{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42027/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42027","id":"gutenberg_42027","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42027","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Kings, 2nd -- Commentaries","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Colin Bell and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The\n\n Expositor's Bible\n\n\n Edited by\n W. Robertson Nicoll, D.D., LL.D.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n THE EXPOSITORS' BIBLE\n\n _Edited by_ W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, D.D., LL.D.\n\n _New and Cheaper Edition. Printed from original plates\n Complete in every detail. Uniform with this volume_\n\n Price 50 cents per volume. (If by mail add 10 cents postage)\n\n\n OLD TESTAMENT VOLUMES\n\n GENESIS. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.\n\n EXODUS. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh.\n\n LEVITICUS. By Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D.\n\n NUMBERS. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.\n\n DEUTERONOMY. By Rev. Prof. Andrew Harper, B.D.\n\n JOSHUA. By Rev. Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.\n\n JUDGES AND RUTH. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.\n\n FIRST SAMUEL. By Rev. Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.\n\n SECOND SAMUEL. By same author.\n\n FIRST KINGS. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.\n\n SECOND KINGS. By same author.\n\n FIRST AND SECOND CHRONICLES. By Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett.\n\n EZRA, NEHEMIAH, AND ESTHER. By Rev. Prof. W. F. Adeney.\n\n JOB. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.\n\n PSALMS. In 3 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XXXVIII.; Vol. II., Chapters\n XXXIX.-LXXXIX.; Vol. III., Chapters XC.-CL. By Rev.\n Alexander Maclaren, D.D.\n\n PROVERBS. By Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D.\n\n ECCLESIASTES. By Rev. Samuel Cox, D.D.\n\n SONG OF SOLOMON and LAMENTATIONS. By Rev. Prof. W. F. Adeney.\n\n ISAIAH. In 2 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XXXIX.; Vol. II.,\n Chapters XL.-LXVI. By Prof. George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D.\n\n JEREMIAH. Chapters I.-XX. With a Sketch of his Life and Times. By\n Rev. C. J. Ball.\n\n JEREMIAH. Chapters XXI.-LII. By Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett.\n\n EZEKIEL. By Rev. Prof. John Skinner.\n\n DANIEL. By F. W. FARRAR, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.\n\n THE TWELVE (Minor) PROPHETS. In 2 vols. By Rev. George Adam Smith,\n D.D., LL.D.\n\n\n NEW TESTAMENT VOLUMES\n\n ST. MATTHEW. By Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D.\n\n ST. MARK. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh.\n\n ST. LUKE. By Rev. Henry Burton.\n\n GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. In 2 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XI.; Vol. II.,\n Chapters XII.-XXI. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.\n\n THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. In 2 vols. By Rev. Prof. G. T. Stokes, D.D.\n\n ROMANS. By Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.\n\n FIRST CORINTHIANS. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.\n\n SECOND CORINTHIANS. By Rev. James Denney, D.D.\n\n GALATIANS. By Rev. Prof. G. G. Findlay, D.D.\n\n EPHESIANS. By same author.\n\n PHILIPPIANS. By Rev. Principal Robert Rainy, D.D.\n\n COLOSSIANS and PHILEMON. By Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D.\n\n THESSALONIANS. By Rev. James Denney, D.D.\n\n PASTORAL EPISTLES. By Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.\n\n HEBREWS. By Rev. Principal T. C. Edwards, D.D.\n\n ST. JAMES and ST. JUDE. By Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.\n\n ST. PETER. By Rev. Prof. J. Rawson Lumby, D.D.\n\n EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By Rt. Rev. W. Alexander, Lord Bishop of Derry.\n\n REVELATION. By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.\n\n INDEX VOLUME TO ENTIRE SERIES.\n\n _New York_: HODDER & STOUGHTON, _Publishers_\n\n\n\n\n THE\n SECOND BOOK OF KINGS\n\n\n\n\n\n BY\n F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S.\n\n LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; ARCHDEACON OF\n WESTMINSTER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n HODDER & STOUGHTON\n NEW YORK\n GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n PAGE\n\n AHAZIAH BEN-AHAB OF ISRAEL (B.C. 855-854) 3\n\n A weak, shadowy, and faithless king--1. Relations between Judah and\n Israel--2. Alliance with Jehoshaphat--3. Revolt of Moab--Mesha and\n the Moabite Stone--4. The fall from the lattice--Baal-Zebub--Elijah\n calling down fire from heaven--How are we to judge respecting the\n Elijah-spirit?--Variations of moral standard.\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n THE ASCENSION OF ELIJAH 19\n\n Uncertain date--The journey to Gilgal; to Bethel; to Jericho; to\n the Jordan--The double portion--Chariot and horses of fire--Elisha\n recrosses the Jordan--The young prophets and their\n search--Grandeur of Elijah.\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n ELISHA 25\n\n Cycle of supernatural stories--Elisha and Elijah--The cure of the\n unwholesome fountain--\"Go up, thou bald-head\"--The children and\n the bears.\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n THE INVASION OF MOAB 29\n\n Death of Ahaziah--Jehoram Ben-Ahab of Israel--Good\n beginnings--Attempts to recover Moab--Alliance with Judah and\n Edom--The invasion--An army perishing of\n thirst--Elisha--Music--Trenches in the w\u00e2dy--Error of the\n Moabites--Their disastrous rout--Devastation of the\n country--Mesha propitiates Chemosh--\"Great wrath against\n Israel\"--The invading army retreats.\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n ELISHA'S MIRACLES 40\n\n Their chronological vagueness--Difference between Elisha and\n Elijah--Contrasts and resemblances--Social life in Israel--1. The\n widow and the oil--2. The lady of Shunem--Her hospitality--Her\n reward--3. The boy's death--Her distress--The resuscitation--4.\n Death in the pot--5. The multiplied first-fruits.\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n THE STORY OF NAAMAN 50\n\n The little maid--The leper--Letter of Benhadad to Jehoram--His\n indignation--Elisha's message--Naaman's disappointment and\n anger--His servants--His healing--His gratitude--Bowing in the\n house of Rimmon--Mean cupidity of Gehazi--Stricken with\n leprosy--The axe-head.\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS 66\n\n Syrian marauders--They are baffled--Anger of Benhadad--The vision\n at Dothan--Meaning of the promises--How fulfilled to God's saints\n on earth--Some are delivered, some are not--Elisha misleads the\n Syrians--His generosity to them--Its effects--A fresh Syrian\n invasion.\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE 76\n\n Horrible straits of the besieged Samaritans--Stress of famine--The\n King of Israel--The miserable women--Sackcloth under the\n purple--The king's fury and despair--He threatens Elisha--The\n messenger--The king upbraids him--Prophecy of sudden plenty--The\n disbelieving lord--The extramural lepers--The Syrian camp--The\n king's misgivings--The lord killed in the rush of the people.\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n THE SHUNAMMITE AND HAZAEL 87\n\n The lady of Shunem leaves her estate--Her return--Gehazi talks with\n the king--Entrance of the Shunammite--Her estates restored--Elisha\n visits Damascus--A royal present--Benhadad's illness--Hazael--The\n dark prophecy--Unexplained death of Benhadad--Hazael's\n usurpation--Real meaning of Elisha's words to Hazael.\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n TWO SONS OF JEHOSHAPHAT 99\n\n Jehoram (B.C. 851-843)--Ahaziah (B.C. 843-842)--Jehoram\n ben-Jehoshaphat of Judah--Perplexing uncertainty of minute\n chronological details--The blight of the Jezebel-alliance--The\n husband of Athaliah--His apostasies--Revolt of Edom--Narrow escape\n of Jehoram--Revolt of Libnah--Jehoram's murder by his\n brethren--Philistine invasion--Incurable disease--Ahaziah\n ben-Jehoram--Joins his uncle (Jehoram ben-Ahab) in the campaign\n against Ramoth-Gilead--Visits him at Jezreel--Shot down by Jehu.\n\n CHAPTER XI\n\n THE REVOLT OF JEHU (B.C. 842) 106\n\n Misery of Jehoram's reign--Thwarted invasion of Moab--Aggression\n of Benhadad--At Ramoth-Gilead--The young prophet--The two kings\n absent from the camp--The dangerous commission--The assembled\n captains--Jehu secretly anointed--His accession enthusiastically\n welcomed by the army--His sudden enthronement--His swift\n resolution--The watchman at Jezreel--The two horsemen--The two\n kings--Their murder--Ferocity of Jehu--Elijah's\n prophecy--Jezebel--She is hurled down--Jehu drives over her\n body--The curse fulfilled.\n\n CHAPTER XII\n\n JEHU ESTABLISHED ON THE THRONE (B.C. 842-814) 125\n\n His politic subtlety--The murder of the seventy princes--The\n ghastly heaps--Hypocritic ferocity.\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n\n FRESH MURDERS--THE EXTIRPATION OF BAAL-WORSHIP (B.C. 842) 131\n\n Wading through blood to a throne--The ride to Samaria--The brethren\n of Ahaziah of Judah--The corpse-choked tank of the shepherds--The\n Bedawy ascetic--The scene of slaughter in the temple of Baal--Did\n Elisha approve of these atrocities?--Prophetic judgment on\n Jehu--Ravages of Hazael--Jehu's anguish--He pays tribute to Assyria.\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n\n ATHALIAH (B.C. 842-836)--JOASH OF JUDAH (B.C. 836-796) 146\n\n The murderess-daughter of Jezebel--Fierce ambition--Jehosheba--The\n rescued child--Reared in the Temple--The high priest's plot--The\n coronation of the boy-king--Athaliah enters the Temple--Her\n murder--The fate of Baal's high priest--Proposed restoration of\n the Temple--Joash calls to task the defaulting priests--Death of\n Jehoiada--Defection of Joash--Murder of Zechariah--Bad record of\n the line of Jewish priests--Hazael attacks Judah--Defeat of Joash\n and plunder of Jerusalem--Murder of Joash--Names of the murderers.\n\n CHAPTER XV\n\n AMAZIAH OF JUDAH (B.C. 796-783[?]) 167\n\n The House of David--Amaziah brings to justice the murderers of his\n father, but spares their children--Grounds for this--Different\n views taken of him by the historian and the chronicler--Splendid\n victory of Amaziah in the Valley of Salt--Expansion of the story\n in the Chronicles--His defiance of Joash--His defeat and murder.\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n\n THE DYNASTY OF JEHU--JEHOAHAZ (B.C. 814-797)--JOASH\n (B.C. 797-781) 175\n\n Israel at its nadir--Calf-worship--Oppression of\n Hazael--Disappearance of Elisha--Repentance of Jehoahaz--Joash of\n Israel visits the death-bed of Elisha--\"The arrow of the Lord's\n deliverance\"--Three victories over the Syrians--Death of Elisha,\n and posthumous marvels--Joash and Amaziah--Contemptuous answer to\n the King of Judah--Crushing defeat of Judah.\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n\n THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (CONTINUED)--JEROBOAM II. (B.C. 781-740) 187\n\n Jeroboam II. the greatest of the kings of Israel--His conquests\n and wide dominion--A dying gleam of prosperity--Cause of his\n success--Relations with Assyria--Dawn of written prophecy--Jonah.\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n\n AMOS AND HOSEA--ZACHARIAH BEN-JEROBOAM (B.C. 740) 193\n\n Amos describes the condition of Israel--Growth of usury and\n vice--Humble origin of Amos--His burdens--Degenerations of the\n \"calf-worship\"--Uncompromising denunciation--Collision of Amos\n with Amaziah the high priest at Bethel--His expulsion from\n Bethel--The curse denounced--His justification of his\n mission--Hosea the saddest of the prophets--His pictures of\n Ephraim--Jeroboam II.--His death--His son Zachariah--His\n desertion and shameful end.\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n\n UZZIAH OF JUDAH (B.C. 783[?]-737)--JOTHAM (B.C. 737-735) 209\n\n Wane of Assyria--Uzziah a wise and good king--His other name\n Azariah--Expansion of the story of his conquests in the\n Chronicles--Training of his army--Defeated by the Assyrians\n (?)--Stricken with leprosy--The story--Jotham acts as his public\n representative--Diminished power of Judah under Jotham--Beginning\n of Isaiah's prophecies--Death of Jotham.\n\n CHAPTER XX\n\n THE AGONY OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM--SHALLUM, MENAHEM, PEKAHIAH,\n PEKAH (B.C. 740-734) 217\n\n Shallum, an usurping murderer--Rapid disappearance of\n kings--Distracted epoch--The prophet Zechariah and the three\n shepherds--Zechariah's prophecies--The cruel shepherd,\n Menahem--His savage deeds--Portentous appearance of the Assyrians\n in Israel--Menahem pays tribute--Tiglath-Pileser--Fulfilment of\n Hosea's prophecy--Pekahiah--His murder--Pekah--His alliance with\n Rezin against Judah--Ahaz appeals to Assyria--Defeat and death of\n Rezin--Fulfilment of prophecy of Amos--Beginning of the captivity\n of the Ten Tribes--Tiglath-Pileser's successors--Murder of Pekah\n by Hoshea--Horrible state of Israel as described by Isaiah.\n\n CHAPTER XXI\n\n KING HOSHEA AND THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM (B.C.\n 734-725) 235\n\n The name Hoshea--The king and the prophet--Occasional gleams of hope\n and promise--A humiliating reign--Death of Tiglath-Pileser--Hoshea\n revolts to Sabaco of Egypt--Seized by Shalmaneser--Samaria\n besieged--Terrible state of the city--Sabaco renders no\n help--Usurpation of Sargon--Capture of the city--Greatness of\n Sargon--Fall of the Northern Kingdom--Blighted destiny--God's\n mercy--\"God, and not man\"--Despoliation of the tribes--Moral of the\n story--Assyria and Egypt--The strength and weakness of a\n nation--Machiavelli--Mixture of alien emigrants--Their worship--The\n lions--Strange syncretism--The Jews and the Samaritans.\n\n CHAPTER XXII\n\n THE REIGN OF AHAZ (B.C. 735-715) 260\n\n The chronology--A distracted kingdom--Dark pictures from\n Isaiah--No sign of repentance--Grapes and wild grapes.\n\n CHAPTER XXIII\n\n ISAIAH AND AHAZ 265\n\n Isaiah--Rezin and Pekah--Ahaz meets Isaiah--He receives a promise of\n deliverance--He refuses a sign--The sign given him--Immanuel--Birth\n of Messianic prophecy--Maher-shalal-hash-baz--The promised\n Deliverer.\n\n CHAPTER XXIV\n\n THE APOSTASIES OF AHAZ 273\n\n Moloch-worship--Sacrifice of children--Ahaz appeals to Assyria for\n help--Ruin of Damascus and death of Rezin--Ahaz does homage to\n Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus--Records of Tiglath-Pileser--The new\n altar--Complaisance of the priest Urijah--Unpopularity of\n Ahaz--Further misgivings--His death.\n\n CHAPTER XXV\n\n HEZEKIAH (B.C. 715-686) 287\n\n Dates--Importance of the reign--Hezekiah's age--His character--His\n reformation--Partial suppression of the _bamoth_--Removal of the\n _matstseboth_ and _Asherim_--Destruction of the brazen\n serpent--Trust in Jehovah--Psalm xlvi.--Chastisement of the\n Philistines--Three parties in Jerusalem--1. The Assyrian party--2.\n The Egyptian party--3. The national party--Its attitude to the\n others--Micah--Mockery of Egypt--Anger and insults of the priests\n against Isaiah--Confidence of Isaiah--Waverings of Hezekiah.\n\n CHAPTER XXVI\n\n HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS--THE BABYLONIAN EMBASSY 305\n\n The story of Hezekiah's illness misplaced--At the point of\n death--Isaiah's message--The king's agony of mind--The prayer--The\n reprieve--The sun-dial of Ahaz--The king's gratitude and\n thanksgiving--Merodach-Baladan--Rising power of Babylon--Object of\n the embassy--The king's action--The prophet's reproof--The king's\n humble submission.\n\n CHAPTER XXVII\n\n HEZEKIAH AND ASSYRIA (B.C. 701) 319\n\n Greatness of Sargon--His campaigns--Defeat of Egypt at the battle\n of Raphia--Ashdod--Defeat of Merodach-Baladan--Grandeur of\n Sennacherib--His invasion of Jud\u00e6a--Earlier collisions--His\n campaigns--1. Against Babylon--2. Against Elam--3. Against the\n Hittites and Philistines--Defeat of the Ethiopian Tirhakah at\n Altaqu--Heavy mulct imposed on Hezekiah--Siege of\n Lachish--Sennacherib breaks his compact--Distress of Jerusalem.\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII\n\n THE GREAT DELIVERANCE (B.C. 701) 331\n\n Embassy of the Turtan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh--Misery and\n licence in the city--The conference--Oration of the Rabshakeh--Its\n effect on the king's ministers and on the people--Taunting insults\n of the Rabshakeh--Faithfulness and self-control of the\n people--Heroic faith of Isaiah--Failure of the\n embassy--Sennacherib's threatening letter--Hezekiah's\n prayer--Isaiah promises deliverance in the name of Jehovah--The\n sign--The angel of death--Scene of the catastrophe--The Egyptian\n tradition of Sethos and the mice--Death and burial of\n Hezekiah--The campaign as recorded on the Assyrian monuments--The\n triumph of indomitable faith--Grandeur of Isaiah--Wane of\n Assyria--Beautiful tolerance of Isaiah.\n\n CHAPTER XXIX\n\n MANASSEH (B.C. 686-641) 351\n\n The name Manasseh--His tender age--Influence of evil\n counsellors--Heathenising party--Their dislike of Hezekiah's\n reformation and of the exclusive worship of Jehovah--Tendency to\n trust in sacrifices and asceticism--Sanctification of\n licence--Arguments of the heathenisers--Disparagement of the work\n of Isaiah--Doubts and disbelief--Influence of the\n _bamoth_-priests--Reliance on Assyria--The immoral and idolatrous\n reaction--1. Restoration of the _bamoth_, and arguments in their\n favour--2. Adoption of Ph\u0153nician nature-worship--3. Assyrian\n Sabaism and star-worship--Connivance of the priests--4. Canaanite\n Moloch-worship--5. Mesopotamian Shamanism--6. The\n _Asherah_--Denunciation of the prophets--Persecution and the\n shedding of innocent blood--Asserted captivity, repentance, and\n reforming energy of Manasseh--Difficulties of the story--Reign of\n Amon (B.C. 641-639)--Wretchedness of his reign--Zephaniah and\n Jeremiah--Murder of Amon.\n\n CHAPTER XXX\n\n JOSIAH (B.C. 639-608) 374\n\n Three vast movements--Jeremiah's earlier prophecies--The state of\n society--The Scythians--Prophecies of Ezekiel--Herodotus--The fate\n of Nineveh--Rise of the Chald\u00e6ans--Habakkuk.\n\n CHAPTER XXXI\n\n JOSIAH'S REFORMATION 385\n\n Growth of Josiah's character--Repairs of the Temple--Hilkiah finds\n the Book of the Law--Intense effect produced on mind of the\n king--His message to the prophetess Huldah--Great\n assembly--Renewal of a solemn league and covenant with\n Jehovah--The _bamoth_-priests degraded--Defiling of Tophet--He\n carries the reformation into Samaria--Its stringency and\n severity--The Passover--Suppression of heathen\n corruptions--Jeremiah's share in the reformation--Its dangers and\n disappointing results--Jeremiah's warnings against all trust in\n externals--The prophecy of a new covenant--NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXI.:\n The Book found in the Temple.\n\n CHAPTER XXXII\n\n THE DEATH OF JOSIAH (B.C. 608) 402\n\n Prosperity and happiness of Josiah--Accession of the great Pharaoh\n Necho II.--His excursion against Carchemish--Josiah determines to\n bar his path--Warnings of Pharaoh Necho--Disaster at Megiddo and\n death of Josiah--Mistaken hopes--God's dealings with men and\n nations--Distress among Josiah's subjects--The king's\n burial--Misgivings respecting the future--Sorrow of\n Jeremiah--Ultimate fulfilments.\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII\n\n JEHOAHAZ (B.C. 608) 411\n\n Four sons of Josiah--Shallum chosen by the people of the land--Elegy\n of Ezekiel--Change of name from Shallum to Jehoahaz--Conquests of\n Pharaoh Necho II.--Jehoahaz summoned to Riblah--Carried captive by\n Pharaoh to Egypt--Tribute imposed on Jud\u00e6a.\n\n CHAPTER XXXIV\n\n JEHOIAKIM (B.C. 608-597) 416\n\n Eliakim--His change of name--Ignored by Ezekiel--Evil\n influences--\u00c6sthetic selfishness and oppressive\n greed--Denunciation by Habakkuk--Denunciation by Jeremiah--Murder\n of Urijah--Threatened murder of Jeremiah averted by Ahikam--Fall\n of Nineveh--Utterances of the prophets--Rise of the\n Chald\u00e6ans--Nabopolassar--Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by\n Nebuchadrezzar--His return to Babylon--His invasion of\n Jud\u00e6a--Beginning of the Babylonian captivity--Jehoiakim revolts to\n Egypt in spite of Jeremiah's warnings--Imprisonment of\n Jeremiah--Baruch--The menacing roll--Alarm of the princes--Rage of\n the king--He cuts the scroll to pieces and burns it--Wretchedness\n of the times--A great drought--Captives of Jerusalem--Miserable\n death of Jehoiakim--\"That which was found in him.\"\n\n CHAPTER XXXV\n\n JEHOIACHIN (B.C. 597) 431\n\n Bad influence over him--His brief reign--Allusions to him by\n Jeremiah at Jerusalem--Second captivity--Regret felt for\n Jehoiachin--Did he die childless?\n\n CHAPTER XXXVI\n\n ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH (B.C. 597-586) 437\n\n His oath to the King of Assyria--Ezekiel's prophecies--The exiles\n and the remnant--Weakness of Zedekiah--Continuance of idolatry as\n described by Ezekiel--The king breaks his oath with\n Assyria--Indignation and warnings of Jeremiah--The false prophet\n Hananiah--The wooden and iron yokes--Death of Hananiah--False\n prophets--The broken covenant--Advance of\n Nebuchadrezzar--Belomancy and Babylonian divinations--Siege of\n Jerusalem--Gloom of Jeremiah's prophecies.\n\n CHAPTER XXXVII\n\n JEREMIAH AND HIS PROPHECIES 449\n\n Pathos of Jeremiah's lot--The sad epoch in which he\n lived--Religious changes--Arrest of Jeremiah--Progress of the\n siege--Zedekiah sends for the prophet--His hardships\n alleviated--Horrors of famine--Wicked defiance--A sudden\n death--Anger of the priests and nobles against Jeremiah--He is\n thrust into a miry pit--Compassion of Ebed-Melech--Purchase of a\n field at Anathoth--Secret interview with Zedekiah--It becomes\n known--Distress of Zedekiah.\n\n CHAPTER XXXVIII\n\n THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (B.C. 586) 457\n\n Nebuzaradan and the Babylonians--The final captivity--Dreadful\n fate of Zedekiah--Prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah--Sack of the\n city--Massacre of the chief inhabitants--Burning of the city and\n Temple--Desolation--Respect shown by the Babylonian general to\n Jeremiah--He decides to remain with the remnant in Jud\u00e6a.\n\n CHAPTER XXXIX\n\n GEDALIAH (B.C. 586) 465\n\n Sad parting from the exiles--The wail at Ramah--Gedaliah's\n appointment as satrap perhaps due to Jeremiah--Desolation of\n Jerusalem--The seat of government removed to Mizpah--A respite and\n a gleam of hope--Guerilla bands--Johanan warns Gedaliah against\n Ishmael--Unsuspecting generosity of the governor--He receives\n Ishmael and his confederates with hospitality--He is brutally\n murdered--Massacre of the pilgrims from Shiloh--The horrible\n well--Johanan pursues Ishmael--His escape--Proposal to migrate to\n Egypt--Jeremiah consulted--His advice refused--Prophecy of\n Jeremiah at the khan of Chimham--Kindness shown by Evil-Merodach\n to Jehoiachin.\n\n EPILOGUE 477\n\n The interest of the preceding history and the great moral lessons\n which it involves--The central conceptions of Hebrew prophecy--The\n end of the whole matter.\n\n APPENDIX I\n\n THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA, AND SOME OF THEIR INSCRIPTIONS 487\n\n APPENDIX II\n\n INSCRIPTION IN THE TUNNEL OF THE POOL OF SILOAM 493\n\n APPENDIX III\n\n WAS THERE A GOLDEN CALF AT DAN? 494\n\n APPENDIX IV\n\n DATES OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AS GIVEN BY KITTEL AND\n OTHER MODERN CRITICS 495\n\n\n\n\n THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS\n\n\n\n\n\"Theories of inspiration which impaginate the Everlasting Spirit, and\nmake each verse a cluster of objectless and mechanical miracles, are\nnot seriously believed by any one: the Bible itself abides in its\nendless power and unexhausted truth. All that is not of asbestos is\nbeing burned away by the restless fires of thought and criticism. That\nwhich remains is enough, and it is indestructible.\"--BISHOP OF DERRY.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n _AHAZIAH BEN-AHAB OF ISRAEL_\n\n B.C. 855-854\n\n 2 KINGS i. 1-18\n\n \"Ye know not of what spirit are ye.\"--LUKE ix. 55.\n\n \"He is the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted\n upon better promises.\"--HEB. viii. 6.\n\n\nAhaziah, the eldest son and successor of Ahab, has been called \"the most\nshadowy of the Israelitish kings.\"[1] He seems to have been in all\nrespects one of the most weak, faithless, and deplorably miserable. He\ndid but reign two years--perhaps in reality little more than one; but\nthis brief space was crowded with intolerable disasters. Everything that\nhe touched seemed to be marked out for ruin or failure, and in character\nhe showed himself a true son of Jezebel and Ahab.\n\nWhat results followed the defeat of Ahab and Jehoshaphat at\nRamoth-Gilead we are not told. The war must have ended in terms of\npeace of some kind--perhaps in the cession of Ramoth-Gilead; for\nAhaziah does not seem to have been disturbed during his brief reign by\nany Syrian invasion. Nor were there any troubles on the side of Judah.\nAhaziah's sister was the wife of Jehoshaphat's heir, and the good\nunderstanding between the two kingdoms was so closely cemented, that\nin both royal houses there was an identity of names--two Ahaziahs and\ntwo Jehorams.\n\nBut even the Jud\u00e6an alliance was marked with misfortune. Jehoshaphat's\nprosperity and ambition, together with his firm dominance over\nEdom--in which country he had appointed a vassal, who was sometimes\nallowed the courtesy title of king[2]--led him to emulate Solomon by\nan attempt to revive the old maritime enterprise which had astonished\nJerusalem with ivory, and apes, and peacocks imported from India. He\ntherefore built \"ships of Tarshish\" at Ezion-Geber to sail to Ophir.\nThey were called \"Tarshish-ships,\" because they were of the same build\nas those which sailed to Tartessus, in Spain, from Joppa. Ahaziah was\nto some extent associated with him in the enterprise. But it turned\nout even more disastrously than it had done in former times. So\nunskilled was the seamanship of those days among all nations except\nthe Ph\u0153nicians, that the whole fleet was wrecked and shattered to\npieces in the very harbour of Ezion-Geber before it had set sail.\n\nAhaziah, whose affinity with the King of Tyre and possession of some\nof the western ports had given his subjects more knowledge of ships\nand voyages, then proposed to Jehoshaphat that the vessels should be\nmanned with sailors from Israel as well as Judah. But Jehoshaphat was\ntired of a futile and expensive effort. He refused a partnership which\nmight easily lead to complications, and on which the prophets of\nJehovah frowned. It was the last attempt made by the Israelites to\nbecome merchants by sea as well as by land.\n\nAhaziah's brief reign was marked by one immense humiliation. David, who\nextended the dominion of the Hebrews in all directions, had smitten the\nMoabites, and inflicted on them one of the horrible atrocities against\nwhich the ill-instructed conscience of men in those days of ignorance\ndid not revolt.[3] He had made the male warriors lie on the ground, and\nthen, measuring them by lines, he put every two lines to death and kept\none alive. After this the Moabites had continued to be tributaries. They\nhad fallen to the share of the Northern Kingdom, and yearly acknowledged\nthe suzerainty of Israel by paying a heavy tribute of the fleeces of a\nhundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams. But now that the\nwarrior Ahab was dead, and Israel had been crushed by the catastrophe at\nRamoth-Gilead, Mesha, the energetic viceroy of Moab, seized his\nopportunity to revolt and to break from the neck of his people the\nodious yoke. The revolt was entirely successful. The sacred historian\ngives us no details, but one of the most priceless of modern\narch\u00e6ological discoveries has confirmed the Scriptural reference by\nsecuring and translating a fragment of Mesha's own account of the\nannals of his reign. We have, in what is called \"The Moabite Stone,\" the\nmemorial written in glorification of himself and of his god Chemosh,\n\"the abomination of the children of Ammon,\" by a contemporary of Ahab\nand Jehoshaphat.[4] It is the oldest specimen which we possess of Hebrew\nwriting; perhaps the only specimen, except the Siloam inscription, which\nhas come down to us from before the date of the Exile. It was discovered\nin 1878 by the German missionary Klein, amid the ruins of the royal city\nof Daibon (Dibon, Num. xxi. 30), and was purchased for the Berlin Museum\nin 1879. Owing to all kinds of errors and intrigues, it did not remain\nin the hands of its purchaser, but was broken into fragments by the\nnomad tribe of Beni Hamide, from whom it was in some way obtained by M.\nClermont-Ganneau. There is no ground for questioning its perfect\ngenuineness, though the discovery of its value led to the forgery of a\nnumber of spurious and often indecent inscriptions. There can be no\nreasonable doubt that when we look at it we see before us the identical\nmemorial of triumph which the Moabite em\u00eer erected in the days of\nAhaziah on the _bamah_ of Chemosh at Dibon, one of his chief towns.\n\nThis document is supremely interesting, not only for its historical\nallusions, but also as an illustration of customs and modes of thought\nwhich have left their traces in the records of the people of Jehovah,\nas well as in those of the people of Chemosh.[5] Mesha tells us that\nhis father reigned in Dibon for thirty years, and that he succeeded.\nHe reared this stone to Chemosh in the town of Karcha, as a memorial\nof gratitude for the assistance which had resulted in the overthrow of\nall his enemies. Omri, King of Israel, had oppressed Moab many days,\nbecause Chemosh was wroth with his people. Ahaziah wished to oppress\nMoab as his father had done. But Chemosh enabled Mesha to recover\nMedeba, and afterwards Baal-Meon, Kirjatan, Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz,\nwhich he reoccupied and rebuilt. Perhaps they had been practically\nabandoned by all effective Israelite garrisons. In some of these towns\nhe put the inhabitants under a ban, and sacrificed them to Moloch in a\ngreat slaughter. In Nebo alone he slew seven thousand men. Having\nturned many towns into fortresses, he was enabled to defy Israel\naltogether, to refuse the old burdensome tribute, and to re-establish\na strong Moabite kingdom east of the Dead Sea; for Israel was wholly\nunable to meet his forces in the open field. Month after month of the\nreign of the miserable son of Ahab must have been marked by tidings of\nshame, defeat, and massacre.\n\nAdded to these public calamities, there came to Ahaziah a terrible\npersonal misfortune. As he was coming down from the roof of his\npalace, he seems to have stopped to lean against the lattice of some\nwindow or balcony in his upper chamber in Samaria.[6] It gave way\nunder his weight, and he was hurled down into the courtyard or street\nbelow. He was so seriously hurt that he spent the rest of his reign on\na sick-bed in pain and weakness, and ultimately died of the injuries\nhe had received.\n\nA succession of woes so grievous might well have awakened the wretched\nking to serious thought. But he had been trained under the idolatrous\ninfluences of his mother. As though it were not enough for him to walk\nin the steps of Ahab, of Jezebel, and of Jeroboam, he had the fatuity to\ngo out of his way to patronise another and yet more odious superstition.\nEkron was the nearest town to him of the Philistine Pentapolis, and at\nEkron was established the local cult of a particular Baal known as\nBaal-Zebub (\"the lord of flies\").[7] Flies, which in temperate countries\nare sometimes an intense annoyance, become in tropical climates an\nintolerable plague. Even the Greeks had their Zeus Apomuios (\"Zeus the\naverter of flies\"), and some Greek tribes worshipped Zeus Ipuktonos\n(\"Zeus the slayer of vermin\"), and Zeus Muiagros and Apomuios, and\nApollo Smintheus (\"the destroyer of mice\").[8] The Romans, too, among\nthe numberless quaint heroes of their Pantheon, had a certain Myiagrus\nand Myiodes, whose function it was to keep flies at a distance.[9] This\nfly-god, Baal-Zebub of Ekron, had an oracle, to whose lying responses\nthe young and superstitious prince attached implicit credence. That a\nking of Israel professing any sort of allegiance to Jehovah, and having\nhundreds of prophets in his own kingdom, should send an embassy to the\nshrine of an abominable local divinity in a town of the\nPhilistines--whose chief object of worship was\n\n \"That twice-battered god of Palestine,\n Who mourned in earnest when the captive ark\n Maimed his brute image on the grunsel edge\n Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshippers\"--\n\nwas, it must be admitted, an act of apostasy more outrageously\ninsulting than had ever yet been perpetrated by any Hebrew king.\nNothing can more clearly illustrate the callous indifference shown by\nthe race of Jezebel to the lessons which God had so decisively taught\nthem by Elijah and by Micaiah.\n\nBut\n\n _Quem vult Deus perire, dementat prius_;\n\nand in this \"dementation preceding doom\" Ahaziah sent to ask the\nfly-god's oracle whether he should recover of his injury. His\ninfatuated perversity became known to Elijah, who was bidden by \"the\nangel,\" or messenger, \"of the Lord\"--which may only be the recognised\nphrase in the prophetic schools, putting in a concrete and vivid form\nthe voice of inward inspiration--to go up, apparently on the road\ntowards Samaria, and meet the messengers of Ahaziah on their way to\nEkron. Where Elijah was at the time we do not know. Ten years had\nelapsed since the calling of Elisha, and four since Elijah had\nconfronted Ahab at the door of Naboth's vineyard. In the interval he\nhas not once been mentioned, nor can we conjecture with the least\ncertainty whether he had been living in congenial solitude or had\nbeen helping to train the Sons of the Prophets in the high duties of\ntheir calling. Why he had not appeared to support Micaiah we cannot\ntell. Now, at any rate, the son of Ahab was drawing upon himself an\nancient curse by going a-whoring after wizards and familiar spirits,\nand it was high time for Elijah to interfere.[10]\n\nThe messengers had not proceeded far on their way when the prophet met\nthem, and sternly bade them go back to their king, with the\ndenunciation, \"Is it because there is no God in Israel that ye go to\ninquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus saith\nJehovah, 'Thou shalt not descend from that bed on which thou art gone\nup, but dying thou shalt die.'\"\n\nHe spoke, and after his manner vanished with no less suddenness.\n\nThe messengers, overawed by that startling apparition, did not dream\nof daring to disobey. They at once went back to the king, who,\nastonished at their reappearance before they could possibly have\nreached the oracle, asked them why they had returned.\n\nThey told him of the apparition by which they had been confronted.\nThat it was a prophet who had spoken to them they knew; but the\nappearances of Elijah had been so few, and at such long intervals,\nthat they knew not who he was.\n\n\"What sort of man was he that spoke to you?\" asked the king.\n\n\"He was,\" they answered, \"a lord of hair,[11] and girded about his\nloins with a girdle of skin.\"[12]\n\nToo well did Ahaziah recognise from this description the enemy of his\nguilty race! If he had not been present on Carmel, or at Jezreel, on\nthe occasions when that swart and shaggy figure of the awful Wanderer\nhad confronted his father, he must have often heard descriptions of\nthis strange Bedawy ascetic who \"feared man so little because he\nfeared God so much.\"\n\n\"It is Elijah the Tishbite!\" he exclaimed, with a bitterness which was\nsucceeded by fierce wrath; and with something of his mother's\nindomitable rage he sent a captain with fifty soldiers to arrest him.