 that Jerusalem offered no resistance to the conqueror. 
 The gold and silver vessels of the house of the Lord, 
 and the treasures of the king’s house, besides hos¬ 
 tages—the only instance of such being mentioned in 
 the Old Testament—were carried away by the con¬ 
 queror to Samaria. 
 
 30. HIS DEATH. (2 Kings xiv. 17-20 ; 2 Chron. 
 xv. 25-28).—Amaziah survived his defeat, but not his 
 disgrace, for fifteen years. In the end he fell a 
 victim to a conspiracy of his own subjects, and 
 though he made his escape to Lachish, he was 
 assassinated there after a reign of nearly thirty years. 
 The same fatality attended son and father—Ama¬ 
 ziah and Joash. Both made a fair commencement ; 
 both apostatised ; both rejected a prophet’s remon¬ 
 strance ; and both fell victims of a conspiracy. The 
 first half of the history of J udah comprises the reigns 
 from Kehoboam to that of Amaziah inclusive ; and 
 though it includes the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 
 yet the history of this period is, as a whole, a history 
 of gradual degeneracy and decline. 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. How did it happen that at one period a single 
 individual was the sole survivor of the Davidic line ? 
 
 2. What means did Joash adopt to raise funds for 
 repairing the Umple? 
 
 3. A certain class of persons helped to turn Joash 
 aside from the ivorsliip of Jehovah. 
 
 4. In what terms does Scripture stigmatise his cruel 
 ingratitude? What reference to it do we find in the 
 Aew Testament ? 
 
48 
 
 5. Point out the consequences of Amazialis victonj 
 over the Edomites. 
 
 6. Extent of the first half of the history of Judah? 
 Characterise this 'period of Jewish history. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REIGN OF UZZIAH. 
 
 31. EARLY TRAINING AND SUCCESSES. (2 
 
 Kings xv. 1-4 ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 1-8).—God’s purpose 
 in relation to the house of David was to be frustrated 
 neither by conspiracy nor by assassination. On the 
 murder of Amaziah the loyalty of the people was 
 roused to enthusiasm on behalf of his son : “ All the 
 people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years 
 old, and made him king.” Ascending the throne at 
 this early age, Uzziah, called also Azariah, reigned 
 fifty-two years. His was the longest reign except 
 Manasseh’s, and the most successful except Jehosha- 
 phat’s since the disruption. His mother was Jeco- 
 liah of Jerusalem. He was trained under Zechariah, 
 a prophet (to be distinguished from the priest of the 
 same name, martyred in the reign of Joash), “ who had 
 understanding in the visions of God.” Under such 
 training Uzziah became distinguished for piety. u He 
 sought God in the days of Zechariah . . . and as long 
 as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.” A 
 picture of the prosperous state of the kingdom in Uz- 
 ziah’s reign is presented in the 2d chapter of Isaiah. 
 “ Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is 
 there any end of their treasures ; their land also is 
 full of horses, neither is there any end of their 
 chariots.” Following up his father’s success against 
 Edom in the south, he retook and rebuilt Elath, 
 
49 
 
 at the eastern head of the Eed Sea on the Gulf of 
 Akaba, with the view of reviving the commerce of 
 the country. After this he subdued the Philistines 
 in the Shefelah or maritime plain on the west, 
 razing to the ground their fortresses of Gath, Tell- 
 es-Safieh, Jabneh, Tebna, and Aslidod (called Azotus 
 in Acts), now the village of Esdud. He turned his face 
 toward the Amorites on the east, and made them tri¬ 
 butary ; he checked the encroachments of the Arab 
 tribes of the desert to the south-east—the dwellers in 
 Gur-baal, and the Mehunims or people of Maan. 
 By this time his fame extended southward to the 
 frontier of Egypt, “ his name,” says the chronicler, 
 “ spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt.” 
 
 32. HOME ADMINISTRATION (2 Cliron. xxvi. 
 9-16). His success abroad was equalled by his skilful 
 arrangements at home. He strengthened his capital by 
 towers and fortifications ; he kept a standing army of 
 over 300,000 men, which exceeded his father’s by 7300, 
 and which he furnished with the most approved 
 weapons; he reorganised the army, fully developing the 
 military resources of his kingdom. He invented, or 
 introduced, engines for the discharge of projectiles. 
 But though prepared for war, Uzziah was a man of 
 peace ; he “ loved husbandry ” we are told. He em¬ 
 ployed husbandmen and vinedressers in the Judsean 
 hills. His cattle ranged three different pasture 
 grounds, namely, the low country between the hills 
 and the sea, the plains or downs to the east of the 
 Jordan, and the wilderness or wild pasture land to 
 the south and south-east. In this last he built 
 towers as places of refuge for the herdsmen and 
 the herds of cattle, and of defence against Arab and 
 other plunderers. At the same time he dug wells 
 (or cisterns) to preserve the rainfall, on which the 
 flocks depended. 
 
 33. HIS SIN AND PUNISHMENT (2 Kings xv. 
 5-7 ; 2 Cor. xxvi. 16-23). But his success made him 
 giddy. In his pride he intruded into the priest’s office, 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 presuming to offer incense, and repeating the trans¬ 
 gression of Korah and his company. To the glories 
 of his kingly rule he aspired to add the splendours 
 of the priesthood, and assumed the peculiar priestly 
 function of burning incense on" the golden altar. 
 Swift and sore was the punishment of Uzziah’s sin. 
 Suddenly, as in the case of Gehazi, the leprous spot 
 showed itself in his forehead. As a consequence, he 
 was shut out for ever from the earthly temple, dwell¬ 
 ing in a house of liberation, as the words literally 
 mean, where those dwelt whom the Lord had manu¬ 
 mitted from His service. Neither was he buried in 
 the royal vaults, but apart in the field of burial 
 which belonged to the kings. 
 
 34. CALAMITIES OF HIS REIGN (Joel i., ii. ; 
 Amos iv. 9). Several calamities of a public kind 
 occurred in the reign of Uzziali. For our informa¬ 
 tion on these and other matters of interest, we are 
 mainly indebted to the contemporary records of the 
 prophets, which from this period begin to be largely 
 available. The earlier chapters of Isaiah in particu¬ 
 lar belong to this reign, while Joel (though we can¬ 
 not fix his date with certainty), and Amos, and 
 Hosea (though they deal mainly with the northern 
 kingdom), give some aid. One of the calamities 
 occurring in the reign of Uzziah, if Joel’s prophecy is 
 of that date, was a plague of locusts. The prophet’s 
 account of this visitation, of the appearance of the 
 locusts, their multitudes, their array, their ravages, 
 and the extreme distress consequent thereon, is as 
 terrible as it is vivid. Another calamity was an 
 earthquake of extraordinary severity, known as the 
 earthquake by way of eminence.- It formed a sort 
 of chronological era by which men reckoned time. 
 Thus Amos speaks of his prophetic call as two years 
 before the earthquake ; while allusions to its shocks 
 and their consequences, the huge clefts, the up¬ 
 heavals, the undulations, the sea bursting its barriers, 
 tinge deeply the prophetic language of that day. 
 Even three centuries afterwards the prophet of the 
 
0 
 
 51 
 
 captivity refers to that same earthquake, and the 
 terror which it inspired, in the following terms :— 
 “Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the 
 earthquake in the days of Uzziali king of Judah.” 
 
 Reign of Jotham. 
 
 35. HIS CHARACTER (2 Kings xv. 32-38; 2 
 Chr. xvii. 1, 2). Jotham had been regent from the 
 time of his father’s leprosy, a space of some six or 
 seven years. From his accession, on the death of his 
 father, his reign lasted sixteen years, and thus about 
 twenty-two years in all. Jotham was a pious prince, 
 and did “ that which was right in the sight of the 
 Lord according to all that his father Uzziah did.” It 
 is expressly stated that he avoided the impious action 
 of his father, in intruding into the temple. In other 
 respects he followed his example, carrying on his im¬ 
 provements and carrying out his policy. But not¬ 
 withstanding his personal piety and worth, Jotham 
 does not appear to have possessed much force of 
 character, or to have exercised any very decided in¬ 
 fluence over his subjects. This may be concluded 
 from the wide-spread corruption of the times. Hosea, 
 too, who prophesied from an early period of Uzziah’s 
 reign, gives occasional glimpses of the state of things 
 in Judah as now, like Israel previously, descending 
 the downward slope of sin. 
 
 36. WORKS OF JOTHAM (2 Chron. xxvii. 3-6). 
 Jotham built the high gate of the temple, and so 
 secured it against attack on the north side ; he also 
 strengthened the southern projection of Moriah be¬ 
 tween the Tyropseon valley and that of Jehoshapliat 
 or the Kidron ; for “ on the wall of Ophel he built 
 much.” In the hill-country of Judah, too, he built 
 cities, and in the forests castles as places of fortifica¬ 
 tion and defence. The danger of attack implied by 
 such fortifications is explained by the passing refer¬ 
 ence (2 Kings xv. 37) to Rezin and Pekah, which shows 
 that an alliance had been formed between Syria and 
 Israel against the great and steadily advancing power 
 
of Assyria. There can be no doubt that they desired 
 to draw Judah into this alliance, but they dreaded 
 Judah’s adherence to the house of David. On this 
 account they eventually tried to set one Ben-Tabeal, 
 an usurper, on the throne of the country, as more 
 likely to fall in with their plans and purposes. Con¬ 
 sequently an attack from that quarter was naturally 
 dreaded. Hosea and Isaiah both refer to the mea¬ 
 sures of defence resorted to by Uzziah and afterwards 
 by Jotham. The former (viii. 14) pronounces them 
 useless : “ Judah hath multiplied fenced cities ; but 
 I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour 
 the palaces thereof.” Similarly Isaiah (ii. 15) threatens 
 a day of visitation “ on every high tower and every 
 fenced wall.” Farther, as the alliance between Kezin, 
 king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Samaria, took place 
 in the reign of Jotham, and as mention is made of 
 “ all his (Jotham’s) wars and ways,” it is inferred 
 that he had been in conflict with those allied sove¬ 
 reigns. He put down, moreover, the revolt of the 
 Ammonites, and compelled them to pay for three 
 years afterwards an additional annual tribute, partly 
 in money to the amount of a hundred talents of 
 silver, and partly in kind, the latter amounting to 
 ten thousand measures of wheat and ten thousand 
 of barley. Thus he reigned righteously in peace, and 
 bore himself bravely in war; and “ he slept with his 
 fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city 
 of David his father.” 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Whose reign was the longest , and whose the most 
 successful since the Disruption ? 
 
 2. Isaiah’s picture of the prosperous state of the 
 kingdom during the reign of Uzziah. 
 
 3. Describe his wise administration both of home and 
 foreign affairs. 
 
 4. Nature of his sin , and disasters of his reign ? 
 
 5. Scripture account of the character of Jotham ? 
 
 6. Give a short account of Jotham’s works and wars. 
 
53 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE REIGN OF AHAZ. 
 