\n\nThe captain found Elijah sitting at the top of \"the hill,\" perhaps of\nCarmel; and what followed is thus described:--\n\n\"Thou man of God,\" he cried, \"the king hath said, Come down.\"\n\nThere was something strangely incongruous in this rude address. The\ntitle \"man of God\" seems first to have been currently given to Elijah,\nand it recognises his inspired mission as well as the supernatural\npower which he was believed to wield. How preposterous, then, was it\nto bid a man of God to obey a king's order and to give himself up to\nimprisonment or death!\n\n\"If I be a man of God,\" said Elijah, \"then let fire come down from\nheaven, to consume thee and thy fifty.\"[13]\n\nThe fire fell and reduced them all to ashes.[14]\n\nUndeterred by so tremendous a consummation, the king sent another\ncaptain with his fifty, who repeated the order in terms yet more\nimperative.[15]\n\nAgain Elijah called down the fire from heaven, and the second captain\nwith his fifty soldiers was reduced to ashes.\n\nFor the third time the obstinate king, whose infatuation must indeed\nhave been transcendent, despatched a captain with his fifty. But he,\nwarned by the fate of his predecessors, went up to Elijah and fell on\nhis knees, and implored him to spare the life of himself and his fifty\ninnocent soldiers.\n\nThen \"the angel of the Lord\" bade Elijah go down to the king with him\nand not be afraid.\n\nWhat are we to think of this narrative?\n\nOf course, if we are to judge it on such moral grounds as we learn from\nthe spirit of the Gospel, Christ Himself has taught us to condemn it.\nThere have been men who so hideously misunderstood the true lessons of\nrevelation as to applaud such deeds, and hold them up for modern\nimitation. The dark persecutors of the Spanish Inquisition, nay, even\nmen like Calvin and Beza, argued from this scene that \"fire is the\nproper instrument for the punishment of heretics.\" To all who have been\nthus misled by a false and superstitious theory of inspiration, Christ\nHimself says, with unmistakable plainness, as He said to the Sons of\nThunder at Engannim, \"Ye know not what spirit ye are of. I am not come\nto destroy men's lives, but to save.\"[16] In the abstract, and judged by\nChristian standards, the calling down of lightning to consume more than\na hundred soldiers, who were but obeying the orders of a king--the\nprotection of personal safety by the miraculous destruction of a king's\nmessengers--could only be regarded as a deed of horror. \"There are few\ntracks of Elijah that are ordinary and fit for common feet,\" says Bishop\nHall; and he adds, \"Not in his own defence would the prophet have been\nthe death of so many, if God had not, by a peculiar instinct, made him\nan instrument of His just vengeance.\"[17]\n\nFor myself, I more than doubt whether we have any right to appeal to\nthese \"peculiar instincts\" and unrecorded inspirations; and it is so\nimportant that we should not form utterly false views of what\nScripture does and does not teach, that we must once more deal with\nthis narrative quite plainly, and not beat about the bush with the\nuntenable devices and effeminate euphemisms of commentators, who give\nus the \"to-and-fro-conflicting\" apologies of _a priori_ theory instead\nof the clear judgments of inflexible morality.\n\n\"It is impossible not to feel,\" says Professor Milligan,[18] \"that the\nevents thus presented to us are of a very startling kind, and that it\nis not easy to reconcile them either with the conception that we form\nof an honoured servant of God, or with our ideas of eternal justice.\nElijah rather appears to us at first sight as a proud, arrogant, and\nmerciless wielder of the power committed to him: we wonder that an\nanswer should have been given to his prayer; we are shocked at the\ndestruction of so many men, who listened only to the command of their\ncaptain and their king; and we cannot help contrasting Elijah's\nconduct, as a whole, with the beneficent and loving tenderness of the\nNew Testament dispensation.\"\n\nProfessor Milligan proceeds rightly to set aside the attempts which\nhave been made to represent the first two captains and their fifties\nas especially guilty--which is a most flimsy hypothesis, and would not\nin any case touch the heart of the matter. He says that the event\nstands on exactly the same footing as the slaughter of the 450\nprophets of Baal at Kishon, and of the 3000 idolaters by order of\nMoses at Sinai; the swallowing up of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; the\nban of total extirpation on Jericho and on Canaan; the sweeping\nmassacre of the Amalekites by Saul; and many similar instances of\nrecorded savagery. But the reference to analogous acts furnishes no\njustification for those acts. What, then, is their justification, if\nany can be found?\n\nSome would defend them on the grounds that the potter may do what he\nlikes with the clay. That analogy, though perfectly admissible when\nused for the purpose to which it is applied by St. Paul, is grossly\ninapplicable to such cases as this. St. Paul uses it simply to prove\nthat we cannot judge or understand the purposes of God, in which, as\nhe shows, mercy often lies behind apparent severity. But, when urged\nto maintain the rectitude of sweeping judgments in which a man arms\nhis own feebleness with the omnipotence of Heaven, they amount to no\nmore than the tyrant's plea that \"might makes right.\" \"Man is a reed,\"\nsaid Pascal, \"but he is a _thinking_ reed.\" He may not therefore be\nindiscriminately crushed. He was made by God in His image, after His\nlikeness, and therefore his rights have a Divine and indefeasible\nsanction.\n\nAll that can be said is that these deeds of wholesale severity were\nnot in disaccord with the conscience even of many of the best Old\nTestament saints. They did not feel the least compunction in\ninflicting judgments on whole populations in a way which would argue\nin us an infamous callousness. Nay, their consciences approved of\nthose deeds; they were but acting up to the standard of their times,\nand they regarded themselves as righteous instruments of divinely\ndirected vengeance.[19] Take, for instance, the frightful Eastern law\nwhich among the Jews no less than among Babylonians and Persians\nthought nothing of overwhelming the innocent with the guilty in the\nsame catastrophe; which required the stoning, not only of Achan, but\nof all Achan's innocent family, as an expiation for his theft; and the\nstoning, not only of Naboth, but also of Naboth's sons, in requital\nfor his asserted blasphemy. Two reasons may be assigned for the chasm\nbetween their moral sense and ours on such subjects--one was their\namazing indifference to the sacredness of human life, and the other\ntheir invariable habit of regarding men in their corporate relations\nrather than in their individual capacity. Our conscience teaches us\nthat to slay the innocent with the guilty is an action of monstrous\ninjustice;[20] but they, regarding each person as indissolubly mixed\nup with all his family and tribe, magnified the conception of\n_corporate responsibility_, and merged the individual in the mass.\n\nIt is clear that, if we take the narrative literally, Elijah would not\nhave felt the least remorse in calling fire from heaven to consume these\nscores of soldiers, because the prophetic narrator who recorded the\nstory, perhaps two centuries later, must have understood the spirit of\nthose days, and certainly felt no shame for the prophet's act of\nvengeance. On the contrary, he relates it with entire approval for the\nglorification of his hero. We cannot blame him for not rising above the\nmoral standard of his age. He held that the natural manifestation of an\nangry Jehovah was, literally or metaphorically, in consuming fire.\nConsidering the slow education of mankind in the most elementary\nprinciples of mercy and righteousness, we must not judge the views of\nprophets who lived so many ages before Christ by those of religious\nteachers who enjoy the inherited experience of two millenniums of\nChristianity. Thus much is plainly taught us by Christ Himself, and\nthere perhaps we might be content to leave the question. But we are\ncompelled to ask, Do we not too much form all our judgments of the\nScripture narratives on _a priori_ traditions and unreasoned prejudices?\nCan we with adequate knowledge and honest conviction declare our\ncertainty that this scene of destruction ever occurred as a literal\nfact? If we turn to any of the great students and critics of Germany, to\nwhom we are indebted for the floods of light which their researches have\nthrown on the sacred page, they with almost consentient voice regard\nthese details of this story as legendary. There is indeed every reason\nto believe the account of Ahaziah's accident, of his sending to consult\nthe oracle of Baal-Zebub, of the turning back of his messengers by\nElijah, and of the menace which he heard from the prophet's lips. But\nthe calling down of lightning to consume his captains and soldiers to\nashes belongs to the cycle of Elijah-traditions preserved in the schools\nof the prophets; and in the case of miracles so startling and to our\nmoral sense so repellent--miracles which assume the most insensate folly\non the part of the king, and the most callous ruthlessness on the part\nof the prophet--the question may be fairly asked, Is there any proof, is\nthere anything beyond dogmatic assertion to convince us, that we were\nintended to accept them _au pied de la lettre_? May they not be the\nformal vehicle chosen for the illustration of the undoubted powers and\nrighteous mission of Elijah as the upholder of the worship of Jehovah?\nIn a literature which abounds, as all Eastern literature abounds, in\nvivid and concrete methods of indicating abstract truths, have we any\ncogent proof that the supernatural details, of which some may have been\nintroduced into these narratives by the scribes in the schools of the\nprophets, were not, in some instances, _meant_ to be regarded as\nimaginative apologues? The most orthodox divines, both Jewish and\nChristian, have not hesitated to treat the Book of Jonah as an instance\nof the use of fiction for purposes of moral and spiritual edification.\nWere any critic to maintain that the story of the destruction of\nAhaziah's emissaries belongs to the same class of narratives, I do not\nknow how he could be refuted, however much he might be denounced by\nstereotyped prejudice and ignorance. I do not, however, myself regard\nthe story as a mere parable composed to show how awful was the power of\nthe prophets, and how fearfully it might be exercised. I look upon it\nrather as possibly the narrative of some event which has been\nimaginatively embellished, and intermingled with details which we call\nsupernatural.[21] Circumstances which we consider natural would be\nregarded as directly miraculous by an Eastern enthusiast, who saw in\nevery event the immediate act of Jehovah to the exclusion of all\nsecondary causes, and who attributed every occurrence of life to the\nintervention of those \"millions of spiritual creatures,\" who\n\n \"walk the earth\n Unseen both when we wake and when we sleep.\"\n\nIf such a supposition be correct and admissible--and assuredly it is\nbased on all that we increasingly learn of the methods of Eastern\nliterature, and of the forms in which religious ideas were inculcated\nin early ages--then all difficulties are removed. We are not dealing\nwith the mercilessness of a prophet, or the wielding of Divine powers\nin a manner which higher revelation condemns, but only with the\nwell-known fact that the Elijah-spirit was not the Christ-spirit, and\nthat the scribes of Ramah or Gilgal, and \"the men of the tradition\"\nand the \"men of letters\" who lived at Jabez, when they used the\nmethods of Targum and Haggadah in handing down the stories of the\nprophets, had not received that full measure of enlightenment which\ncame only when the Light of the World had shone.[22]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Rawlinson, _Kings of Israel and Judah_, p. 86. \"The name of\nAhaziah ('the Lord taketh hold'), like that of all Ahab's sons,\ntestifies to the fact that the husband of Jezebel still worshipped\nJehovah. Among the names of the judges and kings before Ahab in\nIsrael, and Asa in Judah, scarcely a single instance occurs of names\ncompounded with Jehovah; thenceforward they became the rule\"\n(Wellhausen, _Israel and Judah_, Es. 1, p. 66).\n\n[2] 1 Kings xxii. 47; 2 Kings iii. 9: comp. viii. 20.\n\n[3] 2 Sam. viii. 2. On the ethics of these wars of extermination, such\nas are commanded in the Pentateuch, and were practised by Joshua,\nSamuel, Saul, David, and others, see Josh. vi. 17; 1 Sam. xv. 3, 33; 2\nSam. viii. 2, etc., and Mozley's _Lectures on the Old Testament_, pp.\n83-103.\n\n[4] See Stade, i. 86. He gives a photograph and translation of it at\np. 534.\n\n[5] See _Records of the Past_, xi. 166, 167.\n\n[6] 2 Kings i. 2; Heb., _be'ad hass'bak\u0101h_; LXX., \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03c9\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6;\nVulg., _per cancellos_ (comp. 1 Kings vii. 18; 2 Chron. iv. 12).\n\n[7] LXX., \u0392\u03ac\u03b1\u03bb \u03bc\u03c5\u1fd6\u03b1\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u1f78\u03bd \u1f08\u03ba\u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03ce\u03bd. So, too, Jos., _Antt._, IX. ii. 1.\nIt is possible that the god was represented holding a fly as the type\nof pestilence, just as the statue of Pthah held in its hands a mouse\n(Herod., ii. 141). Flies convey all kinds of contagion (Plin., _H.\nN._, x. 28).\n\n[8] Pausan., v. 14, \u00a7 2.\n\n[9] The name, or a derisive modification of it, was given by the Jews\nin the days of Christ to the prince of the devils. In Matt. xii. 24\nthe true reading is \u0392\u03b5\u03b5\u03bb\u03b6\u03b5\u03b2\u03bf\u03cd\u03bb, which perhaps means (in contempt) \"the\nlord of dung\"; but might mean \"the lord of the [celestial] habitation\"\n(\u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd). Comp. Matt. x. 25; Eph. ii. 2; \"Baal Shamaim,\" the\nBelsamen of Augustine (Gesen., _Monum. Ph\u0153nic._, 387; Movers,\n_Ph\u00f6nizier_, i. 176). For \"opprobrious puns\" applied to idols, see\nLightfoot, _Exercitationes ad Matt._, xii. 24. The common word for\nidols, _gilloolim_, is perhaps connected with _galal_, \"dung.\" Hitzig\nthinks that the god was represented under the symbol of the _Scarab\u00e6us\npillularius_, or dung-beetle.\n\n[10] Lev. xx. 6.\n\n[11] \u05e9\u05b5\u05c2\u05e6\u05b7\u05e8 \u05d1\u05b7\u05bc\u05d0\u05b7\u05dc (LXX., \u03b4\u03b1\u03c3\u03cd\u03c2), whether in reference to his long\nshaggy locks, or his sheepskin _addereth_, \u03bc\u03b7\u03bb\u03c9\u03c4\u03ae (Zech. xiii. 4; Heb.\nxii. 37).\n\n[12] \u03b6\u03ce\u03bd\u03b7 \u03b4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03af\u03bd\u03b7 (Matt iii. 4).\n\n[13] There is perhaps an intentional play of words between \"man (\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1)\nof God\" and \"fire (\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1) of God\" (Klostermann).\n\n[14] Hebrew.\n\n[15] \"Come down _quickly_\" (2 Kings i. 9).\n\n[16] Luke ix. 51-56. This is a more than sufficient answer to the\ncensure of Theodoret, that \"they who condemn the prophet are wagging\ntheir tongues against God.\" The remark is based on utter\nmisapprehension; and if we are to form no judgment on the morality of\nScripture examples, they would be of no help for us. Compare the\nstriking remark of the minister to Balfour of Burleigh in Scott's _Old\nMortality_.\n\n[17] Quoted by Rev. Professor Lumby, _ad loc._\n\n[18] _Elijah_, p. 146.\n\n[19] This is practically the sum-total of the answer given again and\nagain by Canon Mozley in his _Lectures on the Old Testament_, 2nd\nedition, 1878. For instance, he says that \"the Jewish idea of justice\ngives us the reason why the Divine commands (of exterminating wars,\netc.) were then adapted to man as the agent for executing them, and\nare not adapted now\" (p. 102).\n\n[20] Comp. Ezek. xviii. 2-30.\n\n[21] For the _idea_ involved see Num. xi. 1; Deut. iv. 24; Psalm xxi.\n9; Isa. xxvi. 11; Heb. x. 27, etc.\n\n[22] 1 Chron. ii. 55, where \"Shimeathites\" means \"men of the\ntradition,\" and \"scribes,\" \"men of letters.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n _THE ASCENSION OF ELIJAH_\n\n 2 KINGS ii. 1-18\n\n \u1f28\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f10\u03be \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03c1\u03ce\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd \u1f20\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f14\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9 \u03bc\u03b5\u03c7\u03c1\u1f76\u03c2 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c3\u03ae\u03bc\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\n \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd.--JOS., _Antt._, IX. ii. 2.\n\n \u0393\u03b5\u03b3\u03cc\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u1f00\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2, \u03b8\u03ac\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03b4\u1f72 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f36\u03b4\u03b5\u03bd.--ST. EPHR\u00c6M\n SYRUS.\n\n\nThe date of the assumption of Elijah is wholly uncertain, and it\nbecomes still more so because of the confusion of chronological order\nwhich results from the composite character of the records here\ncollected. It appears from various scattered notices that Elijah lived\non till the reign of Jehoram of Judah, whereas the narrative in this\nchapter is placed before the death of Jehoshaphat.\n\nWhen the time came that \"Jehovah would take up Elijah by a whirlwind\ninto heaven,\" the prophet had a prevision of his approaching end, and\ndetermined for the last time to visit the hills of his native Gilead.\nThe story of his end, though not written in rhythm, is told in a style\nof the loftiest poetry, resembling other ancient poems in its simple\nand solemn repetitions. On his way to Gilead, Elijah desires to visit\nancient sanctuaries where schools of the prophets were now\nestablished, and accompanied by Elisha, whose faithful ministrations\nhe had enjoyed for ten almost silent years, he went to Gilgal. This\nwas not the Gilgal in the Jordan valley so famous in the days of\nJoshua,[23] but _Jiljilia_ in the hills of Ephraim,[24] where many\nyoung prophets were in course of training.[25]\n\nKnowing that he was on his way to death, Elijah felt the imperious\ninstinct which leads the soul to seek solitude at the supreme crises\nof life. He would have preferred that even Elisha should leave him,\nand he bade him stop at Gilgal, because the Lord had sent him as far\nas Bethel. But Elisha was determined to see the end, and exclaimed\nwith strong asseveration, \"As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth,\nI will not leave thee.\"\n\nSo they went on to Bethel, where there was another school of prophets,\nunder the immediate shadow of Jeroboam's golden calf, though we are\nnot told whether they continued the protest of the old nameless seer\nfrom Judah, or not.[26] Here the youths of the college came\nrespectfully to Elisha--for they were prevented by a sense of awe from\naddressing Elijah--and asked him \"whether he knew that that day God\nwould take away his master.\" \"Yes, I know it,\" he answers; but--for\nthis is no subject for idle talk--\"hold ye your peace.\"\n\nOnce more Elijah tries to shake off the attendance of his friend and\ndisciple. He bids him stay at Bethel, since Jehovah has sent him on to\nJericho. Once more Elisha repeats his oath that he will not leave\nhim, and once more the sons of the prophets at Jericho, who warn him\nof what is coming, are told to say no more.\n\nBut little of the journey now remains. In vain Elijah urges Elisha to\nstay at Jericho; they proceed to Jordan. Conscious that some great\nevent is impending, and that Elijah is leaving these scenes for ever,\nfifty of the sons of the prophets watch the two as they descend the\nvalley to the river. Here they saw Elijah take off his mantle of hair,\nroll it up, and smite the waters with it. The waters part asunder, and\nthe prophets pass over dry-shod.[27] As they crossed over Elijah asks\nElisha what he should do for him, and Elisha entreats that a double\nportion of Elijah's spirit may rest upon him. By this he does not mean\nto ask for twice Elijah's power and inspiration, but only for an elder\nson's portion, which was twice what was inherited by the younger\nsons.[28] \"Thou hast asked a hard thing,\" said Elijah; \"but if thou\nseest me when I am taken hence, it shall be so.\"\n\nThe sequel can be only told in the words of the text: \"And it came to\npass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared\na chariot of fire, and horses of fire,[29] and parted them both\nasunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw\nit, and he cried, 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and\nthe horsemen thereof!'[30] And he saw him no more.\"\n\nRespecting the manner in which Elijah ended his earthly career, we\nknow nothing beyond what is conveyed by this splendid narrative. His\ndeath, like that of Moses, was surrounded by mystery and miracles, and\nwe can say nothing further about it. The question must still remain\nunanswered for many minds whether it was intended by the prophetic\nannalists for literal history, for spiritual allegory, or for actual\nevents bathed in the colourings of an imagination to which the\nprovidential assumed the aspect of the supernatural.[31] We are twice\ntold that \"Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,\"[32] and in that\nstorm--which would have seemed a fit scene for the close of a career\nof storm--God, in the high poetry of the Psalmist, may have made the\nwinds His angels, and the flames of fire His ministers. For us it must\nsuffice to say of Elijah, as the Book of Genesis says of Enoch, that\n\"he was not, for God took him.\"\n\nElisha signalised the removal of his master by a burst of natural\ngrief. He seized his garments and rent them in twain. Elijah had\ndropped his mantle of skin, and his grieving disciple took it with him\nas a priceless relic.[33] The legendary St. Antony bequeathed to St.\nAthanasius the only thing which he had, his sheepskin mantle; and in\nthe mantle of Elijah his successor inherited his most characteristic\nand almost his sole possession. He returned to Jordan, and with this\nmantle he smote the waters as Elijah had done. At first they did not\ndivide;[34] but when he exclaimed, \"Where is the Lord, the God of\nElijah, even He?\" they parted hither and thither. Seeing the portent,\nthe sons of the prophets came with humble prostrations, and\nacknowledged him as their new leader.\n\nThey were not, however, satisfied with what they had seen, or had\nheard from Elisha, of the departure of the great prophet, and begged\nleave to send fifty strong men to search whether the wind of the Lord\nhad not swept him away to some mountain or valley. Elisha at first\nrefused, but afterwards yielded to their persistent importunity. They\nsearched for three days among the hills of Gilead, but found him not,\neither living or dead, as Elisha had warned them would be the case.\n\nFrom that time forward Elijah has taken his place in all Jewish and\nMohammedan legends as the mysterious and deathless wanderer. Malachi\nspoke of him as destined to appear again to herald the coming of the\nMessiah,[35] and Christ taught His disciples that John the Baptist had\ncome in the spirit and power of Elijah. In Jewish legend he often\nappears and disappears. A chair is set for him at the circumcision of\nevery Jewish child. At the Paschal feast the door is set open for him\nto enter. All doubtful questions are left for decision until he comes\nagain. To the Mohammedans he is known as the wonder-working and awful\nEl Khudr.[36]\n\nElisha is mentioned but once in all the later books of Scripture; but\nElijah is mentioned many times, and the son of Sirach sums up his\ngreatness when he says: \"Then stood up Elias as fire, and his word\nburned like a torch. O Elias, how wast thou honoured in thy wondrous\ndeeds! and who may glory like unto thee--who anointed kings to take\nrevenge, and prophets to succeed after him--who wast ordained for\nreproof in their times, to pacify the wrath of the Lord's judgment\nbefore it broke forth into fury, and to turn the heart of the father\nunto the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob! Blessed are they\nthat saw thee and slept in love; for we shall surely live!\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[23] Josh. iv. 19; v. 9, 10.\n\n[24] Deut. xi. 30. It is on a hill south-west of Shiloh (_Seilun_),\nnear the road to Jericho (Hos. iv. 15; Amos iv. 4). The name means \"a\ncircle,\" and there may have been an ancient circle of sacred stones\nthere.\n\n[25] 2 Kings iv. 38.\n\n[26] 1 Kings xiii.\n\n[27] As there are fords at Jericho, the object of this miracle, as of\nthe one subsequently ascribed to Elisha, is not self-evident. Nothing\nis more certain than that there is a Divine economy in the exercise of\nsupernatural powers. The pomp and prodigality of superfluous portents\nbelong, not to Scripture, but to the _Acta sanctorum_, and the\nsaint-stories of Arabia and India.\n\n[28] Deut. xxi. 17. The Hebrew is \u05e4\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05be\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e0\u05b7\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd, \"a mouthful, or\nration of two.\" Comp. Gen. xliii. 34. Even Ewald's \"_Nur Zweidrittel\nund auch diese kaum_\" is too strong (_Gesch._, iii. 517). In no sense\nwas Elisha greater than Elijah: he wrought more wonders, but he left\nlittle of his teaching, and produced on the mind of his nation a far\nless strong impression.\n\n[29] In 2 Kings vi. 17 the stormblast (_s\u0101'\u0101r\u0101h_) and chariots and\nhorses of fire are part of a vision of the Divine protection. Comp.\nIsa. lxvi. 15; Job xxxviii, 1; Nah. i. 3; Psalms xviii. 6-15, civ. 3.\n\n[30] That is, the protection and defence of Israel by thy prayers.\n\n[31] Even the Church-father St. Ephr\u00e6m Syrus evidently felt some\nmisgivings. He says: \"Suddenly there came from the height a storm of\nfire, and in the midst of the flame the form of a chariot and horses,\nand parted them both asunder; the one of them it left on the earth, the\nother it carried to the height; but whether the wind carried him, or in\nwhat place it left him, the Scripture has not informed us, but it says\nthat after some years, a terrifying letter from him full of menaces, was\ndelivered to King Jehoram of Judah\" (quoted by Keil _ad loc._). See 2\nChron. xxi. 12. The letter is called \"a writing\" (_mikt\u00e2b_).\n\n[32] 2 Kings ii. 11; Ecclus. xlviii. 12. The LXX. curiously says \u1f10\u03bd\n\u03c3\u03c5\u03c3\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1ff7 \u1f61\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd. So too the Rabbis, _Sucah_, f. 5.\n\n[33] The circumstance has left its trace in the proverbs of nations,\nand in the German word _Mantelkind_ for a spiritual successor.\n\n[34] 2 Kings ii. 14. LXX., \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f50 \u03b4\u03b9\u1fc3\u03c1\u03ad\u03b8\u03b7; Vulg., _Percussit aquas, et\nnon sunt divis\u00e6_.\n\n[35] Mal. iv. 4-6.\n\n[36] _Bava-Metzia_, f. 37, 2, etc. His name is used for incantations in\nthe Kabbala. _Kitsur Sh'lh_, f. 71, 1 (Hershon, _Talmudic Miscellany_,\np. 340). The chair set for him is called \"the throne of Elijah.\" For\nmany Rabbinic legends see Hershon, _Treasures of the Talmud_, pp.\n172-178. The Persians regard him as the teacher of Zoroaster.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n _ELISHA_\n\n 2 KINGS ii. 1-25\n\n \"He did wonders in his life, and at death even his works were\n marvellous. For all this the people repented not.\"--ECCLUS.\n xlviii. 14, 15.\n\n\nAt this point we enter into the cycle of supernatural stories, which\ngathered round the name of Elisha in the prophetic communities. Some of\nthem are full of charm and tenderness; but in some cases it is difficult\nto point out their intrinsic superiority over the ecclesiastical\nmiracles with which monkish historians have embellished the lives of the\nsaints. We can but narrate them as they stand, for we possess none of\nthe means for critical or historical analysis which might enable us to\ndiscriminate between essential facts and accidental elements.\n\nWe see at once that the figure of Elisha[37] is far less impressive\nthan that of Elijah. He inspires less of awe and terror. He lives far\nmore in cities and amid the ordinary surroundings of civilised life.\nThe honour with which he was treated was the honour of respect and\nadmiration for his kindliness. He plays his part in no stupendous\nscenes like those at Carmel and at Horeb, and nearly all his miracles\nwere miracles of mercy. Other remarkable differences are observable\nin the records of Elijah and Elisha. In the case of the former his\nmain work was the opposition to Baal-worship; but although\nBaal-worship still prevailed (2 Kings x. 18-27) we read of no protests\nraised by Elisha against it. \"With him\"--perhaps it should be more\naccurately said, in the narrative which tells us of him--\"the miracles\nare everything, the prophetic work nothing.\" The conception of a\nprophet's mission in these stories of him differs widely from that\nwhich dominates the splendid _midrash_ of Elijah.\n\nHis separate career began with an act of beneficence. He had stopped for\na time at Jericho. The curse of the rebuilding of the town upon a site\nwhich Joshua had devoted to the ban had expended itself on Hiel, its\nbuilder. It was now a flourishing city, and the home of a large school\nof prophets. But though the situation was pleasant as \"a garden of the\nLord,\"[38] the water was bad, and the land \"miscarried.\" In other words,\nthe deleterious spring caused diseases among the inhabitants, and caused\nthe trees to cast their fruit. So the men of the city came to Elisha,\nand humbly addressing him as \"my lord,\" implored his help. He told them\nto bring him a new cruse full of salt, and going with it to the fountain\ncast it into the springs, proclaiming in Jehovah's name that they were\nhealed, and that there should be no more death or miscarrying land. The\ngushing waters of the Ain-es-Sult\u00e2n, fed by the spring of Quarantania,\nare to this day pointed out as the Fountains of Elisha, as they have\nbeen since the days of Josephus.[39]\n\nThe anecdote of this beautiful interposition to help a troubled city is\nfollowed by one of the stories which naturally repel us more than any\nother in the Old Testament. Elisha, on leaving Jericho, returned to\nBethel, and as he climbed through the forest up the ascent leading to\nthe town through what is now called the Wady Suwein\u00eet, a number of young\nlads--with the rudeness which in boys is often a venial characteristic\nof their gay spirits or want of proper training, and which to this day\nis common among boys in the East--laughed at him, and mocked him with\nthe cry \"Go up, round-head! go up, round-head!\"[40] What struck these\nill-bred and irreverent youngsters was the contrast between the rough\nhair-skin garb and unkempt shaggy locks of Elijah, \"the lord of hair,\"\nand the smooth civilised aspect and shorter hair of his disciple. If the\nword _quereach_ means \"bald\"[41] we see an additional reason for their\nill-mannered jeers, since baldness was a cause of reproach and suspicion\nin the East, where it is comparatively rare. No doubt, too, the conduct\nof these young scoffers was the more offensive, and even the more\nwicked, because of the deeper reverence for age which prevails in\nEastern countries, and above all because Elisha was known as a prophet.\nPerhaps, too, if some other reading lies behind the \u1f10\u03bb\u03af\u03b8\u03b1\u03b6\u03bf\u03bd of one MS.\nof the Septuagint, they pelted him with stones.[42] That Elisha should\nhave rebuked them, and that seriously--that he should even have\ninflicted some punishment upon them to reform their manners--would have\nbeen natural; but we cannot repress the shudder with which we read the\nverse, \"And he turned back and looked on them, and cursed them in the\nname of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood,\nand tare forty-and-two children of them.\" Surely the punishment was\ndisproportionate to the offence! Who could doom so much as a single rude\nboy, not to speak of forty-two, to a horrible and agonising death for\nshouting after any one? It is the chief exception to the general course\nof Elisha's compassionate interpositions. Here, too, we must leave the\nnarrative where it is; but we hold it quite admissible to conjecture\nthat the incident, in some form or other, really occurred--that the boys\nwere insolent, and that some of them may have been killed by the wild\nbeasts which at that time abounded in Palestine--and yet that the\n_nuances_ of the story which cause deepest offence to us may have\nsuffered from some corruption of the tradition in the original records,\nand may admit of being represented in a slightly different form.\n\nAfter this Elisha went for a time to the ancient haunts of his master\non Mount Carmel, and thence returned to Samaria, the capital of his\ncountry, which he seems to have chosen for his most permanent\ndwelling-place.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[37] The name Elisha means \"My God is salvation.\"\n\n[38] Gen. xiii. 10. \"The city of palms\" (Deut. xxxiv. 3).\n\n[39] Jos., _B. J._, IV. viii. 3; Robinson, _Bibl. Researches_, i. 554.\n\n[40] Abarbanel's notion that they meant \"Ascend to heaven as Elijah\ndid\" is absurd.\n\n[41] \u05e7\u05b5\u05e8\u05b5\u05d4\u05b7. This means bald at the back of the head, as \u05e0\u05b4\u05d1\u05b5\u05bc\u05d4\u05b7\n(_gibbeach_), means \"forehead-bald\" (Ewald, iii. 512). Elisha could\nnot have been bald from old age, since he lived on for nearly sixty\nyears, and must have been a young man. Baldness involved a suspicion\nof leprosy, and was disliked by Easterns (Lev. xxi. 5, xiii. 43; Isa.\niii. 17, 24, xv. 2), as much as by the Romans (Suet., _Jul. C\u00e6s._, 45;\n_Domit._, 18). Elisha's prophetic activity lasted through the reigns\nof Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash (_i.e._, 12 + 28 + 17 + 2 years).\n\n[42] The \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c0\u03b1\u03b9\u03b6\u03bf\u03bd of the Vat. LXX. implies persistent and vehement\ninsult. The Post-Mishnic Rabbis, however, say that Elisha was punished\nwith sickness for this deed (_Bava-Metzia_, f. 87, 1).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n _THE INVASION OF MOAB_\n\n 2 KINGS iii. 4-27\n\n \"What reinforcement we may gain from hope,\n If not, what resolution from despair.\"\n MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, i. 190.\n\n\nAhaziah, as Elijah had warned him, never recovered from the injuries\nreceived in his fall through the lattice, and after his brief and\nluckless reign died without a child. He was succeeded by his brother\nJehoram (\"Jehovah is exalted\"), who reigned for twelve years.[43]\n\nJehoram began well. Though it is said that he did \"that which was evil\nin the sight of the Lord,\" we are told that he was not so guilty as his\nfather or his mother. He did not, of course, abolish the worship of\nJehovah under the cherubic symbol of the calves; no king of Israel\nthought of doing that, and so far as we know neither Elijah, nor Elisha,\nnor Jonah, nor Micaiah, nor any genuine prophet of Israel before Hosea,\never protested against that worship, which was chiefly disparaged by\nprophets of Judah like Amos and the nameless seer.[44] But Jehoram at\nleast removed the _Matstsebah_ or stone obelisk which had been reared in\nBaal's honour in front of his temple by Ahab, or by Jezebel in his\nname.[45] In this direction, however, his reformation must have been\nexceedingly partial, for until the sweeping measures taken by Jehu the\ntemple and images of Baal still continued to exist in Samaria under his\nvery eyes, and must have been connived at if not approved.\n\nThe first great measure which occupied the thoughts of Jehoram was to\nsubdue the kingdom of Moab, which had been restored to independence by\nthe bravery of the great pastoral-king Mesha;[46] or at any rate to\navenge the series of humiliating defeats which Mesha had inflicted on\nhis brother Ahaziah. A war of forty years' duration[47] had ended in the\ncomplete success of Moab. The loss of a tribute of the fleeces of one\nhundred thousand lambs and one hundred thousand rams was too serious to\nbe lightly faced.[48] Jehoram laid his plans well. First he ordered a\nmuster of all the men of war throughout his kingdom, and then appealed\nfor the co-operation of Jehoshaphat and his vassal-king of Edom. Both\nkings consented to join him. Jehoshaphat had already been the victim of\na powerful and wanton aggression on the part of King Mesha,[49] from\nwhich he had been delivered by the panic of his foes in the Valley of\nSalt. Though the king of Edom had, on that occasion, been an ally of\nMesha, the forces of Edom had fallen the first victims of that\ninternecine panic. Both Judah and Edom, therefore, had grave wrongs to\navenge, and eagerly seized the opportunity to humble the growing pride\nof the people of Chemosh. The attack was wisely arranged. It was\ndetermined to advance against Moab from the south, through the territory\nof Edom, by a rough and mountainous track, and, as far as possible, to\ntake the nation by surprise. The combined host took a seven days'\ncircuit round the south of the Dead Sea, hoping to find an abundant\nsupply of water in the stream which flows through the Wady-el-Ahsa,\nwhich separates Edom from Moab.[50] But owing to recent droughts the\nWady was waterless, and the armies, with their horses, suffered all the\nagonies of thirst. Jehoram gave way to despair, bewailing that Jehovah\nshould have brought together these three kings to deliver them a\nhelpless prey into the hands of Moab. But the pious Jehoshaphat at once\nthinks of \"inquiring of the Lord\" by some true prophet, and one of\nJehoram's courtiers informs him that no less a person than Elisha, the\nson of Shaphat, who had been the attendant of Elijah, is with the\nhost.[51] We are surprised to find that his presence in the camp had\nexcited so little attention as to be unknown to the king;[52] but\nJehoshaphat, on hearing his name, instantly acknowledged his prophetic\ninspiration. So urgent was the need, and so deep the sense of Elisha's\ngreatness, that the three kings in person went on an embassy \"to the\nservant of him who ran before the chariot of Ahab.\" Their humble appeal\nto him produced so little elation in his mind that, addressing Jehoram,\nwho was the most powerful, he exclaimed, with rough indignation: \"What\nhave I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy\nfather,\"--nominal prophets of Jehovah, who will say to thee smooth\nthings and prophesy deceits, as four hundred of them did to Ahab--\"and\nto the Baal-prophets of thy mother.\" Instead of resenting this scant\nrespect Jehoram, in utmost distress, deprecated the prophet's anger, and\nappealed to his pity for the peril of the three armies. But Elisha is\nnot mollified. He tells Jehoram that but for the presence of Jehoshaphat\nhe would not so much as look at him: so completely was the destiny of\nthe people mixed up with the character of their kings! Out of respect\nfor Jehoshaphat Elisha will do what he can. But all his soul is in a\ntumult of emotion. For the moment he can do nothing. He needs to be\ncalmed from his agitation by the spell of music, and bids them send a\nminstrel to him. The harper came, and as Elisha listened his soul was\ncomposed, and \"the hand of the Lord came upon him\" to illuminate and\ninspire his thoughts.[53] The result was that he bade them dig trenches\nin the dry wady, and promised that, though they should see neither wind\nnor rain, the valley should be filled with water to quench the thirst of\nthe fainting armies, their horses and their cattle. After this God would\nalso deliver the Moabites into their hand; and they were bidden to smite\nthe cities, fell the trees, stop the wells, and mar the smiling\npasture-lands, which constituted the wealth of Moab, with stones. That\nthe hosts of Judah and Israel and jealous Edom should be prone to\nafflict this awfully devastating vengeance on a power by which they had\nbeen so severely defeated on past occasions, and on which they had so\nmany wrongs and blood-feuds to avenge, was natural; but it is surprising\nto find a prophet of the Lord giving the commission to ruin the gifts of\nGod and spoil the innocent labours of man, and thus to inflict misery on\ngenerations yet unborn. The behest is directly contrary to rules of\ninternational war which have prevailed even between non-Christian\nnations, among whom the stopping or poisoning of wells and the cutting\ndown of fruit trees has been expressly forbidden. It is also against the\nrules of war laid down in Deuteronomy.[54] Such, however, was the\ncommand attributed to Elisha; and, as we shall see, it was fulfilled,\nand seems to have led to disastrous consequences.\n\nCheered by the promise of Divine aid which the prophet had given them,\nthe host retired to rest. The next morning at day-dawn, when the\n_minchah_ of fine flour, oil, and frankincense was offered,[55] water,\nwhich, according to the tradition of Josephus, had fallen at three\ndays' distance on the hills of Edom, came flowing from the south and\nfilled the wady with its refreshing streams.\n\nThe incident itself is highly instructive. It throws light both upon\nthe general accuracy of the ancient narrative, and on the fact that\nevents to which a directly supernatural colouring is given are, in\nmany instances, not so much supernatural as providential. The\ndeliverance of Israel was due, not to a portent wrought by Elisha, but\nto the pure wisdom which he derived from the inspiration of God. When\nthe counsels of princes were of none effect, and for lack of the\nspirit of counsel the people were perishing, his mind alone,\nilluminated by a wisdom from on high, saw what was the right step to\ntake. He bade the soldiers dig trenches in the dry torrent bed,--which\nwas the very step most likely to ensure their deliverance from the\ntorment of thirst, and which would be done under similar circumstances\nto this day. They saw neither wind nor rain; but there had been a\nstorm among the farther hills, and the swollen watercourses discharged\ntheir overflow into the trenches of the wady which were ready prepared\nfor them, and offered the path of least resistance.\n\nMoab, meanwhile, had heard of the advance of the three kings through the\nterritories of Edom. The whole military population had mustered in arms,\nand stood on the frontier, on the other side of the dry wady, to oppose\nthe invasion. For they knew this would be a struggle of life and death,\nand that if defeated they would have no mercy to expect. When the sun\nrose, and its first rays burned on the wady, which had been dry on the\nprevious evening, the water which, unknown to the Moabites, had filled\nthe trenches in the night, looked red as blood. Doubtless it may have\nbeen stained, as Ewald says, by the red soil which gave its name to the\nred land of the \"red king, Edom\"; but as it gleamed under the dawn the\nMoabites thought that those seemingly crimson pools had been filled with\nthe blood of their enemies, who had fallen by each other's swords. Their\nown recent experience when Jehoshaphat met them in the Valley of Salt\nshowed them how easy it was for temporary allies to be seized by panic,\nand to fight among themselves.[56]\n\nThe army of their invaders was composed of heterogeneous and mutually\nconflicting elements. Between Israel and Judah there had been nearly a\ncentury of war,[57] and only a brief reunion; and Edom, recently the\nwilling and natural ally of Moab, was not likely to fight very\nzealously for Judah, which had reduced her to vassalage. So the\nMoabites said to one another, as they pointed to the unexpected\napparition of those red pools: \"This is blood. The kings are surely\ndestroyed, and they have smitten each man his fellow. Moab to the\nspoil!\" They rushed down tumultuously on the camp of Israel, and found\nthe soldiers of Jehoram ready to receive them. Taken by surprise, for\nthey had expected no resistance, they were hurled back in utter\nconfusion and with immense slaughter. The three kings pushed their\nadvantage to the utmost. They went forward into the land, driving and\nsmiting the Moabites before them, and ruthlessly carrying out the\ncommand attributed to Elisha. They beat down the cities--most of which\nin a land of flocks and herds were little more than pastoral villages;\nthey rendered the green fields useless with stones; they filled up all\nthe wells with earth; they felled every fruit-bearing tree of any\nvalue. At last only one stronghold, Kir-haraseth, the chief fenced\ntown of Moab, held out against them.[58] Even this fortress was sore\nbested. The slingers, for which Israel, and specially the tribe of\nBenjamin, was so famous, advanced to drive its defenders from the\nbattlements. King Mesha fought with undaunted heroism. He decided to\ntake the seven hundred warriors who were left to him, and cut his way\nthrough the besieging host to the king of Edom. He thought that even\nnow he might persuade the Edomites to abandon this new and unnatural\nalliance, and turn the battle against their common enemies. But the\nnumbers against him were too strong, and he found the plan impossible.\nThen he formed a dreadful resolution, dictated to him by the extremity\nof his despair. His inscription at Karcha shows that he was a profound\nand even fanatical believer in Chemosh, his god. Chemosh could still\ndeliver him. If Chemosh was, as Mesha says in his inscription, \"angry\nwith his land\"--if, even for a time, he allowed his faithful people\nand his devoted king to be afflicted--it could not be for any lack of\npower on his part, but only because they had in some way offended him,\nso that he was wroth, or because he had gone on a journey, or was\nasleep, or deaf.[59] How could he be appeased? Only by the offering of\nthe most precious of all the king's possessions; only by the\nself-devotion of the crown-prince, on whom were centred all the\nnation's hopes. Mesha would force Chemosh to help him for very shame.\nHe would offer to Chemosh a human sacrifice, the sacrifice of his\neldest son that should have reigned in his stead. Doubtless the young\nprince gave himself up as a willing offering, for that was essential\nto the holocaust being valid and acceptable.[60]\n\nSo upon the wall of Kir-haraseth, in the sight of all the Moabites,\nand of the three invading armies, the brave and desperate hero of a\nhundred fights, who had inflicted so many reverses upon these enemies,\nand received so many at their hands, but who, having liberated his\ncountry, now saw all the efforts of his life ruined at one blow--took\nhis eldest son, kindled the sacrificial fire, and then and there\nsolemnly offered that horrible burnt-offering.[61]\n\nAnd it proved effectual, though far otherwise than Mesha had expected.\nHe was delivered; and, doubtless, if ever he reared, at Kirharaseth or\nelsewhere, another memorial stone, he would have attributed his\ndeliverance to his national god. But here, in the annals of Elisha,\nthe result is hurried over, and a veil is, so to speak, dropped upon\nthe dreadful scene with the one ambiguous expression, \"And there was\ngreat wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned\nto their own land.\"\n\nThe phrase awakens but does not satisfy our curiosity. We are not\ncertain of the translation, or of the meaning. It may be, as in the\nmargin of the Revised Version, \"there came great wrath upon\nIsrael.\"[62] But wrath from whom? and on what account? The word\n\"wrath\" all but invariably denotes divine wrath; but we cannot imagine\n(as some critics do) that any Israelite of the schools of the prophets\nwould sanction the notion that the chosen people were allowed to\nsuffer from the kindled wrath of Chemosh. Can we then suppose that the\ndesperate act of King Mesha was a proof that Israel, who was no doubt\nthe most interested and the most remorseless of the invaders, had\npressed the Moabites too hard, and carried his vengeance much too far?\nThat is by no means impossible. The prophet Amos denounces upon Moab\nin after years the doom that fire should devour the palaces of\nKirioth, and that Moab should perish with shoutings, and all his royal\nline be cut off, for the far less offence of having burned into lime\nthe bones of the king of Edom.[63] The command of Elisha did not\nexempt the Israelites from their share of moral responsibility. Jehu\nwas commissioned to be an executioner of vengeance upon the house of\nAhab. Yet Jehu is expressly condemned by the prophet Hosea for the\ntiger-like ferocity and horrible thoroughness with which he had\ncarried out his destined work.[64] Only one other explanation is\npossible. If \"wrath\" here has the unusual sense of human indignation,\nthe clause can only imply that the armies of Judah and Edom were\nroused to anger by the unpitying spirit which Israel had displayed.\nThe horrible tragedy enacted upon the wall of Kirharaseth awoke their\nconsciences to the sense of human compassion. These, after all, were\nfellow-men--fellow-men of kindred blood to their own--whom they had\ndriven to straits so frightful as to cause a king to burn his own heir\nalive as a mute appeal to his god in the hour of overwhelming ruin.\nThey had done enough:\n\n \"Sunt lacrim\u00e6 rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.\"\n\nThey hastily broke up the league, dissolved the alliance, returned\nhorror-stricken to their own land. They left Moab indeed in possession\nof his last fortress, but they had reduced his territory to a\nwilderness before they retired and called it peace.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[43] There are great difficulties in the statement (2 Kings iii. 1)\nthat he began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. I have\nnot entered, nor shall I enter, into the minute and precarious\nconjectures necessitated by the uncertainties and contradictions of\nthis synchronism introduced into the narrative by some editor. Suffice\nit that with the aid of the Assyrian records we have certain _points\nde rep\u00e8re_; from which we can, with the assistance of the historian,\nconjecturally restore the main data. In the dates given at the head of\nthe chapters I follow Kittel, as a careful inquirer. Some of the\napproximately fixed dates are (see Appendix I.):--\n\n 854. Battle of Karkar (Ahab and Benhadad against Shalmaneser II.)\n 738. Tribute of Menahem to Tiglath-Pileser II.\n 732. Fall of Damascus.\n 722. Capture of Samaria by Sargon.\n 720. Defeat of Sabaco by Sargon in battle of Raphia.\n 705. Accession of Sennacherib.\n 701. Campaign against Hezekiah.\n 608. Death of Josiah.\n\n\n[44] But neither the man of God from Judah nor Amos directly denounce\nthe calf-worship, so much as its concomitant sins and irregularities.\n\n[45] Perhaps the true reading is \"pillars\" (LXX., Vulg., Arab.).\n\n[46] He is called \"a sheep-master,\" _noked_; LXX., \u03bd\u03c9\u03ba\u03ae\u03b4. Elsewhere\nthe word occurs only in Amos i. 1. The Alex. LXX. has \u1f26\u03bd \u03c6\u03ad\u03c1\u03c9\u03bd \u03c6\u03cc\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[47] According to the Moabite Stone.\n\n[48] It is not clear whether the lambs and rams were sent with the\nfleeces. The A.V. says \"lambs and rams with their wool,\" in accordance\nwith Josephus--\u03bc\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f34\u03ba\u03bf\u03c3\u03b9 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b2\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u03c3\u1f7a\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03cc\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2. The LXX. has\nthe vague \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c0\u03cc\u03ba\u03c9\u03bd, and implies that this was a special fine after a\ndefeat in the revolt (\u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9): but comp. Isa. xvi. 1.\n\n[49] 2 Chron. xx. 1-30.\n\n[50] Robinson (_Bibl. Res._, ii. 157) identifies it with the brook\n_Zered_. Deut. ii. 13; Num. xxi. 12. The name means \"valley of\nwater-pits.\" W. R. Smith quotes Doughty, _Travels_, i. 26.\n\n[51] Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 7. The phrase \"who poured water on the hands\nof Elijah\" is a touch of Oriental custom which the traveller in remote\nparts of Palestine may still often see. Once, when driven by a storm\ninto the house of the Sheykh of a tribe which had a rather bad\nreputation for brigandage, I was most hospitably entertained; and the\nold white-haired Sheykh, his son, and ourselves were waited on by the\ngrandson, a magnificent youth, who immediately after the meal brought\nout an old richly chased ewer and basin, and poured water over our\nhands, soiled by eating out of the common dish, of course without\nspoons or forks.\n\n[52] This seems to have struck Josephus (_Antt._, IX. iii. 1), who\nsays that \"he _chanced_ to be in a tent (\u1f14\u03c4\u03c5\u03c7\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u03c9\u03ba\u03ce\u03c2) outside\nthe host.\"\n\n[53] Comp. 1 Sam. x. 5; 1 Chron. xxv. 1; Ezek. i. 3, xxxiii. 22.\n_Menagg\u0113n_ is one who plays on a stringed instrument, _n'g\u00een\u0101h_. The\nPythagoreans used music in the same way (Cic., _Tusc. Disp._, iv. 2).\n\n[54] Deut. xx. 19, 20.\n\n[55] Lev. ii. 1. Comp. 1 Kings xviii. 36.\n\n[56] This dreadful result crippled the revolt of Vindex against Nero.\n\n[57] Jeroboam I., B.C. 937; Joram, 854.\n\n[58] Isa. xv. 1, Kir of Moab; Jer. xlviii. 31, Kir-heres. It is built\non a steep calcareous rock, surrounded by a deep, narrow glen, which\nthence descends westward to the Dead Sea, under the name of the Wady\nKerak. We know that the armies of Nineveh habitually practised these\nbrutal modes of devastation in the districts which they conquered. See\nLayard, _passim_; Rawlinson, _Ancient Monarchies_ ii. 84.\n\n[59] 1 Kings xviii. 27. Comp. Psalm xxxv. 23, xliv. 23, lxxxiii. 1, etc.\n\n[60] Comp. Micah vi. 7. This is an entirely different incident from\nthat alluded to in Amos ii. 1.\n\n[61] Eusebius (_Pr\u00e6p. Evang._, iv. 16) quotes from Philo's Ph\u0153nician\nhistory a reference to human sacrifices (\u03c4\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03b4\u03b1\u03af\u03bc\u03bf\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd) at\nmoments of desperation.\n\n[62] The rendering is doubtful. LXX., \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03bf \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u03bc\u03ad\u03b3\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76\n\u1f38\u03c3\u03c1\u03ac\u03b7\u03bb; Vulg., indignatio _in_ Israel; Luther, _Da ward Israel sehr\nzornig_.\n\n[63] Amos ii. 1-3.\n\n[64] Hos. i. 4: \"I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of\nJehu.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n _ELISHA'S MIRACLES_\n\n 2 KINGS iv. 1-44\n\n\nWe are now in the full tide of Elisha's miracles, and as regards many\nof them we can do little more than illustrate the text as it stands.\nThe record of them clearly comes from some account prevalent in the\nschools of the prophets, which is however only fragmentary, and has\nbeen unchronologically pieced into the annals of the kings of Israel.\n\nThe story of Elisha abounds far more in the supernatural than that of\nElijah, and is believed by most critics to be of earlier date. Yet the\nscenes and portents of his life are almost wholly lacking in the\nelement of grandeur which belong to those of the elder seer. His\npersonality, if on the whole softer and more beneficent, inspires less\nof awe, and the whole tone of the biography which recorded these\nisolated incidents is lacking in the poetic and impassioned elevation\nwhich marks the episodes of Elijah's history. We see in the records of\nElisha, as in the biographies--so rich in prodigies--of fourth-century\nhermits and medi\u00e6val saints, how little impressive in itself is the\nexercise of abnormal powers; how it derives its sole grandeur from the\naccompaniment of great moral lessons and spiritual revelations. John\nthe Baptist \"did no miracle,\" yet our Lord placed him not only far\nabove Elisha, but even above Moses and Samuel and Elijah, when He said\nof him, \"Verily I say unto you, of them that have been born of women\nthere hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.\"\n\nIt is impossible not to be struck with the singular parallelism\nbetween the powers exercised by Elisha and those which are attributed\nto his predecessor. \"How true an heir is Elisha of his master,\" says\nBishop Hall, \"not in his graces only, but in his actions! Both of them\ndivided the waters of Jordan, the one as his last act, the other as\nhis first. Elijah's curse was the death of the captains and their\ntroops; Elisha's curse was the death of the children. Elijah rebuked\nAhab to his face; Elisha, Jehoram. Elijah supplied the drought of\nIsrael by rain from heaven; Elisha supplied the drought of the three\nkings by waters gushing out of the earth; Elijah increased the oil of\nthe Sareptan, Elisha increased the oil of the prophet's widow; Elijah\nraised from death the Sareptan's son, Elisha the Shunammite's; both of\nthem had one mantle, one spirit; both of them climbed up one Carmel,\none heaven.\" The resemblance, however, is not at all in character, but\nonly in external and miraculous circumstances. In all other respects\nElisha furnishes a contrast to Elijah which startles us quite as much\nas any superficial resemblances. Elijah was a free, wild Bedawy\nprophet, hating and shunning as his ordinary residence the abodes of\nmen, making his home in the rocky wady or in the mountain glades,\nappearing and disappearing suddenly as the wind. He asserted his power\nmost often in ministries of retribution. Clad in the sheepskin of a\nGadite shepherd or mountaineer, he was not one of those who wear soft\nclothing or are found in kings' houses. He usually met monarchs as\ntheir enemy and their reprover, but for the most part avoided them. He\nnever intervened for years together even in national events of the\nutmost importance, whether military or religious, unless he received\nthe direct call of God, or there appeared to him to be a \"_dignus\nVindice nodus_.\" Elisha, on the other hand, makes his home in cities,\nand chiefly in Samaria. He is familiar with kings and moves about with\narmies, and has no long retirements into unknown solitudes; and though\nhe could speak roughly to Jehoram, he is often on the friendliest\nterms with him and with other sovereigns.\n\nThe stories of Elisha give us many interesting glimpses into the\nsocial life of Israel in his day. As to their literal historic\naccuracy, those must make positive affirmation who feel that they can\ndo so in accordance alike with adequate authority and with the\nsacredness of truth. Many will be unable to escape the opinion that\nthey bear some resemblance to other Jewish haggadoth, written for\nedification, with every innocent intention, in the schools of the\nProphets, but no more intended for perfectly literal acceptance in all\ntheir details than the Life of St. Paul the Hermit, by St. Jerome; or\nthat of St. Antony, attributed erroneously to St. Athanasius; or that\nof St. Francis in the Fioretti; or the lives of humble saints of the\npeople called _Kisar-el-anbiah_, which are so popular among poor\nMohammedans. Into that question there is no need to enter further.\n_Abundet quisque in sensu suo._\n\nI. On one occasion a widow of one of the Sons of the Prophets--for\nthese communities, though c\u0153nobitic, were not celibate--came to him in\ndeep distress. Her husband--the Jews, with their usual guesswork,\nmost improbably identify him with Obadiah, the chamberlain of\nAhab[65]--had died insolvent. As she had nothing to pay, her creditor\nunder the grim provision of the law was about to exercise his right of\nselling her two sons into slavery to recoup himself for the debt.[66]\nWould Elisha help her?\n\nProphets were never men of wealth, so that he could not pay her debt.\nHe asked her what she possessed to satisfy the demand. \"Nothing,\" she\nsaid, \"but a pot of the common oil, used for anointing the body after\na bath.\"\n\nElisha bade her go and borrow from her neighbours all the empty\nvessels she could, then to return home, shut the door, and pour the\noil into the vessels.\n\nShe did so. They were all filled, and she asked her son to bring yet\nanother. But there was not another to be had, so she went out and told\nthe Man of God. He bade her sell the miraculously multiplied oil to\npay the debt, and live with her sons on the proceeds of what was over.\n\nII. We next find Elisha at Shunem, famous as the abode of the fair\nmaiden--probably Abishag, the nurse of David's decrepitude--who is the\nheroine of the Song of Songs. It is a village, now called Solam, on the\nslopes of Little Hermon (Jebel-el-Duhy), three miles north of Jezreel.\nAt this place there lived a lady of wealth and influence, whose husband\nowned the surrounding land. There were but few khans in Palestine, and\neven where they now exist the traveller has in most cases to supply his\nown food. Elisha, in his journeys to and fro among the schools of the\nProphets, had often enjoyed the welcome hospitality eagerly pressed\nupon him by the lady of Shunem. Struck with his sacred character, she\npersuaded her husband to take a step unusual even to the boundless\nhospitality of the East. She begged him to do honour to this holy Man of\nGod by building for him a little chamber (_al\u00eeyah_) on the flat roof of\nthe house, to which he might have easy and private access by the outside\nstaircase.[67] The chamber was built, and furnished, like any other\nsimple Eastern room, with a bed, a divan to sit on, a table, and a lamp;\nand there the weary prophet on his journeys often found a peaceful,\nsimple, and delightful resting-place.\n\nGrateful for the reverence with which she treated him, and the kind\ncare with which she had supplied his needs, Elisha was anxious to\nrecompense her in whatever way might be possible. The thought of money\npayment was of course out of the question: merely to hint at it would\nhave been a breach of manners. But perhaps he might be of use to her\nin some other way. At this time, and for years afterwards during his\nlong ministry of perhaps fifty-six years, he was attended by a servant\nnamed Gehazi, who stood to him in the same sort of relation which he\nhad held to Elijah. He told Gehazi to summon the Shunammite lady. In\nthe deep humility of Eastern womanhood she came and stood in his\npresence. Even then he did not address her. So downtrodden was the\nposition of women in the East that any dignified person, much more a\ngreat prophet, could not converse with a woman without compromising\nhis dignity. The more scrupulous Pharisees in the days of Christ\nalways carefully gathered up their garments in the streets, lest they\nshould so much as touch a woman with their skirts in passing by, as\nthe modern Chakams in Jerusalem do to this day.[68] The disciples\nthemselves, sophisticated by familiarity with such teachers, were\nastonished that Jesus at the well of Shechem should talk with a\nwoman.[69] So, though the lady stood there, Elisha, instead of\nspeaking to her directly, told Gehazi to thank her for all the devout\nrespect and care, all 'the modesty of fearful duty,'[70] which she had\ndisplayed towards them, and to ask her if he should say a good word\nfor her to the King or the Captain of the Host. This is just the sort\nof favour which an Eastern would be likely to value most.[71] The\nShunammite, however, was well provided for; she had nothing to\ncomplain of, and nothing to request. She thanked Elisha for his kindly\nproposal, but declined it, and went away.\n\n\"Is there, then, nothing which we can do for her?\" asked Elisha of\nGehazi.[72]\n\nThere was. Gehazi had learnt that the sorrow of her life--a sorrow and\na source of reproach to any Eastern household, but most of all to that\nof a wealthy householder--was her childlessness.\n\n\"Call her,\" he said.\n\nShe came back, and stood reverently in the doorway. \"When the time\ncomes round,\" he said to her, \"you shall embrace a son.\"\n\nThe promise raised in her heart a thrill of joy. It was too precious\nto be believed. \"Nay,\" she said \"my lord, thou Man of God, do not lie\nunto thine handmaid.\"\n\nBut the promise was fulfilled, and the lady of Shunem became the happy\nmother of a son.\n\nIII. The charming episode then passes over some years. The child had\ngrown into a little boy, old enough now to go out alone to see his\nfather in the harvest fields and to run about among the reapers. But as\nhe played about in the heat he had a sunstroke, and cried to his father,\n\"O my head, my head!\" Not knowing how serious the matter was, his father\nsimply ordered one of his lads to carry the child home to his mother.\nThe fond mother nursed him tenderly upon her knees, but at noon he died.\n\nThen the lady of Shunem showed all the faith and strength and wisdom of\nher character. \"The good Shunammite,\" says Bishop Hall, \"had lost her\nson; her faith she lost not.\" Overwhelming as was this calamity--the\nloss of an only child--she suppressed all her emotions, and, instead of\nbursting into the wild helpless wail of Eastern mourners, or rushing to\nher husband with the agonising news, she took the little boy's body in\nher arms, carried it up to the chamber which had been built for Elisha,\nand laid it upon his bed. Then, shutting the door, she called to her\nhusband to send to her one of his reapers and one of the asses, for she\nwas going quickly to the Man of God and would return in the cool of the\nevening. \"Why should you go to-day particularly?\" he asked. \"It is\nneither new moon, nor sabbath.\" \"It is all right,\" she said;[73] and\nwith perfect confidence in the rectitude of all her purposes, he sent\nher the she-ass, and a servant to drive it and to run beside it for her\nprotection on the journey of sixteen miles.\n\n\"Drive on the ass,\" she said. \"Slacken me not the riding unless I tell\nyou.\" So with all possible speed she made her way--a journey of\nseveral hours--from Shunem to Mount Carmel.\n\nElisha, from his retreat on the hill, marked her coming from a\ndistance, and it rendered him anxious. \"Here comes the Shunammite,\" he\nsaid to Gehazi. \"Run to meet her, and ask Is it well with thee? is it\nwell with thy husband? is it well with the child?\"\n\n\"All well,\" she answered, for her message was not to Gehazi, and she\ncould not trust her voice to speak; but pressing on up-hillwards, she\nflung herself before Elisha and grasped his feet. Displeased at the\nfamiliarity which dared thus to clasp the feet of his master, Gehazi ran\nup to thrust her away by force, but Elisha interfered. \"Let her alone,\"\nhe cried; \"she is in deep affliction, and Jehovah has not revealed to me\nthe cause.\" Then her long pent-up emotion burst forth. \"Did I desire a\nson of my lord?\" she cried. \"Did I not say do not deceive me?\"\n\nIt was enough--though she seemed unable to bring out the dreadful\nwords that her boy was dead. Catching her meaning, Elisha said to\nGehazi, \"Gird up thy loins, take my staff, and without so much as\nstopping to salute any one, or to return a salutation,[74] lay my\nstaff on the dead child's face.\" But the broken-hearted mother\nrefused to leave Elisha. She imagined that the servant, the staff,\nmight be severed from Elisha; but she knew that wherever the prophet\nwas, there was power. So Elisha arose and followed her, and on the way\nGehazi met them with the news that the child lay still and dead, with\nthe fruitless staff upon his face.\n\nThen Elisha in deep anguish went up to the chamber and shut the door,\nand saw the boy's body lying pale upon his bed. After earnest prayer\nhe outstretched himself over the little corpse, as Elijah had done at\nZarephath. Soon it began to grow warm with returning life, and Elisha,\nafter pacing up and down the room, once more stretched himself over\nhim. Then the child opened his eyes and sneezed seven times, and\nElisha called to Gehazi to summon the mother.\n\n\"Take up thy son,\" he said. She prostrated herself at his feet in\nspeechless gratitude, and took up her recovered child, and went.\n\nIV. We next find Elisha at Gilgal, in the time of the famine of which\nwe read his prediction in a later chapter.[75] The sons of the\nprophets were seated round him, listening to his instructions; the\nhour came for their simple meal, and he ordered the great pot to be\nput on the fire for the vegetable soup, on which, with bread, they\nchiefly lived. One of them went out for herbs, and carelessly brought\nhis outer garment (the _abeyah_)[76] full of wild poisonous\ncoloquinths,[77] which, by ignorance or inadvertence, were shred into\nthe pottage. But when it was cooked and poured out they perceived the\npoisonous taste, and cried out, \"O Man of God, death in the pot!\"\n\n\"Bring meal,\" he said, for he seems always to have been a man of the\nfewest words.\n\nThey cast in some meal, and were all able to eat of the now harmless\npottage. It has been noticed that in this, as in other incidents of\nthe story, there is no invocation of the name of Jehovah.\n\nV. Not far from Gilgal was the little village of Baalshalisha,[78] at\nwhich lived a farmer who wished to bring an offering of firstfruits\nand _karmel_ (bruised grain) in his wallet to Elisha as a Man of\nGod.[79] It was a poor gift enough--only twenty of the coarse barley\nloaves which were eaten by the common people, and a sack[80] full of\nfresh ears of corn.[81] Elisha told his servitor[82]--perhaps\nGehazi--to set them before the people present. \"What?\" he asked, \"this\ntrifle of food before a hundred men!\" But Elisha told him in the\nLord's name that it should more than suffice; and so it did.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[65] Jos., _Antt._, IX. iv. 2. This perhaps is only suggested by the\nreminiscences of 1 Kings xviii. 2, 3, 12.\n\n[66] Lev. xxv. 39-41; Matt. xviii. 25.\n\n[67] 2 Kings iv. 10. Not \"a little chamber on the wall\" (A.V.), but\n\"an _al\u00eeyah_ with walls\" (margin, R.V.).\n\n[68] Frankl., _Jews in the East_.\n\n[69] John iv. 27: \"Then came His disciples, and marvelled that He was\n_talking_ (\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u1f70 \u03b3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03ba\u1f78\u03c2) _with a woman_.\"\n\n[70] 2 Kings iv. 13: \"Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all\nthis care\" (LXX., \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f14\u03ba\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\u03cd\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd).\n\n[71] The Sheykh with whom I stayed at Bint es Jebeil could think of no\nreturn which I could offer for his hospitality so acceptable as if I\nwould say a good word for him to the authorities at Beyrout.\n\n[72] Gehazi is usually called the _na'ar_ or \"lad\" of Elisha--a term\nimplying lower service than Elisha's \"ministry\" to Elijah.\n\n[73] 2 Kings iv. 23. Hebrew \"Peace\"; A.V., \"It shall be well.\"\n\n[74] Salutations occupy some time in the formally courteous East.\nComp. Luke x. 4.\n\n[75] 2 Kings viii. 1.\n\n[76] Not \"lap,\" as in A. V. (Heb., _beged_); LXX. \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03be\u03b5 \u03c0\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c1\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\n\u1f31\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6; Vulg., _implevit vestem suam_ (both correctly).\n\n[77] Heb., _paquoth_; LXX., \u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03cd\u03c0\u03b7\u03bd \u1f00\u03b3\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03bd; Vulg; _colocynthidas\nagri_. Hence the name _cucumis prophetarum_.\n\n[78] Lord of the Chain and \"Three lands.