 37. HIS WICKEDNESS (2 Kings xvi. 1-4; 2 
 Chron. xxviii. 1-4). To Jotliam succeeded Ahaz, at 
 the age of twenty years. His reign lasted sixteen 
 years. He was the worst of all the kings that had 
 reigned in Judah. No monarch of the line of David 
 had plunged so deeply into iniquity and idolatry. 
 In other reigns the people had resorted to the high 
 places, but Ahaz set his subjects an example by 
 sacrificing and burning incense in the high places 
 and on the hills and under every green tree. He 
 made images for Baalim, that is, for representations 
 of the Phoenician god in his different aspects and 
 characters; and sacrificed to Moloch, the monster 
 god of the Ammonites. He followed the pernicious 
 example of the worst kings of Israel, adopting the 
 practices prevalent in the days of Ahab and Ahaziah. 
 Not content with re-introducing the worship of Baal, 
 which had been cut off by Jehu in the northern 
 kingdom and by Jehoiada in the southern, he has 
 the unenviable notoriety of introducing the first his¬ 
 torically attested human sacrifice among the Hebrew 
 people. Amos (v. 26) indeed hints at the worship 
 of Moloch, and Ezekiel (xx. 26) indistinctly at the 
 devoting or passing through the fire of the firstborn 
 in the wilderness. But in regard to Ahaz we have 
 the direct statement that “ he made his son pass 
 through the fire according to the abominations of the 
 heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children 
 of Israel.” Probably this inhuman act was perpet¬ 
 rated when Ahaz was hard pressed by his enemies 
 in order to propitiate the deity and secure deliver¬ 
 ance. 
 
 38. HIS APOSTACY (2 Kings xvi. 8-19 ; 2 Chron. 
 xxviii. 22-25). Ahaz went from bad to worse. In 
 
54 
 
 the later years of his reign, he apostatised totally 
 from the national religion, cutting off the borders of 
 the stands on which the layers rested, removing the 
 brazen sea from the oxen, altering or removing the 
 royal covert or canopied seat and the private passage. 
 Not only did he destroy the vessels of the sanctuary, 
 but he shut up the temple and discontinued the 
 service. Having proceeded thus far in abolishing 
 the worship of Jehovah, he erected altars through 
 Jerusalem and high places throughout the cities of 
 Judah, to burn incense unto other gods. He had a 
 fondness for foreign worship and a fatal proneness to 
 imitation of alien cults. Having seen an altar at 
 Damascus, where, as a vassal, he had to wait on 
 Tiglath Pileser, he sent a model of it for a pattern to 
 his facile priest Urijah. This new altar Urijah had 
 placed in front of the brazen altar as an interim 
 arrangement; but Ahaz, on his return, had the 
 brazen altar removed from its place in front of the 
 temple porch and facing the eastern gate to the 
 north side, to make way for the imported altar. On 
 this all sacrifices in future were to be offered ; the 
 brazen altar he retained for the purpose of enquiring 
 by it, or, as it may rather mean, until the king would 
 inquire, that is, consider what was to be done with it. 
 
 39. SYRO-ISRAELITE WAR (2 Kings xv. 5-9 * 
 2 Chron. xviii. 5-19; Isaiah vii.-xii.). When his 
 iniquity was full, the storm-cloud of Divine ven¬ 
 geance, some drops of which had already fallen, burst 
 on Ahaz. The Syro-Israelite war broke out. Pekali, 
 King of Samaria, and Pezin, King of Damascus, 
 made each an invasion of the kingdom, the latter 
 carrying away a multitude of captives to Damascus, 
 and the former defeating Ahaz with the immense 
 slaughter of 120,000 men and with 200,000 captives. 
 The prisoners, however, were restored on the remon¬ 
 strance of the proj)het Oded, who reproved the 
 leaders of the army of Israel for forgetting the law 
 that forbade them to make bondmen of their brethren, 
 
55 
 
 A second invasion by Pekah and Rezin now com¬ 
 bined, having for its object the setting of one Ben- 
 Tabeal on the throne, dismayed both king and people, 
 who were moved with fear “ as the trees of the wood 
 are moved with the wind.” In this emergency, 
 Isaiah met Ahaz, assuring him that these two “ smok¬ 
 ing firebrands ” that had caused such a flame would 
 soon be quenched. The siege of Jerusalem failed, and 
 the allies withdrew. But in retiring Rezin marched 
 against Elath on the Red Sea, which for seventy 
 years had been occupied by the Jews, whom Rezin 
 now expelled, gaining the place for Syria, or re¬ 
 covering it for Edom, if we adopt an amended text. 
 Perils, nevertheless, arose before Ahaz on every 
 side. There were the allied sovereigns in the 
 north. There were the Edomites, who had already 
 smitten Judah; and the Philistines, who had already 
 seized six of its important towns—namely, Beth- 
 shemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth, Shocho, Timnah, and 
 Gimzo. There was also disaffection in Judah itself 
 (Isaiah viii. 6). One man, indeed, stood out heroi¬ 
 cally. Isaiah urged Ahaz to trust Jehovah and face 
 his enemies without fear. He offered him a sign 
 from Jehovah to assure him. But the misguided 
 king hypocritically declined the sign (Isaiah vii. 10, 
 &c.), preferring to rely rather on the help of Assyria 
 than on the covenant of Jehovah. 
 
 40. AHAZ AND ASSYRIA (2 Kings xvi. 7-9; 2 
 Chron. xxviii. 16). He applied to Tiglath Pileser, 
 and his application was readily accepted. It was 
 obviously in the interest of Assyria that it should be 
 so. Accordingly, the desired assistance came. Tig- 
 lath Pileser caused a diversion in favour of Ahaz by 
 marching against Syria, taking its capital Damascus, 
 and slaying Rezin, its king. He also ravaged the 
 kingdom of Israel, wresting from it its northern dis¬ 
 trict and transjordanic territory. Pekah, too, had 
 fallen by the hands of conspirators. The southern 
 tribes—Philistines, Edomites, and others—were also 
 
56 
 
 chastised. But the exactions of the Assyrian con¬ 
 queror obliged Ahaz to rifle the treasures of the 
 temple, the palace, and the princes. Neither was 
 the help effectual. “ He helped him not; ” “ he dis¬ 
 tressed him, but strengthened him not. 55 It did not 
 restore the cities which the Philistines had taken. 
 It crippled his resources by the payment of a heavy 
 yearly impost. It reduced Ahaz himself to the 
 position of a vassal. At length this weak and wicked 
 king, who had brought such evil on the land, died, 
 and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal 
 sepulchres. 
 
 Reign of Hezekidh. 
 
 41. REVIVAL OF RELIGION (2 Kings xviii. 
 1-8 ; 2 Chron. xxix.). Hezekiah, the godly son of 
 an ungodly sire, at the age of twenty-five ascended 
 the throne of Judah. His mother’s name was Abijah, 
 daughter of Zechariah. He began his reign by re¬ 
 opening the temple and repairing its doors, restoring 
 the worship of Jehovah and reinstating the priests 
 and Levites in their courses. The revival of religion 
 began with the king ; then the priests purified them¬ 
 selves. Yet the priests, influenced perhaps by the 
 high priest Urijah, who had been so obsequious to 
 Ahaz, were less zealous than the Levites in this 
 matter. Subsequently they cleansed the temple, as 
 they alone could enter the temple proper, while the 
 Levites might only enter the inner court. The 
 Levites who engaged in the work retained the triple 
 division of Kohathites, Merarites, and Gershonites; 
 and there was a similar triple division of the musi¬ 
 cians under Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. The 
 time occupied in cleansing the temple was no less 
 than sixteen days. Eight days were required for 
 the cleansing of the courts up to the porch and 
 purifying themselves in preparation for the work, 
 and eight more were needed for the cleansing of the 
 temple proper. Next followed solemn expiatory 
 
o/ 
 
 sacrifices. A sin-offering consisting of the four sorts 
 of sacrificial animals and seven of each kind, to make 
 atonement, not only for Judah, but for “ all Israel,” 
 in hope of the reunion of both in one religious com¬ 
 munity. When the priests had made reconciliation, 
 with the blood of these expiatory victims, there was 
 offered also a burnt-offering expressive of dedication 
 to God. Then the stated temple service was resumed 
 with the regular morning sacrifice ; while the musical 
 service instituted by David proceeded at the same 
 time, the singers singing and the trumpeters sounding. 
 
 42. THE GREAT PASSOVER (2 Chr. xxx.). It 
 was further proposed to celebrate the Passover. 
 This solemnity was kept on a grand scale. Invita¬ 
 tions were issued to Israel as well as Judah to take 
 part in it. And though some mocked this measure 
 and Ephraim laughed it to scorn, yet divers of Asher 
 and Manasseh, and of Zebulun, and many even from 
 Ephraim and Issachar attended. The feast lasted 
 not merely the usual time of seven days, but, owing 
 to the general enthusiasm, for fourteen days; the 
 second seven days were voluntary, and the king 
 and princes supplied the people with victims. A 
 distinction is made “between all the congregation 
 that came out of Israel,” and “the strangers that 
 came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in 
 Judah.” By the former we are to understand pro¬ 
 bably the Israelites proper who accepted the king’s 
 invitation, by the latter Israelites who had been old 
 residents in Judaea, or even recent settlers who had 
 made Judaea their home. This passover was ob¬ 
 served in the second month. The law made a 
 concession to persons absent on a journey, or labour¬ 
 ing under some defilement. Here the letter was 
 made to yield to the spirit, because the temple was 
 not cleansed till after the 14th day of the 1st month 
 of the sacred year, Nisan or Abib, and the priests 
 were not sufficiently purified till then. Time, too, 
 was needed for publishing the proclamation through- 
 
58 
 
 out Israel, and many of the Israelites who had 
 assembled on the occasion had not had the requisite 
 time for purification. For the latter the Levites 
 officiated, killing the lambs and handing the blood 
 to the officiating priest, duties which ordinarily per¬ 
 tained to the offerers themselves. Hezekiah himself, 
 too, prayed for such, saying, “ The good Lord pardon 
 everyone that prepareth his heart to seek God, the 
 Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed 
 according to the purification of the sanctuary.” 
 
 43. EXTERMINATION OF IDOLATRY (2 
 Chr. xxxi; 2 Kings xviii. 4.) He then proceeded 
 to root idolatry out of his dominions. The high 
 places that even the best of his predecessors had 
 spared or winked at were extirpated. The people who 
 were present at the passover went forth with royal 
 sanction to destroy all vestiges of idolatry, not only 
 through the cities of Judah and Benjamin, but those 
 of Ephraim and Manasseh as well. The brazen ser¬ 
 pent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, which in 
 the course of time had become an object of super¬ 
 stitious reverence, and even of idolatrous worship (for 
 incense was burnt before it), he brake in pieces, 
 calling it Nehushtan, a mere piece of brass. When 
 this was finished he had important work of recon¬ 
 struction to engage in. Nor was any time lost; im¬ 
 mediately after the passover the necessary re¬ 
 appointment of the courses of the priests and 
 Levites, which had been suspended, took place, and 
 their re-arrangement so as to relieve each other in 
 regular succession settled. The king also issued an 
 order for their proper payment out of the tithes and 
 first fruits, and set an example of liberality by 
 his personal contributions for the sacrificial service. 
 Three lists were made out—one of the priests by the 
 house of their fathers, that is, by their families; 
 another of the Levites from twenty years and 
 upwards, according to their courses; and a third of 
 the members of the priestly and Levitical families. 
 