\" Three wadies meet at this\nspot, a little west of Bethel.\n\n[79] 2 Kings iv. 42. Karmel, Lev. ii. 14. Perhaps a sort of frumenty.\n\n[80] The word for \"wallet\" (_tsiqlon_; Vulg., _pera_) occurs here\nonly. Peshito, \"garment.\" The Vatican LXX. omits it. The Greek version\nhas \u1f10\u03bd \u03ba\u03c9\u03c1\u03cd\u03ba\u1ff3 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6.\n\n[81] See Lev. ii. 14, xxiii. 14.\n\n[82] 2 Kings iv. 43. The word for \"his servitor\" (_m'chartho_) is used\nalso of Joshua. It does not mean a mere ordinary attendant. LXX.,\n\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c1\u03b3\u03cc\u03c2; Vulg., _minister_.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n _THE STORY OF NAAMAN_\n\n 2 KINGS v. 1-27\n\n MATT. viii. 3: \u0398\u03ad\u03bb\u03c9, \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b1\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9\n\n\nAfter these shorter anecdotes we have the longer episode of\nNaaman.[83]\n\nA part of the misery inflicted by the Syrians on Israel was caused by\nthe forays in which their light-armed bands, very much like the\nborderers on the marches of Wales or Scotland, descended upon the\ncountry and carried off plunder and captives before they could be\npursued.\n\nIn one of these raids they had seized a little Israelitish girl and\nsold her to be a slave. She had been purchased for the household of\nNaaman, the captain of the Syrian host, who had helped his king and\nnation to win important victories either against Israel or against\nAssyria. Ancient Jewish tradition identified him with the man who had\n\"drawn his bow at a venture\" and slain King Ahab. But all Naaman's\nvalour and rank and fame, and the honour felt for him by his king,\nwere valueless to him, for he was suffering from the horrible\naffliction of leprosy. Lepers do not seem to have been segregated in\nother countries so strictly as they were in Israel, or at any rate\nNaaman's leprosy was not of so severe a form as to incapacitate him\nfrom his public functions.\n\nBut it was evident that he was a man who had won the affection of all\nwho knew him; and the little slave girl who waited on his wife\nbreathed to her a passionate wish that Naaman could visit the Man of\nGod in Samaria, for he would recover him from his leprosy. The saying\nwas repeated, and one of Naaman's friends mentioned it to the king of\nSyria. Benhadad was so much struck by it that he instantly determined\nto send a letter, with a truly royal gift to the king of Israel, who\ncould, he supposed, as a matter of course, command the services of the\nprophet. The letter came to Jehoram with a stupendous present of\ningots of silver to the value of ten talents, and six thousand pieces\nof gold, and ten changes of raiment.[84] After the ordinary\nsalutations, and a mention of the gifts, the letter continued \"And\nnow, when this letter is come to thee, behold I have sent Naaman my\nservant, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.\"\n\nJehoram lived in perpetual terror of his powerful and encroaching\nneighbour. Nothing was said in the letter about the Man of God; and\nthe king rent his clothes, exclaiming that he was not God to kill and\nto make alive, and that this must be a base pretext for a quarrel. It\nnever so much as occurred to him, as it certainly would have done to\nJehoshaphat, that the prophet, who was so widely known and honoured,\nand whose mission had been so clearly attested in the invasion of\nMoab, might at least help him to face this problem. Otherwise the\ndifficulty might indeed seem insuperable, for leprosy was universally\nregarded as an incurable disease.\n\nBut Elisha was not afraid: he boldly told Jehoram to send the Syrian\ncaptain to him. Naaman, with his horses and his chariots, in all the\nsplendour of a royal ambassador, drove up to the humble house of the\nprophet. Being so great a man, he expected a deferential reception,\nand looked for the performance of his cure in some striking and\ndramatic manner. \"The prophet,\" so he said to himself, \"will come out,\nand solemnly invoke the name of his God Jehovah, and wave his hand\nover the leprous limbs, and so work the miracle.\"[85]\n\nBut the servant of the King of kings was not exultantly impressed, as\nfalse prophets so often are, by earthly greatness. Elisha did not even\npay him the compliment of coming out of the house to meet him. He\nwished to efface himself completely, and to fix the leper's thoughts\non the one truth that if healing was granted to him, it was due to the\ngift of God, not to the thaumaturgy or arts of man. He simply sent out\nhis servant to the Syrian commander-in-chief with the brief message,\n\"Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and be thou clean.\"\n\nNaaman, accustomed to the extreme deference of many dependants, was not\nonly offended, but enraged, by what he regarded as the scant courtesy\nand procrastinated boon of the prophet. Why was he not received as a man\nof the highest distinction? What necessity could there be for sending\nhim all the way to the Jordan? And why was he bidden to wash in that\nwretched, useless, tortuous stream, rather than in the pure and flowing\nwaters of his own native Abanah and Pharpar?[86] How was he to tell that\nthis \"Man of God\" did not design to mock him by sending him on a fool's\nerrand, so that he would come back as a laughing-stock both to the\nIsraelites and to his own people? Perhaps he had not felt any great\nfaith in the prophet, to begin with; but whatever he once felt had now\nvanished. He turned and went away in a rage.\n\nBut in this crisis the affection of his friends and servants stood him\nin good stead. Addressing him, in their love and pity, by the unusual\nterm of honour \"my father,\" they urged upon him that, as he certainly\nwould not have refused some _great_ test, there was no reason why he\nshould refuse this simple and humble one.\n\nHe was won over by their reasonings, and descending the hot steep valley\nof the Jordan, bathed himself in the river seven times. God healed him,\nand, as Elisha had promised, \"his flesh,\" corroded by leprosy, \"came\nagain like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.\"\n\nThis healing of Naaman is alluded to by our Lord to illustrate the truth\nthat the love of God extended farther than the limits of the chosen\nrace; that His Fatherhood is co-extensive with the whole family of man.\n\nIt is difficult to conceive the transport of a man cured of this most\nloathsome and humiliating of all earthly afflictions. Naaman, who seems\nto have possessed \"a mind naturally Christian,\" was filled with\ngratitude. Unlike the thankless Jewish lepers whom Christ cured as He\nleft Engannim, this alien returned to give glory to God. Once more the\nwhole imposing cavalcade rode through the streets of Samaria, and\nstopped at Elisha's door. This time Naaman was admitted into his\npresence. He saw, and no doubt Elisha had strongly impressed on him the\ntruth, that his healing was the work not of man but of God; and as he\nhad found no help in the deities of Syria, he confessed that the God of\nIsrael was the only true God among those of the nations. In token of his\nthankfulness he presses Elisha, as God's instrument in the unspeakable\nmercy which has been granted to him, to accept \"a blessing\" (_i.e._, a\npresent) from him--\"from thy servant,\" as he humbly styled himself.\n\nElisha was no greedy Balaam. It was essential that Naaman and the\nSyrians should not look on him as on some vulgar sorcerer who wrought\nwonders for \"the rewards of divination.\" His wants were so simple that\nhe stood above temptation. His desires and treasures were not on\nearth. To put an end to all importunity, he appealed to Jehovah with\nhis usual solemn formula--\"As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I\nwill receive no present.\"[87]\n\nStill more deeply impressed by the prophet's incorruptible superiority\nto so much as a suspicion of low motives, Naaman asked that he might\nreceive two mules' burden of earth wherewith to build an altar to the\nGod of Israel of His own sacred soil.[88] The very soil ruled by such\na God must, he thought, be holier than other soil; and he wished to\ntake it back to Syria, just as the people of Pisa rejoiced to fill\ntheir Campo Santo with mould from the Holy Land, and just as mothers\nlike to baptize their children in water brought home from the Jordan.\nHenceforth, said Naaman, I will offer burnt-offering and sacrifice to\nno God but unto Jehovah. Yet there was one difficulty in the way. When\nthe King of Syria went to worship in the temple of his god Rimmon it\nwas the duty of Naaman to accompany him.[89] The king leaned on his\nhand, and when he bowed before the idol it was Naaman's duty to bow\nalso. He begged that for this concession God would pardon him.\n\nElisha's answer was perhaps different from what Elijah might have given.\nHe practically allowed Naaman to give this sign of outward compliance\nwith idolatry, by saying to him, \"Go in peace.\" It is from this\ncircumstance that the phrase \"to bow in the house of Rimmon\" has become\nproverbial to indicate a dangerous and dishonest compromise. But\nElisha's permission must not be misunderstood. He did but hand over this\nsemi-heathen convert to the grace of God. It must be remembered that he\nlived in days long preceding the conviction that proselytism is a part\nof true religion; in days when the thought of missions to heathen lands\nwas utterly unknown. The position of Naaman was wholly different from\nthat of any Israelite. He was only the convert, or the half-convert of\na day, and though he acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah as alone\nworthy of his worship, he probably shared in the belief--common even in\nIsrael--that there were other gods, local gods, gods of the nations, to\nwhom Jehovah might have divided the limits of their power.[90] To demand\nof one who, like Naaman, had been an idolater all his days, the sudden\nabandonment of every custom and tradition of his life, would have been\nto demand from him an unreasonable, and, in his circumstances, useless\nand all but impossible self-sacrifice. The best way was to let him feel\nand see for himself the futility of Rimmon-worship. If he were not\nfrightened back from his sudden faith in Jehovah, the scruple of\nconscience which he already felt in making his request might naturally\ngrow within him and lead him to all that was best and highest. The\ntemporary condonation of an imperfection might be a wise step towards\nthe ultimate realisation of a truth. We cannot at all blame Elisha, if,\nwith such knowledge as he then possessed, he took a mercifully tolerant\nview of the exigencies of Naaman's position. The bowing in the house of\nRimmon under such conditions probably seemed to him no more than an act\nof outward respect to the king and to the national religion in a case\nwhere no evil results could follow from Naaman's example.[91]\n\nBut the general principle that _we_ must _not_ bow in the house of\nRimmon remains unchanged. The light and knowledge vouchsafed to us far\ntranscend those which existed in times when men had not seen the days of\nthe Son of Man. The only rule which sincere Christians can follow is to\nhave no truce with Canaan, no halting between two opinions, no\ntampering, no compliance, no connivance, no complicity with evil,--even\nno tolerance of evil as far as their own conduct is concerned. No good\nman, in the light of the Gospel dispensation, could condone himself in\nseeming to sanction--still less in doing--anything which in his opinion\nought not to be done, or in saying anything which implied his own\nacquiescence in things which he knows to be evil. \"Sir,\" said a\nparishioner to one of the non-juring clergy: \"there is many a man who\nhas made a great gash in his conscience; cannot you make a little nick\nin yours?\" No! a _little_ nick is, in one sense, as fatal as a great\ngash. It is an abandonment of _the principle_; it is a violation of the\nLaw. The wrong of it consists in this--that all evil begins, not in the\ncommission of great crimes, but in the slight divergence from right\nrules. The angle made by two lines may be infinitesimally small, but\nproduce the lines and it may require infinitude to span the separation\nbetween the lines which inclose so tiny an angle. The wise man gave the\nonly true rule about wrong-doing, when he said, \"Enter not into the path\nof the wicked and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by\nit, turn from it and pass away.\"[92] And the reason for his rule is\nthat the beginning of sin--like the beginning of strife--\"is as when one\nletteth out water.\"[93]\n\nThe proper answer to all abuses of any supposed concession to the\nlawfulness of bowing in the house of Rimmon--if that be interpreted to\nmean the doing of anything which our consciences cannot wholly\napprove--is _Obsta principiis_--avoid the beginnings of evil.\n\n \"We are not worst at once; the course of evil\n Begins so slowly, and from such slight source,\n An infant's hand might stem the breach with clay;\n But let the stream grow wider, and philosophy,\n Age, and religion too, may strive in vain\n To stem the headstrong current.\"\n\nThe mean cupidity of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, gives a deplorable\nsequel to the story of the prophet's magnanimity. This man's wretched\ngreed did its utmost to nullify the good influence of his master's\nexample. There may be more wicked acts recorded in Scripture than that\nof Gehazi, but there is scarcely one which shows so paltry a\ndisposition.\n\nHe had heard the conversation between his master and the Syrian\nmarshal, and his cunning heart despised as a futile sentimentality the\nmagnanimity which had refused an eagerly proffered reward. Naaman was\nrich: he had received a priceless boon; it would be rather a pleasure\nto him than otherwise to return for it some acknowledgment which he\nwould not miss. Had he not even seemed a little hurt by Elisha's\nrefusal to receive it? What possible harm could there be in taking\nwhat he was anxious to give? And how useful those magnificent presents\nwould be, and to what excellent uses could they be put! He could not\napprove of the fantastic and unpractical scrupulosity which had led\nElisha to refuse the \"blessing\" which he had so richly earned. Such\nattitudes of unworldliness seemed entirely foolish to Gehazi.\n\nSo pleaded the Judas-spirit within the man. By such specious delusions\nhe inflamed his own covetousness, and fostered the evil temptation\nwhich had taken sudden and powerful hold upon his heart, until it took\nshape in a wicked resolve.\n\nThe mischief of Elisha's quixotic refusal was done, but it could be\nspeedily undone, and no one would be the worse. The evil spirit was\nwhispering to Gehazi:--\n\n \"Be mine and Sin's for one short hour; and then\n Be all thy life the happiest man of men.\"\n\n\"Behold,\" he said, with some contempt both for Elisha and for Naaman,\n\"my master hath let off this Naaman the Syrian; but as the Lord liveth\nI will run after him, and take somewhat of him.\"\n\n\"As the Lord liveth!\" It had been a favourite appeal of Elijah and\nElisha, and the use of it by Gehazi shows how utterly meaningless and\nhow very dangerous such solemn words become when they are degraded\ninto formul\u00e6.[94] It is thus that the habit of swearing begins. The\nlight use of holy words very soon leads to their utter degradation.\nHow keen is the satire in Cowper's little story:--\n\n \"A Persian, humble servant of the sun,\n Who, though devout, yet bigotry had none,\n Hearing a lawyer, grave in his address,\n With adjurations every word impress,--\n Supposed the man a bishop, or, at least,\n God's Name so often on his lips--a priest.\n Bowed at the close with all his gracious airs,\n And begged an interest in his frequent prayers!\"\n\n\nHad Gehazi felt their true meaning--had he realised that on Elisha's\nlips they meant something infinitely more real than on his own, he\nwould not have forgotten that in Elisha's answer to Naaman they had\nall the validity of an oath, and that he was inflicting on his master\na shameful wrong, when he led Naaman to believe that, after so sacred\nan adjuration, the prophet had frivolously changed his mind.\n\nGehazi had not very far to run,[95] for in a country full of hills,\nand of which the roads are rough, horses and chariots advance but\nslowly. Naaman, chancing to glance backwards, saw the prophet's\nattendant running after him. Anticipating that he must be the bearer\nof some message from Elisha, he not only halted the cavalcade, but\nsprang down from his chariot,[96] and went to meet him with the\nanxious question, \"Is all well?\"\n\n\"Well,\" answered Gehazi; and then had ready his cunning lie. \"Two\nyouths,\" he said, \"of the prophetic schools had just unexpectedly come\nto his master from the hill country of Ephraim; and though he would\naccept nothing for himself, Elisha would be glad if Naaman would spare\nhim two changes of garments, and one talent of silver for these poor\nmembers of a sacred calling.\"[97]\n\nNaaman must have been a little more or a little less than human if he\ndid not feel a touch of disappointment on hearing this message. The gift\nwas nothing to him. It was a delight to him to give it, if only to\nlighten a little the burden of gratitude which he felt towards his\nbenefactor. But if he had felt elevated by the magnanimous example of\nElisha's disinterestedness, he must have thought that this hasty request\npointed to a little regret on the prophet's part for his noble\nself-denial. After all, then, even prophets were but men, and gold after\nall was gold! The change of mind about the gift brought Elisha a little\nnearer the ordinary level of humanity, and, so far, it acted as a sort\nof disenchantment from the high ideal exhibited by his former refusal.\nAnd so Naaman said, with alacrity, \"Be content: take two talents.\"\n\nThe fact that Gehazi's conduct thus inevitably compromised his master,\nand undid the effects of his example, is part of the measure of the\nman's apostacy. It showed how false and hypocritical was his position,\nhow unworthy he was to be the ministering servant of a prophet. Elisha\nwas evidently deceived in the man altogether. The heinousness of his\nguilt lies in the words _Corruptio optimi pessima_. When religion is\nused for a cloak of covetousness, of usurping ambition, of secret\nimmorality, it becomes deadlier than infidelity. Men raze the\nsanctuary, and build their idol temples on the hallowed ground. They\ncover their base encroachments and impure designs with the \"cloke of\nprofession, doubly lined with the fox-fur of hypocrisy,\" and hide the\nleprosy which is breaking out upon their foreheads with the golden\n_petalon_ on which is inscribed the title of \"holiness to the Lord.\"\n\nAt first Gehazi did not like to take so large a sum as two talents;\nbut the crime was already committed, and there was not much more harm\ndone in taking two talents than in taking one. Naaman urged him, and\nit is very improbable that, unless the chances of detection weighed\nwith him, he needed much urging. So the Syrian weighed out silver\ningots to the amount of two talents, and putting them in two satchels\nlaid them on two of his servants and told them to carry the money\nbefore Gehazi to Elisha's house. But Gehazi had to keep a look-out\nlest his nefarious dealings should be observed, and when they came to\nOphel--the word means the foot of the hill of Samaria, or some part of\nthe fortifications[98]--he took the bags from the two Syrians,\ndismissed them, and carried the money to some place where he could\nconceal it in the house. Then, as though nothing had happened, with\nhis usual smooth face of sanctimonious integrity, the pious Jesuit\nwent and stood before his master.\n\nHe had not been unnoticed! His heart must have sunk within him when\nthere smote upon his ear Elisha's question,--\n\n\"Whence comest thou, Gehazi?\"\n\nBut one lie is as easy as another, and Gehazi was doubtless an adept\nat lying.\n\n\"Thy servant went no whither,\" he replied, with an air of innocent\nsurprise.\n\n\"_Went not_ my beloved one?\"[99] said Elisha--and he must have said it\nwith a groan, as he thought how utterly unworthy the youth, whom he\nthus called \"my loving heart\" or \"my dear friend,\"--\"when the man\nturned from his chariot to meet thee?\" It may be that from the hill\nof Samaria Elisha had seen it all, or that he had been told by one who\nhad seen it. If not, he had been rightly led to read the secret of his\nservant's guilt. \"Is it a time,\" he asked, \"to act thus?\" Did not my\nexample show thee that there was a high object in refusing this\nSyrian's gifts, and in leading him to feel that the servants of\nJehovah do His bidding with no afterthought of sordid considerations?\nAre there not enough troubles about us actual and impending, to show\nthat this is no time for the accumulation of earthly treasures? Is it\na time to receive money--and all that money will procure? to receive\ngarments, and olive-yards and vineyards, and oxen, and men-servants\nand maid-servants? Has a prophet no higher aim than the accumulation\nof earthly goods, and are his needs such as earthly goods can supply?\nAnd hast thou, the daily friend and attendant of a prophet, learnt so\nlittle from his precepts and his example?\n\nThen followed the tremendous penalty for so grievous a\ntransgression--a transgression made up of meanness, irreverence,\ngreed, cheating, treachery, and lies.\n\n\"The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy\nseed for ever!\" \"Oh heavy talents of Gehazi!\" exclaims Bishop Hall:\n\"Oh the horror of the one unchangeable suit! How much better had been\na light purse and a homely coat, with a sound body and a clean soul!\"\n\n\"And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.\"[100]\n\nIt is the characteristic of the leprous taint in the system to be thus\nsuddenly developed, and apparently in crises of sudden and\noverpowering emotion it might affect the whole blood. And one of the\nmany morals which lie in Gehazi's story is again that moral to which\nthe world's whole experience sets its seal--that though the guilty\nsoul may sell itself for a desired price, the sum-total of that price\nis nought. It is Achan's ingots buried under the sod on which stood\nhis tent. It is Naboth's vineyard made abhorrent to Ahab on the day he\nentered it. It is the thirty pieces of silver which Judas dashed with\na shriek upon the Temple floor. It is Gehazi's leprosy for which no\nsilver talents or changes of raiment could atone.\n\nThe story of Gehazi--of the son of the prophets who would naturally\nhave succeeded Elisha as Elisha had succeeded Elijah--must have had a\ntremendous significance to warn the members of the prophetic schools\nfrom the peril of covetousness. That peril, as all history proves to\nus, is one from which popes and priests, monks, and even nominally\nascetic and nominally pauper communities, have never been exempt;--to\nwhich, it may even be said, that they have been peculiarly liable.\nMercenariness and falsity, displayed under the pretence of religion,\nwere never more overwhelmingly rebuked. Yet, as the Rabbis said, it\nwould have been better if Elisha, in repelling with the left hand, had\nalso drawn with the right.[101]\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe fine story of Elisha and Naaman, and the fall and punishment of\nGehazi, is followed by one of the anecdotes of the prophet's life\nwhich appears to our unsophisticated, perhaps to our imperfectly\nenlightened judgment, to rise but little above the ecclesiastical\nportents related in medi\u00e6val hagiologies.\n\nAt some unnamed place--perhaps Jericho--the house of the Sons of the\nProphets had become too small for their numbers and requirements, and\nthey asked Elisha's leave to go down to the Jordan and cut beams to make\na new residence. Elisha gave them leave, and at their request consented\nto go with them. While they were hewing, the axe-head of one of them\nfell into the water, and he cried out, \"Alas! master, it was borrowed!\"\nElisha ascertained where it had fallen. He then cut down a stick,[102]\nand cast it on the spot, and the iron swam and the man recovered it.\n\nThe story is perhaps an imaginative reproduction of some unwonted\nincident. At any rate, we have no sufficient evidence to prove that it\nmay not be so. It is wholly unlike the economy invariably shown in the\nScripture narratives which tell us of the exercise of supernatural\npower. All the eternal laws of nature are here superseded at a word, as\nthough it were an every-day matter, without even any recorded invocation\nof Jehovah, to restore an axe-head, which could obviously have been\nrecovered or resupplied in some much less stupendous way than by making\niron swim on the surface of a swift-flowing river. It is easy to invent\nconventional and _\u00e0 priori_ apologies to show that religion demands the\nunquestioning acceptance of this prodigy, and that a man must be\nshockingly wicked who does not feel certain that it happened exactly in\nthe literal sense; but whether the doubt or the defence be morally\nworthier, is a thing which God alone can judge.[103]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[83] It is curiously omitted by Josephus, though he mentions him\n(\u1f0c\u03bc\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2) as the slayer of Ahab (_Antt._, VIII. xv. 5). The name is an\nold Hebrew name (Num. xxvi. 40).\n\n[84] The word _l'boosh_ means a gala dress. Comp. v. 5; Gen. xlv. 22.\n\u03c7\u03b9\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03b7\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9\u03b2\u03bf\u03af (Hom., _Od._, xiv. 514). Comp. viii. 249.\n\n[85] Elisha would not be likely to _touch_ the place.\n\n[86] Now the _Bur\u00e2da_ (\"cold\") and the Nahr-el-Aw\u00e2j.\n\n[87] Compare the answer of Abraham to the King of Sodom (Gen. xiv. 23).\n\n[88] The feeling which influenced Naaman is the same which led the\nJews to build Nahardea in Persia of stones from Jerusalem. Altars were\nto be of earth (Exod. xx. 24), but no altar is mentioned in 2 Kings v.\n17, and the LXX. does not even specify _earth_ (\u03b3\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b6\u03b5\u1fe6\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f21\u03bc\u03b9\u03cc\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd).\n\n[89] This is the only place in Scripture where Rimmon is mentioned,\nthough we have the name Tab-Rimmon (\"Rimmon is good\"), 1 Kings xv. 18,\nand Hadad-Rimmon (Zech. xii. 11). He was the god of the thunder. The\nword means \"pomegranate,\" and some have fancied that this was one of\nhis symbols. But the resemblance may be accidental, and the name was\nproperly _Ramman_.\n\n[90] See Deut. xxxii. 8, where the LXX. has \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u1f00\u03c1\u03b9\u03b8\u03bc\u1f78\u03bd \u1f00\u03b3\u03b3\u03ad\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd.\n\n[91] The moral difficulty must have been early felt, for the\nAlexandrian LXX. reads \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03c5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03c9 \u1f04\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff7 \u1f10\u03b3\u1f7c \u039a\u03c5\u03c1\u03af\u1ff3 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u0398\u03b5\u1ff7 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5.\nBut he would still be bowing in the House of Rimmon, though he might\nin his heart worship God. \"Elisha, like Elijah\" (says Dean Stanley),\n\"made no effort to set right what had gone so wrong. Their mission was\nto make the best of what they found; not to bring back a rule of\nreligion which had passed away, but to dwell on the Moral Law which\ncould be fulfilled everywhere, not on the Ceremonial Law which\ncircumstances seemed to have put out of their reach: 'not sending the\nShunammite to Jerusalem' (says Cardinal Newman), 'not eager for a\nproselyte in Naaman, yet making the heathen fear the Name of God, and\nproving to them that there was a prophet in Israel'\" (Stanley,\n_Lectures_, ii. 377; Newman, _Sermons_, viii. 415).\n\n[92] Prov. iv. 14, 15.\n\n[93] Prov. xvii. 14.\n\n[94] On Gehazi's lips it meant no more than the incessant _Wallah_,\n\"by God,\" of Mohammedans.\n\n[95] 2 Kings v. 19. Heb., _kib'rath aretz_, \"a little way\"--literally,\n\"a space of country.\" (The Vatican LXX. follows another reading, \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2\n\u0394\u03b5\u03b2\u03c1\u03b1\u03b8\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03c2; Vulg., _electo terr\u00e6 tempore_[?].)\n\n[96] LXX., \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03c0\u03ae\u03b4\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd.\n\n[97] A talent of silver was worth about \u00a3400--an enormous sum for two\nhalf-naked youths.\n\n[98] 2 Kings v. 24. The LXX. (\u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd\u1f78\u03bd) seems to have read\n\u05d0\u05b9\u05e4\u05b5\u05dc (_ophel_); \"darkness,\" a treasury or secret place, for \u05e6\u05b7\u05b9\u05e4\u05b6\u05dc,\nand so the Vulgate _jam vesperi_.\n\n[99] 2 Kings v. 26. The verse is so interpreted by some critics,\nespecially Ewald, followed by Stanley. Margin, R.V.: \"Mine heart went\nnot from me, when\" etc.\n\n[100] Exod. iv. 6; Num. xii. 10.\n\n[101] The later Rabbis thought that Elisha was too severe with Gehazi,\nand was punished with sickness because \"he repelled him with both his\nhands\" (_Bava-Metsia_, f. 87, 1, and _Yalkut Jeremiah_).\n\n[102] The Hebrew word for \"cut off\" (_qatsab_) is very rare. LXX.,\n\u1f00\u03c0\u03ad\u03ba\u03bd\u03b9\u03c3\u03b5 \u03be\u03cd\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd; Vulg., _pr\u00e6cidit lignum_.\n\n[103] It must be further borne in mind that \"the iron did swim\" (A.V.)\nis less accurate than \"made the iron to swim\" (R.V.). The LXX. has\n\u1f10\u03c0\u03b5\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5, \"brought to the surface.\" Von Gerlach says, \"He thrust the\nstick into the water, and raised the iron to the surface.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n _ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS_\n\n 2 KINGS vi. 1-23\n\n \"Now there was found in the city a poor wise man, and he by his\n wisdom delivered the city.\"--ECCLES. ix. 15.\n\n\nElisha, unlike his master Elijah, was, during a great part of his long\ncareer, intimately mixed up with the political and military fortunes\nof his country. The king of Israel who occurs in the following\nnarratives is left nameless--always the sign of later and more vague\ntradition; but he has usually been identified with Jehoram ben-Ahab,\nand, though not without some misgivings, we shall assume that the\nidentification is correct. His dealings with Elisha never seem to have\nbeen very cordial, though on one occasion he calls him \"my father.\"\nThe relations between them at times became strained and even stormy.\n\nHis reign was rendered miserable by the incessant infestation of Syrian\nmarauders. In these difficulties he was greatly helped by Elisha. The\nprophet repeatedly frustrated the designs of the Syrian king by\nrevealing to Jehoram the places of Benhadad's ambuscades, so that\nJehoram could change the destination of his hunting parties or other\nmovements, and escape the plots laid to seize his person. Benhadad,\nfinding himself thus frustrated, and suspecting that it was due to\ntreachery, called his servants together in grief and indignation, and\nasked who was the traitor among them. His officers assured him that they\nwere all faithful, but that the secrets whispered in his bed-chamber\nwere revealed to Jehoram by Elisha the prophet in Israel, whose fame had\nspread into Syria, perhaps because of the cure of Naaman. The king,\nunable to take any step while his counsels were thus published to his\nenemies, thought--not very consistently--that he could surprise and\nseize Elisha himself, and sent to find out where he was. At that time he\nwas living in Dothan, about twelve miles north-east of Samaria,[104] and\nBenhadad sent a contingent with horses and chariots by night to surround\nthe city, and prevent any escape from its gates. That he could thus\nbesiege a town so near the capital shows the helplessness to which\nIsrael had been now reduced.\n\nWhen Elisha's servitor rose in the morning he was terrified to see the\nSyrians encamped round the city, and cried to Elisha, \"Alas! my\nmaster, what shall we do?\"\n\n\"Fear not,\" said the prophet: \"they that be with us are more than they\nthat be with them.\" He prayed God to grant the youth the same open eyes,\nthe same spiritual vision which he himself enjoyed; and the youth saw\nthe mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.\n\nThis incident has been full of comfort to millions, as a beautiful\nillustration of the truth that--\n\n \"The hosts of God encamp around\n The dwellings of the just;\n Deliverance He affords to all\n Who on His promise trust.\n\n \"Oh, make but trial of His love,\n Experience will decide,\n How blest are they, and only they,\n Who in His truth confide.\"\n\nThe youth's affectionate alarm had not been shared by his master. He\nknew that to every true servant of God the promise will be fulfilled,\n\"He shall defend thee under His wings; thou shalt be safe under His\nfeathers; His righteousness and truth shall be thy shield and\nbuckler.\"[105]\n\nWere our eyes similarly opened, we too should see the reality of the\nDivine protection and providence, whether under the visible form of\nangelic ministrants or not. Scripture in general, and the Psalms in\nparticular, are full of the serenity inspired by this conviction. The\nstory of Elisha is a picture-commentary on the Psalmist's words: \"The\nangel of the Lord encampeth round them that fear Him, and delivereth\nthem.\"[106] \"He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee\nin all thy ways.\"[107] \"And I will encamp about Mine house because of\nthe army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that\nreturneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now\nhave I seen with Mine eyes.\"[108] \"The angel of His presence saved\nthem: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them,\nand carried them all the days of old.\"[109]\n\nBut what is the exact meaning of all these lovely promises? They do not\nmean that God's children and saints will always be shielded from anguish\nor defeat, from the triumph of their enemies, or even from apparently\nhopeless and final failure, or miserable death. The lesson is not that\ntheir persons shall be inviolable, or that the enemies who advance\nagainst them to eat up their flesh shall always stumble and fall. The\nexperiences of tens of thousands of troubled lives and martyred ends\ninstantly prove the futility of any such reading of these assurances.\nThe saints of God, the prophets of God, have died in exile and in\nprison, have been tortured on the rack and broken on the wheel, and\nburnt to ashes at innumerable stakes; they have been destitute,\nafflicted, tormented, in their lives--stoned, beheaded, sawn asunder, in\nevery form of hideous death; they have rotted in miry dungeons, have\nstarved on desolate shores, have sighed out their souls into the\nagonising flame. The Cross of Christ stands as the emblem and the\nexplanation of their lives, which fools count to be madness, and their\nend without honour. On earth they have, far more often than not, been\ncrushed by the hatred and been delivered over to the will of their\nenemies. Where, then, have been those horses and chariots of fire?\n\nThey have been there no less than around Elisha at Dothan. The eyes\nspiritually opened have seen them, even when the sword flashed, or the\nflames wrapped them in indescribable torment. The sense of God's\nprotection has least deserted His saints when to the world's eyes they\nseemed to have been most utterly abandoned. There has been a joy in\nprisons and at stakes, it has been said, far exceeding the joy of\nharvest. \"Pray for me,\" said a poor boy of fifteen, who was being\nburned at Smithfield in the fierce days of Mary Tudor. \"I would as\nsoon pray for a dog as for a heretic like thee,\" answered one of the\nspectators. \"Then, Son of God, shine Thou upon me!\" cried the\nboy-martyr; and instantly, upon a dull and cloudy day, the sun shone\nout, and bathed his young face in glory; whereat, says the\nmartyrologist, men greatly marvelled. But is there one death-bed of a\nsaint on which that glory has not shone?\n\nThe presence of those horses and chariots of fire, unseen by the\ncarnal eye--the promises which, if they be taken literally, all\nexperience seems to frustrate--mean two things, which they who are the\nheirs of such promises, and who would without them be of all men most\nmiserable, have clearly understood.\n\nThey mean, first, that as long as a child of God is on the path of\nduty, and until that duty has been fulfilled, he is inviolable and\ninvulnerable. He shall tread upon the lion and the adder; the young\nlion and the dragon shall he trample under his feet. He shall take up\nthe serpent in his hands; and if he drink any deadly thing, it shall\nnot hurt him. He shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of\nthe arrow that flieth by day; of the pestilence that walketh in\ndarkness, nor of the demon that destroyeth in the noonday. A thousand\nshall fall at his right hand, and ten thousand beside him; but it\nshall not come nigh him. The histories and the legends of numberless\nmarvellous deliverances all confirm the truth that, when a man fears\nthe Lord, He will keep him in all his ways, and give His angels charge\nover him, lest at any time he dash his foot against a stone. God will\nnot permit any mortal force, or any combination of forces, to hinder\nthe accomplishment of the task entrusted to His servant. It is the\nsense of this truth which, under circumstances however menacing,\nshould enable us to\n\n \"bate no jot\n Of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer\n Uphillward\"\n\nIt is this conviction which has nerved men to face insuperable\ndifficulties, and achieve impossible and unhoped-for ends. It works in\nthe spirit of the cry, \"Who art thou, O great mountain? Before\nZerubbabel be thou changed into a plain!\" It inspires the faith as a\ngrain of mustard seed which is able to say to this mountain, \"Be thou\nremoved, and be thou cast into the sea,\"--and it shall obey. It stands\nunmoved upon the pinnacle of the Temple whereon it has been placed,\nwhile the enemy and the tempter, smitten by amazement, falls. In the\nhour of difficulty it can cry,--\n\n \"Rescue me, O Lord, in this mine evil hour,\n As of old so many by Thy mighty power,--\n Enoch and Elias from the common doom;\n Noe from the waters in a saving home;\n Abraham from the abounding guilt of heathenesse;\n Job from all his multiform and fell distress;\n Isaac when his faither's knife was raised to slay;\n Lot from burning Sodom on the judgment day;\n Moses from the land of bondage and despair;\n Daniel from the hungry lions in their lair;\n And the children three amid the furnace flame;\n Chaste Susanna from the slander and the shame;\n David from Golia, and the wrath of Saul;\n And the two Apostles from their prison-thrall.\"\n\nThe strangeness, the unexpectedness, the apparently inadequate source\nof the deliverance, have deepened the trust that it has not been due\nto accident. Once, when Felix of Nola was flying from his enemies, he\ntook refuge in a cave, and he had scarcely entered it before a spider\nbegan to spin its web over the fissure. The pursuer, passing by, saw\nthe spider's web, and did not look into the cave; and the saint, as he\ncame out into safety, remarked: \"_Ubi Deus est, ibi aranea murus, ubi\nnon est ibi murus aranea_\" (\"Where God is, a spider's web is as a\nwall; where He is not, a wall is but as a spider's web\").\n\nThis is one lesson conveyed in the words of Christ when the Pharisees\ntold Him that Herod desired to kill Him. He knew that Herod could not\nkill Him till He had done His Father's will and finished His work. \"Go\nye,\" He said, \"and tell this fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do\ncures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.\nNevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following.\"\n\nBut had all this been otherwise--had Felix been seized by his pursuers\nand perished, as has been the common lot of God's prophets and\nheroes--he would not therefore have felt himself mocked by these\nexceeding great and precious promises. The chariots and horses of fire\nare still there, and are there to work a deliverance yet greater and\nmore eternal. Their office is not to deliver the perishing body, but\nto carry into God's glory the immortal soul. This is indicated in the\ndeath-scene of Elijah. This was the vision of the dying Stephen. This\nwas what Christian legend meant when it embellished with beautiful\nincidents such scenes as the death of Polycarp. This was what led\nBunyan to write, when he describes the death of Christian, that \"all\nthe trumpets sounded for him on the other side.\" When poor Captain\nAllan Gardiner lay starving to death in that Antarctic isle with his\nwretched companions, he yet painted on the entrance of the cave which\nhad sheltered them, and near to which his remains were found, a hand\npointing downward at the words, \"Though He slay me, yet will I put my\ntrust in Him.\"\n\nThere was a touch of almost joyful humour in the way in which Elisha\nproceeded to use, in the present emergency, the power of Divine\ndeliverance. He seems to have gone out of the town and down the hill\nto the Syrian captains,[110] and prayed God to send them illusion\n(\u1f00\u03b2\u03bb\u03b5\u03c8\u03af\u03b1), so that they might be misled.[111] Then he boldly said to\nthem, \"You are being deceived: you have come the wrong way, and to the\nwrong city. I will take you to the man whom ye seek.\" The incident\nreminds us of the story of Athanasius, who, when he was being pursued\non the Nile, took the opportunity of a bend of the river boldly to\nturn back his boat towards Alexandria. \"Do you know where Athanasius\nis?\" shouted the pursuers. \"He is not far off!\" answered the disguised\nArchbishop; and the emissaries of Constantius went on in the opposite\ndirection from that in which he made his escape.\n\nElisha led the Syrians in their delusion straight into the city of\nSamaria, where they suddenly found themselves at the mercy of the king\nand his troops. Delighted at so great a chance of vengeance, Jehoram\neagerly exclaimed, \"My father, shall I smite, shall I smite?\"\n\nCertainly the request cannot be regarded as unnatural, when we remember\nthat in the Book of Deuteronomy, which did not come to light till after\nthis period, we read the rule that, when the Israelites had taken a\nbesieged city, \"thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the\nsword\";[112] and that when Israel defeated the Midianites[113] they slew\nall the males, and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host\nbecause they had not also slain all the women. He then (as we are told)\nordered them to slay all except the virgins, and also--horrible to\nrelate--\"_every male among the little ones_.\" The spirit of Elisha on\nthis occasion was larger and more merciful. It almost rose to the spirit\nof Him who said, \"It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt love thy\nneighbour and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies;\nforgive them that hate you; do good unto them that despitefully use you\nand persecute you.\" He asked Jehoram reproachfully whether he would even\nhave smitten those whom he had taken captive with sword and bow.[114] He\nnot only bade the king to spare them, but to set food before them, and\nsend them home. Jehoram did so at great expense, and the narrative ends\nby telling us that the example of such merciful generosity produced so\nfavourable an impression that \"the bands of Syria came no more into the\nland of Israel.\"\n\nIt is difficult, however, to see where this statement can be\nchronologically fitted in. The very next chapter--so loosely is the\ncompilation put together, so completely is the sequence of events here\nneglected--begins with telling us that Benhadad with all his host went\nup and besieged Samaria. Any peace or respite gained by Elisha's\ncompassionate magnanimity must, in any case, have been exceedingly\nshort-lived. Josephus tries to get over the difficulty by drawing a\nsufficiently futile distinction between marauding bands and a direct\ninvasion,[115] and he says that King Benhadad gave up his frays through\n_fear_ of Elisha. But, in the first place, the encompassing of Dothan\nhad been carried out by \"_a great host_ with horses and chariots,\" which\nis hardly consistent with the notion of a foray, though it creates new\ndifficulties as to the numbers whom Elisha led to Samaria; secondly, the\nsubstitution of a direct invasion for predatory incursions would have\nbeen no gain to Israel, but a more deadly peril; and, thirdly, if it was\nfear of Elisha which stopped the king's raids, it is strange that it had\nno effect in preventing his invasions. We have, however, no data for any\nfinal solution of these problems, and it is useless to meet them with a\nnetwork of idle conjectures. Such difficulties naturally occur in\nnarratives so vague and unchronological as those presented to us in the\ndocuments from the story of Elisha which the compiler wove into his\nhistory of Israel and Judah.[116]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[104] Gen. xxxvii. 17, _Dothain_, \"two wells\" (?).\n\n[105] Psalm xci. 4.\n\n[106] Psalm xxxiv. 7.\n\n[107] Psalm xci. 11.\n\n[108] Zech. ix. 8.\n\n[109] Isa. lxiii. 9.\n\n[110] Adopting the reading of the Syriac version: \"And when they\n[Elisha and his servant] came down to them [the Syrians].\" The\nordinary reading is \"to _him_,\" which makes the narrative less clear.\n\n[111] 2 Kings vi. 19. \u05de\u05b7\u05e0\u05b0\u05d5\u05b5\u05e8\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd, \u1f00\u03bf\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03b1, only found in Gen. xix. 11.\n\n[112] Deut. xx. 13.\n\n[113] Num. xxxi. 7.\n\n[114] Vulg., _Non percuties; neque enim cepisti eos ... ut percutias._\n\n[115] Jos., _Antt._, IX. iv. 4, \u039a\u03c1\u03cd\u03c6\u03b1 \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba\u03ad\u03c4\u03b9 ... \u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b5\u03c1\u1ff6\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ad.\n\n[116] Kittel, following Kuenen, surmises that this story has got\nmisplaced; that it does not belong to the days of Jehoram ben-Ahab and\nBenhadad II., but to the days of Jehoahaz ben-Jehu and Benhadad III.,\nthe son of Hazael (_Gesch. der Hebr._, 249). In a very uncertain\nquestion I have followed the conclusion arrived at by the majority of\nscholars, ancient and modern.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n _THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE_\n\n 2 KINGS vi. 24-vii. 20\n\n \"'Tis truly no good plan when princes play\n The vulture among carrion; but when\n They play the carrion among vultures--that\n Is ten times worse.\"\n LESSING, _Nathan the Wise_, Act I., Sc. 3.\n\n\nIf the Benhadad, King of Syria, who reduced Samaria to the horrible\nstraits recorded in this chapter, (2 Kings vi.) was the same Benhadad\nwhom Ahab had treated with such impolitic confidence, his hatred\nagainst Israel must indeed have burned hotly. Besides the affair at\nDothan, he had already been twice routed with enormous slaughter, and\nagainst those disasters he could only set the death of Ahab at\nRamoth-Gilead. It is obvious from the preceding narrative that he\ncould advance at any time at his will and pleasure into the heart of\nhis enemy's country, and shut him up in his capital almost without\nresistance. The siege-trains of ancient days were very inefficient,\nand any strong fortress could hold out for years, if only it was well\nprovisioned. Such was not the case with Samaria, and it was reduced to\na condition of sore famine. Food so loathsome as an ass's head, which\nat other times the poorest would have spurned, was now sold for eighty\nshekels' weight of silver (about \u00a38); and the fourth part of a\n_xestes_ or _kab_--which was itself the smallest dry-measure, the\nsixth part of a _seah_--of the coarse, common pulse, or roasted\nchick-peas, vulgarly known as \"dove's dung,\" fetched five shekels\n(about 12_s._ 6_d._).[117]\n\nWhile things were at this awful pass, \"the King of Israel,\" as he is\nvaguely called throughout this story, went his rounds upon the wall to\nvisit the sentries and encourage the soldiers in their defence. As he\npassed, a woman cried, \"Help, my lord, O king!\" In Eastern monarchies\nthe king is a judge of the humblest; a suppliant, however mean, may\ncry to him. Jehoram thought that this was but one of the appeals which\nsprang from the clamorous mendicity of famine with which he had grown\nso painfully familiar. \"The Lord curse you!\" he exclaimed\nimpatiently.[118] \"How can I help you? Every barn-floor is bare, every\nwine-press drained.\" And he passed on.\n\nBut the woman continued her wild clamour, and turning round at her\nimportunity, he asked, \"What aileth thee?\"\n\nHe heard in reply a narrative as appalling as ever smote the ear of a\nking in a besieged city. Among the curses denounced upon apostate Israel\nin the Pentateuch, we read, \"Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and\nthe flesh of your daughters shall ye eat\";[119] or, as it is expressed\nmore fully in the Book of Deuteronomy, \"He shall besiege thee in all\nthy gates throughout all thy land.... And thou shalt eat the fruit of\nthine own body, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters, which the Lord\nthy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness wherewith\nthine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among\nyou, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his brother, and\ntowards the wife of his bosom, and towards the remnant of his children\nwhich he shall leave; so that he shall not give to any of them of the\nflesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he hath nothing left\nhim in the siege.... The tender and delicate woman, which would not\nadventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness\nand tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom,\nand towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her children:\nfor she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and\nthe straitness, if thou wilt not observe to do all the words of the law,\n... that thou mayest fear the glorious and fearful name, _The Lord thy\nGod_.\"[120] We find almost the same words in the prophet Jeremiah;[121]\nand in Lamentations we read: \"The hands of the pitiful women have sodden\ntheir own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the\ndaughter of My people.\"[122]\n\nIsaiah asks, \"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not\nhave compassion on the son of her womb?\" Alas! it has always been so in\nthose awful scenes of famine, whether after shipwreck or in beleaguered\ncities, when man becomes degraded to an animal, with all an animal's\nprimitive instincts, and when the wild beast appears under the thin\nveneer of civilisation. So it was at the siege of Jerusalem, and at the\nsiege of Magdeburg, and at the wreck of the _Medusa_, and on many\nanother occasion when the pangs of hunger have corroded away every\nvestige of the tender affections and of the moral sense.\n\nAnd this had occurred at Samaria: her women had become cannibals and\ndevoured their own little ones.\n\n\"This woman,\" screamed the suppliant, pointing her lean finger at a\nwretch like herself--\"this woman said unto me, 'Give thy son, that we\nmay eat him to-day, and we will afterwards eat my son.' I yielded to\nher suggestion. We killed my little son, and ate his flesh when we had\nsodden it. Next day I said to her, 'Now give thy son, that we may eat\nhim'; and she hath hid her son!\"\n\nHow could the king answer such a horrible appeal? Injustice had been\ndone; but was he to order and to sanction by way of redress fresh\ncannibalism, and the murder by its mother of another babe? In that\nfoul obliteration of every natural instinct, what could he do, what\ncould any man do? Can there be equity among raging wild beasts, when\nthey roar for their prey and are unfed?\n\nAll that the miserable king could do was to rend his clothes in horror\nand to pass on, and as his starving subjects passed by him on the wall\nthey saw that he wore sackcloth beneath his purple, in sign, if not of\nrepentance, yet of anguish, if not of prayer, yet of uttermost\nhumiliation.[123]\n\nBut if indeed he had, in his misery, donned that sackcloth in order\nthat at least the semblance of self-mortification might move Jehovah\nto pity, as it had done in the case of his father Ahab, the external\nsign of his humility had done nothing to change his heart. The\ngruesome appeal to which he had just been forced to listen only\nkindled him to a burst of fury[124].The man who had warned, who had\nprophesied, who so far during this siege had not raised his finger to\nhelp--the man who was believed to be able to wield the powers of\nheaven, and had wrought no deliverance for his people, but suffered\nthem to sink unaided into these depths of abjectness--should he be\npermitted to live? If Jehovah would not help, of what use was Elisha?\n\"God do so to me, and more also,\" exclaimed Jehoram--using his\nmother's oath to Elijah[125]--\"if the head of Elisha, the son of\nShaphat, shall stand on him this day.\"\n\nWas this the king who had come to Elisha with such humble entreaty,\nwhen three armies were perishing of thirst before the eyes of Moab?\nWas this the king who had called Elisha \"my father,\" when the prophet\nhad led the deluded host of Syrians into Samaria, and bidden Jehoram\nto set large provision before them? It was the same king, but now\ntransported with fury and reduced to despair. His threat against God's\nprophet was in reality a defiance of God, as when our unhappy\nPlantagenet, Henry II., maddened by the loss of Le Mans, exclaimed\nthat, since God had robbed him of the town he loved, he would pay God\nout by robbing Him of that which He most loved in him--his soul.\n\nJehoram's threat was meant in grim earnest, and he sent an executioner\nto carry it out. Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of\nthe city, who had come to him for counsel at this hour of supreme\nneed. He knew what was intended for him, and it had also been revealed\nto him that the king would follow his messenger to cancel his\nsanguinary threat. \"See ye,\" he said to the elders, \"how this son of a\nmurderer\"--for again he indicates his contempt and indignation for the\nson of Ahab and Jezebel--\"hath sent to behead me! When he comes, shut\nthe door, and hold it fast against him. His master is following hard\nat his heels.\"\n\nThe messenger came, and was refused admittance. The king followed\nhim,[126] and entering the room where the prophet and elders sat, he\ngave up his wicked design of slaying Elisha with the sword, but he\noverwhelmed him with reproaches, and in despair renounced all further\ntrust in Jehovah. Elisha, as the king's words imply, must have refused\nall permission to capitulate: he must have held out from the first a\npromise that God would send deliverance. But no deliverance had come.\nThe people were starving. Women were devouring their babes. Nothing\nworse could happen if they flung open their gates to the Syrian host.\n\"Behold,\" the king said, \"this evil is Jehovah's doing. You have\ndeceived us. Jehovah does not intend to deliver us. Why should I wait\nfor Him any longer?\" Perhaps the king meant to imply that his mother's\nBaal was better worth serving, and would never have left his votaries\nto sink into these straits.\n\nAnd now man's extremity had come, and it was God's opportunity. Elisha\nat last was permitted to announce that the worst was over, that the\nnext day plenty should smile on the besieged city. \"Thus saith the\nLord,\" he exclaimed to the exhausted and despondent king, \"To-morrow\nabout this time, instead of an ass's head being sold for eighty\nshekels, and a thimbleful of pulse for five shekels, a peck of fine\nflour shall be sold for a shekel, and two pecks of barley for a\nshekel, in the gate of Samaria.\"\n\nThe king was leaning on the hand of his chief officer, and to this\nsoldier the promise seemed not only incredible, but silly: for at the\nbest he could only suppose that the Syrian host would raise the siege;\nand though to hope for that looked an absurdity, yet even that would\nnot in the least fulfil the immense prediction. He answered,\ntherefore, in utter scorn: \"Yes! Jehovah is making windows in heaven!\nBut even thus could this be?\" It is much as if he should have answered\nsome solemn pledge with a derisive proverb such as, \"Yes! if the sky\nshould fall, we should catch larks!\"\n\nSuch contemptuous repudiation of a Divine promise was a blasphemy; and\nanswering scorn with scorn, and riddle with riddling, Elisha answers\nthe mocker, \"Yes! and _you_ shall see this, but shall not enjoy it.\"\n\nThe word of the Lord was the word of a true prophet, and the miracle\nwas wrought. Not only was the siege raised, but the wholly unforeseen\nspoil of the entire Syrian camp, with all its accumulated rapine,\nbrought about the predicted plenty.\n\nThere were four lepers[127] outside the gate of Samaria, like the\nleprous mendicants who gather there to this day. They were cut off\nfrom all human society, except their own. Leprosy was treated as\ncontagious, and if \"houses of the unfortunate\" (_Biut-el-Mas\u00e1kin_)\nwere provided for them, as seems to have been the case at Jerusalem,\nthey were built outside the city walls.[128] They could only live by\nbeggary, and this was an aggravation of their miserable condition. And\nhow could any one fling food to these beggars over the walls, when\nfood of any kind was barely to be had within them?\n\nSo taking counsel of their despair, they decided that they would\ndesert to the Syrians: among them they would at least find food, if\ntheir lives were spared; and if not, death would be a happy release\nfrom their present misery.\n\nSo in the evening twilight, when they could not be seen or shot at\nfrom the city wall as deserters, they stole down to the Syrian camp.\n\nWhen they reached its outermost circle, to their amazement all was\nsilence. They crept into one of the tents in fear and astonishment.\nThere was food and drink there, and they satisfied the cravings of\ntheir hunger. It was also stored with booty from the plundered cities\nand villages of Israel. To this they helped themselves, and took it\naway and hid it. Having spoiled this tent, they entered a second. It\nwas likewise deserted, and they carried a fresh store of treasures to\ntheir hiding-place. And then they began to feel uneasy at not\ndivulging to their starving fellow-citizens the strange and golden\ntidings of a deserted camp. The night was wearing on; day would reveal\nthe secret. If they carried the good news, they would doubtless earn a\nrich guerdon. If they waited till morning, they might be put to death\nfor their selfish reticence and theft. It was safest to return to the\ncity, and rouse the warder, and send a message to the palace. So the\nlepers hurried back through the night, and shouted to the sentinel at\nthe gate, \"We went to the Syrian camp, and it was deserted! Not a man\nwas there, not a sound was to be heard. The horses were tethered\nthere, and the asses, and the tents were left just as they were.\"\n\nThe sentinel called the other watchmen to hear the wonderful news, and\ninstantly ran with it to the palace. The slumbering house was roused;\nand though it was still night, the king himself arose. But he could not\nshake off his despondency, and made no reference to Elisha's prediction.\nNews sometimes sounds too good to be true. \"It is only a decoy,\" he\nsaid. \"They can only have left their camp to lure us into an ambuscade,\nthat they may return, and slaughter us, and capture our city.\"\n\n\"Send to see,\" answered one of his courtiers. \"Send five horsemen to\ntest the truth, and to look out. If they perish, their fate is but the\nfate of us all.\"\n\nSo two chariots with horses were despatched, with instructions not\nonly to visit the camp, but track the movements of the host.\n\nThey went, and found that it was as the lepers had said. The camp was\ndeserted, and lay there as an immense booty; and for some reason the\nSyrians had fled towards the Jordan to make good their escape to\nDamascus by the eastern bank. The whole road was strewn with the traces\nof their headlong flight; it was full of scattered garments and vessels.\n\nProbably, too, the messengers came across some disabled fugitive, and\nlearnt the secret of this amazing stampede. It was the result of one of\nthose sudden unaccountable panics to which the huge, unwieldy,\nheterogeneous Eastern armies, which have no organised system of\nsentries, and no trained discipline, are constantly liable. We have\nalready met with several instances in the history of Israel. Such was\nthe panic which seized the Midianites when Gideon's three hundred blew\ntheir trumpets; and the panic of the Syrians before Ahab's pages of the\nprovinces; and of the combined armies in the Valley of Salt; and of the\nMoabites at Wady-el-Ahsy; and afterwards of the Assyrians before the\nwalls of Jerusalem. Fear is physically contagious, and, when once it has\nset in, it swells with such unaccountable violence, that the Greeks\ncalled these terrors \"panic,\" because they believed them to be directly\ninspired by the god Pan. Well-disciplined as was the army of the Ten\nThousand Greeks in their famous retreat, they nearly fell victims to a\nsudden panic, had not Clearchus, with prompt resource, published by the\nherald the proclamation of a reward for the arrest of the man who had\nlet the ass loose. Such an unaccountable terror--caused by a noise as of\nchariots and of horses which reverberated among the hills--had seized\nthe Syrian host. They thought that Jehoram had secretly hired an army of\nthe princes of the Khetas[129] and of the Egyptians to march suddenly\nupon them. In wild confusion, not stopping to reason or to inquire, they\ntook to flight, increasing their panic by the noise and rush of their\nown precipitance.\n\nNo sooner had the messengers delivered their glad tidings, than the\npeople of Samaria began to pour tumultuously out of the gates, to\nfling themselves on the food and on the spoil. It was like the rush of\nthe dirty, starving, emaciated wretches which horrified the keepers\nof the reserved stores at Smolensk in Napoleon's retreat from Moscow,\nand forced them to shut the gates, and fling food and grain to the\nstruggling soldiers out of the windows of the granaries. To secure\norder and prevent disaster, the king appointed his attendant lord to\nkeep the gate. But the torrent of people flung him down, and they\ntrampled on his body in their eagerness for relief. He died after\nhaving seen that the promise of Elisha was fulfilled, and that the\ncheapness and abundance had been granted, the prophecy of which he\nthought only fit for his sceptical derision.\n\n\"The sudden panic which delivered the city,\" says Dean Stanley, \"is\nthe one marked intervention on behalf of the northern capital. No\nother incident could be found in the sacred annals so appropriately to\nexpress, in the Church of Gouda, the pious gratitude of the citizens\nof Leyden, for their deliverance from the Spanish army, as the\nmiraculous raising of the siege of Samaria.\"[130]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[117] So _asaf\u0153tida_ is called \"devil's dung\" in Germany; and the _Herba\nalcali_, \"sparrow's dung\" by Arabs. The _Q'ri_, however, supports the\n_literal_ meaning; and compare 2 Kings xviii. 27; Jos., _B. J._, V.\nxiii. 7. Analogies for these prices are quoted from classic authors.\nPlutarch (_Artax._, xxiv.) mentions a siege in which an ass's head could\nhardly be got for sixty drachmas (\u00a32 10_s._), though usually the whole\nanimal only cost \u00a31. Pliny (_H. N._, viii. 57) says that during\nHannibal's siege of Casilinum a mouse sold for \u00a36 5_s._\n\n[118] So Clericus. Comp. Jos. \u1f10\u03c0\u03b7\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc7.\n\n[119] Lev. xxvi. 29.\n\n[120] Deut. xxviii. 52-58.\n\n[121] Jer. xix. 9.\n\n[122] Lam. iv. 10: comp. ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Jos., _B. J._, VI. iii. 4.\n\n[123] 1 Kings xxi. 27; Isa. xx. 2, 3.\n\n[124] Compare the wrath of Pashur the priest in consequence of the\ndenunciation of Jeremiah (Jer. xx. 2).\n\n[125] 1 Kings xix. 2.\n\n[126] In 2 Kings vi. 33 we should read _melek_ (king) for _maleak_\n(messenger). Jehoram repented of his hasty order.\n\n[127] The Jews say Gehazi, and his three sons (Jarchi).\n\n[128] Lev. xiii. 46; Num. v. 2, 3.\n\n[129] The capitals of the ancient Hittites--a nation whose fame had\nbeen almost entirely obliterated till a few years ago--were\nKarchemish, Kadesh, Hamath, and Helbon (Aleppo).\n\n[130] _Lectures_, ii. 345.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n _THE SHUNAMMITE AND HAZAEL_\n\n 2 KINGS viii. 1-6, 7-15. (Circ. B.C. 886.)\n\n \"Our acts still follow with us from afar,\n And what we have been makes us what we are.\"\n GEORGE ELIOT.\n\n\nThe next anecdote of Elisha brings us once more into contact with the\nLady of Shunem. Famines, or dearths, were unhappily of very frequent\noccurrence in a country which is so wholly dependent, as Palestine is,\nupon the early and latter rain. On some former occasion Elisha had\nforeseen that \"Jehovah had called for a famine\"; for the sword, the\nfamine, and the pestilence are represented as ministers who wait His\nbidding.[131] He had also foreseen that it would be of long duration,\nand in kindness to the Shunammite had warned her that she had better\nremove for a time into a land in which there was greater plenty. It\nwas under similar circumstances that Elimelech and Naomi, ancestors of\nDavid's line, had taken their sons Mahlon and Chilion, and gone to\nlive in the land of Moab; and, indeed, the famine which decided the\nmigration of Jacob and his children into Egypt had been a\nturning-point in the history of the Chosen People.\n\nThe Lady of Shunem had learnt by experience the weight of Elisha's\nwords. Her husband is not mentioned, and was probably dead; so she\narose with her household, and went for seven years to live in the\nplain of Philistia. At the end of that time the dearth had ceased, and\nshe returned to Shunem, but only to find that during her absence her\nhouse and land were in possession of other owners, and had probably\nescheated to the Crown. The king was the ultimate, and to a great\nextent the only, source of justice in his little kingdom, and she went\nto lay her claim before him and demand the restitution of her\nproperty. By a providential circumstance she came exactly at the most\nfavourable moment. The king--it must have been Jehoram--was at the\nvery time talking to Gehazi about the great works of Elisha. As it is\nunlikely that he would converse long with a leper, and as Gehazi is\nstill called \"the servant of the man of God,\" the incident may here be\nnarrated out of order. It is pleasant to find Jehoram taking so deep\nan interest in the prophet's story. Already on many occasions during\nhis wars with Moab and Syria, as well as on the occasion of Naaman's\nvisit, if that had already occurred, he had received the completest\nproof of the reality of Elisha's mission, but he might be naturally\nunaware of the many private incidents in which he had exhibited a\nsupernatural power. Among other stories Gehazi was telling him that of\nthe Shunammite, and how Elisha had given life to her dead son. At that\njuncture she came before the king, and Gehazi said, \"My lord, O king,\nthis is the very woman, and this is her son whom Elisha recalled to\nlife.\" In answer to Jehoram's questions she confirmed the story, and\nhe was so much impressed by the narrative that he not only ordered\nthe immediate restitution of her land, but also of the value of its\nproducts during the seven years of her exile.\n\nWe now come to the fulfilment of the second of the commands which\nElijah had received so long before at Horeb. To complete the\nretribution which was yet to fall on Israel, he had been bidden to\nanoint Hazael to be king of Syria in the room of Benhadad. Hitherto\nthe mandate had remained unfulfilled, because no opportunity had\noccurred; but the appointed time had now arrived. Elisha, for some\npurpose, and during an interval of peace, visited Damascus, where the\nvisit of Naaman and the events of the Syrian wars had made his name\nvery famous. Benhadad II., grandson or great-grandson of Rezin, after\na stormy reign of some thirty years, marked by some successes, but\nalso by the terrible reverses already recorded, lay dangerously ill.\nHearing the news that the wonder-working prophet of Israel was in his\ncapital, he sent to ask of him the question, \"Shall I recover?\" It had\nbeen the custom from the earliest days to propitiate the favour of\nprophets by presents, without which even the humblest suppliant hardly\nventured to approach them.[132] The gift sent by Benhadad was truly\nroyal, for he thought perhaps that he could purchase the intercession\nor the miraculous intervention of this mighty thaumaturge. He sent\nHazael with a selection \"of every good thing of Damascus,\" and, like\nan Eastern, he endeavoured to make his offering seem more\nmagnificent[133] by distributing it on the backs of forty camels.\n\nAt the head of this imposing procession of camels walked Hazael, the\ncommander of the forces, and stood in Elisha's presence with the\nhumble appeal, \"Thy son Benhadad, King of Syria, hath sent me to thee,\nsaying, Shall I recover of this disease?\"\n\nAbout the king's munificence we are told no more, but we cannot doubt\nthat it was refused. If Naaman's still costlier blessing had been\nrejected, though he was about to receive through Elisha's ministration\nan inestimable boon, it is unlikely that Elisha would accept a gift\nfor which he could offer no return, and which, in fact, directly or\nindirectly, involved the death of the sender. But the historian does\nnot think it necessary to pause and tell us that Elisha sent back the\nforty camels unladen of their treasures. It was not worth while to\nnarrate what was a matter of course. If it had been no time, a few\nyears earlier, to receive money and garments, and olive-yards and\nvineyards, and men-servants and maid-servants, still less was it a\ntime to do so now. The days were darker now than they had been, and\nElisha himself stood near the Great White Throne. The protection of\nthese fearless prophets lay in their utter simplicity of soul. They\nrose above human fears because they stood above human desires. What\nElisha possessed was more than sufficient for the needs of the plain\nand humble life of one whose communing was with God. It was not\nwonderful that prophets should rise to an elevation whence they could\nlook down with indifference upon the superfluities of the lust of the\neyes and the pride of life, when even sages of the heathen have\nattained to a similar independence of earthly luxuries. One who can\nclimb such mountain-heights can look with silent contempt on gold.\n\nBut there is a serious difficulty about Elisha's answer to the\nembassage. \"Go, say unto him\"--so it is rendered in our Authorised\nVersion--\"Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath showed\nme that he shall surely die.\"\n\nIt is evident that the translators of 1611 meant the emphasis to be\nlaid on the \"_mayest_,\" and understood the answer of Elisha to mean,\n\"Thy recovery is quite possible; and yet\"--he adds to Hazael, and not\nas part of his answer to the king--\"Jehovah has shown me that dying he\nshall die,\"--not indeed of this disease, but by other means before he\nhas recovered from it.