59 
 
 Certain officers furnished with these lists were ap¬ 
 pointed, both in town and country, to make the due 
 distribution to the priests and Levites according to 
 their service, and to their families when they them¬ 
 selves were officiating at the temple in Jerusalem. 
 
 44. WARS (2 Kings viii. 4-12). During the 
 reign of Ahaz in Judah, the trans-Jordanic tribes 
 had been carried into captivity by Tiglath-Pileser. 
 Shalmaneser, his successor on the Assyrian throne, 
 first made Hoshea, King of Israel, tributary; but, 
 when he refused the tribute and made a treaty with 
 So, King of Egypt, Shalmaneser imprisoned him, 
 and eventually laid siege to Samaria his capital. 
 When, after a siege of three years Samaria was 
 taken, the Assyrian King carried Israel captive, 
 away beyond the Euphrates, planting them in Halah 
 and Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities 
 of the Medes. This occurred in the sixth year of 
 Hezekiah, who had also refused to remain tributary 
 to Shalmaneser. Hezekiah followed up his revolt 
 against Shalmaneser by his Philistine campaign. 
 His success in this expedition is shown by the 
 list of cities enumerated in the Assyrian records, 
 as re-captured by Sennacherib. It was probably 
 the prolonged and ineffectual siege of Tyre that 
 prevented the immediate declaration of war by the 
 monarch of Assyria. 
 
 45. FIRST INVASION BY SENNACHERIB (2 
 
 Kings xviii. 13-16 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 1-8). In the 
 fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, and thus after 
 the lapse of a considerable period, Sennacherib sent 
 apparently by his father, Sargon, advanced against 
 the fenced cities of Judah and took them. The 
 main object of attack, however, was probably Egypt, 
 the inroad into Judah being a means to that. 
 Hezekiah bravely encouraged his people, and made 
 all possible preparations (see Isaiah xxii.), concealing 
 the fountains outside the city, securing the water- 
 supply, bringing the Gihon by subterranean conduits 
 
60 
 
 down the valley to a reservoir between the two 
 walls, repairing the breaches, deepening the trenches, 
 raising the walls, and strengthening all the fortifica¬ 
 tions, To such defences some of the people were 
 too prone to trust; others formed a troublesome 
 Egyptian party with Shebna at their head; many 
 gave themselves up to wild revelry. Hezekiah long 
 stood firm, yet, strange to say, he did not continue 
 to do so, but unexpectedly tendered submission. 
 Either he found himself hampered by the Egyptian 
 party, or his faith faltered and his courage failed 
 him on the sudden alarm. The terms imposed by 
 Sennacherib were severe. To raise the huge tribute 
 exacted, Hezekiah had to strip the doors and pillars 
 of the temple. Sennacherib withdrew. But it was 
 only a temporary respite that Hezekiah purchased. 
 
 46. SECOND INVASION BY SENNACHERIB 
 (2 Kings xviii. 17-19 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 9-24). Some 
 time after (how long and for what reason is not 
 clear) Sennacherib returned. With this breach of 
 faith Isaiah (xxxiii.) upbraids him, saying, “Woe to 
 thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled ; and 
 dealest treacherously , and they dealt not treacherously 
 with thee,” and again at the 8th verse he adds, “ He 
 hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the 
 cities, he regardeth no man.” He began his second 
 invasion, or expedition (if, as some think, there was 
 only one invasion), by attacking the strongholds of 
 Lachish ; while by three of his principal officers, 
 Tartan, captain or general, Rabsaris, chief of the 
 eunuchs, and Rabshakeh, chief cup-bearer, he de¬ 
 manded in most insulting terms, the speedy and 
 unconditional surrender of Jerusalem. It is possible 
 that during the interval between the two campaigns 
 Hezekiah may have been coquetting with the 
 Assyrian’s great rival in Egypt. Indeed this seems 
 implied in the language " with which Rabshakeh 
 reproached him for leaning on such a rotten reed as 
 Egypt (see also Isaiah xxx. and xxxi.). At any 
 
61 
 
 rate Sennacherib no doubt felt it unsafe to re¬ 
 sume operations against Egypt, as he was now 
 probably proceeding to do, without first subduing 
 Judah. On his way to punish his chief enemy 
 he had raised or completed the siege of Lachish, 
 and proceeded to invest Libnah situated either at 
 AraJc el Menshiyeh , when hearing of the intended 
 expedition of Tirhakah the heroic King of Cush 
 he resolved to meet him. But, before starting, he 
 sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah. Hezekiah 
 had recourse to prayer, spreading out the letter 
 before the Lord. And the prophet brought him an 
 answer of peace. The deliverance came in due time. 
 That very night the angel of the Lord went out 
 and slew 185,000 men of the Assyrian host; the slain 
 were the flower of the army, “ all the mighty men of 
 valour,” as it is stated by the Chronicler, “ and the 
 leaders and captains in the camp.”« Whatever means 
 were at work for the destruction of the Assyrian 
 host the visitation was from the Almighty :— 
 
 “ Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, 
 
 That host with their banners at sunset were seen ; 
 
 Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
 That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 
 
 For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, 
 
 And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed ; 
 
 And the eyes of the sleepers wax’d deadly and chill, 
 
 And their hearts but once heaved and for ever grew still.” 
 
 Some time after his return to Nineveh Sennacherib 
 was murdered by his own sons Adrammelech and 
 Sharezer, when he was worshipping in the house of 
 his god Nisrock. 
 
 a The blast is thought by some who retain that meaning of the 
 word to have been the Simoom or a storm of some sort, or pestilence, 
 or even the attack of Tirhakah. Herodotus gives a disguised account 
 of this deliverance, applying it to another city than Jerusalem and to 
 another person than Hezekiah—Pelusium the former and Sethos the 
 latter. This destruction of the enemy he attributes to multitudes of 
 field-mice gnawing the bowstrings, quivers, and shield-handles of the 
 enemy. 
 
62 
 
 47. HEZEKIAH’S SICKNESS (2 Kings xx. 1-11; 
 2 Chron. xxxii. 24-26 ; Isaiah xxxviii.) An illness 
 apparently of an inflammatory nature, is recorded 
 to have befallen the king, bringing him to the verge 
 of the grave. This sickness is memorable not only for 
 the prophet’s warning, “ Set thine house in order for 
 thou shalt die and not live,” and the king’s prayer, 
 but also for the sign so variously interpreted, which 
 was to serve as an assurance of the prolongation of 
 his life for fifteen years, which was promised in 
 answer to his prayer. 
 
 48. HIS ERROR AND HIS DEATH (2 Kings xx. 
 12-21; 2 Chron. xxxii. 25-33). Soon after his 
 recovery Hezekiah received congratulatory letters 
 and a present from Merodach-Baladan, the King of 
 Babylon. This was the first contact with a power 
 which in the end proved so disastrous to Judah. 
 There was, no doubt, an ulterior object in the 
 mission. The Babylonians were vassals of Assyria, 
 and their King was feeling his way to an alliance 
 with Judah and Egypt in order to gain his indepen¬ 
 dence. We can thus understand how Hezekiah gave 
 the messengers such a friendly reception. There was 
 a community of feeling and interest in the matter. 
 With the view probably of showing what he was 
 capable of as an ally, Hezekiah displayed his treasures 
 to the messengers. But this vain and dangerous 
 exhibition called forth the stern rebuke of the 
 prophet who foretold that all these treasures would 
 be carried as spoil to Babylon, and that his sons would 
 be made eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian 
 King, the first intimation of an event, the captivity, 
 which henceforth became the subject of so many 
 prophetic references. Hezekiah was deeply humbled 
 and in mercy the threat was not made good in his 
 day. His words “ Is it not good if peace and truth 
 be in my days % ” were the expression of a spirit 
 grateful for the merciful suspension of judgment, and 
 devoutly acknowledging the righteous judgments of 
 
63 
 
 God. The remainder of his days was peaceful, and 
 in peace Hezekiah died in the twenty-ninth year of 
 his reign. 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. What different forms of idolatry were 'practised 
 by Ahaz? 
 
 2. Facts proving his total apostasy ? 
 
 3. Give a brief history of the Syro-Israelite war. 
 
 4. State the amount and results of the help which 
 Tiglath-Pileser gave to Ahaz. 
 
 5. The various means employed by Hezehiahfor the 
 revival of religion. 
 
 6. What tribes of Israel were represented at the great 
 Passover in Ilezekiah’s reign ? 
 
 7. His extermination of idolatry extended beyond 
 Judah and Benjamin? 
 
 8. What evidence is there of Hezekiah’s success in his 
 Philistine campaign ? 
 
 9. What was the issue of Sennacherib’s first in¬ 
 vasion ? 
 
 10. How did his second invasion terminate ? 
 
 11. Mention some memorable circumstances con¬ 
 nected with Hezekiah’s sickness. 
 
 12. What grave error did he fall into after his re¬ 
 covery ? 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 REIGN OF MANASSEII. 
 
 49. TIME OF REACTION. (2 Kings xxi. 1-9 ; 
 
 2 Cliron. xxxiii. 1-10).—Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, 
 ascended the throne when only twelve years of age. 
 His mother’s name was Hephzibah “my delight is 
 in her,” the name which Isaiah (lxii. 4) applies to 
 Jerusalem as restored to divine favour. Manasseh 
 
64 
 
 reigned fifty-five years, the longest and most miser¬ 
 able reign in the annals of Judah. A time of reac¬ 
 tion set in, which has been compared to that under 
 Julian against Christianity. The object on which, as 
 it seemed, Manasseh set his heart was the reversal of 
 his father’s policy, and the undoing of the good his 
 father had done. His extreme youth left him in the 
 hands of advisers who, for their own purposes, rather 
 helped than hindered him in evil. Chief among 
 these probably was the ex-minister Shebna, a proud 
 and worldly man, of low birth or foreign parentage, 
 as is inferred from no mention being made of his 
 father, who had held in Hezekiah’s time the high 
 office of treasurer or prefect of the palace, but had 
 been deposed or reduced to the subordinate one of 
 secretary, largely in consequence of his Egyptian 
 sympathies and anti-theocratic tendencies. Early in 
 this reign idolatry began to be insidiously revived. 
 The high places were restored for idolatrous pur¬ 
 poses ; altars to Baal and images of Ashtoreth once 
 more filled the land. Even in the sanctuary itself 
 a wooden image or pillar of Ashtoreth was set up. 
 After the re-introduction of Baal-worship, Manasseh 
 proceeded to the novelty of Sabaism or star-worship 
 without images, worshipping all the host of heaven, 
 and erecting altars within the precincts of the temple, 
 in the court of the priests as well as in that of the 
 people. The slave of superstition, he practised 
 witchcraft and divination. He was as cruel, too, as 
 he was superstitious. He resumed the horrid rites 
 of Moloch, and made his children pass through the 
 fire (compare Jerem. vii. 30 and 31). His tyranny 
 was carried out in deeds of savage atrocity. The 
 streets of the city ran with the blood of the inno¬ 
 cent. The struggle between idolatry and the religion 
 of the true God was marked by bloody persecution. 
 Many sealed their testimony with their blood. 
 Among these tradition reckons Isaiah, and represents 
 him as sawn asunder. He had exerted his influence 
 