\n\nUnfortunately, however, the Hebrew will not bear this meaning. Elisha\nbids Hazael to go back with the distinct message, \"Thou shalt surely\nrecover,\" as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version.\n\nThis, however, is the rendering, not of the _written_ text as it stands,\nbut of the margin. Every one knows that in the Masoretic original the\ntext itself is called the K'th\u00eeb, or \"what is written,\" whereas the\nmargin is called _Q'r\u00ee_, \"read.\" Now, our translators, both those of\n1611 and those of the Revision Committee, all but invariably follow the\nKeth\u00eeb as the most authentic reading. In this instance, however, they\nabandon the rule and translate the marginal reading.\n\nWhat, then, is the written text?\n\nIt is the reverse of the marginal reading, for it has: \"Go, say, Thou\nshalt _not_ recover.\"\n\nThe reader may naturally ask the cause of this startling discrepancy.\n\nIt seems to be twofold.\n\n(I.) Both the Hebrew word _lo_, \"not\" (\u05dc\u05b9\u05d0), and the word _lo_, \"to\nhim\" (\u05dc\u05d5\u05b9), have precisely the same pronunciation. Hence this text\nmight mean either \"Go, say _to him_, Thou shalt certainly recover,\" or\n\"Go, say, Thou shalt _not_ recover.\" The same identity of the\nnegative and the dative of the preposition has made nonsense of\nanother passage of the Authorised Version, where \"Thou hast multiplied\nthe nation, and _not_ increased the joy: they joy before Thee\naccording to the joy of harvest,\" should be \"Thou hast multiplied the\nnation, and increased _its_ joy.\" So, too, the verse \"It is He that\nhath made us, and _not_ we ourselves,\" may mean \"It is He that hath\nmade us, and _to Him_ we belong.\" In the present case the adoption of\nthe negative (which would have conveyed to Benhadad the exact truth)\nis not possible; for it makes the next clause and its introduction by\nthe word \"Howbeit\" entirely meaningless.\n\nBut (II.) this confusion in the text might not have arisen in the\npresent instance but for the difficulty of Elisha's appearing to send\na deliberately false message to Benhadad, and a message which he tells\nHazael at the time is false.\n\nCan this be deemed impossible?\n\nWith the views prevalent in \"those times of ignorance,\" I think not.\nAbraham and Isaac, saints and patriarchs as they were, both told\npractical falsehoods about their wives. They, indeed, were reproved\nfor this, though not severely; but, on the other hand, Jael is not\nreproved for her treachery to Sisera; and Samuel, under the semblance\nof a Divine permission, used a diplomatic ruse when he visited the\nhousehold of Jesse; and in the apologue of Micaiah a lying spirit is\nrepresented as sent forth to do service to Jehovah; and Elisha himself\ntells a deliberate falsehood to the Syrians at Dothan. The\nsensitiveness to the duty of always speaking the exact truth is not\nfelt in the East with anything like the intensity that it is in\nChristian lands; and reluctant as we should be to find in the message\nof Elisha another instance of that _falsitas dispensativa_ which has\nbeen so fatally patronised by some of the Fathers and by many Romish\ntheologians, the love of truth itself would compel us to accept this\nview of the case, if there were no other possible interpretation.\n\nI think, however, that another view is possible. I think that Elisha\nmay have said to Hazael, \"Go, say unto him, Thou shalt surely\nrecover,\" with the same accent of irony in which Micaiah said at first\nto the two kings, \"Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper; for the Lord\nshall deliver it into the hand of the king.\" I think that his whole\nmanner and the tone of his voice may have shown to Hazael, and may\nhave been meant to show him, that this was not Elisha's real message\nto Benhadad. Or, to adopt the same line of explanation with an\nunimportant difference, Elisha may have meant to imply, \"Go, follow\nthe bent which I know you _will_ follow; go, carry back to your master\nthe lying message that I said he would recover. But that is not _my_\nmessage. My message, whether it suits your courtier instincts or not,\nis that Jehovah has warned me that he shall surely die.\"\n\nThat some such meaning as this attaches to the verse seems to be shown\nby the context. For not only was some reproof involved in Elisha's\nwords, but he showed his grief still more by his manner. It was as\nthough he had said, \"Take back what message you choose, but Benhadad\nwill certainly die\"; and then he fastened his steady gaze on the\nsoldier's countenance, till Hazael blushed and became uneasy. Only\nwhen he noted that Hazael's conscience was troubled by the glittering\neyes which seemed to read the inmost secrets of his heart did Elisha\ndrop his glance, and burst into tears. \"Why weepeth, my lord?\" asked\nHazael, in still deeper uneasiness. Whereupon Elisha revealed to him\nthe future. \"I weep,\" he said, \"because I see in thee the curse and\nthe avenger of the sins of my native land. Thou wilt become to them a\nsword of God; thou wilt set their fortresses on fire; thou wilt\nslaughter their youths; thou wilt dash their little ones to pieces\nagainst the stones; thou wilt rip up their women with child.\" That he\nactually inflicted these savageries of warfare on the miserable\nIsraelites we are not told, but we are told that he smote them in all\ntheir coasts; that Jehovah delivered them into his hands; that he\noppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.[134] That being so, there\ncan be no question that he carried out the same laws of atrocious\nwarfare which belonged to those times and continued long afterwards.\nSuch atrocities were not only inflicted on the Israelites again and\nagain by the Assyrians and others,[135] but they themselves had often\ninflicted them, and inflicted them with what they believed to be\nDivine approval, on their own enemies.[136] Centuries after, one of\ntheir own poets accounted it a beatitude to him who should dash the\nchildren of the Babylonians against the stones.[137]\n\nAs the answer of Hazael is usually read and interpreted, we are taught\nto regard it as an indignant declaration that he could never be guilty\nof such vile deeds. It is regarded as though it were \"an abhorrent\nrepudiation of his future self.\" The lesson often drawn from it in\nsermons is that a man may live to do, and to delight in, crimes which\nhe once hated and deemed it impossible that he should ever commit.\n\nThe lesson is a most true one, and is capable of a thousand\nillustrations. It conveys the deeply needed warning that those who,\neven in thought, dabble with wrong courses, which they only regard as\nvenial peccadilloes, may live to commit, without any sense of horror,\nthe most enormous offences. It is the explanation of the terrible fact\nthat youths who once seemed innocent and holy-minded may grow up, step\nby step, into colossal criminals. \"Men,\" says Scherer, \"advance\nunconsciously from errors to faults, and from faults to crimes, till\nsensibility is destroyed by the habitual spectacle of guilt, and the\nmost savage atrocities come to be dignified by the name of State\npolicy.\"\n\n \"Lui-m\u00eame \u00e0 son portrait forc\u00e9 de rendre hommage,\n Il fr\u00e9mira d'horreur devant sa propre image.\"\n\nBut true and needful as these lessons are, they are entirely beside the\nmark as deduced from the story of Hazael. What he said was not, as in\nour Authorised Version, \"But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should\ndo this great thing?\" nor by \"great thing\" does he mean \"so deadly a\ncrime.\" His words, more accurately rendered in our Revision, are, \"But\nwhat is thy servant, which is but a dog, that he should do this great\nthing?\" or, \"But what is the dog, thy servant?\" It was a hypocritic\ndeprecation of the future importance and eminence which Elisha had\nprophesied for him. There is not the least sense of horror either in his\nwords or in his thoughts. He merely means \"A mere dog, such as I am, can\nnever accomplish such great designs.\" A dog in the East is utterly\ndespised;[138] and Hazael, with Oriental irony, calls himself a dog,\nthough he was the Syrian Commander-in-chief--just as a Chinaman, in\nspeaking of himself, adopts the periphrasis \"this little thief.\"\n\nElisha did not notice his sham humility, but told him, \"The Lord hath\nshowed me that thou shalt be King over Syria.\" The date of the event\nwas B.C. 886.\n\nThe scene has sometimes been misrepresented to Elisha's discredit, as\nthough he suggested to the general the crimes of murder and rebellion.\nThe accusation is entirely untenable. Elisha was, indeed, in one\nsense, commissioned to anoint Hazael King of Syria, because the cruel\nsoldier had been predestined by God to that position; but, in another\nsense, he had no power whatever to give to Hazael the mighty kingdom\nof Aram, nor to wrest it from the dynasty which had now held it for\nmany generations. All this was brought about by the Divine purpose, in\na course of events entirely out of the sphere of the humble man of\nGod. In the transferring of this crown he was in no sense the agent or\nthe suggester. The thought of usurpation must, without doubt, have\nbeen already in Hazael's mind. Benhadad, as far as we know, was\nchildless. At any rate he had no natural heirs, and seems to have been\na drunken king, whose reckless undertakings and immense failures had\nso completely alienated the affections of his subjects from himself\nand his dynasty, that he died undesired and unlamented, and no hand\nwas uplifted to strike a blow in his defence. It hardly needed a\nprophet to foresee that the sceptre would be snatched by so strong a\nhand as that of Hazael from a grasp so feeble as that of Benhadad II.\nThe utmost that Elisha had done was, under Divine guidance, to read\nhis character and his designs, and to tell him that the accomplishment\nof these designs was near at hand.\n\nSo Hazael went back to Benhadad, and in answer to the eager inquiry,\n\"What said Elisha to thee?\" he gave the answer which Elisha had\nforeseen that he meant to give, and which was in any case a falsehood,\nfor it suppressed half of what Elisha had really said. \"He told me,\"\nsaid Hazael, \"that thou shouldest surely recover.\"\n\nWas the sequel of the interview the murder of Benhadad by Hazael?\n\nThe story has usually been so read, but Elisha had neither prophesied\nthis nor suggested it. The sequel is thus described. \"And it came to\npass on the morrow, that _he_ took the coverlet,[139] and dipped it in\nwater, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned\nin his stead.\" The repetition of the name Hazael in the last clause is\nsuperfluous if he was the subject of the previous clause, and it has\nbeen consequently conjectured that \"he took\" is merely the impersonal\nidiom \"one took.\" Some suppose that, as Benhadad was in the bath, his\nservant took the bath-cloth, wetted it, and laid its thick folds over\nthe mouth of the helpless king; others, that he soaked the thick\nquilt, which the king was too weak to lift away.[140] In either case\nit is hardly likely that a great officer like Hazael would have been\nin the bath-room or the bed-room of the dying king. Yet we must\nremember that the Pr\u00e6torian Pr\u00e6fect Macro is said to have suffocated\nTiberius with his bed-clothes. Josephus says that Hazael strangled his\nmaster with a net; and, indeed, he has generally been held guilty of\nthe perpetration of the murder. But it is fair to give him the benefit\nof the doubt. Be that as it may, he seems to have reigned for some\nforty-six years (B.C. 886-840), and to have bequeathed the sceptre to\na son on whom he had bestowed the old dynastic name of Benhadad.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[131] Jer. xxv. 29; Ezek. xxxviii. 21.\n\n[132] See the cases of Samuel (1 Sam. ix. 7), of Ahijah (1 Kings xiv.\n3), and of Elisha himself (2 Kings iv. 42).\n\n[133] As Jacob did in sending forward his present to Esau. Comp.\nChardin, _Voyages_, iii. 217.\n\n[134] 2 Kings x. 32, xiii. 3, 22.\n\n[135] Isa. xiii. 15, 16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.\n\n[136] See Josh. vi. 17, 21; 1 Sam. xv. 3; Lev. xxvii. 28, 29.\n\n[137] Psalm cxxxvii. 9.\n\n[138] 1 Sam. xxiv. 14; 2 Sam. ix. 8.\n\n[139] \u05de\u05b7\u05db\u05b0\u05d1\u05b5\u05bc\u05e8 Jos., _Antt._, IX. iv. 6, \u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03c4\u03c5\u03bf\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03c1\u03bf\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd. Aquila,\nSymmachus, \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b1. Michaelis supposed it to be the mosquito-net\n(\u03ba\u03c9\u03bd\u03c9\u03c0\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd). Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 13. Ewald suggested \"bath-mattress\"\n(iii. 523). Sir G. Grove (_s.v._ \"Elisha,\" _Bibl. Dict._, ii. 923)\nmentions that Abbas Pasha is said to have been murdered in the same\nmanner. Some, however, think that the measure was taken by way of cure\n(Bruce, _Travels_, iii. 33. Klostermann, _ad loc._, alters the text at\nhis pleasure).\n\n[140] 2 Kings viii. 15; LXX., \u03c4\u1f78 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c7\u03b2\u03ac\u03c1; Vulg., _stragulum_; lit.,\n\"woven cloth.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n (1) _JEHORAM BEN-JEHOSHAPHAT OF JUDAH_\n\n B.C. 851-843\n\n (2) _AHAZIAH BEN-JEHORAM OF JUDAH_\n\n B.C. 843-842\n\n 2 KINGS viii. 16-24, 25-29\n\n \"Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne.\"--POPE.\n\n\nThe narrative now reverts to the kingdom of Judah, of which the\nhistorian, mainly occupied with the great deeds of the prophet in\nIsrael, takes at this period but little notice.\n\nHe tells us that in the fifth year of Jehoram of Israel, son of Ahab,\nhis namesake and brother-in-law, Jehoram of Judah, began to reign in\nJudah, though his father, Jehoshaphat, was then king.[141]\n\nThe statement is full of difficulties, especially as we have been\nalready told (i. 17) that Jehoram ben-Ahab of Israel began to reign in\nthe _second_ year of Jehoram ben-Jehoshaphat of Judah, and (iii. 1)\nin the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat. It is hardly worth while to\npause here to disentangle these complexities in a writer who, like\nmost Eastern historians, is content with loose chronological\nreferences. By the current mode of reckoning, the twenty-five years of\nJehoshaphat's reign may merely mean twenty-three and a month or two of\ntwo other years; and some suppose that, when Jehoram of Judah was\nabout sixteen, his father went on the expedition against Moab, and\nassociated his son with him in the throne. This is only conjecture.\nJehoshaphat, of all kings, least needed a coadjutor, particularly so\nweak and worthless a one as his son; and though the association of\ncolleagues with themselves has been common in some realms, there is\nnot a single instance of it in the history of Israel and Judah--the\ncase of Uzziah, who was a leper, not being to the point.[142]\n\nThe kings both of Israel and of Judah at this period, with the single\nexception of the brave and good Jehoshaphat, were unworthy and\nmiserable. The blight of the Jezebel-marriage and the curse of\nBaal-worship lay upon both kingdoms. It is scarcely possible to find\nsuch wretched monarchs as the two sons of Jezebel--Ahaziah and Jehoram\nin Israel, and the son-in-law and grandson of Jezebel, Jehoram and\nAhaziah, in Judah. Their respective reigns are annals of shameful\napostasy, and almost unbroken disaster.\n\nJehoram ben-Jehoshaphat of Judah was thirty-two years old when he\nbegan his independent reign, and reigned for eight deplorable years.\nThe fact that his mother's name is (exceptionally) omitted seems to\nimply that his father Jehoshaphat set the good example of\nmonogamy.[143] Jehoram was wholly under the influence of Athaliah, his\nwife, and of Jezebel, his mother-in-law, and he introduced into Judah\ntheir alien abominations. He \"walked in their way, and did evil in the\nsight of the Lord.\" The Chronicler fills up the general remark by\nsaying that he did his utmost to foster idolatry by erecting _bamoth_\nin the mountains of Judah, and compelled his people to worship there,\nin order to decentralise the religious services of the kingdom, and so\nto diminish the glory of the Temple. He introduced Baal-worship into\nJudah, and either he or his son was the guilty builder of a temple to\nBaalim, not only on the \"opprobrious mount\" on which stood the\nidolatrous chapels of Solomon, but on the Hill of the House itself.\nThis temple had its own high priest, and was actually adorned with\ntreasures torn from the Temple of Jehovah.[144] So bad was Jehoram's\nconduct that the historian can only attribute his non-destruction to\nthe \"covenant of salt\" which God had made with David, \"to give him a\nlamp for his children always.\"\n\nBut if actual destruction did not come upon him and his race, he came\nvery near such a fate, and he certainly experienced that \"the path of\ntransgressors is hard.\" There is nothing to record about him but crime\nand catastrophe. First Edom revolted. Jehoshaphat had subdued the\nEdomites, and only allowed them to be governed by a vassal; now they\nthrew off the yoke. The Jewish King advanced against them to \"Zair\"--by\nwhich must be meant apparently either Zoar (through which the road to\nEdom lay), or their capital, Mount Seir.[145] There he was surrounded by\nthe Edomite hosts; and though by a desperate act of valour he cut his\nway through them at night in spite of their reserve of chariots, yet his\narmy left him in the lurch.[146] Edom succeeded in establishing its\nfinal independence, to which we see an allusion in the one hope held out\nto Esau by Isaac in that \"blessing\" which was practically a curse.\n\nThe loss of so powerful a subject-territory, which now constituted a\nsource of danger on the eastern frontier of Judah, was succeeded by\nanother disaster on the south-west, in the Shephelah or lowland plain.\nHere Libnah revolted,[147] and by gaining its autonomy contracted yet\nfarther the narrow limits of the southern kingdom.\n\nThe Book of Kings tells us no more about the Jewish Jehoram, only\nadding that he died and was buried with his fathers, and was succeeded\nby his son Ahaziah. But the Book of Chronicles, which adds far darker\ntouches to his character, also heightens to an extraordinary degree\nthe intensity of his punishment. It tells us that he began his reign\nby the atrocious murder of his six younger brothers, for whom,\nfollowing the old precedent of Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat had provided by\nestablishing them as governors of various cities. As his throne was\nsecure, we cannot imagine any motive for this brutal massacre except\nthe greed of gain, and we can only suppose that, as Jehoram\nben-Jehoshaphat became little more than a friendly vassal of his\nkinsmen in Israel, so he fell under the deadly influence of his wife\nAthaliah, as completely as his father-in-law had done under the spell\nof her mother Jezebel. With his brothers he also swept away a number\nof the chief nobles, who perhaps embraced the cause of his murdered\nkinsmen. Such conduct breathes the known spirit of Jezebel and of\nAthaliah. To rebuke him for this wickedness, he received the menace of\na tremendous judgment upon his home and people in a writing from\n_Elijah_, whom we should certainly have assumed to be dead long before\nthat time. The judgment itself followed. The Philistines and Arabians\ninvaded Judah, captured Jerusalem, and murdered all Jehoram's own\nchildren, except Ahaziah, who was the youngest. Then Jehoram, at the\nage of thirty-eight, was smitten with an incurable disease of the\nbowels, of which he died two years later, and not only died\nunlamented, but was refused burial in the sepulchres of the kings. In\nany case his reign and that of his son and successor were the most\nmiserable in the annals of Judah, as the reigns of their namesakes and\nkinsmen, Ahaziah ben-Ahab and Jehoram ben-Ahab, were also the most\nmiserable in the annals of Israel.\n\nJehoram was succeeded on the throne of Judah by his son Ahaziah. If\nthe chronology and the facts be correct, Ahaziah ben-Jehoram of Judah\nmust have been born when his father was only eighteen, though he was\nthe youngest of the king's sons, and so escaped from being massacred\nin the Philistine invasion. He succeeded at the age of twenty-two,\nand only reigned a single year. During this year his mother, the\nGeb\u00eerah Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and granddaughter\nof the Tyrian Ethbaal, was all-supreme. She bent the weak nature of\nher son to still further apostasies. She was \"his counsellor to do\nwickedly,\" and her Baal-priest Mattan was more important than the\nAaronic high priest of the despised and desecrated Temple. Never did\nJudah sink to so low a level, and it was well that the days of Ahaziah\nof Judah were cut short.\n\nThe only event in his reign was the share he took with his uncle\nJehoram of Israel in his campaign to protect Ramoth-Gilead from\nHazael. The expedition seems to have been successful in its main\npurpose. Ramoth-Gilead, the key to the districts of Argob and Bashan,\nwas of immense importance for commanding the country beyond Jordan. It\nseems to be the same as Ramath-Mizpeh (Josh. xiii. 26); and if so, it\nwas the spot where Jacob made his covenant with Laban. Ahab, or his\nsuccessors, in spite of the disastrous end of the expedition to Ahab\npersonally, had evidently recovered the frontier fortress from the\nSyrian king.[148] Its position upon a hill made its possession vital\nto the interests of Gilead; for the master of Ramah was the master of\nthat Trans-Jordanic district. But Hazael had succeeded his murdered\nmaster, and was already beginning to fulfil the ruthless mission which\nElisha had foreseen with tears. Jehoram ben-Ahab seems to have held\nhis own against Hazael for a time; but in the course of the campaign\nat Ramoth he was so severely wounded that he was compelled to leave\nhis army under the command of Jehu, and to return to Jezreel, to be\nhealed of his wounds. Thither his nephew Ahaziah of Judah went to\nvisit him; and there, as we shall hear, he too met his doom. That\nfate, the Chronicler tells us, was the penalty of his iniquities. \"The\ndestruction of Ahaziah was of God by coming to Joram.\"\n\nWe have no ground for accusing either king of any want of courage; yet\nit was obviously impolitic of Jehoram to linger unnecessarily in his\nluxurious capital, while the army of Israel was engaged in service on\na dangerous frontier. The wounds inflicted by the Syrian archers may\nhave been originally severe. Their arrows at this time played as\nmomentous a part in history as the cloth-yard shafts of our English\nbowmen which \"sewed the French ranks together\" at Poictiers, Cre\u00e7y,\nand Azincour. But Jehoram had at any rate so far recovered that he\ncould ride in his chariot; and if he had been wise and bravely\nvigorous, he would not have left his army under a subordinate at so\nperilous an epoch, and menaced by so resolute a foe. Or if he were\nindeed compelled to consult the better physicians at Jezreel, he\nshould have persuaded his nephew Ahaziah of Judah--who seems to have\nbeen more or less of a vassal as well as a kinsman--to keep an eye on\nthe beleaguered fort. Both kings, however, deserted their\npost,--Jehoram to recover perfect health; and Ahaziah, who had been\nhis comrade--as their father and grandfather had gone together to the\nsame war--to pay a state visit of condolence to the royal invalid. The\narmy was left under a popular, resolute, and wholly unscrupulous\ncommander, and the results powerfully affected the immediate and the\nultimate destiny of both kingdoms.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[141] The following genealogy may help to elucidate the troublesome\nidentity of names:--\n\n OMRI\n ____|____\n | | JEHOSHAPHAT\n Ahab = Jezebel |\n _______|__________________ |\n | | | |\n Ahaziah Jehoram Athaliah = Jehoram\n (of Israel). (of Israel). | (of Judah).\n |\n Ahaziah\n (of Judah).\n\n\n[142] Jotham ben-Uzziah was not the colleague of his father, but his\npublic representative.\n\n[143] The only other king of Judah whose mother's name is not mentioned\n(perhaps because his father Jotham had but one wife) is Ahaz.\n\n[144] 2 Kings xi. 18; 2 Chron. xxi. 11, xxiv. 7.\n\n[145] Vulg., _Seira_; Arab., _Sa'ir_ (but the historian never uses the\nname Mount Seir); LXX., \u03a3\u03b9\u03ce\u03c1. There is perhaps some corruption in the\ntext, and the reading of the Chronicler \"with his princes\" shows that\nit may have once been \u05e6\u05b7\u05de\u05be\u05e9\u05b8\u05c2\u05e8\u05b8\u05d9\u05d5.\n\n[146] 2 Kings viii. 21. \"The people\" (_i.e._, the army of Judah) \"fled\nto their tents.\" Apparently this means that they slunk away home. The\nword \"tents\" is a reminiscence of their nomad days, like the\ntreasonable cry, \"To your tents, O Israel.\"\n\n[147] Josh. x. 29-39.\n\n[148] Jos., _Antt._, IX. vi. 1.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n\n _THE REVOLT OF JEHU_\n\n B.C. 842\n\n 2 KINGS ix. 1-37\n\n \"Te semper anteit s\u00e6va Necessitas\n Clavos trabales et cuneos manu,\n Gestans ahen\u00e2.\"\n HORAT., _Od._, I. xxxv. 17.\n\n\nA long period had elapsed since Elijah had received the triple\ncommission which was to mark the close of his career. Two of those\nDivine behests had now been accomplished. He had anointed Elisha, son\nof Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, to be prophet in his room;[149] and\nElisha had anointed Hazael to be king over Syria;[150] the third and\nmore dangerous commission, involving nothing less than the overthrow\nof the mighty dynasty of Omri, remained still unaccomplished.\n\nIf the name of Jehu (\"Jehovah is He\")[151] had been actually mentioned\nto Elijah, the dreadful secret must have remained buried in the breast\nof the prophet and in that of his successor for many years. Further,\nJehu was yet a very young man, and to have marked him out as the\nfounder of a dynasty would have been to doom him to certain\ndestruction. An Eastern king, whose family has once securely seated\nitself on the throne, is hedged round with an awful divinity, and\ndemands an unquestioning obedience. Elijah had been removed from earth\nbefore this task had been fulfilled, and Elisha had to wait for his\nopportunity. But the doom was passed, though the judgment was belated.\nThe sons of Ahab were left a space to repent, or to fill to the brim\nthe cup of their father's iniquities.\n\n \"The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite,\n Nor yet doth linger.\"\n\nAhaziah, Ahab's eldest son, after a reign of one year, marked only by\ncrimes and misfortunes, had ended in overwhelming disaster his\ndeplorable career. His brother Jehoram had succeeded him, and had now\nbeen on the throne for at least twelve years, which had been chiefly\nsignalised by that unsuccessful attempt to recover the territory of\nrevolted Moab, to which we owe the celebrated Stone of Mesha. We have\nalready narrated the result of the campaign which had so many\nvicissitudes. The combined armies of Israel, Judah, and Edom had been\ndelivered by the interposition of Elisha from perishing of thirst\nbeside the scorched-up bed of the Wady-el-Ahsy; and availing\nthemselves of the rash assault of the Moabites, had swept everything\nbefore them. But Moab stood at bay at Kir-Haraseth (Kerak), his\nstrongest fortress, six miles from Ar or Rabbah, and ten miles east of\nthe southern end of the Dead Sea. It stood three thousand feet above\nthe level of the sea, and is defended by a network of steep valleys.\nNevertheless, Israel would have subdued it, but for the act of\nhorrible despair to which the King of Moab resorted in his extremity,\nby offering up his eldest son as a burnt-offering to Chemosh upon the\nwall of the city. Horror-stricken by the catastrophe, and terrified\nwith the dread that the vengeance of Chemosh could not but be aroused\nby so tremendous a sacrifice, the besieging host had retired. From\nthat moment Moab had not only been free, but assumed the _r\u00f4le_ of an\naggressor, and sent her marauding bands to harry and carry the farms\nand homesteads of her former conqueror.[152]\n\nThen followed the aggressions of Benhadad which had been frustrated by\nthe insight of Elisha, and which owed their temporary cessation to his\ngenerosity.[153] The reappearance of the Syrians in the field had\nreduced Samaria to the lowest depths of ghastly famine. But the day of\nthe guilty city had not yet come, and a sudden panic, caused among the\ninvaders by a rumoured assault of Hittites and Egyptians, had saved\nher from destruction.[154] Taking advantage of the respite caused by\nthe change of the Syrian dynasty, and pressing on his advantage,\nJehoram, with the aid of his Jud\u00e6an nephew, had once more got\npossession of Ramoth-Gilead before Hazael was secure on the throne\nwhich he had usurped.\n\nThis then was the situation:--The allied and kindred kings of Israel\nand Judah were idling in the pomp of hospitality at Jezreel; their\narmies were encamped about Ramoth-Gilead; and at the head of the host\nof Israel was the crafty and vehement grandson of Nimshi.\n\nElisha saw and seized his opportunity. The day of vengeance from the\nLord had dawned. Things had not materially altered since the days of\nAhab. If Jehovah was nominally worshipped, if the very names of the\nkings of Israel bore witness to His supremacy,[155] Baal was\nworshipped too. The curse which Elijah had pronounced against Ahab and\nhis house remained unfulfilled. The credit of prophecy was at stake.\nThe blood of Naboth and his slaughtered sons cried to the Lord from\nthe ground; and hitherto it seemed to have cried in vain. If the\n_Nebi\u00eem_ (the prophetic class) were to have their due weight in\nIsrael, the hour had come, and the man was ready.\n\nThe light which falls on Elisha is dim and intermittent. His name is\nsurrounded by a halo of nebulous wonders, of which many are of a\nprivate and personal character. But he was a known enemy of Ahab and\nhis house. He had, indeed, more than once interposed to snatch them\nfrom ruin, as in the expedition against Moab, and in the awful straits\nof the siege of Samaria by the Syrians. But his person had none the\nless been hateful to the sons of Jezebel, and his life had been\nendangered by their bursts of sudden fury. He could hardly again have\na chance so favourable as that which now offered itself, when the\narmed host was at one place and the king at another. Perhaps, too, he\nmay have been made aware that the soldiers were not well pleased to\nfind at their head a king who was so far a _fain\u00e9ant_ as to leave them\nexposed to a powerful enemy, and show no eagerness to return. His\n\"urgent private affairs\" were not so urgent as to entitle him to take\nhis ease at luxurious Jezreel.\n\nWhere Elisha was at the time we do not know--perhaps at Dothan,\nperhaps at Samaria. Suddenly he called to him a youth--one of the Sons\nof the Prophets, on whose speed and courage he could rely--placed in\nhis hands a vial of the consecrated anointing oil,[156] told him to\ngird up his loins,[157] and to speed across the Jordan to\nRamoth-Gilead. When he arrived, he was to bid Jehu rise up from the\ncompany of his fellow-captains to hurry him into \"a chamber within a\nchamber,\"[158] to shut the door for secrecy, to pour the consecrating\noil upon his head, to anoint him King of Israel in the name of\nJehovah, and then to fly without a moment's delay.[159]\n\nThe messenger--the Rabbis guess that he was Jonah, the son of\nAmittai[160]--knew well that his was a service of immense peril, in\nwhich his life might easily pay the forfeit of his temerity. How was\nhe to guess that at once, without striking a blow, the host of Israel\nwould fling to the winds its sworn allegiance to the son of the\nwarrior Ahab, the fourth monarch of the powerful dynasty of Omri?\nMight not any one of a thousand possible accidents thwart a conspiracy\nof which the success depended on the unflinching courage and\npromptitude of his single hand?\n\nHe was but a youth, but he was the trained pupil of a master who had,\nagain and again, stood before kings, and not been afraid. He sprang\nfrom a community which inherited the splendid traditions of the\nProphet of Flame.\n\nHe did not hesitate a moment. He tightened the camel's hide round his\nnaked limbs, flung back the long dark locks of the Nazarite, and sped\nupon his way. A true son of the schools of Jehovah's prophets has, and\ncan have, no fear of man. The armies of Israel and Judah saw the wild,\nflying figure of a young man, with his hairy garment and streaming\nlocks, rush through the camp. Whatever might be their surmisings, he\nbrooked no questions. Availing himself of the awe with which the\nshadow of Elijah had covered the sacrosanct person of a prophetic\nmessenger, he made his way straight to the war-council of the\ncaptains; and brushing aside every attempt to impede his progress with\nthe plea that he was the bearer of Jehovah's message, he burst into\nthe council of the astonished warriors, who were assembled in the\nprivate courtyard of a house in the fortress-town.[161]\n\nHe knew the fame of Jehu, but did not know his person, and dared not\nwaste time. \"I have an errand to thee, O captain,\" he said to the\nassembly generally. The message had been addressed to no one in\nparticular, and Jehu naturally asked, \"Unto which of all of us?\" With\nthe same swift intuition which has often enabled men in similar\ncircumstances to recognise a leader--as Josephus recognised Vespasian,\nand St. Severinus recognised Odoacer, and Joan of Arc recognised\nCharles VI. of France--he at once replied, \"To thee, O captain.\" Jehu\ndid not hesitate a moment. Prophets had shown, many a time, that their\nmessages might not be neglected or despised. He rose, and followed the\nyouth, who led him into the most secret recess of the house, and\nthere, emptying on his head the fragrant oil of consecration, said,\n\"Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over\nthe people of Jehovah, even over Israel.\"[162] He was to smite the\nhouse of his master Ahab in vengeance for the blood of Jehovah's\nprophets and servants whom Jezebel had murdered. Ahab's house, every\nmale of it, young and old, bond and free,[163] is doomed to perish, as\nthe houses of Jeroboam and of Baasha had perished before them, by a\nbloody end. Further, the dogs should eat Jezebel by the rampart of\nJezreel,[164] and there should be none to bury her.\n\nOne moment sufficed for his daring deed, for his burning message; the\nnext he had flung open the door and fled. The soldiers of the camp must\nhave whispered still more anxiously together as they saw the same\nagitated youth rushing through their lines with the same impetuosity\nwhich had marked his entrance. In those dark days the sudden appearance\nof a prophet was usually the herald of some terrific storm.[165]\n\nJehu was utterly taken by surprise; but according to the reading\npreserved by Ephraem Syrus in 2 Kings ix. 26, he had on the previous\nnight seen in a dream the blood of Naboth and his sons. If the thought\nof revolt had ever passed for a moment through his mind, it had never\nassumed a definite shape. True, he had been a warrior from his youth.\nTrue, he had been one of Ahab's bodyguard, and had ridden before him\nin a chariot at least twenty years earlier, and had now risen by\nvalour and capacity to the high station of captain of the host. True,\nalso, that he had heard the great curse which Elijah had pronounced on\nAhab at the door of Naboth's vineyard; but he heard it while he was\nyet an obscure youth, and he had little dreamed that his was the hand\nwhich should carry it into execution. Who was he? And had not the\nhouse of Omri been, in some sense, sanctioned by Heaven? And were not\nthe words of the prophet \"wild and wandering cries,\" of which the\nissues might be averted by such a repentance as that of Ahab?\n\nAnd he felt another misgiving. Might not this scene be the plot of\nsome secret enemy? Might it not at any rate be a reckless jest palmed\nupon him by his comrades? If any jealous member of the confederacy of\ncaptains betrayed the fact that Jehu had tampered with their\nallegiance, would his head be safe for a single hour? He would act\nwarily. He came back to his fellow-captains and said nothing.