65 
 
 even in Rezekiah’s time against the selfish ambition 
 and wrong-headed policy of Shebna (see Isaiah xxii. 
 15-19). He had also, no doubt, rebuked the idolatry 
 of Manasseh, and thus had prepared himself to be a 
 victim. Many more met the same fate. The short 
 and terrible statement of Scripture is that “ Manasseh 
 shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled 
 Jerusalem from one end to another.” The bloodshed 
 of this period left a lasting impression on the public 
 mind. The subsequent calamities of Judah on to 
 the final catastrophe were regarded as the punishment 
 justly due to Manasseh’s crimes. Thus, in the reign 
 of Jehoiakim we read, “ Surely at the commandment 
 of the Lord came this upon Judah to remove them 
 out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according 
 to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood 
 that he shed ; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent 
 blood, which the Lord would not pardon.” The sin 
 in which the nation became involved, with this worth¬ 
 less and wicked king at its head, met its penalty in 
 national calamity. The dark catalogue of Manasseh’s 
 sins included three capital offences against the worship 
 of Jehovah. He sinned, as we have seen, against 
 the service of God, encouraging some of the worst 
 forms of idolatry. He sinned against the house of 
 God, desecrating it by erecting the asherah image or 
 pillar, and removing the Ark of the Covenant, as may 
 be inferred from the words of Josiah in 2 Chron. 
 xxxv. 3, “ Put the ark in the house which Solomon, 
 the son of David, King of Israel, did build.” He 
 sinned, too, as it appears, against the Word of God, 
 the law being so neglected or misused, that the dis¬ 
 covery of a copy half a century afterwards was a sur¬ 
 prise. And the sins of the court infected all classes of 
 society with the same deadly disease, while the degra¬ 
 dation of religion was accompanied by a corruption 
 of morals. The houses of Jerusalem were defiled by 
 the burning of incense on their roofs unto all the 
 host of heaven, and by pouring out drink offerings to 
 
 E 
 
60 
 
 other gods (Jer. xix. 13). Fathers, mothers, and chil¬ 
 dren joined together throughout the cities of Judah 
 and the streets of Jerusalem in worshipping the 
 queen of heaven, and in pouring out drink offerings 
 to other gods (Jer. vii. 18). They kindled the fires 
 of Tophet, and practised nameless pollutions as a part 
 of religious worship in the very precincts of the 
 temple. The state of things in Manasseh’s reign is 
 sketched in terrible colours by Zephaniah (iii. 1-4), 
 and Jeremiah, who were commencing their official 
 career towards the close of that period, as Isaiah 
 ended his career soon after its commencement. Yet 
 during this long interval, comprehending nearly the 
 whole of Manasseh’s reign, the voice of prophecy 
 was hushed. Only one recorded utterance (2 Kings 
 xxi. 12-14) can be surely reckoned as belonging 
 to it. 
 
 50. PUNISHMENT AND REPENTANCE. (2 
 
 Kings xxv. 10-18; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11-20). —Pro¬ 
 phets had given faithful warning to both king and 
 people, but to no purpose ; they hardened their neck 
 against reproof. At length, the day of reckoning 
 came. The measure of Manasseh’s iniquities became 
 completely full; Judah had been willingly seduced 
 by him to sin ; and now the Almighty was to “ bring 
 evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whosoever 
 heareth of it both his ears shall tingle,” and to 
 “ stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the 
 plummet of the house of Ahab.” A political error 
 in the previous reign had sown the seed which the 
 sins of Manasseh brought to maturity. The Baby¬ 
 lonian alliance had been a step in a wrong direction. 
 The revolt of the King of Babylon was soon repressed, 
 and his ally naturally came in for his share of the 
 punishment. Esarhaddon’s army came up against 
 Jerusalem. The assault of his captains on Jerusalem 
 had succeeded better, it appears, than the invasion 
 of his father Sennacherib. Manasseh was taken 
 captive with hooks or rather rings, bound hand 
 
67 
 
 and foot with chains, and carried off to Babylon, where 
 Esarhaddon then held his court, although Nineveh 
 was the Assyrian capital. The removal of Manas- 
 seh to Babylon was overruled to his spiritual benefit; 
 in deserved wrath God remembered mercy. The 
 monarch had now time to think ; thought brought 
 humiliation ; grace was given him to repent, and in 
 mercy he obtained pardon. He was also restored to 
 his country and crown. Works of importance were 
 undertaken by him after his return. He raised a 
 new outer wall of the city of David on the west of 
 Gihon ; he completed the fortifications of Ophel, the 
 southern projection of the temple hill between the 
 Tyropoean ravine and Kidron valley. He also 
 stationed captains of war in all the fenced cities of 
 Judah. The best evidence of his penitence is found 
 in the restoration of the worship of Jehovah, and in 
 his abolition of idolatry. Long as was this reign the 
 Biblical narrative is scanty, as though the sacred 
 writer shrunk from the records of so calamitous a 
 time. Eighteen verses in Kings and twenty in 
 Chronicles comprise the story of more than half a 
 century. Manasseh was buried in his own sepulchre 
 in the garden of Uzzah. 
 
 51. REIGN OF AMON (2 Kings xxi, 19-26; 2 
 Chron. xxxiii. 21-25). .Amon was a faithful follower 
 of the idolatrous practices of Manasseh, his father. His 
 short uneventful reign of two years ended in his 
 assassination by his own servants. His subjects, 
 however, avenged him by putting to death his mur¬ 
 derers. The picture of his brief and evil reign, which 
 is given by Zephaniah, exhibits idolatry, oppression, 
 and shameless recklessness in dire prominence. 
 
 Reign of Josiah. 
 
 52, REFORMATION OF RELIGION (2 Kings 
 xxii. 1-8 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1-7). Josiah was a name 
 as dear to the Jewish heart as that of Manasseh was 
 hateful. Happily for him, he had the careful reli- 
 
68 
 
 gious training of Hilkiah the high-priest, and came 
 in contact with some who remained faithful in pre¬ 
 sence of the prevalent idolatry. Coming to the 
 throne at the age of eight years, he reigned one and 
 thirty years, and he “ did that which was right in 
 the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of 
 David his father, and turned not aside to the right 
 hand or to the left.” The turning-point in his 
 spiritual life was his sixteenth year, when he “ began 
 to seek after the God of David his father.” Thus he 
 was at once an example of youthful piety and a model 
 of kingly virtue. The hatred of idolatry, which he 
 manifested as early as his sixteenth year, was intense. 
 He took practical steps to extirpate it four years 
 afterwards, when he had fully matured his plans and 
 attained what appears to have been the majority of 
 Jewish sovereigns. His zeal for the worship of 
 Jehovah kept pace with his enmity to idolatry ; and 
 in both he outstripped the most pious of his prede¬ 
 cessors—Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and even Heze- 
 kiah. He set about the purification of his kingdom 
 from idolatry by breaking to pieces and burning, in 
 the fields of Kidron, the vessels impiously brought 
 into the temple or its courts for the worship of Baal, 
 of the grove, and of the host of heaven. He broke 
 down the altars and the high places or shrines, and 
 destroyed the images. He defiled the places devoted 
 to idol worship with the ashes and bones of the dead, 
 pouring contempt upon them, and rendering them 
 objects of disgust. The carved work of the asherah , 
 the image or pillar of Ashtoreth (called in the English 
 version “ a graven image of the grove ”), which the 
 daring impiety of Manasseh had set up in the temple, 
 perhaps in the very holy of holies, on the removal of 
 the ark, Josiah brought out from the house of the 
 Lord, burnt the wooden part, and stamped the 
 metallic portion small to powder, casting the re¬ 
 mains on the graves of the idolaters. He defiled 
 Tophet, in the valley of Hinnom. This cursed spot 
 
4 
 
 69 
 
 which derived its name either from the sacrificial 
 fires that burnt there, or from the drum that drowned 
 the screams of the children that were sacrificed there, 
 had been set apart for the worship of Moloch. After 
 its pollution by Josiah, it became more abominable, 
 if that were possible, as the receptacle of all the 
 city’s filth, and, as some say, a place for burning the 
 corpses of criminals, the carcases of animals, and all 
 offal. No wonder this place of horrors furnished the 
 Jews of a later age with the picture of the place of 
 future punishment, thence called by them Geenna 
 from Ge-Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom. The king 
 then took away the horses of the sun, removed their 
 stables which extended from the entering in of the 
 house of the Lord to the chamber of Nathan-melech 
 in the suburbs, and burnt the chariots with fire. 
 But the work of purification had to be carried much 
 farther. It was a Herculean task. There were the 
 altars on the roof of Ahab’s palace, and the altars 
 which Manasseh had erected in the two courts of the 
 temple, as also other and older abominations, such 
 as the high places built by Solomon for the deities 
 of his foreign wives. All these had to be displaced. 
 The filthy orgies of the Sodomites, too, which were 
 carried on close by the house of the Lord, were sup¬ 
 pressed as well as the sanguinary rites of Moloch. 
 Moreover, in order to accomplish the work effectually, 
 he made a personal visitation throughout the land, 
 while the purification was being carried on, from 
 Gebain Benjamin southward to Beersheba ,Bir es-Seba, 
 the two extreme limits of Judah, north and south. In 
 this tour of personal inspection, too, he did not confine 
 himself to the limits of Judah, but entered the 
 kingdom of Israel, over which, in its half-desolate 
 condition and owing to the weakness of Assyria, he 
 seems to have been able to extend his sovereignty. 
 So we find him on the same errand and equally 
 active “ in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and 
 Simeon, even unto Naphtali.” A prophecy uttered 
 
70 
 
 nearly three centuries and a half previously had now 
 its fulfilment. After Jeroboam had set up the calves 
 at Dan and Bethel, and as he was standing by the 
 altar at Bethel to burn incense, a seer denounced the 
 unholy enterprise, foretold the disasters that would 
 ensue, and predicted that a king of the house of 
 David, Josiah by name, would burn the idolaters’ 
 bones upon that altar. It was with the altar of 
 Jeroboam at Bethel that the purification of Israel 
 now began. “ As Josiah turned himself, he spied the 
 sepulchres that were there in the mount.” Out of 
 those rock-hewn tombs he took the bones and burnt 
 them on the altar. So Bethel, once the house of 
 God, as the name imports, then the house of idols, 
 became at last the house of vanity (Bethaven). But 
 another sepulchre, distinguished by its pillar, caught 
 Josiah’s eye. He found it was the pillar which 
 marked the tomb of the man of God who had come 
 from Judah to protest against the altar and predict 
 its end. At once the king gave orders to respect his 
 memory, and so his bones, as well as those of the 
 prophet of Samaria, were spared. Josiah also burnt 
 the high place or shrine, and the grove (or rather 
 image) that were beside the altar. Likewise in the 
 cities of Samaria he took away “ the houses of the 
 high places,” slaying the priests upon the altars and 
 burning men’s bones upon them. The idolatrous 
 priests, consecrated by the kings of Judah after the 
 example of Jeroboam, Josiah set entirely aside; 
 the Levitical priests attached to the high places for 
 Jehovah-worship in the cities of Judah he deposed 
 and brought to Jerusalem, debarring them as defiled, 
 from the service of the temple, but permitted to derive 
 support from the temple revenues. The priests of 
 the high places at Bethel he put to death. It must 
 be added that though Josiah did his best to abolish 
 idolatry in every form, and though he largely suc¬ 
 ceeded, secret superstitious practices connected with 
 soothsaying of various kinds, teraphim, and other 
 
71 
 
 idolatrous usages, were more difficult to reach; and 
 the reformation was on the whole more external than 
 real, as may be gathered from the numerous passages 
 in Jeremiah (iv. 14, vi. 19, 20, vii. 8-10, &c.), charging 
 the people with insincerity in their professions, hypo¬ 
 crisy in their services, and heartlessness in all 
 spiritual things. 
 