\n\nBut they were burning with curiosity. Something must be impending.\nProphets did not rush in thus tumultuously for no purpose. Must not\nthe youth's mantle of hair be some standard of war?\n\n\"Is all right?\" they shouted. \"Why did this frantic fellow come to\nthee?\"[166]\n\n\"You know all about it,\" answered Jehu, with wary coolness. \"You know\nmore about it than I do. You know the man, and what his talk was.\"\n\n\"Lies!\" bluntly answered the rough soldiers.[167] \"Tell us now.\"\n\nThen Jehu's eye took measure of them and their feelings. A judge of\nmen and of men's countenances, he saw conspiracy flashing in their\nfaces. He saw that they suspected the true state of things, and were\non fire to carry it out. Perhaps they had caught sight of the vial of\noil under the youth's scant dress. Could any quickened observation at\nleast fail to notice that the soldier's dark locks were shining and\nfragrant, as they had not been a moment ago, with consecrated oil?\n\nThen Jehu frankly told them the perilous secret. Thus and thus had the\nyoung prophet spoken, and had said, \"Thus saith Jehovah, I have\nanointed thee king over Israel.\"\n\nThe message was met with a shout of answering approbation. That shout\nwas the death-knell of the house of Omri. It showed that the reigning\ndynasty had utterly forfeited its popularity. No luck had followed the\nsons of Naboth's murderer. Israel was weary of their mother Jezebel.\nWhy was this king Jehoram, this king of evil auspices, who had been\nrepudiated by Moab and harried by Syria--why, in the first gleam of\npossible prosperity, was he being detained at Jezreel by wounds which\nrumour said were already sufficiently healed to allow him to return to\nhis post? Down with the seed of the murderer and the sorceress! Let\nbrave Jehu be king, as Jehovah has said!\n\nSo the captains sprang to their feet, and then and there seized Jehu,\nand carried him in triumph to the top of the stairs which ran round\nthe inside of the courtyard, and stripped off their mantles to\nextemporise for him the semblance of a cushioned throne.[168] Then in\nthe presence of such soldiers as they could trust they blew a sudden\nblast of the ram's horn, and shouted, \"Jehu is king!\"\n\nJehu was not the man to let the grass grow under his feet. Nothing\ntries a man's vigour and nerve so surely as a sudden crisis. It is\nthis swift resolution which has raised many a man to the throne, as it\nraised Otho, and Napoleon I. and Napoleon III. The history of Israel\nis specially full of _coups d'\u00e9tat_, but no one of them is half so\ndecisive or overwhelming as this. Jehu instantly accepted the office\nof Jehovah's avenger on the house of Ahab.[169] Everything, as Jehu\nsaw, depended on the suddenness and fury with which the blow was\ndelivered. \"If you want me to be your king,\"[170] he said, \"keep the\nlines secure, and guard the fortress walls. I will be my own messenger\nto Jehoram. Let no deserter go forth to give him warning.\"[171]\n\nIt was agreed; and Jehu, only taking with him Bidkar, his\nfellow-officer, and a small band of followers, set forth at full speed\nfrom Ramoth-Gilead.\n\nThe fortress of Ramoth, now the important town of Es-Salt, a place\nwhich must always have been the key of Gilead, was built on the\nsummit of a rocky headland, fortified by nature as well as by art. It\nis south of the river Jabbok, and lies at the head of the only easy\nroad which runs down westward to the Jordan and eastward to the rich\nplateau of the interior.[172] Crossing the fords of the Jordan, Jehu\nwould soon be able to join the main road, which, passing Tirzah,\nZaretan, and Beth-shean, and sweeping eastward of Mount Gilboa, gives\nready access to Jezreel.\n\nThe watchman on the lofty watchtower of the summer palace caught sight\nof a storm of dust careering along from the eastward up the valley\ntowards the city.[173] The times were wild and troublous. What could\nit be? He shouted his alarm, \"I see a troop!\" The tidings were\nstartling, and the king was instantly informed that chariots and\nhorsemen were approaching the royal city. \"Send a horseman to meet\nthem,\" he said, \"with the message, 'Is all well?'\"\n\nForth flew the rider, and cried to the rushing escort, \"The king asks,\n'Is all well? Is it peace?'\" For probably the anxious city hoped that\nthere might have been some victory of the army against Hazael, which\nwould fill them with joy.\n\n\"What hast thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me,\" answered Jehu;\nand perforce the horseman, whatever may have been his conjectures, had\nto follow in the rear.\n\n\"He reached them,\" cried the sentry on the watchtower, \"but he does\nnot return.\"\n\nThe news was enigmatical and alarming; and the troubled king sent\nanother horseman. Again the same colloquy occurred, and again the\nwatchman gave the ominous message, adding to it the yet more\nperplexing news that, in the mad and headlong driving[174] of the\ncharioteer, he recognises the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi.[175]\n\nWhat had happened to his army? Why should the captain of the host be\ndriving thus furiously to Jezreel?\n\nMatters were evidently very critical, whatever the swift approach of\nchariots and horsemen might portend. \"Yoke my chariot,\" said Jehoram;\nand his nephew Ahaziah, who had shared his campaign, and was no less\nconsumed with anxiety to learn tidings which could not but be\npressing, rode by him in another chariot to meet Jehu. They took with\nthem no escort worth mentioning. The rebellion was not only sudden,\nbut wholly unexpected.\n\nThe two kings met Jehu in a spot of the darkest omen. It was the plot\nof ground which had once been the vineyard of Naboth, at the door of\nwhich Ahab had heard from Elijah the awful message of his doom. As the\nNew Forest was ominous to our early Norman kings as the witness of\ntheir cruelties and encroachments, so was this spot to the house of\nOmri, though it was adjacent to their ivory palace, and had been\ntransformed from a vineyard into a garden or pleasance.\n\n\"Is it peace, Jehu?\" shouted the agitated king; by which probably he\nonly meant to ask, \"Is all going well in the army at Ramoth?\"\n\nThe fierce answer which burst from the lips of his general fatally\nundeceived him. \"What peace,\" brutally answered the rebel, \"so long as\nthe whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?\"\nShe, after all, was the _fons et origo mali_ to the house of Jehoram.\nHers was the dark spirit of murder and idolatry which had walked in that\nhouse. She was the instigator and the executer of the crime against\nNaboth. She had been the foundress of Baal- and Asherah-worship; she was\nthe murderess of the prophets; she had been specially marked out for\nvengeance in the doom pronounced both by Elijah and Elisha.\n\nThe answer was unmistakable. This was a revolt, a revolution.\n\"Treachery, Ahaziah!\" shouted the terrified king, and instantly wheeled\nround his chariot to flee.[176] But not so swiftly as to escape the\nNemesis which had been stealing upon him with leaden feet, but now smote\nhim irretrievably with iron hand. Without an instant's hesitation, Jehu\nsnatched his bow from his attendant charioteer, \"filled his hands with\nit,\" and from its full stretch and resonant string sped the arrow, which\nsmote Jehoram in the back with fatal force, and passed through his\nheart.[177] Without a word the unhappy king sank down upon his\nknees[178] in his chariot, and fell face forward, dead.\n\n\"Take him up,\" cried Jehu to Bidkar,[179] \"and fling him down where he\nis,--here in this portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. Here,\nyears ago, you and I, as we rode behind Ahab,[180] heard Elijah utter\nhis oracle on this man's father, that vengeance should meet him here.\nWhere the dogs licked the blood of Naboth and his sons, let dogs lick\nthe blood of the son of Ahab.\"[181]\n\nBut Jehu was not the man to let the king's murder stay his\nchariot-wheels when more work had yet to be done. Ahaziah of Judah,\ntoo, belonged to Ahab's house, for he was Ahab's grandson, and\nJehoram's nephew and ally. Without stopping to mourn or avenge the\ntragedy of his uncle's murder, Ahaziah fled towards Bethgan or\nEngannim,[182] the fountain of gardens, south of Jezreel, on the road\nto Samaria and Jerusalem. Jehu gave the laconic order, \"Smite him\nalso\";[183] but fright added wings to the speed of the hapless King of\nJudah. His chariot-steeds were royal steeds, and were fresh; those of\nJehu were spent with the long, fierce drive from Ramoth. He got as far\nas the ascent of Gur before he was overtaken.[184] There, not far from\nIbleam, the rocky hill impeded his flight, and he was wounded by the\npursuers. But he managed to struggle onwards to Megiddo, on the south\nof the plain of Jezreel, and there he hid himself.[185] He was\ndiscovered, dragged out, and slain. Even Jehu's fierce emissaries did\nnot make war on dead bodies, any more than Hannibal did, or Charles V.\nThey left such meanness to Jehu himself, and to our Charles II. They\ndid not interfere with the dead king's remains. His servants carried\nthem to Jerusalem, and there he was buried with his fathers in the\nsepulchre of the kings, in the city of David. As there was nothing\nmore to tell about him, the historian omits the usual formula about\nthe rest of the acts of Ahaziah, and all that he did. His death\nillustrates the proverb _Mitgegangen mitgefangen_: he was the comrade\nof evil men, and he perished with them.\n\nJehu speedily reached Jezreel, but the interposition of Jehoram and\nthe orders for the pursuit of Ahaziah had caused a brief delay, and\nJezebel had already been made aware that her doom was imminent.\n\nNot even the sudden and dreadful death of her son, and the nearness of\nher own fate, daunted the steely heart of the Tyrian sorceress. If she\nwas to die, she would meet death like a queen. As though for some\nCourt banquet, she painted her eyelashes and eyebrows with antimony,\nto make her eyes look large and lustrous,[186] and put on her jewelled\nhead-dress.[187] Then she mounted the palace tower, and, looking down\nthrough the lattice above the city gate, watched the thundering\nadvance of Jehu's chariot, and hailed the triumphant usurper with the\nbitterest insult she could devise. She knew that Omri, her husband's\nfather, had taken swift vengeance on the guilt of the usurper Zimri,\nwho had been forced to burn himself in the harem at Tirzah after one\nmonth's troubled reign. Her shrill voice was heard above the roar of\nthe chariot-wheels in the ominous taunt,--\n\n\"Is it peace, thou Zimri, thou murderer of thy master?\"[188]\n\nNo!--She meant, \"There is no peace for thee nor thine, any more than for\nme or mine! Thou mayest murder us; but thee too, thy doom awaiteth!\"\n\nStung by the ill-omened words, Jehu looked up at her and shouted,--\n\n\"Who is on my side? Who?\"\n\nThe palace was apparently rife with traitors. Ahab had been the first\npolygamist among the kings of Israel, and therefore the first also to\nintroduce the odious atrocity of eunuchs. Those hapless wretches, the\nportents of Eastern seraglios, the disgrace of humanity, are almost\nalways the retributive enemies of the societies of which they are the\nhelpless victims. Fidelity or gratitude are rarely to be looked for\nfrom natures warped into malignity by the ruthless misdoing of men.\nNor was the nature of Jezebel one to inspire affection. One or two\neunuchs[189] immediately thrust out of the windows their bloated and\nbeardless faces. \"Fling her down!\" Jehu shouted. Down they flung the\nwretched queen (has any queen ever died a death so shamelessly\nignominious?), and her blood spirted upon the wall, and on the horses.\nJehu, who had only stopped for an instant in his headlong rush, drove\nhis horses over her corpse,[190] and entered the gate of her capital\nwith his wheels crimson with her blood. History records scarcely\nanother instance of such a scene, except when Tullia, a century later,\ndrove her chariot over the dead body of her father Servius Tullius in\nthe _Vicus Sceleratus_ of ancient Rome.[191]\n\nBut what cared Jehu? Many a conqueror ere now has sat down to the\ndinner prepared for his enemy; and the obsequious household of the\ndead tyrants, ready to do the bidding of their new lord, ushered the\nhungry man to the banquet provided for the kings whom he had slain. No\nman dreamt of uttering a wail; no man thought of raising a finger for\ndead Jehoram or for dead Jezebel, though they had all been under _her_\nsway for at least five-and-thirty years. \"The wicked perish, and no\nman regardeth.\" \"When the wicked perish, there is shouting.\"[192]\n\nWe may be startled at a revolution so sudden and so complete; yet it\nis true to history. A tyrant or a cabal may oppress a nation for long\nyears. Their word may be thought absolute, their power irresistible.\nTyranny seems to paralyse the courage of resistance, like the fabled\nhead of Medusa. Remove its fascination of corruption, and men become\nmen, and not machines, once more. Jehu's daring woke Israel from the\nlethargy which had made her tolerate the murders and enchantments of\nthis Baal-worshipping alien. In the same way in one week Robespierre\nseemed to be an invincible autocrat; the next week his power had\ncrumbled into dust and ashes at a touch.\n\nIt was not until Jehu had sated his thirst and hunger after that wild\ndrive, which had ended in the murder of two kings and a queen and in\nhis sudden elevation to a throne, that it even occurred to this new\ntiger-king to ask what had become of Jezebel. But when he had eaten\nand drunk, he said, \"Go, see now to this cursed woman, and bury her:\nfor she is a king's daughter.\" That she had been first Princess, then\nQueen, then Geb\u00eerah in Israel for nearly a full lifetime was nothing:\nit was nothing to Jehu that she was a wife, and mother, and\ngrandmother of kings and queens both of Israel and Judah;--but she was\nalso the daughter of Ethbaal, the priest-king of Tyre and Sidon, and\ntherefore any shameful treatment of her remains might kindle trouble\nfrom the region of Ph\u0153nicia.[193]\n\nBut no one had taken the trouble so much as to look after the corpse\nof Jezebel. The populace of Jezreel were occupied with their new king.\nWhere Jezebel fell, there she had been suffered to lie; and no one,\napparently, cared even to despoil her of the royal robes, now\nsaturated with bloodshed. Flung from the palace-tower, her body had\nfallen in the open space just outside the walls--what is called \"the\nmounds\" of an Eastern city. In the strange carelessness of sanitation\nwhich describes as \"fate\" even the visitation of an avoidable\npestilence, all sorts of offal are shot into this vacant space to\nfester in the tropic heat. I myself have seen the pariah dogs and the\nvultures feeding on a ghastly dead horse in a ruined space within the\nstreet of Beit-Dejun; and the dogs and the vultures--\"those national\nundertakers\"--had done their work unbidden on the corpse of the Tyrian\nqueen. When men went to bury her, they only found a few dog-mumbled\nbones--the skull, and the feet, and the palms of the hands.[194] They\nbrought the news to Jehu as he rested after his feast. It did not by\nany means discompose him. He at once recognised that another\nlevin-bolt had fallen from the thunder-crash of Elijah's prophecy, and\nhe troubled himself about the matter no further. Her carcase, as the\nman of God had prophesied, had become as dung upon the face of the\nfield, so that none could say, \"This is Jezebel.\"[195]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[149] 1 Kings xix. 15, 16.\n\n[150] 2 Kings viii. 12, 13.\n\n[151] The name was not uncommon, 1 Chron. ii. 38, iv. 35, xii. 3.\n\n[152] 2 Kings xiii. 20, xxiv. 2; Jer. xlviii.\n\n[153] 2 Kings vi. 8-23.\n\n[154] 2 Kings vii. 6.\n\n[155] Jehoram = Jehovah is exalted. Ahaziah = Jehovah holds.\n\n[156] Vial (_pak_) only here and in 1 Sam. x. 1. \"_The_ oil\" (LXX.,\n\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03c6\u03b1\u03ba\u1f78\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f10\u03bb\u03b1\u03af\u03bf\u03c5).\n\n[157] \"His habit fit for speed _succinct_\" (Milton).\n\n[158] Inner chamber, 1 Kings xx. 30.\n\n[159] Perhaps, if Elisha had gone in person, suspicion might have been\naroused. He was not more than fifty at this time, and lived\nforty-three years more.\n\n[160] _Seder Olam_, c. 18.\n\n[161] It seems as though they were _inside_ the town to defend it, not\na beleaguring host outside.\n\n[162] The expression is remarkable, as showing how completely the\nprerogative of the Chosen People was supposed to rest with the Ten\nTribes, as the most important representatives of the seed of Abraham.\n\n[163] \"Him that is shut up, and him that is left at large in Israel\"\n(2 Kings ix. 8; 1 Kings xiv. 10, xvi. 3, 4).\n\n[164] The A.V. has, less accurately, \"in the _portion_ of Jezreel.\"\nSee 1 Kings xxi. 23. Heb., \u05d7\u05b5\u05dc\u05b6\u05e7. The \u05d7\u05b5\u05d9\u05dc of an Eastern town is the\nditch and empty space--a sort of external _pom\u0153rium_ around it. It is\nthe place of offal, and the haunt of vultures and pariah dogs.\n\n[165] 1 Sam. xvi. 4: \"Comest thou peaceably?\"\n\n[166] 2 Kings ix. 11, \u05d4\u05b7\u05de\u05b0\u05bc\u05e9\u05bb\u05c1\u05e0\u05b8\u05bc\u05e6 LXX., \u1f41 \u1f11\u03c0\u03af\u03bb\u03b7\u03c0\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. Comp. ver. 20,\n\"he driveth _furiously_\" (\u05d1\u05b0\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05e0\u05b8\u05bc\u05e6\u05d5\u05df).\n\n[167] Ver. 12, a lie! (\u05e9\u05b6\u05c1\u05e7\u05b6\u05e8).\n\n[168] What is meant by the _gerem_ of the staircase is uncertain. The\nword means \"a bone\" (Aquila, \u1f40\u03c3\u03c4\u1ff6\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2), and is, in this connection, an\n\u1f05\u03c0\u03b1\u03be \u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd. The Targum explains it as the top vane of a\nstair-dial. The margin of the R.V. renders it \"on the bare steps.\" The\nVulgate renders it _in similitudinem tribunalis_, as though _gerem_\nmeant _tselem_. The LXX. conceal their perplexity by simply\ntranslating the word \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03b3\u03b1\u03c1\u03ad\u03bc. Grotius and Clericus, _in fastigio\ngraduum_. Symmachus, \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1\u03b8\u03bc\u03af\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd.\n\n[169] 2 Kings ix. 14: \"So Jehu _conspired_ against Joram.\" The same\nword is used in 2 Chron. xxiv. 25, 26.\n\n[170] 2 Kings ix. 15, R.V.: \"If this be your mind.\"\n\n[171] So far as we know, he never returned to Ramoth-Gilead, of which\nindeed we hear no more.\n\n[172] Tristram, _Land of Moab_.\n\n[173] Heb., _Shiph'hath_, \"a dust-storm\" (LXX., \u03ba\u03bf\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03c1\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd, \u03b1\u1f30. \u1f44\u03c7\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd;\nVulg., _globum_), not as in A.V. and R.V., \"a company.\" Comp. Isa. lx.\n6; Ezek. xxvi. 10.\n\n[174] Clearly the rendering \"he driveth furiously\" is right. The word\n\"furiously\" is _beshigga'\u00f4n_ (Vulg., _pr\u00e6ceps_), and is connected with\n\"mad,\" ver. 11. LXX., \u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bb\u03bb\u03b1\u03b3\u1fc7. Arab. Chald., \"quietly.\" Josephus,\n\"leisurely, and in good order.\" Such an approach would not, however,\nhave been at all in accordance with the perilous urgency of his intent.\n\n[175] Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, is named from his grandfather\nNimshi, who seems to have been the founder of the greatness of his\nhouse.\n\n[176] 2 Kings ix. 23: \"Turned his hands.\" Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 34.\n\n[177] Ver. 24. Vulg., _inter scapulas_.\n\n[178] LXX., reading \u05d1\u05bc\u05e8\u05b0\u05db\u05b8\u05bc\u05d9\u05d5 \u05e6\u05b7\u05dc.\n\n[179] Bidkar, perhaps Bar-dekar, \"Son of stabbing.\" Comp. 1 Kings iv. 9.\n\n[180] Heb., _ts'madim_, \"in pairs\"; LXX., \u1f10\u03c0\u03b9\u03b2\u03b5\u03b2\u03b7\u03ba\u03cc\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b6\u03b5\u03cd\u03b3\u03b7. It\nis uncertain whether Jehu and Bidkar were in the same chariot as Ahab,\nas Josephus says (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u1f44\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f05\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2), or in a separate\nchariot.\n\n[181] 2 Kings ix. 26: \"Saith the Lord.\" Ephraem Syrus omits these\nwords. He says that the night before Jehu had seen the blood of Naboth\nand his sons in a dream. Comp. Hom., _Od._, iii. 258: \u03a4\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03b5 \u03bf\u1f31 \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1f72\n\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c7\u03c5\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03b3\u03b1\u1fd6\u03b1\u03bd \u1f14\u03c7\u03b5\u03c5\u03b1\u03bd '\u0391\u03bb\u03bb' \u1f04\u03c1\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b3\u03b5 \u03ba\u03cd\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f30\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u1f76\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03b4\u03b1\u03c8\u03b1\u03bd \u039a\u03b5\u03af\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03b5\u03b4\u03af\u1ff3.\n\n[182] A.V., \"By the way of the garden-house.\" LXX., \u0392\u03b1\u03b9\u03b8\u03b3\u03ac\u03bd.\n\n[183] The text is a little uncertain.\n\n[184] Thenius supposes \"Gur\" to mean \"a caravanserai.\" Comp. 2 Chron.\nxxvi. 7, _Gur-Baal_; Vulg., _Hospitium Baalis_.\n\n[185] The account of the Chronicler (2 Chron. xxii. 9) differs from\nthat of the earlier historian. It may, however, be (uncertainly)\nreconciled with it as in the text, if we suppose the words \"he was hid\nin Samaria\" to mean in Megiddo, in the territory of Samaria.\nObviously, however, the traditions varied. There are difficulties\nabout the story, for Ibleam is on the west towards Megiddo, and not\nbetween Jezreel and Samaria.\n\n[186] \u05e4\u05bc\u05d5\u05bc\u05da\u05b0, \"Lead-glance.\" A mixture of pulverised antimony\n(_stibium_) and zinc is still used by women in the East for this\npurpose. _In calliblepharis dilatat oculos_ (Plin., _H. N._, xxxiii.).\nKeren-Happuk, the name given by Job to one of his daughters, means\n\"horn of stibium.\" The object could hardly have been to _attract_ Jehu\n(as Ephraem Syrus thinks), for Jezebel had already a _grandson_\ntwenty-three years old (viii. 26).\n\n[187] A.V., \"_Tired_ her head.\" Comp. _tiara_. Lit., \"made good\";\nLXX., \u1f20\u03b3\u03ac\u03b8\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5.\n\n[188] Josephus gives the sense very well: \u039a\u03b1\u03bb\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f41 \u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03ba\u03c4\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2\n\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd (_Antt._, IX. vi. 4). The same question might have been\naddressed to Baasha, Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hoshea; but at least\nJehu might plead a prophet's call.\n\n[189] \"Two or three.\" Lit., \"two three,\" like the old English \"two\nthree\" for \"several.\"\n\n[190] Ver. 33. Heb., \"He trod her underfoot.\" LXX., \u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03ae\u03bd;\nVulg., _Conculcaverunt eam_.\n\n[191] Liv., i. 46-48.\n\n[192] Prov. xi. 10. Compare the remark of Voltaire, who saw \"le peuple\nivr\u00e9 de vin et de joie de la mort de Louis XIV.\"\n\n[193] 1 Kings xvi. 31. At this time Ethbaal was dead. He reigned\nprobably from B.C. 940-908, and died at the age of sixty-eight (Jos.,\n_Antt._, VIII. xiii. 1, IX. vi. 6; _c. Ap._, i. 18).\n\n[194] 1 Kings xxi. 23.\n\n[195] Comp. Psalm lxxxiii. 10. Her name remained a by-word till the\nlatest days (Rev. ii. 20), and the Spanish Jews called their\npersecutress Isabella the Catholic \"Jezebel.\"\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII\n\n _JEHU ESTABLISHED ON THE THRONE_\n\n B.C. 842-814\n\n 2 KINGS x. 1-17\n\n \"The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.\"\n SHAKESPEARE.\n\n\nBut the work of Jehu was not yet over. He was established at Jezreel;\nhe was lord of the palace and seraglio of his master; the army of\nIsrael was with him. But who could be sure that no civil war would\narise, as between the partisans of Zimri and Omri, as between Omri and\nTibni? Ahab, first of the kings of Israel, had left many sons. There\nwere no less than seventy of these princes at Samaria. Might there not\nbe among them some youth of greater courage and capacity than the\nmurdered Jehoram? And could it be anticipated that the late dynasty\nwas so utterly unfortunate and execrated as to have none left to do\nthem reverence, or to strike one blow on their behalf, after more than\nhalf a century of undisputed sway?[196] Jehu's _coup de main_ had been\nbrilliantly successful. In one day he had leapt into the throne. But\nSamaria was strong upon its watch-tower hill. It was full of Ahab's\nsons, and had not yet declared on Jehu's side. It might be expected\nto feel some gratitude to the dynasty which Jehu had supplanted,\nseeing that it owed to the grandfather of the king whom he had just\nslain its very existence as the capital of Israel.\n\nHe would put a bold face on his usurpation, and strike while the iron\nwas hot. He would not rouse opposition by seeming to assume that\nSamaria would accept his rebellion. He therefore wrote a letter to the\nrulers of Samaria[197]--which was but a journey of nine hours'\ndistance from Jezreel--and to the guardians of the young princes,\nreminding them that they were masters in a strong city, protected with\nits own contingent of chariots and horses, and well supplied with\narmour. He suggested that they should select the most promising of\nAhab's sons, make him king, and begin a civil war on his behalf.\n\nThe event showed how prudent was this line of conduct. As yet Jehu had\nnot transferred the army from Ramoth-Gilead. He had doubtless taken\ngood care to prevent intelligence of his plans from reaching the\nadherents of Jehoram in Samaria. To them the unknown was the terrible.\nAll they knew was that \"Behold, two kings stood not before him!\" The\narmy must have sanctioned his revolt: what chance had they? As for\nloyalty and affection, if ever they had existed towards this hapless\ndynasty, they had vanished like a dream. The people of Samaria and\nJezreel had once been obedient as sheep to the iron dominance of\nJezebel. They had tolerated her idol-abominations, and the insolence\nof her army of dark-browed priests. They had not risen to defend the\nprophets of Jehovah, and had suffered even Elijah, twice over, to be\nforced to flee for his life. They had borne, hitherto without a\nmurmur, the tragedies, the sieges, the famines, the humiliations, with\nwhich during these reigns they had been familiar. And was not Jehovah\nagainst the waning fortunes of the Beni-Omri? Elijah had undoubtedly\ncursed them, and now the curse was falling. Jehu must doubtless have\nlet it be known that he was only carrying out the behest of their own\ncitizen the great Elisha, who had sent to him the anointing oil. They\ncould find abundant excuses to justify their defection from the old\nhouse, and they sent to the terrible man a message of almost abject\nsubmission:--Let him do as he would; they would make no king: they\nwere his servants, and would do his bidding.\n\nJehu was not likely to be content with verbal or even written\npromises. He determined, with cynical subtlety, to make them put a\nvery bloody sign-manual to their treaty, by implicating them\nirrevocably in his rebellion. He wrote them a second mandate.\n\n\"If,\" he said, \"ye accept my rule, prove it by your obedience. Cut off\nthe heads of your master's sons, and see that they are brought to me\nhere to-morrow by yourselves before the evening.\"\n\nThe ruthless order was fulfilled to the letter by the terrified\ntraitors. The king's sons were with their tutors, the lords of the city.\nOn the very morning that Jehu's second missive arrived, every one of\nthese poor guiltless youths was unceremoniously beheaded. The hideous,\nbleeding trophies were packed in fig-baskets and sent to Jezreel.[198]\n\nWhen Jehu was informed of this revolting present it was evening, and he\nwas sitting at a meal with his friends.[199] He did not trouble himself\nto rise from his feast or to look at \"death made proud by pure and\nprincely beauty.\" He knew that those seventy heads could only be the\nheads of the royal youths. He issued a cool and brutal order that they\nshould be piled in two heaps[200] until the morning on either side the\nentrance of the city gates. Were they watched? or were the dogs and\nvultures and hy\u00e6nas again left to do their work upon them? We do not\nknow. In any case it was a scene of brutal barbarism such as might have\nbeen witnessed in living memory in Khiva or Bokhara;[201] nor must we\nforget that even in the last century the heads of the brave and the\nnoble rotted on Westminster Hall and Temple Bar, and over the Gate of\nYork, and over the Tolbooth at Edinburgh, and on Wexford Bridge.\n\nThe day dawned, and all the people were gathered at the gate, which\nwas the scene of justice. With the calmest air imaginable the warrior\ncame out to them, and stood between the mangled heads of those who but\nyesterday had been the pampered minions of fortune and luxury. His\nspeech was short and politic in its brutality. \"Be yourselves the\njudges,\" he said. \"Ye are righteous. Jezebel called me a Zimri. Yes! I\nconspired against my master and slew him: but\"--and here he casually\npointed to the horrible, bleeding heaps--\"who smote all these?\" The\npeople of Jezreel and the lords of Samaria were not only passive\nwitnesses of his rebellion; they were active sharers in it. They had\ndabbled their hands in the same blood. Now they could not choose but\naccept his dynasty: for who was there besides himself? And then,\nchanging his tone, he does not offer \"the tyrant's devilish plea,\nnecessity,\" to cloak his atrocities, but--like a Romish inquisitor of\nSeville or Granada--claims Divine sanction for his sanguinary\nviolence. This was not _his_ doing. He was but an instrument in the\nhands of fate. Jehovah is alone responsible. He is doing what He spake\nby His servant Elijah. Yes! and there was yet more to do; for no word\nof Jehovah's shall fall to the ground.\n\nWith the same cynical ruthlessness, and cold indifference to smearing\nhis robes in the blood of the slain, he carried out to the bitter end\nhis task of policy which he gilded with the name of Divine justice.\nNot content with slaying Ahab's sons, he set himself to extirpate his\nrace, and slew all who remained to him in Jezreel, not only his kith\nand kin, but every lord and every Baal-priest who favoured his house,\nuntil he left him none remaining.\n\nBut what a frightful picture do these scenes furnish us of the state\nof religion and even of civilisation in Jezreel! There was this\nman-eating tiger of a king wallowing in the blood of princes, and\nenacting scenes which remind us of Dahomey and Ashantee, or of some\nTartary khanate where human hands are told out in the market-place\nafter some avenging raid. And amid all this savagery, squalor, and\nTurkish atrocity, the man pleads the sanction of Jehovah, and claims,\nunrebuked, that he is only carrying out the behests of Jehovah's\nprophets! It is not until long afterwards that the voice of a prophet\nis heard repudiating his plea and denouncing his bloodthirstiness.\n\n \"An evil soul producing holy witness\n Is like a villain with a smiling cheek--\n A goodly apple rotten at the core.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[196] Omri, 12 years; Ahab, 22; Ahaziah, 18; Jehoram, 12.\n\n[197] The reading of 2 Kings x. 1, \"Unto the rulers of _Jezreel_,\" is\nclearly wrong. The LXX. reads, \"Unto the rulers of Samaria.\" Unless\n\"Jezreel\" be a clerical error for Israel, we must read, \"He sent\nletters from Jezreel unto the rulers of Samaria.\"\n\n[198] Fig-baskets, Jer. xxiv. 2. The word _dudim_ is rendered \"pots\"\nin 1 Sam. ii. 14. LXX., \u1f10\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c4\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u03c2; Vulg., _in cophinis_. In Psalm\nlxxxi. 6 the LXX. has \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03bf\u03c6\u03af\u03bd\u1ff3.\n\n[199] Jos., _Antt._, IX. vi. 5.\n\n[200] Heb., _Tsibour\u00eem_; LXX., \u03b2\u03bf\u03c5\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2.\n\n[201] Comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 54; 2 Macc. xv. 30.\n\n[202] Hos. i. 4.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n\n _FRESH MURDERS--THE EXTIRPATION OF BAAL-WORSHIP_\n (B.C. 842)\n\n 2 KINGS x. 12-28\n\n \"J\u00e9hu, sur les hauts lieux, enfin osant offrir\n Un t\u00e9m\u00e9raire encens que Dieu ne peut souffrir,\n N'a pour servir sa cause et venger ses injures\n Ni le c\u0153ur assez droit, ni les mains assez pures.\"\n RACINE.\n\n\nAfter such abject subservience had been shown him by the lords of\nSamaria and Jezreel, Jehu evidently had no further shadow of\napprehension. He seems to have loved blood for its own sake--to have\nbeen seized by a vertigo of blood-poisoning. Having waded through\nslaughter to a throne, he loved to wash his footsteps in the blood of\nthe slain, and to stretch to the very uttermost--to stretch until it\ncracked all its ravelled threads--the Divine sanction claimed by his\nfanaticism or his hypocrisy.\n\nWhen he had finished his massacres at Jezreel, he went to Samaria. It\nwas only a journey of a few hours. On the high road he met a company\nof travellers, whose escort and rich apparel showed that they were\npersons of importance. They were about to halt, perhaps for\nrefreshment, at the shearing-house of the shepherds--the place in\nwhich the sheep were gathered before they were shorn.[203]\n\n\"Who are ye?\" he asked.\n\nThey answered that they were princes of the house of Judah, the brethren\nof Ahaziah,[204] on their way to see the two kings at Jezreel, and to\nsalute their cousins, the children of Jehoram, and their kinsfolk the\nchildren of Jezebel the Geb\u00eerah.[205] The answer sealed their fate. Jehu\nordered his followers to take them alive. At first he had not decided\nwhat he would do with them. But half measures had now become impossible.\nThis cavalcade of princes little knew that they were on their way to\ngreet the dead children of a dead king and a dead queen. Jehu felt that\nthe possibilities of an endless _vendetta_ must be quenched in blood. He\ngave orders to slay them, and there in one hour forty-two more scions of\nthe royal houses of Judah and Israel were done to death.[206] With the\nusual reckless insouciance of the East, where any tank or well is made\nthe natural receptacle for corpses regardless of ultimate consequences,\ntheir bodies were flung into the cistern of the shearing-house, in which\nthe sheep were washed before shearing, just as the bodies of Gedaliah's\nfollowers were flung by Ishmael into the well at Mizpah, and the bodies\nof our own murdered countrymen were flung into the well of Cawnpore. He\ndid not leave one of them alive.\n\nThus Jehu \"murdered two kings, and one hundred and twelve princes, and\ngave Queen Jezebel to dogs to eat; and if priests had but noticed how\neven Hosea condemns and denounces his savagery, they would have\nabstained from some of their glorifications of assassins and butchers,\nnor would they have appealed to this man's hideous example, as they\nhave done, to excuse some of their own revolting atrocities.\"[207] But\n\n \"Crime was ne'er so black\n As ghostly cheer and pious thanks to lack.\n Satan is modest. At heaven's door he lays\n His evil offspring, and in Scriptural phrase\n And saintly posture gives to God the praise\n And honour of his monstrous progeny.