 53. DISCOVERY OF COPY OF THE LAW (2 
 
 Kings xxii. 8-28 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8—xxxv. 19). 
 Another great work which Josiah undertook was the 
 renovation of the temple at Jerusalem. A royal 
 commission was appointed for the purpose. Con¬ 
 tributions for that end had been received by the 
 Levites, not only from the people of Judah themselves, 
 but from Israelitish worshippers as well, and especially 
 from the tribes through which the king had made 
 his personal progress. The commissioners, who 
 were Shaphan, Maaseiah, and Joab, paid over the 
 money to the clerks of work, and they to the work¬ 
 men. And so great was the faithfulness of the 
 workmen, that it superseded the necessity of auditing 
 the accounts, or resorting to the checks that had been 
 found needful in a former reign. A most important 
 incident occurred during the repairs of the temple. 
 This was the discovery of “ the book of the Law of 
 the Lord by the hand of Moses.” Hilkiah coming on 
 a roll of the Law, where it had long lain neglected 
 and forgotten, recognised its worth as a genuine 
 copy of the Law of the Lord—a royal autograph by 
 some pious prince of a past generation, or a temple 
 copy for special sanctuary use, if not the original, 
 and brought it forth from its hiding place, just as 
 Luther in later days came upon the old Latin Bible 
 which had long lain unused in the library of Erfurth. 
 The good king trerpbled at the word of the Lord, 
 which came to him in this form as a new thing. He 
 consulted Huldah, a prophetess—the first we read of 
 since the days of Deborah, who dwelt in the new or 
 outer city enclosed by Manasseh with a wall to the 
 north of the old city. He convened a great assembly ; 
 
72 
 
 he read to them in the newly discovered treasure ; 
 he pledged them to obedience by a renewal of the old 
 Sinaitic covenant between God and Israel; he cele¬ 
 brated the Passover on the regular day, the 14th of 
 the first month, and not in the second month, as under 
 Hezekiah. No such Passover had been celebrated 
 “from the days of the Judges that judged Israel, 
 nor in all the days of the Kings of Israel, nor of the 
 kings of Judah.” Preparations on a scale of unusual 
 grandeur, the magnificence of the royal gifts and of 
 the princes’ offerings ; the strictness with which the 
 directions of the law were observed in contrast with 
 previous laxness ; the multitudes that attended, all 
 contributed to the greatness of the occasion. This 
 was the last grand national ceremonial, the last united 
 religious service on the part of Judah and the rem¬ 
 nant of Israel before the carrying away to Babylon. 
 
 54. WAR WITH NECHO '(2 Kings xxiii. 29,30; 
 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-27).—We have no record of the 
 last thirteen years of Josiah’s reign. It was in this 
 interval, however, as there is reason to believe, that 
 an invasion of western Asia by Scythian hordes 
 occurred, of which the Greek historian Herodotus 
 informs us. They are referred to in Ezekiel xxxix. 1, 
 as Rosh or Russians—the only mention by name 
 of a modern European nation in Old Testament 
 Scripture. But the predicted end was fast 
 approaching, although the pious monarch was him¬ 
 self taken away from the evil to come. The de¬ 
 cline of the Assyrian power had been going on for 
 some time. Of this Josiah had taken advantage to 
 extend his sway over the northern kingdom. The 
 fall of the mighty Assyrian monarchy and its mag¬ 
 nificent capital Nineveh was effected about the six¬ 
 teenth year of Josiah’s reign, apd 625 b.c., by the 
 joint action of Medes and Babylonians, who shared 
 the spoils between them, the Medes under Cyaxares 
 occupying .Assyria Proper, and the Babylonians, 
 under Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, re¬ 
 taining Babylonia and its dependent or adjoining pro- 
 
vinces. The transition from Assyrian to Baby¬ 
 lonian rule was made under Nabopolassar, whose 
 suzerainty was submitted to by most of the western 
 nations of Asia. Josiah for a time hesitated between 
 the Assyrian, or, properly" speaking, the Babylonian 
 and the Egyptian—Nabopolassar and Psammeticlius. 05 
 At length, Josiah made common cause with his 
 neighbours, and settled down as a tributary to the 
 Assyro-Babylonian sovereign; and so he remained 
 till b.c. 608. Pharaoh Necho, who had succeeded his 
 father Psammetichus on* the throne of Egypt two 
 years before, viz., b.c. 610, undertook an expedition 
 against the King of Assyria (i.e., properly speaking, 
 the King of Babylon, the latter title only coming into 
 use in the subsequent reign of Nebuchadnezzar). 
 Under the impression that the Babylonian power 
 was not yet consolidated, Necho resolved to extend 
 his empire to the Euphrates, and to gain possession 
 of Carchemish, the chief city of northern Syria. 
 Necho’s line of march was by the maritime plain or 
 Shephelah and Sharon, the ordinary coast route. 
 But Josiah refused to let him pass through his 
 dominions, and challenged him to battleJ The battle 
 was fought in the valley below Megiddo, where 
 Josiah had posted his army to attack the head of the 
 Egyptian column as it emerged into the plain. He 
 was mortally wounded by an arrow of an Egyptian 
 archer, and while being conveyed back to Jerusalem, 
 died by the way. His death was deeply deplored 
 by the whole nation publicly, and by each family 
 privately, and even by each individual, as a personal 
 
 a This is referred to by Jeremiah (ii. 18, 36), when he asks, 54 And 
 now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of 
 Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the 
 waters of the river! ” And again, “ Why gaddest thou about so much 
 to change thy way! Thou 'also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou 
 wast ashamed of Assyria.” 
 
 b Whether Necho marched by the maritime plain or, as some sup¬ 
 pose, landed his army at Acco or Joppa, intending to proceed thence 
 to the Euphrates, he committed a trespass on the territory of Josiah, 
 who now regarded himself as the representative of the Davidic 
 dynasty. 
 
74 
 
 bereavement. The prophet Jeremiah composed an 
 elegy, not now extant, in which the subjects of King 
 Josiah expressed their grief for his loss.® The 
 death of Josiah was virtually the end of the kingdom 
 of Judah. It lingered on for two and twenty years 
 indeed, during the short and precarious reigns of 
 four kings—three of them the sons and one of them 
 the grandson of Josiah, but these kings were mere 
 puppets in the hand now of the King of Egypt, 
 again of the monarch of Babylon. The prophets 
 who were contemporary with Josiah were Zephaniah 
 and Habakkuk. The first six chapters at least of 
 Jeremiah also refer to the same period. 
 
 Successors of Josiah. 
 
 55. SHALLUM (2 Kings xxiii. 30-32; 2 Chr. 
 xxxvi. 1-8). Josiah had four sons, but one of these, 
 Johanan, appears to have died before his father. Of 
 the survivors, Shallum was raised to the throne by 
 the people in preference to his elder brother, under 
 the name of Jehoahaz. He was the last king of the 
 people’s choice. After a reign of three months, he 
 was summoned to Riblah, on the Orontes, in the 
 Coelo-Syrian valley, and deposed by Necho, who 
 was then returning from Carchemish, after his vic¬ 
 tory over the Assyrians. 6 Neclio’s intervention may 
 have been instigated by an appeal from the king’s 
 elder brother, who regarded himself as unjustly set 
 aside. At any rate, the Egyptian king imposed a 
 fine of large amount on the people of Judah for exer¬ 
 cising the right of choice, and carried their king 
 down to Egypt, from which he never returned, as 
 the prophet Jeremiah had plainly foretold. 
 
 a Some think we have it in the 4th chapter of Lamentations, or 
 in the Book of Lamentations as a whole. At all events, we have a 
 specimen of it in Lamentations iv. 20, “The breath of our nostrils, 
 the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, 
 Under his shadow shall we live among the heathen.” 
 
 b It was on this occasion he captured, according to Herodotus, 
 the Kadytis, identified by most with Jerusalem, and so called from the 
 epithet KoUesJi, holy, retained in the present Arabic name El-Khuds. 
 
75 
 
 56. ELIAKIM (2 Kings xxiii. 34-xxiv. 5 ; 2 Clir. 
 xxxvi. 4-8). Jehoiakim was set on the throne from 
 which his brother had just been deposed. Jehoiakim 
 signifies Jehovah will set up , the name being changed 
 from Eliakim, God will set up. Persisting in his 
 Egyptian leanings, in spite of the remonstrances of 
 Jeremiah, Jehoiakim occupied the throne by favour 
 of Necho eleven years. In the fourth year of his 
 reign (b.c. 605) an event occurred which had an im¬ 
 portant effect on the balance of the two great world- 
 powers of this period, and completely turned the 
 scale in favour of Babylon. In that year Nebuchad¬ 
 nezzar, son of Nabopolasser, the most powerful 
 monarch of his race or time, encountered the rival 
 power under Necho at Carchemish. The result was 
 a decisive defeat of Egypt, and the recapture of Car¬ 
 chemish by the Babylonian monarch. All Syria was 
 now open to the arms of Babylon. The prophet 
 Jeremiah celebrates in a triumphal ode this signal 
 victory over Egypt, and predicts the conquest of that 
 land by the same power (Jer. xlii. 1-13). Another 
 consequence was that the Egyptian party had nothing 
 further to hope from Egypt, and “ the king of Egypt 
 came not again any more out of his land; for the 
 king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt 
 unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the 
 king of Egypt.” In the previous year—that is to 
 say, the third year of Jehoiakim—the same monarch 
 had advanced against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. 
 The actual capture of the city occurred some time in 
 the year after—the same year in which the great 
 victory was gained at the Euphrates. The most 
 memorable circumstance connected with this event 
 was the carrying away to Babylon of Daniel and his 
 three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 
 better known by their Persian names Shadrach, 
 Meshech, and Abednego. The Babylonish captivity 
 is usually dated from this period, 605 b.c. ; while in 
 this same year the period of its continuance was an- 
 
76 
 
 nounced by Jeremiah in the words, “These nations 
 shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” The 
 boldness and faithfulness of Jeremiah in admonish¬ 
 ing the nation, and foretelling its doom; the perils 
 to which he exposed himself; the indignation of 
 priests, and prophets, and people against him; the 
 interposition of the princes or the secular power on 
 his behalf; and his deliverance, mainly due to Ahi- 
 kam, the son of Shaphan ; also the escape of Urijah to 
 Egypt, his extradition, and violent death, are learned 
 from the writings of the prophet Jeremiah. From 
 the same source we gather many other particulars of 
 this reign, such as the famine and drought which 
 were the precursors of sorer sufferings ) the sinful 
 neglect of their subjects by the royal family ; the 
 desecration of the Sabbath. We learn, too, that the 
 prophet had a roll of his prophecies spreading over 
 three-and-twenty years, even from the thirteenth 
 year of Josiah to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which 
 was prepared by his amanuensis Baruch, grandson of 
 Maaseiah, governor of the city in the days of Josiah. 
 And this roll was read by Baruch on a solemn fast- 
 day in the month of December to the people in the 
 court below. It was read again to the princes on 
 their own invitation. It was read a third time by 
 the prince Jehudi before the king, when the king cut 
 it and burned it. It was re-written, however, with 
 additions. Though Jehoiakim had been taken cap¬ 
 tive in the fourth year of his reign by Nebuchad¬ 
 nezzar, yet on submission he was reinstated in his 
 kingdom. Three years afterwards he made an effort 
 to regain his independence. The great king, who 
 had important engagements elsewhere, left this at¬ 
 tempted revolt to be dealt with by the vassal nations 
 —Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites round Judah 
 with “ bands of the Chaldeans.” The country was 
 harassed, the city surrounded, the king dethroned 
 and made captive. At the end of three years his 
 death closed the sad scene, even usual rites of sepul¬ 
 ture being denied him. 
 
77 
 
 57. SHORT REIGN OF CONIAH (2 Kings xxiv. 
 6-16 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9, 10). His son, Jehoiakim 
 (=Jehovah will establish ), or Jeconiah (= Jah will 
 establish ), or Con-iah (= Jehovah establishes), succeeded 
 him for the brief space of three months and ten days. 
 At the end of that time the old Egyptian party, 
 being once more dominant and scheming, Nebuchad¬ 
 nezzar appeared before Jerusalem. The surrender of 
 the city and the deposition of the boy king immedi¬ 
 ately followed. In order to crush the power for 
 further rebellion, all the worth and wealth of the 
 nation were now transferred to Babylon. Seven 
 thousand soldiers; one thousand smiths or other 
 craftsmen; princes, priests, and members of the royal 
 family; the strength of the army, the flower of the 
 nobility, the most serviceable of the artizans—ten 
 thousand in all—were carried away into captivity. 
 Among the captives of distinction were the grand¬ 
 father of Mordecai, and the prophet Ezekiel, the exile 
 of the Chebar. The treasures of the temple and of 
 the palace went along with them. Only the poorest 
 of the land remained behind. Over this wretched 
 wreck of a kingdom the youngest son of Josiah, and 
 uncle of Jehoiakim, was made king. 
 
 58. ZEDEKIAH REIGNS AS VASSAL OF 
 BABYLON. (2 Kings xxiv. 17-20 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
 11-13).—Zedekiah (= Jehovah righteousness), whose 
 name had been Mattaniah, was the twentieth 
 and last King of Judah. For eleven years he held 
 a barren sceptre, as vassal of Nebuchadnezzar. In 
 his reign Jerusalem fell after a siege of two years 
 and a half ; and the work of destruction was com¬ 
 pleted by the Chaldean army amid the exultation of 
 the neighbouring nations, who having envied Judah 
 in her prosperity, rejoiced in her fall. The events of 
 this reign prior to the destruction of the city are 
 soon summed up. Jeremiah counselled submission 
 as the only means of safety. This rendered him un¬ 
 popular, but did not prove him to be unpatriotic. 
 He saw that the temporary supremacy of the Chal- 
 
78 
 
 dean power was in accordance with the will of God, 
 and that seventy years must elapse before the return 
 from captivity. Accordingly he wrote a letter (Jer. 
 xxix.) to the captives already carried away with 
 Jeconiah, urging them to accept the inevitable 
 in their position. The anti-Babylonian party formed 
 the majority, and received encouragement from the 
 false prophets both at home and abroad. Hana- 
 niah broke the symbolic yoke of wood off the neck 
 of Jeremiah, but the latter foretold that the yoke of 
 wood would be replaced by a yoke of iron. To Han- 
 aniah himself he delivered the solemn warning, 
 “ This year thou shalt die ; ” while Shemaiah wrote 
 from Babylon, urging the priests to punish Jeremiah 
 for predicting seventy years’ captivity. Zedekiah 
 visited Babylon (Jer. li.) no doubt in the capacity of 
 a vassal, and, as appears from Ezekiel xvii., took an 
 oath of submission to the King of Babylon. But his 
 eye was fixed on Egypt, and having entered into a 
 secret compact with Hophra, a successor of Neclio, 
 he “ rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had 
 made him swear by God.” From the mention of am¬ 
 bassadors assembled at Jerusalem (Jer. xxviii. 3) out 
 of the adjoining kingdoms, the formation of an anti- 
 Chaldean league is inferred. Accordingly, in the 
 seventh year of his reign, Zedekiah rebelled, and the 
 Egyptian party enjoyed a short-lived triumph. Two 
 years after, when Nebuchadnezzar led an army, 
 composed of Chaldeans and auxiliaries from the 
 neighbouring nations, to besiege Jerusalem, Hophra 
 marched to the help of his ally, and caused a diver¬ 
 sion in his favour. The Babylonian king raised the 
 siege, withdrew from Jerusalem, and went to meet 
 him. The Egyptian king, alarmed by the strength 
 of the Chaldean army, retreated into his own land. 
 Soon the siege was renewed, as the prophet Jere¬ 
 miah had foretold. The light of a delusive hope had, * 
 however, in the meantime, sprung up, and an act at 
 once of bad faith and bad policy had been perpe¬ 
 trated. The solemn promise of manumission of 
 
79 
 
 the Hebrew slaves was revoked, and an accession of 
 strength was thus lost to the nation. In vain did Jere¬ 
 miah protest against the false dealing in the one 
 case, and the false hope in the other. At length, 
 weary of remonstrating with his headstrong country¬ 
 men, he resolved to retire to his native Anathoth. 
 But he was not to reach the rest he sought. Passing 
 through the city gate he was arrested as a deserter to 
 the camp of the Chaldeans, brought back and im¬ 
 prisoned in the house of Jonathan, the scribe. His 
 prison life, which at first had been somewhat lightened 
 at the king’s command, was soon made more bitter 
 than ever. On several occasions the king consulted 
 the prophet, but received no encouragement, or was 
 advised to submit. On one of these occasions he 
 sent Pashur and Zephaniah, but the prophet strongly 
 urged surrender as the only chance of safety. Then 
 at the instigation of the princes, he was cast into 
 the dungeon or deep pit, where he sank in the mire. 
 Out of this he was delivered through the kind in¬ 
 tervention of the Ethiopian Eunuch Ebed-melech. 
 During his imprisonment the prophet exercised the 
 right of redemption by purchasing the field of a 
 relative in Anathoth, to show his faith in the re¬ 
 possession of the land after the expiry of the Baby¬ 
 lonish captivity. It was also during his imprison¬ 
 ment that he delivered the series of predictions 
 contained in the 33rd chapter of his book, and which 
 are as sublime as they are solacing. Here, notwith¬ 
 standing the desolation of the land, he prophesies 
 the return from captivity, the rebuilding of the 
 cities, the restoration of prosperity, the coming of a 
 righteous king, and an everlasting priesthood. 
 
 59. HIS FATE. (2 Kings xxvi. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 
 14-21).—After the siege had been pressed with 
 vigour for two years and a half, with the exception 
 of the brief diversion caused by Hophra, a breach 
 was made in the city wall on the ninth day of the 
 fourth month. This was the date of the city’s cap¬ 
 ture. Thereupon, Zedekiah with his court and royal 
 
80 
 
 guard fled by the garden gate of the palace on the 
 south side of the city, and, crossing the Mount of 
 Olives, made for the Jordan valley. He was over¬ 
 taken in the descent upon the plains of Jericho by 
 the Chaldeans, who carried him to Nebuchadnezzar 
 at Riblah. There his sons were slain before his face, 
 his own eyes put out, and he himself carried away 
 in chains of brass a captive to Babylon, thus fulfilling 
 the twofold and seemingly contradictory prophecy (1) 
 that he would see Nebuchadnezzar and be carried to 
 Babylon ; (2) that he should go to Babylon and not 
 see it. Scarce a month after, on the seventh day of 
 the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, commander-in-chief, 
 in execution of his master’s stern command, re¬ 
 duced the city, the temple, the palace, every great 
 man’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, to a 
 heap of charred ruins. The remaining treasures 
 of city and temple, including the two pillars of 
 the temple porch, Jachin and Boaz, were among 
 the spoils of the conqueror. The chief officers of 
 state and high priest Seraiah, with the second priest 
 Zephaniah were put to death. Jeremiah having 
 been allowed his choice between going to Babylon, 
 and staying in the now desolate land, preferred the 
 latter alternative. The Jews who remained in their 
 land had Gedaliah appointed over them as governor 
 or satrap under the King of Babylon, with the seat 
 of government at Mizpeh. The mixed feelings called 
 forth by this catastrophe are indicated by the various 
 expressions used. The Edomites said, “ Baze it! 
 raze it! even to the foundation thereof; ” the Am¬ 
 monites said, “ Aha against the sanctuary when it 
 was profaned ; ” Moab and Seir, “ Behold the house 
 of Judah is like unto all the heathen.” Jeremiah, 
 according to the heading of the Book of Lamenta¬ 
 tions in the LXX., “sat down and wept, and 
 lamented his lamentation over Jerusalem.” We may 
 safely say, “ never did city suffer a more miserable 
 fate, never was ruined city lamented in language so 
 exquisitely pathetic.” 
 
81 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Mdnasseh’s reign is remarkable in two respects in 
 the annals of Judah. 
 
 2. Specify how far the reaction reached in his reign. 
 
 3. Manasseh committed a threefold offence against the 
 worship of Jehovah. 
 
 4. Show, by references to Jeremiah and Zeplianiah, 
 the state of things in Manasseh!s reign. 
 
 5. A single recorded prediction belongs to his reign j 
 quote the ivords of it. 
 
 6. Who led Manasseh captive to Babylon? What 
 salutary effect did his exile there produce on him ? 
 
 7. How many verses of Scripture comprise the history 
 of this long reign ? Why so few ? 
 
 8. What picture does a prophet give of the character 
 of Amor?s short reign ? 
 
 9. Whose training did Josiah enjoy? What was the 
 turning-point in the young king’s history? 
 
 10. Name the best kings in Jewish history. 
 
 11. What old prophecy was fidfilled by Josiah, and 
 how ? 
 
 12. With three classes of priests he dealt differently. 
 
 13. What event in modern times resembled Hilkiah’s 
 discovery of a roll of the Law ? 
 
 14. In what respects did the Passover in Josiah’s reign 
 surpass all preceding ones ? 
 
 15. What reasons may be assigned for Josiah’s war 
 with Necho ? 
 
 16. Specify the most important events in the short 
 subsequent history of the kingdom of Judah. 
 
 17. With what feelings was the downfall of the king¬ 
 dom of Judah received by the neighbouring peoples ? 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
 
 THE PROPHETS. 
 
 60. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS HOW FAR 
 AVAILABLE FOR THIS PURPOSE. The function 
 of a prophet was to give inspired instruction as well as 
 to foretell future events. The prophets Elijah and 
 Elisha had been distinguished for their works of 
 wonder, the prophets of a later time for their words 
 of power ; the former for their miracles, the latter 
 for their writings. In those writings we get a toler¬ 
 ably clear insight into the spirit of the times, the 
 character of the people, the stirring events of the 
 day, the nation’s sins and the nation’s sufferings. 
 One of the earliest prophetical books of the sacred 
 canon is generally supposed to be that of Jonah, the 
 earliest prophetic writer of the southern kingdom is 
 held by the large majority to be Joel, who flourished 
 probably early in Uzziah’s reign. By his writings, as 
 by those of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, we are helped 
 to a right apprehension of the bearing and course of 
 events in their time. As the ministry of Amos and 
 Hosea mainly respected the northern kingdom, we 
 cannot expect so much help from them in relation 
 to the state of matters in Judah. Incidentally, how¬ 
 ever, we do benefit by their allusions to the southern 
 kingdom, and by relations common to both kingdoms. 
 Occasionally they turn aside and cast a glance towards 
 Judah. 
 
 61. JOEL’S REFERENCE TO THE PLAGUE 
 OF LOCUSTS IN THE REIGN OF UZZIAH. Ac¬ 
 cording to Joel’s description, their appearance was 
 that of horses, their rapid motion that of horsemen, 
 the whirring of their wings like the noise of chariots. 
 Marching in rank they were irresistible, no place was 
 inaccessible to them, and no spot free from their 
 
 1 
 
83 
 
 assault. “ They shall runj to and fro,” says the pro¬ 
 phet, “ in the city; they shall run upon the wall, 
 they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter 
 in at the windows.” The havock they made was 
 fearful; the fruit trees were destroyed. “The purple 
 vine, the green fig-tree, the grey olive, the scarlet 
 pomegranate, the golden corn, the waving palm, the 
 fragrant citron, vanished before them, and the trunks 
 and branches were left bare and white by their de¬ 
 vouring teeth.” Next to the fruit trees the cereals— 
 corn, and wheat, and barley, and other grain were 
 ruined. Not only the herbs for the service of man 
 were eaten up, the grass for the cattle perished so 
 that the herds had no pasture. The plague^of locusts 
 was accompanied with droughtaccording to the 
 record both of Joel and Amos. While Joel in the 
 second chapter of his prophecies speaks of this in¬ 
 vasion of locusts as future, Amos, in his fourth 
 chapter, refers to it as past, for he there speaks of this 
 calamity as one of the visitations of the Almighty for 
 the purpose of turning a wayward people to repent¬ 
 ance. The relative period at which they flourished 
 may be dated accordingly—Joel being thus some 
 time prior to Amos. 
 
 62. CHRONOLOGICAL RECKONINGS. The 
 
 reigns of Uzziah and Jotham taken together cover 
 a long period, and the writings of the prophets shed 
 much additional light on the transactions, circum¬ 
 stances, and character of that period, as also on the 
 spirit of those times. The reign of Uzziah, extending 
 to fifty-two years, and that of Jotham to sixteen ad¬ 
 ditional years, make up a period of sixty-eight years, 
 or only seven years less than three quarters of a 
 century, ft was in the reign of Uzziah the Greek 
 era of chronology began, the first Olympiad dating 
 from 776 b.c. The Hebrew and Greek nationalities 
 are brought into contact—unpleasant contact, it is 
 true—by Joel, the prophet of this period, who 
 flourished, there is reason to believe, not later than 
 
84 
 
 the first decade of Uzziali’s reign, in the following 
 words :—“ The children also of Judah and the child¬ 
 ren of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that 
 ye might remove them far from their border.” Like¬ 
 wise in the reign of Jotliam the Roman era commenced, 
 for Eome was founded 753 b.c. Henceforth greater 
 certainty, it may be presumed, with regard to the rela¬ 
 tion of the Jews to other peoples is thus ascertainable. 
 
 63. ERA OF PROPHETIC ACTIVITY. This 
 period is also distinguished in another way—it forms 
 a new era of active prophetic ministry, especially in 
 the kingdom of Judah, where, during the decline of 
 the kingdom of Israel, the prophets exercised with 
 fresh vigour their prophetic office. While there may 
 be difficulty or doubt in fixing the exact time at 
 which others entered on their prophetic career or 
 flourished, we have an explicit declaration which 
 leaves no room for doubt with regard to the time of 
 the greatest prophet of the period—the evangelical 
 Isaiah. In addition to the opening statement of his 
 book about “the vision which he saw concerning 
 Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, 
 Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah,” we have the 
 express declaration of the prophet himself that the 
 divine intimation of his call to, and initiation in, 
 the prophetic office took place “in the year that 
 King Uzziah died.” Hosea was Isaiah’s contem¬ 
 porary during the same four kings’ reign, but began 
 liis prophetic career earlier than Isaiah, and con¬ 
 tinued it for the long period of sixty years. Amos 
 also began before Isaiah but in the same king’s reign, 
 two years, as already remarked, before the earth¬ 
 quake, and some time prior to Hosea. Hosea and 
 even Amos (though of Tekoa in Judah) both pro¬ 
 phesied to Israel. Joel preceded them, while Micali 
 came after them. The latter commenced to prophesy 
 in the reign of Jotham, and continued to do so dur¬ 
 ing that reign and the two succeeding, that is to say, 
 during the reigns of Jotham Ahaz, and Hezekiah. 
 
85 
 
 Farther, Joel, Isaiah, and Micah exercised their office 
 in the southern kingdom. Thus numerous rays of light 
 coming from different quarters converge on this period. 
 
 64. STATE OF RELIGION. While the historical 
 books only give a general intimation here and there 
 about the state of religion and morality, the pro¬ 
 phetical writings exhibit the same with minute 
 particularity and full detail. The condition of 
 matters in this respect seems to have been one of 
 gradual deterioration. Thus in Chronicles we read 
 that after the accession of Jotham and the enforced 
 abdication of his father “the people did yet corruptly;” 
 again we read in reference to Jotham’s reign that “ the 
 high places”—those irregular sanctuaries—“were 
 not removed.” “ Ah ! sinful nation,” exclaims the 
 prophet Isaiah in relation to the same period or there¬ 
 abouts, “ a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil¬ 
 doers, children that are corrupters.” Half a century 
 of comparative peace and prosperity had been en¬ 
 joyed, but this time of rest and repose, instead of 
 producing thankfulness, and their security during 
 this period, instead of being improved, had been 
 misused in sinful indulgences and idolatrous practices. 
 Riches had increased, their land was full of wealth, 
 and their treasures were without limit; commerce 
 flourished, ships of Tarshish spread their sails on 
 different and distant seas, carrying on a lucrative 
 trade ; piles of buildings were reared, architecture 
 had raised high towers and fenced walls ; works of 
 art and pleasant pictures were eagerly sought and 
 secured at any price ; they had their groves and their 
 gardens, they delighted in their trees of beauty and 
 of strength—the cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of 
 Bashan. 
 
 But amid this great material prosperity, moral 
 corruption pervaded all classes and conditions—the 
 high and the low alike, the old and the young, male 
 and female. Bribery had found its way to the seat 
 of judgment, and perverted the decisions of the judge; 
 
86 
 
 the weak and the defenceless were oppressed, men 
 ground the faces of the poor. The princes or nobles 
 robbed God and wronged man—they were rebellious 
 and companions of thieves. Avarice and self-ag¬ 
 grandisement were manifest in their joining house 
 to house and field to field. The base bore themselves 
 in an unseemly manner against the honourable, nor 
 did youth respect age. Pride prevailed universally 
 —the haughtiness of man and the high looks could not 
 be mistaken ; while the vanity and voluptuousness of 
 the females did more than keep pace with the pomp of 
 men. Drunkenness had become a national vice— 
 they were mighty to drink wine, and men of strength 
 to mingle strong drink. In carousals they spent the 
 day, their drunken revels they continued into the 
 night. The worst of all perhaps was their besotted 
 and persistent idolatry. And, notwithstanding all 
 this, there was a hollow profession of religion and a 
 heartless observance of outward forms. 
 
 65. THE COMING JUDGMENTS. No wonder 
 the storm of divine wrath was gathering and the 
 tempest of the divine judgments was ready to burst 
 over them. Joel warned them in his day by what 
 had already come, and of what was coming. He 
 called them not to soulless services, but to real re¬ 
 pentance, saying, “ Pend your heart and not your 
 garments, and turn unto the Lord your God.’ 7 Amos, 
 though ministering mainly to Israel, has a word of 
 warning for his own country Judah. “Woe to 
 them,” he says, “ that are at ease in Zion.” Hosea 
 pictures the straggle in the heart of the paternal 
 God, as embracing Judah and Israel alike—the 
 parent’s compassionate nature in severe conflict with 
 the dire necessity for chastising wayward and re¬ 
 bellious children, when he exclaims, “ 0 Ephraim, 
 what shall I do unto thee ? O Judah, what shall I 
 do unto thee ? ” And again, in tones of tender pity, 
 he adds, “ Mine heart is turned within me, my re- 
 pentings are kindled together.” 
 
87 
 
 66. CONSOLATIONS FOR THE PENITENT. 
 
 Yet all these prophets, looking away beyond the 
 long dark interval of sin and suffering, comfort their 
 countrymen by pointing onward to a good time com¬ 
 ing, when the fallen tabernacle of David would be 
 raised up, and the breaches thereof closed up, and it 
 would be built as in the days of old; when the Spirit 
 would be poured out on all flesh; when the mountain 
 of the Lord’s house would be established on the top 
 of the mountains, be exalted above the hills, and all 
 nations flow unto it. Micah, born in Moresheth 
 Gath, includes his native village among the ten 
 towns of the maritime plain with which he began 
 his ministry, and the names of which in themselves, 
 or by contrast, indicate their doom, for example, “ In 
 the house of Aphrah (= dust ) roll thyself in the 
 dust; ” but he directs his warnings mainly to the 
 two capitals of Samaria and Jerusalem. He de¬ 
 nounces their idolatry, injustice, and oppression; the 
 cruelty of the princes, and the falsehood of the 
 prophets; while the usual cycle of sin, punishment, 
 and pardon repeats itself. Zion was to be ploughed 
 like a field, yet the law was to go forth out of Zion. 
 In their prosperity the people trusted in themselves, 
 at a later period their confidence was in foreign aid, 
 the prophets directed them to trust in neither, but 
 in God. As might be expected of contemporaries, 
 Isaiah and Micah have much in common. The 
 former cheers by the prospect of a Saviour born of a 
 virgin; the latter names the place of his birth. 
 Both, shaping their predictions in a form at once 
 similar and most suitable for consolation amid 
 present disorders and approaching distress, foretell 
 the time when the knowledge of God and obedience 
 to His laws shall go hand in hand, when peace shall 
 be universal, the weapons of war being re-formed 
 into implements of husbandry, and the utmost tran¬ 
 quillity shall be enjoyed. As a pledge of such bless¬ 
 ings in the future, the prophets not ^infrequently 
 
88 
 
 fall back on the deliverances of other days, comparing 
 former and future mercies. Thus Micah blends the 
 history of God’s gracious dealings in the past with bright 
 visions of the future. The closing words of his pro¬ 
 phecy allude at once to his own name (= who is like 
 Jehovah) as symbolical, and to the deliverance of 
 Israel at the Red Sea as significant of spiritual 
 deliverance: “ Who is a God like unto Thee f ” lie asks, 
 and then he unfolds the benefits implied, “ that 
 pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression 
 of the remnant of His heritage 1 He retaineth not 
 His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy.” 
 So in the Song of Moses, “ Who is like unto Thee, O 
 Lord, among the Gods h Who is like Thee , glorious 
 in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? . . . 
 Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which 
 Thou hast redeemed.” Again, “ He will subdue our 
 iniquities,” our greatest enemies—worse than Pharaoh 
 and his Egyptians to Israel; “ and Thou wilt cast all 
 their sins into the depths of the sea ; ” so in the Song, 
 “ Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath He cast into 
 the sea . . . the depths have covered them.” In this 
 way the past and present, or past and future, are 
 beautifully interwoven in the dealings of God’s pro¬ 
 vidence and the dispensations of His grace. Future 
 mercies, moreover, are thus reflected in the mirror of 
 the past, and imaged by men and movements that 
 had become matter of history, for instance, mercy 
 by Abraham, truth by Jacob, deliverance by coming 
 up out of the land of Egypt, guidance by the shep¬ 
 herd of Israel—the good shepherd feeding his flock in 
 Bashan and Gilead, and the frustration of enemies 
 by Balak and Balaam. 
 
 67. A TRADITION ABOUT JOTHAM. A tradi¬ 
 tion relating to Jotham, which, while it briefly 
 sketches the other Kings of Judah, eulogises him in 
 contrast with and in preference to all the rest, is 
 found in an old Rabbinic commentary, and is as fol¬ 
 lows :—“ David sinned in the matter of Uriah the 
 
89 
 
 Hittite, Solomon’s wives turned away his heart, 
 Kehoboam forsook the law of the Lord, Abijali walked 
 in all the sins of his father, Asa took gold and silver 
 out of the treasuries of the Lord’s house, and im¬ 
 prisoned a prophet, Jehoshaphat made alliance with 
 the wicked, Jehoram slew his brethren, Ahaziah’s 
 mother was his counsellor to do evil, Joash slew 
 Zechariah, Amaziah worshipped the gods of Seir, 
 Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense, Ahaz 
 walked in the ways of the King of Israel, and made 
 images to Baalim, Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up, 
 and there was wrath upon him, and for three things 
 they do not praise him, Manasseh did evil in the 
 sight of the Lord, Josiah did not hearken to the 
 words of Necho from the mouth of the Lord, Zedekiah 
 did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not humble 
 himself in the presence of Jeremiah ; but in Jothan 
 no fault is found.” Such is the tradition, which is 
 not without instruction, though we of course discredit 
 its extravagant praise of Jotham, for there are only 
 three Kings of Judah, of each of whom it is affirmed 
 in an unqualified manner, “ he did that which was 
 right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that 
 David his father did ; ” and these three were Asa, 
 ILezekiah, and Josiah. 
 
 68. FURTHER REFERENCES IN MICAH. To 
 
 the child-sacrifice of Ahaz the prophet Micah appears 
 to allude in his earnest and eloquent remonstrance, 
 in which, after denying the sufficiency of thousands 
 of rams for an oblation, or of thousands of rivers of 
 oil for a libation, he proceeds to ask, “ Shall I give 
 my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my 
 body for the sin of my soul \ ” Micah, moreover, had 
 denounced most unsparingly different classes and 
 their sins—the princes as oppressive, the priests as 
 mercenary, the prophets as unfaithful, and all of them 
 as perverting the prophet Isaiah’s pledge of Immanuel, 
 saying, “ Is not the Lord among us 1 none evil can 
 come upon us.” The precursor of all the reforms 
 
90 
 
 in the succeeding reign of Hezekiah was, in all pro¬ 
 bability, a prediction of this same prophet Micah, 
 which the elders quoted in vindication of Jeremiah 
 (Jer. xxvi. 18,19), “ Micah the Morasthite prophesied 
 in the days of Hezekiah King of J udah, saying. Thus 
 saith the Lord of hosts : Zion shall be plowed like a 
 field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the 
 mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. 
 Did Hezekiah King of Judah and all Judah put him 
 at all to death? did he not fear the Lord and be¬ 
 sought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the 
 evil which he had pronounced against them ? ” 
 
 69. PROMISED CONTINUITY OF DAVID’S 
 LINE. When the confederates set themselves to 
 subvert the dynasty of David and depose the Davidic 
 King, they sought to make void the purpose of God, 
 and in consequence signally failed. The faithless 
 King of Judah declined the proffered sign under 
 pretext of not tempting God, whereas on his part it 
 was a practical refusal to trust God or be bound to 
 His service by any tie. As a sure token to confirm 
 the continuity of David’s royal line, Isaiah promised 
 the descent of King Immanuel in that line, and even 
 through the family of the apostate Ahaz; while the 
 miraculous birth of that Messiah would console and 
 comfort all the faithful of future times. The king¬ 
 doms of Syria and Israel would be destroyed, and 
 even that of Judah greatly depressed; but the 
 stability of David’s throne, guaranteed by covenant 
 promise, would be secured. A state of desolation was 
 indeed to ensue, pasturage would take the place of 
 tillage, and natural products wouldsustain the people; 
 but the kingdom of David, rising out of weakness 
 and want, would take a new departure in the person 
 of Immanuel. Moreover, while the promise of 
 Immanuel was a pledge of God’s unchanging mercy 
 to the house of David, Isaiah gives another sign for 
 the then present distress and pressing calamities. 
 He pledges his prophetic word that before his infant 
 
91 
 
 son, called by the significant name of Maher-shalal- 
 Hash-baz, that is, Plunder-liasteth-Spoil-speedeth, would 
 be old enough to distinguish his parents, “ the riches 
 of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria would be taken 
 away before the King of Assyria.” The deliverance 
 was to come unexpectedly, and as the prophet had 
 previously declared (vii. 17-20) from that distant 
 land. 
 
 In many stirring events of Hezekiah’s reign, the 
 prophetic pictures of Isaiah had a historical back¬ 
 ground. A reference to a few of these shall be 
 embodied in the concluding questions of this chapter. 
 
 70. PREDICTIONS OF ZEPHANIAH IN RELA¬ 
 TION TO JUDAH. Zephaniah, Jehovah's watch¬ 
 man, as the name imports, looking out with prophetic 
 eye into the future, sees the gathering gloom and the 
 dreadful day of divine wrath near at hand. His de¬ 
 scription of the day of coming judgment has not 
 only suggested, but furnished to some extent mate¬ 
 rial for, the well-known thrilling Latin hymn, Pies 
 Irce , j Dies Ilia, “that day of wrath, that dreadful 
 day.” The Yulgate rendering of the fifteenth verse 
 of the first chapter of Zephaniah supplies the com¬ 
 mencement of the hymn ; that verse is the key-note 
 of this prophet’s predictions, and in the English ver¬ 
 sion reads thus :—“ That day is a day of wrath, a day 
 of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and deso¬ 
 lation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of 
 clouds and of thick darkness.” In the first chapter 
 of his book the prophet foretells in vivid and terrible 
 language the judgments that were just about to over¬ 
 take Judah and J erusalem—the heathen priests that 
 worshipped the host of heaven; the half-hearted 
 priests that halted between Jehovah and Baal, now 
 swearing to the Lord, again by Malcham, that is, 
 Baal, their King; the apostates that turned back from 
 the Lord, being renegades from true religion; and 
 those who did not seek the Lord, and so had no 
 religion. He resumes the subject in liis third chapter, 
 
and pronounces a bitter woe against the sins of the 
 city and of all classes in the same—people, princes, 
 prophets, priests, all of whom had corrupted their 
 way, and prepared themselves for the storm of wrath 
 that was soon to overwhelm them. 
 
 71. PREDICTIONS AGAINST THE ENEMIES 
 OF JUDAH. These included judgments against the 
 Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Cushites, and 
 Assyrians. Four of the five chief cities of Philistia 
 he mentions by name, and by a beautiful paronomasia 
 describes their doom; thus, 4 5 azzah ’ azzubah , Gaza 
 shall be forsaken; ekron teaJcer , Ekron shall be rooted 
 up. Nineveh was still standing, and so we infer that 
 Zephaniah prophesied in the early part of Josiah’s 
 reign, and before any revival of religion had taken 
 place. But the approaching doom of that great city 
 Nineveh is depicted in dark and dreadful colours. 
 Yet gloomy as are these and other predictions of this 
 prophet, he does not close his prophecies in gloom, 
 but predicts a glorious future in which Jew and Gen¬ 
 tile shall share alike. To the Gentile peoples he will 
 turn “ a pure language, that they may all call upon 
 the name of the Lord ; ” while the remnant of his 
 people Israel he will make u a name and a praise 
 among all the peoples of the earth.” 
 
 Questions and Points for Inquiry. 
 
 1. Give proofs from Isaiah of Ilezekialds literary 
 ability. 
 
 2. In wliat chapter specially does he refer to the 
 water supply of Jerusalem secured by Hezekiah’s great 
 waterworks ? 
 
 3. Where does he speak of the crash of mighty cedars 
 and the upspringing of a young shoot? and what is the 
 reference ? 
 
 4. What chapter contains an ode of triumph over 
 the fallen monarchs of Assyria and Babylon? 
 
 5. Whose military operations are referred to in chap. 
 
93 
 
 xxix. f who was the broken rod of chap, xxx.f and 
 what party is rebuked in chap. xxxi. ? 
 
 (j. To what is the defender of Israel likened in chap. 
 
 xxx. ? and to what in chap. xxxi. ? 
 
 7. Where is it foretold that the people would be sus¬ 
 tained by the spontaneous growth of one year and the 
 aftergrowth of the next ? 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE KINGS 
 
 OF JUDAH. 
 
 (As given in A.Y. of Bible.) 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date of 
 
 L Accession b.c. 
 
 Duration of 
 Reign. 
 
 Rehoboam, . 
 
 
 975 
 
 17 
 
 years. 
 
 Abijam, 
 
 
 957 
 
 3 
 
 j? 
 
 Asa, . 
 
 
 955 
 
 41 
 
 
 J ehoshaphat, 
 
 
 914 
 
 25 
 
 » 
 
 Jehoram, . 
 
 
 889 
 
 8 
 
 
 Ahaziah, 
 
 
 885 
 
 1 
 
 V 
 
 Athaliah, . 
 
 
 884 
 
 6 
 
 >> 
 
 J ehoash, 
 
 
 878 
 
 40 
 
 95 
 
 Amaziah, . 
 
 
 838 
 
 29 
 
 59 
 
 Uzziah, 
 
 
 810 
 
 52 
 
 55 
 
 Jothani, 
 
 
 758 
 
 16 
 
 V 
 
 Ahaz, . 
 
 
 742 
 
 16 
 
 55 
 
 Hezekiali, . 
 
 
 726 
 
 29 
 
 55 
 
 Manasseh, . 
 
 
 698 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 Anion, 
 
 
 643 
 
 2 
 
 59 
 
 J osiah, 
 
 
 641 
 
 31 
 
 
 Shallum, 
 
 
 610 
 
 3 months. 
 
 Jehoiakim, . 
 
 
 610 
 
 11 
 
 years. 
 
 Coniah, 
 
 
 599 
 
 3 months. 
 
 Zedekiah, . 
 
 
 599 
 
 11 
 
 years. 
 
 The carrying away 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 Babylon, 
 
 • 
 
 588 
 
 
 
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