\"[208]\n\nOne cruel deed more or less was nothing to Jehu. Leaving this tank\nchoked with death and incarnadined with royal blood, he went on his way\nas if nothing particular had happened. He had not proceeded far when he\nsaw a man well known to him, and of a spirit kindred to his own. It was\nthe Arab ascetic and Nazarite Jehonadab, the son of Rechab (or \"The\nRider\"), the chief of the tribe of Kenites who had flung in their lot\nwith the children of Israel since the days of Moses.[209] It was the\ntribe which had produced a Jael; and Jehonadab had something of the\nfierce, fanatical spirit of the ancient chieftainess, who, in her own\ntent, had dashed out with the tent-peg the brains of Sisera. His very\nname, \"The Lord is noble,\" indicated that he was a worshipper of\nJehovah, and his fierce zeal showed him to be a genuine Kenite.\nDisgusted with the wickedness of cities, disgusted above all with the\nloathly vice of drunkenness, which, as we see from the contemporary\nprophets, had begun in this age to acquire fresh prominence in luxurious\nand wealthy communities, he exacted of his sons a solemn oath that\nneither they nor their successors would drink wine nor strong drink, and\nthat, shunning the squalor and corruption of cities, they would live in\ntents, as their nomad ancestors had done in the days when Jethro and\nHobab were princes of pastoral Midian. We learn from Jeremiah, nearly\ntwo and a half centuries later, how faithfully that oath had been\nobserved; and how, in spite of all temptation, the vow of abstinence was\nmaintained, even when the strain of foreign invasion had driven the\nRechabites into Jerusalem from their desolated pastures.[210]\n\nJehu knew that the stern fanaticism of the Kenite Em\u00eer would rejoice\nin his exterminating zeal, and he recognised that the friendship and\ncountenance of this \"good man and just,\" as Josephus calls him, would\nadd strength to his cause, and enable him to carry out his dark\ndesign. He therefore blessed him.[211]\n\n\"Is thine heart right with my heart, as my heart is with thy heart?\"\nhe asked, after he had returned the greeting of Jehonadab.\n\n\"It is, it is!\" answered the vehement Rechabite.[212]\n\n\"Then give me thy hand,\" he said; and grasping the Arab by the\nhand,[213] he pulled him up into his chariot--the highest distinction\nhe could bestow upon him--and bade him come and witness his zeal for\nJehovah.\n\nHis first task on arriving at Samaria was to tear up the last fibres of\nAhab's kith and destroy all his partisans. This was indeed to push to a\nself-interested extreme the denunciation which had been pronounced upon\nAhab; but the crime helped to secure his fiercely founded throne.\n\nOne deep-seated plot was yet unaccomplished. It was the total\nextermination of Baal-worship. To drive out for ever this orgiastic,\ncorrupt, and alien idolatry was right; but there is nothing to show\nthat Jehu would have been unable to effect this purpose by one stern\ndecree, together with the destruction of Baal's images and temple. A\nmethod so simply righteous did not suit this Nero-Torquemada, who\nseemed to be never happy unless he united Jesuitical cunning with the\npouring out of rivers of massacre.\n\nHe summoned the people together; and as though he now threw off all\npretence of zeal for orthodoxy, he proclaimed that Ahab had served\nBaal a little, but Jehu would serve him much. The Samaritans must have\nbeen endowed with infinite gullibility if they could suppose that the\nking who had ridden into the city side by side with such a man as\nJehonadab--\"the warrior in his coat of mail, the ascetic in his shirt\nof hair\"--who had already exhibited an unfathomable cunning, and had\nswept away the Baal-priests of Jezreel, was indeed sincere in this new\nconversion.[214] Perhaps they felt it dangerous to question the\nsincerity of kings. The Baal-worshippers of former days were known,\nand Jehu proclaimed that if any one of them was missing at the great\nsacrifice which he intended to offer to Baal he should be put to\ndeath. A solemn assembly to Baal was proclaimed, and every apostate\nfrom God to nature-worship from all Israel was present, till the\nidol's temple was thronged from end to end.[215] To add splendour to\nthe solemnity, Jehu bade the wardrobe-keeper to bring out all the rich\nvestments of Tyrian dye and Sidonian broidery, and clothe the\nworshippers.[216] Solemnly advancing to the altar with the Rechabite\nby his side, he warned the assembly to see that their gathering was\nnot polluted by the presence of a single known worshipper of Jehovah.\nThen, apparently, he still further disarmed suspicion by taking a\npersonal part in offering the burnt-offering. Meanwhile, he had\nsurrounded the temple and blocked every exit with eighty armed\nwarriors, and had threatened that any one of them should be put to\ndeath if he let a single Baal-worshipper escape. When he had finished\nthe offering,[217] he went forth, and bade his soldiers enter, and\nslay, and slay, and slay till none were left. Then flinging the\ncorpses in a heap, they made their way to the fortress of the Temple,\nwhere some of the priests may have taken refuge. They dragged out and\nburnt the _matstseboth_ of Baal,[218] broke down the great central\nidol, and utterly dismantled the whole building. To complete the\npollution of the dishallowed shrine, he made it a common midden for\nSamaria, which it continued to be for centuries afterwards.[219] It\nwas his last voluntary massacre. The House of Ahab was no more.\nBaal-worship in Israel never survived that exterminating blow.\n\nHappily for the human race, such atrocities committed in the name of\nreligion have not been common. In Pagan history we have but few\ninstances, except the slaughter of the Magians at the beginning of the\nreign of Darius, son of Hystaspes. Alas that other parallels should be\nfurnished by the abominable tyranny of a false Christianity, blessed\nand incited by popes and priests! The persecutions and massacres of\nthe Albigenses, preached by Arnold of Citeaux, and instigated by Pope\nInnocent III.; the expulsion of the Jews from Spain; the deadly work\nof Torquemada; the murderous furies of Alva among the hapless\nNetherlanders, urged and approved by Pope Pius V.; the massacre of\nSt. Bartholomew, for which Pope Gregory and his cardinals sang their\nhorrible Te Deum in their desecrated shrines,--these are the parallels\nto the deeds of Jehu. He has found his chief imitators among the\nvotaries of a blood-stained and usurping sacerdotalism, which has\ncommitted so many crimes and inflicted so many horrors on mankind.\n\nAnd did God approve all this detestable mixture of zealous enthusiasm\nwith lying deceit and the insatiate thirst of blood?\n\nIf right be right, and wrong be wrong, the answer must not be an\nelaborate subterfuge, but an uncompromising \"No!\" We need be under no\ndoubt on that subject. Christ Himself reproved His Apostles for savage\nzealotry, and taught them that the Elijah-spirit was not the\nChrist-spirit. Nor is the Elisha-spirit the Christian spirit any the\nmore if these deeds of hypocrisy and blood were in any sense approved\nby him who is sometimes regarded as the mild and gentle Elisha. Where\nwas he? Why was he silent? Could he possibly approve of this\nmurderer's fury? We do not, indeed, know how far Elisha lent his\nsanction to anything more than the general end. Ahab's house had been\ndoomed to vengeance by the voice which gave utterance to the verdict\nof the national conscience. The doom was just; Jehu was ordained to be\nthe executioner. In no other way could the judgment be carried out.\nThe times were not sentimental. The murder of Jehoram was not regarded\nas an act of tyrannicide, but of divinely commissioned justice. Elisha\n_may_ have shrunk from the unreined furies of the man whom he had sent\nhis emissary to anoint. On the other hand, we have not the least proof\nthat he did so. He partook, probably, of the wild spirit of the\ntimes, when such deeds were regarded with feelings very different from\nthe abhorrence with which we, better taught by the spirit of love, and\nmore enlightened by the widening dawn of history, now justly regard\nthem. No remonstrance of _contemporary_ prophecy, however faint, is\nrecorded as having been uttered against the doings of Jehu. The fact\nthat, several centuries later, they could be recorded by the historian\nwithout a syllable of reprobation shows that the education of nations\nin the lessons of righteousness is slow, and that we are still amid\nthe annals of the deep night of moral imperfection. But the nation was\non the eve of purer teaching, and in the prophets Amos and Hosea we\nread the clear condemnation of deeds of cruelty in general, and\nspecially of the king who felt no pity. Amos condemns even the\nidolatrous King of Edom, \"because he did pursue his brother with the\nsword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually,\nand he kept his wrath for ever.\"[220] He condemns no less severely the\nChemosh-worshipping King of Moab even for an insult done to the dead:\n\"Because he burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime.\"[221] Jehu\nhad warred pitilessly upon the living, and had shamelessly insulted\nthe dead. He had flung the heads of seventy princes in two bleeding\nheaps on the common road for all eyes to stare upon, and he had\npolluted the cistern of Beth-equed-haroim with the dead bodies of\nforty-two youths of the royal house of Judah. He might plead that he\nwas but carrying out to the full the commission of Jehovah, imposed\nupon him by Elisha; but Hosea, a century later, gives God's message\nagainst his house: \"Yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood\nof Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom\nof the house of Israel.\"[222]\n\nNay, more! If, as is possible, the ghastly story of the siege of\nSamaria, narrated in the memoirs of Elisha, is displaced, and if it\nreally belongs to the reign of Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, then Elisha himself\nbrands the cruelty of the rushing thunderbolt of vengeance which his\nown hand had launched. For he calls the unnamed \"King of Israel\" \"the\nson of a murderer.\"\n\nMen who are swords of God, and human executioners of Divine justice,\nmay easily deceive themselves. God works the ends of His own\nprovidence, and He uses their ministry. \"The fierceness of man shall\nturn to Thy praise, and the fierceness of them shalt Thou\nrefrain.\"[223] But they can never make their plea of prophetic\nsanction a cloak of maliciousness. Cromwell had stern work to do.\nRightly or wrongly, he deemed it inevitable, and did not shrink from\nit. But he hated it. Over and over again, he tells us, he had prayed\nto God that He would not put him to this work. To the best of his\npower he avoided, he minimised, every act of vengeance, even when the\nsternness of his Puritan sense of righteousness made him look on it as\nduty. Far different was the case of Jehu. He loved murder and cunning\nfor their own sakes, and, like Joab, he dyed the garments of peace\nwith the blood of war.\n\nHow little was his gain! It had been happier for him if he had never\nmounted higher than the captaincy of the host, or even so high. He\nreigned for twenty-eight years (842-814)--longer than any king except\nhis great-grandson Jeroboam II.; and in recognition of any element of\nrighteousness which had actuated his revolt, his children, even to the\nfourth generation, were suffered to sit upon the throne. His dynasty\nlasted for one hundred and thirteen years.[224] But his own reign was\nonly memorable for defeat, trouble, and irreparable disaster.\n\nFor Hazael, who had seized the throne of his murdered lord Benhadad,\nwas a fierce and able warrior. He held his own against the overweening\nmight of his northern neighbour Assyria; and whenever he obtained a\nrespite from this desperate warfare, he indemnified himself for all\nlosses by enlarging his dominion out of the territories of the Ten\nTribes. \"In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Hazael\nsmote them in all the borders of Israel.\" Jehu had the mortification\nof seeing the fairest and most fruitful regions of his dominion, those\nwhich had belonged to Israel from the most ancient times, wrenched out\nof his grasp. From this time forwards Israel lost half the fair\nPromised Land which God had given to their fathers. It was the\nbeginning of the end. Henceforth the tribal inheritance of Reuben,\nGad, and the half tribe of Manasseh was an oppressed dependency of\nAram. Hazael overran and annexed the land of Bashan from the spurs of\nMount Hermon to the Lake of Gennezareth; Gaulan, and volcanic Argob,\nand Hauran the entire ancient kingdom of Og, King of Bashan, with all\nthe herds and pasture-lands. Southward of this he seized the whole\nforest-clad plateau of Gilead, with its lovely ravines, north of the\nJabbok, the territory of Gad; and pushing still southward,\nestablished his sway over the district, of the Ammonites and the tribe\nof Reuben, as far as the city of Aroer, on the other side of the great\nchasm of Arnon (Wady Mojib). All the fatness of Bashan and Rabbah with\nher watery plain of the Beni-Ammon, and the grass-covered uplands\nwhich fed the enormous flocks of Mesha, the great Em\u00eer and\nsheep-master of Moab, passed from Israel to Syria, never to be\nrecovered. What made the humiliation more terrible was that the\ninvasion and conquest were accompanied with acts of unwonted cruelty.\nElisha had wept to think what evil Hazael would do the children of\nIsrael[225]--how he would set their strongholds on fire, and slay\ntheir young men with the sword, and dash in pieces their little ones,\nand rip up their women with child. These atrocities were in those\nhorrible days the ordinary incidents of warfare;[226] but Hazael seems\nto have been pre-eminent in brutal fierceness. It was this which\ncalled down on him and his people the \"burdens\" of Amos. \"Thus saith\nthe Lord; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will\nnot turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed\nGilead with threshing instruments of iron: but I will send a fire into\nthe house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.\"[227]\n\nWe can imagine rather than describe the anguish of Jehu when he was\ncompelled to look impotently on, while his powerful Syrian neighbour\nlaid waste his dominion with fire and sword, and the cry of his\ndespoiled and slaughtered subjects was uplifted to him in vain. Nor\nwas this all. Emboldened by these reverses, a host of other enemies,\nonce subjugated and despised, began to wreak their revenge and\ninsolence on humbled Israel. The Philistines eagerly undertook the\nsale of the wretched captives who were brought to them in gangs from\nthe burnt Trans-Jordanic towns.[228] The old \"brotherly covenant\" with\nthe Tyrian, which had once been formed by Solomon, and had been\ncemented by the marriage of Jezebel with Ahab, was cancelled by Jehu's\ninsults, and the Tyrians emulously outbad the Philistines in the\npurchase of Israelitish slaves. The Edomites and the Ammonites also\nhelped Hazael in his marauding raids, and enlarged their own domains\nat the expense of Samaria. Such insults and humiliations might well go\nfar to break the heart of an impetuous and warrior-king.\n\nOf Jehu the Books of Kings and Chronicles have no more to tell us, but\nwe gain fresh insight into his degradation from the Black Obelisk of\nShalmaneser II. (860-824), now in the British Museum. From the\ninscription we find that, in 842, Jehu--\"the son of Omri,\" as he is\nerroneously called--was one of the vassal kings who subjected\nthemselves to the Assyrian conqueror,[229] and sent him tribute, which\nmay have euphemistically passed under the name of presents. The\ndespot of Nineveh twice speaks of it as a tribute. On this obelisk we\nsee a picture of Jehu's ambassadors--perhaps of Jehu himself. On the\nleft stands the Assyrian King with the winged circle over his head. He\nholds a beaker of wine in his hand, and two eunuchs stand behind him,\none of whom covers him with a sunshade. Before him kneels and grovels\nin adoration the Jewish King, with his beard sweeping the ground. In\nlong array behind him come his servants--first two eunuchs, then a\nnumber of bearded figures, who carry the tribute. They are dressed in\nlong richly fringed robes, exactly resembling those of the Assyrians\nthemselves, and they wear shoes which turn up at the toes. They are\ncarrying figures of gold and silver, goblets, golden vessels, ingots\nof precious metals, spear-shafts, a kingly sceptre, baskets, bags, and\ntrays of treasure, the contribution of which must have fallen with\ncrushing weight on the impoverished kingdom.[230]\n\nThis tribute must have been sent in 842, the eighteenth year of\nShalmaneser II.'s reign. Doubtless Jehu thought he might be delivered\nfrom his furious neighbour Hazael by propitiating the Northern tyrant,\nwho at the same time received the submission of the Tyrians and\nSidonians. But if so, Jehu's hopes were dashed to the ground.\nShalmaneser was the enemy of Hazael (Ha-sa-ilu), who had gone out to\nmeet him at Antilibanus, and there had fought a desperate battle. The\nSyrian King was routed, and driven back, and Shalmaneser had besieged\nDamascus. But he had failed to take it, and indeed had not troubled\nSyria again till 832, when he made an excursion of minor importance.\nHis troubles on the north and east of Assyria had diverted his\nattention from Damascus; and this, together with the inferiority of\nhis son Samsiniras (_d._ 811), had given Hazael a free hand to avenge\nhimself on Israel as the ally of Assyria. Of Jehu we hear no more.\nAfter his long reign of twenty-eight years he slept with his fathers,\nand was buried in Samaria, and Jehoahaz his son reigned in his stead.\nSavage as had been his measures, his victory over alien idolatries was\nby no means complete. What Micah calls \"the statutes of Omri, and the\nworks of the House of Ahab,\"[231] were still kept; and men, both in\nIsrael and Judah, walked in their old sins. Even in the reign of\nJehu's own son Jehoahaz there still remained in Samaria the Asherah,\nor tree consecrated to the nature-goddess, which Jehu seems to have\nput away, but not to have destroyed.[232] As he grovelled in the dust\nbefore Shalmaneser, did no memory of his own ferocities darken his\nhumiliated soul? Must not he, like our Henry II., have been inclined\nto utter the wailing cry, \"Shame, shame on a conquered king!\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[203] 2 Kings x. 12. The shepherds House of Meeting\n(_Beth-equed-haroim_). LXX., \u1f10\u03bd \u0392\u03b1\u03b9\u03b8\u03b1\u03ba\u03ac\u03b8; Vulg., _ad cameram\npastorum_; Aquila, \u03bf\u1f36\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03ac\u03bc\u03c8\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2. It has been conjectured by\nKlostermann that it belonged to the Rechabites, that they had been\npersecuted by Jezebel, and that they were glad to help in taking\nvengeance on her descendants.\n\n[204] The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxii. 8) says \"_sons_ of the brethren\nof Ahaziah.\"\n\n[205] LXX., \u1f21 \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5\u03cd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b1.\n\n[206] 2 Kings x. 14, A.V., \"at the pit.\" Lit., \"in\" or \"into the\ncistern.\"\n\n[207] See Martin, _Hist. de France_, ix. 114.\n\n[208] Whittier.\n\n[209] Jer. xxxv. 1-19. Josephus (_Antt._, IX. vi. 6) calls him \"a good\nman and a just, who had long been a friend of Jehu.\" \"He was,\" says\nEwald (_Gesch._, iii. 543), \"of a society of those who despaired of\nbeing able to observe true religion undisturbedly in the midst of the\nnation with the stringency with which they understood it, and\ntherefore withdrew into the desert.\"\n\n[210] Jer. xxxv. (written about B.C. 604). Communities of Nazarites\nseem to have sprung up at this epoch, perhaps as a protest against the\nprevailing luxury (Amos ii. 11).\n\n[211] In Josephus it is Jehonadab who blesses the king.\n\n[212] Heb., \u05d5\u05b8\u05d9\u05b5\u05e9\u05c1 \u05d9\u05b5\u05e9.\n\n[213] Striking hands was a sign of good faith (Job xvii. 3; Prov.\nxxii. 26).\n\n[214] He did it \"in subtilty\" (\u05d1\u05b0\u05e6\u05b8\u05e7\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05d4). This substantive occurs\nnowhere else, but is connected with the name Jacob. LXX., \u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bd\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1ff7,\n\"in taking by the heel,\" with reference to the name Jacob, \"supplanter.\"\n\n[215] Lit., \"mouth to mouth.\" LXX., \u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1.\n\n[216] Ver. 22, \u05de\u05b6\u05dc\u05b0\u05d7\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4\u05b7\u05d4, _Vestiarum_, occurs here only. The LXX.\nomits it or puts it in Greek letters. Targum, \u03ba\u03ac\u03bc\u03c0\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03b9, \"chests\" Sil.\nItalicus (iii. 23) describes the robes of the priests of the\nGaditanian Hercules,--\n\n \"_Nec discolor ulli,\n Ante aras cultus; velantur corpora lino\n Et Pelusiaco pr\u00e6fulget stamine vertex._\"\n KEIL, _ad loc._\n\nIt was a mixture of \"the rich dye of Tyre and the rich web of Nile.\"\n\n[217] The phrase may be impersonal, \"when one [_i.e._, they] had\nfinished the sacrifice\"; but the narrative seems to imply that Jehu\noffered it himself (LXX., \u1f61\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b5\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd \u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u1f41\u03bb\u03bf\u03ba\u03b1\u03cd\u03c4\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd\nVulg., _cum completum esset holocaustum_).\n\n[218] A.V., images; R.V., pillars.\n\n[219] Comp. Ezra vi. 11; Dan. ii. 5.\n\n[220] Amos i. 11.\n\n[221] Amos ii. 1.\n\n[222] Hos. i. 4.\n\n[223] Psalm lxxvi. 10.\n\n[224]\n\n Jehu 842-814.\n Jehoahaz 814-797.\n Joash 797-781.\n Jeroboam II. 781-740.\n Zechariah 740.\n\n[225] 2 Kings viii. 12.\n\n[226] Isa. xiii. 11-16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.\n\n[227] Amos i. 3, 4.\n\n[228] Amos i. 6-15.\n\n[229] See Appendix I., Schrader, _Keilinschriften u. das Alte Test._,\n208 ff.; Sayce, _Records of the Past_, v. 41; Layard, _Nineveh_, p.\n613; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 469. He is twice mentioned in\ninscriptions of Shalmaneser II. (861-825). He is called Ja-hu-a, son\nof Omri. The name of Omri was familiar in Nineveh; for Ahab had fought\nas a vassal of Assyria at the battle of Karkar, and Samaria was called\nBeth-Khumri. Shalmaneser would not trouble himself with the fact that\nJehu had extirpated the old dynasty. His black st\u00eal\u00e8 was found by\nLayard, and is figured in _Monuments of Nineveh_, i., pl. 53. The name\nof Jehu was first deciphered by Dr. Hincks in 1851.\n\n[230] Schrader (E. T.), ii. 199.\n\n[231] Mic. vi. 16.\n\n[232] 2 Kings xiii. 6.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n\n _ATHALIAH_ (B.C. 842-836)--_JOASH BEN-AHAZIAH OF\n JUDAH_ (B.C. 836-796)\n\n 2 KINGS xi. 1-xii. 21\n\n \"Par cette fin terrible, et due \u00e0 ses forfaits,\n Apprenez, Roi des Juifs, et n'oubliez jamais,\n Que les rois dans le ciel ont un juge sev\u00e8re,\n L'innocence un vengeur, et les orphelins un p\u00e8re!\"\n RACINE, _Athalie_.\n\n \"Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,\n That, hushed in grim repose, expects its evening prey.\"\n GRAY.\n\n\nBefore we follow the destinies of the House of Jehu we must revert to\nJudah, and watch the final consequences of ruin which came in the\ntrain of Ahab's Tyrian marriage, and brought murder and idolatry into\nJudah, as well as into Israel.\n\nAthaliah, who, as queen-mother, was more powerful than the queen-consort\n(_malekkah_), was the true daughter of Jezebel. She exhibits the same\nundaunted fierceness, the same idolatrous fanaticism, the same swift\nresolution, the same cruel and unscrupulous wickedness.\n\nIt might have been supposed that the miserable disease of her husband\nJehoram, followed so speedily by the murder, after one year's reign,\nof her son Ahaziah, might have exercised over her character the\nsoftening influence of misfortune. On the contrary, she only saw in\nthese events a short path to the consummation of her ambition.\n\nUnder Jehoram she had been queen: under Ahaziah she had exercised\nstill more powerful influence as Geb\u00eerah, and had asserted her sway\nalike over her husband and over her son, whose counsellor she was to\ndo wickedly. It was far from her intention tamely to sink from her\ncommanding position into the abject nullity of an aged and despised\ndowager in a dull provincial seraglio. She even thought that\n\n \"To reign is worth ambition, though in hell;\n Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.\"\n\nThe royal family of the House of David, numerous and flourishing as it\nonce was, had recently been decimated by cruel catastrophes. Jehoram,\ninstigated probably by his heathen wife, had killed his six younger\nbrothers.[233] Later on, the Arabs and Philistines, in their insulting\ninvasion, had not only plundered his palace, but had carried away his\nsons; so that, according to the Chronicler, \"there was never a son\nleft him, save Jehoahaz [_i.e._, Ahaziah], the youngest of his\nsons.\"[234] He may have had other sons after that invasion; and\nAhaziah had left children, who must all, however, have been very\nyoung, since he was only twenty-two or twenty-three when Jehu's\nservants murdered him. Athaliah might naturally have hoped for the\nregency; but this did not content her. When she saw that her son\nAhaziah was dead, \"she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.\" In\nthose days the life of a child was but little thought of; and it\nweighed less than nothing with Athaliah that these innocents were her\ngrandchildren. She killed all of whose existence she was aware, and\nboldly seized the crown. No queen had ever reigned alone either in\nIsrael or in Judah. Judah must have sunk very low, and the talents of\nAthaliah must have been commanding, or she could never have\nestablished a precedent hitherto undreamed of, by imposing on the\npeople of David for six years the yoke of a woman, and that woman a\nhalf-Ph\u0153nician idolatress. Yet so it was! Athaliah, like her cousin\nDido, felt herself strong enough to rule.\n\nBut a woman's ruthlessness was outwitted by a woman's cunning. Ahaziah\nhad a half-sister on the father's side,[235] the princess Jehosheba,\nor Jehoshabeath, who was then or afterwards (we are told) married to\nJehoiada, the high priest.[236] The secrets of harems are hidden deep,\nand Athaliah may have been purposely kept in ignorance of the birth to\nAhaziah of a little babe whose mother was Zibiah of Beersheba, and who\nhad received the name of Joash. If she knew of his existence, some\nruse must have been palmed off upon her, and she must have been led to\nbelieve that he too had been killed. But he had not been killed.\nJehosheba \"stole him from among the king's sons that were slain,\" and,\nwith the connivance of his nurse, hid him from the murderers sent by\nAthaliah in the palace store-room in which beds and couches were\nkept.[237] Thence, at the first favourable moment, she transferred the\nchild and nurse to one of the chambers in the three storeys of\nchambers which ran round the Temple, and were variously used as\nwardrobes or as dwelling-rooms.\n\nThe hiding-place was safe; for under Athaliah the Temple of Jehovah\nfell into neglect and disrepute, and its resident ministers would not\nbe numerous. It would not have been difficult, in the seclusion of\nEastern life, for Jehosheba to pass off the babe as her own child to\nall but the handful who knew the secret.\n\nSix years passed away, and the iron hand of Athaliah still kept the\npeople in subjection. She had boldly set up in Judah her mother's\nBaal-worship. Baal had his temple not far from that of Jehovah; and\nthough Athaliah did not imitate Jezebel in persecuting the worshippers\nof Jehovah, she made her own high priest, Mattan, a much more\nimportant person than Jehoiada for all who desired to propitiate the\nfavours of the Court.\n\nJoash had now reached his seventh year, and a Jewish prince in his\nseventh year is regarded as something more than a mere child. Jehoiada\nthought that it was time to strike a blow in his favour, and to\ndeliver him from the dreadful confinement which made it impossible for\nhim to leave the Temple precincts.\n\nHe began secretly to tamper with the guards both of the Temple and of\nthe palace. Upon the Levitic guards, indignant at the intrusion of\nBaal-worship, he might securely count, and the Carites and queen's\nrunners were not likely to be very much devoted to the rule of the\nmanlike and idolatrous alien-queen. Taking an oath of them in secrecy,\nhe bound them to allegiance to the little boy whom he produced from the\nTemple chamber as their lawful lord, and the son of their late king.\n\nThe plot was well laid. There were five captains of the five hundred\nroyal body-guards, and the priest secretly enlisted them all in the\nservice.[238] The Chronicler says that he also sent round to all the\nchief Levites, and collected them in Jerusalem for the emergency. The\narrangements of the Sabbath gave special facility to his plans; for on\nthat day only one of the five divisions of guards mounted watch at the\npalace, and the others were set free for the service of the Temple.[239]\nIt had evidently been announced that some great ceremony would be held\nin the shrine of Jehovah; for all the people, we are told, were\nassembled in the courts of the house of the Lord. Jehoiada ordered one\nof the companies to guard the palace; another to be at the \"gate Sur,\"\nor the gate \"of the Foundation\";[240] another at the gate behind the\nbarracks(?) of the palace-runners, to be a barrier[241] against any\nincursion from the palace. Two more were to ensure the safety of the\nlittle king by watching the precincts of the Temple. The Levitic\nofficers were to protect the king's person with serried ranks. Jehoiada\narmed them with spears and shields, which David had placed as trophies\nin the porch; and if any one tried to force his way within their lines\nhe was to be slain. The only danger to be apprehended was from any\nCarite mercenaries, or palace-servants of the queen: among all others\nJehoiada found a widespread defection. The people, the Levites, even the\nsoldiers, all hated the Baal-worshipping usurper.[242]\n\nAt the fateful moment the guards were arranged in two dense lines,\nbeginning from either side of the porch, till their ranks met beyond the\naltar, so as to form a hedge round the royal boy. Into this triangular\nspace the young prince was led by the high priest, and placed beside the\n_Matstsebah_--some prominent pillar in the Temple court, either one of\nSolomon's pillars Jachin and Boaz, or some special erection of later\ndays.[243] Round him stood the princes of Judah, and there, in the midst\nof them, Jehoiada placed the crown upon his head, and in significant\nsymbol also laid lightly upon it for a moment \"The Testimony\"--perhaps\nthe Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant--the most ancient\nfragment of the Pentateuch[244]--which was treasured up with the pot of\nmanna inside or in front of the Ark. Then he poured on the child's head\nthe consecrated oil, and said, \"Let the king live!\"\n\nThe completion of the ceremony was marked by the blare of the rams'\nhorns, the softer blast of the silver trumpets, and the answering shouts\nof the soldiers and the people. The tumult, or the news of it, reached\nthe ears of Athaliah in the neighbouring palace, and, with all the\nundaunted courage of her mother, she instantly summoned her escort, and\nwent into the Temple to see for herself what was taking place.[245] She\nprobably mounted the ascent which Solomon had made from the palace to\nthe Temple court, though it had long been robbed of its precious metals\nand scented woods. She led the way, and thought to overawe by her\npersonal ascendency any irregularity which might be going on; for in the\ndeathful hush to which she had reduced her subjects she does not seem to\nhave dreamt of rebellion. No sooner had she entered than the guards\nclosed behind her, excluding and menacing her escort.[246]\n\nA glance was sufficient to reveal to her the significance of the whole\nscene. There, in royal robes, and crowned with the royal crown, stood\nher little unknown grandson beside the _Matstsebah_,[247] while round\nhim were the leaders of the people and the trumpeters, and the\nmultitudes were still rolling their tumult of acclamation from the court\nbelow. In that sight she read her doom. Rending her clothes, she turned\nto fly, shrieking, \"Treason! treason!\" Then the commands of the priest\nrang out: \"Keep her between the ranks,[248] till you have got her\noutside the area of the Temple; and if any of her guards follow or try\nto rescue her, kill him with the sword. But let not the sacred courts be\npolluted with her blood.\" So they made way for her,[249] and as she\ncould not escape she passed between the rows of Levites and soldiers\ntill she had reached the private chariot-road by which the kings drove\nto the precincts.[250] There the sword of vengeance fell. Athaliah\ndisappears from history, and with her the dark race of Jezebel. But her\nstory lives in the music of Handel and the verse of Racine.\n\nThis is the only recorded revolution in the history of Judah. In two\nlater cases a king of Judah was murdered, but in both instances \"the\npeople of the land\" restored the Davidic heir. Life in Judah was less\ndramatic and exciting than in Israel, but far more stable;[251] and\nthis, together with comparative immunity from foreign invasions,\nconstituted an immense advantage.\n\nJehoiada, of course, became regent for the young king, and continued\nto be his guide for many years, so that even the king's two wives were\nselected by his advice. As the nation had been distracted with\nidolatries, he made the covenant between the king and the people that\nthey should be loyal to each other, and between Jehoiada and the king\nand the people that they should be Jehovah's people. Such covenants\nwere not infrequent in Jewish history. Such a covenant had been made\nby Asa[252] after Abijam's apostasy, as it was afterwards made by\nHezekiah[253] and by Josiah.[254] The new covenant, and the sense of\nawakenment from the dream of guilty apostasy, evoked an outburst of\nspontaneous enthusiasm in the hearts of the populace. Of their own\nimpulse they rushed to the temple of Baal which Athaliah had reared,\ndismantled it, and smashed to pieces his altars and images. The riot\nwas only stained by a single murder. They slew Mattan, Athaliah's\nBaal-priest, before the altars of his god.[255]\n\nWith Jehoiada begins the title of \"high priest.\" Hitherto no higher\nname than \"the priest\" had been given even to Aaron, or Eli, or Zadok;\nbut thenceforth the title of \"chief priest\" is given to his\nsuccessors, among whom he inaugurated a new epoch.[256]\n\nIt was now Jehoiada's object to restore such splendour and solemnity\nas he could to the neglected worship of the Temple, which had suffered\nin every way from Baal's encroachments. He did this before the king's\nsecond solemn inauguration. Even the porters had been done away with,\nso that the Temple could at any time be polluted by the presence of\nthe unclean, and the whole service of priests and Levites had fallen\ninto desuetude.\n\nThen he took the captains, and the Carians, and the princes, and\nconducted the boy-king, amid throngs of his shouting and rejoicing\npeople, from the Temple to his own palace. There he seated him on the\nlion-throne of Solomon his father, in the great hall of justice, and\nthe city was quiet and the land had rest. According to the historian,\n\"Joash did right _all his days_, because Jehoiada the priest\ninstructed him.\"[257] The stock addition that \"howbeit the _bamoth_\nwere not removed, and the people still sacrificed and offered incense\nthere,\" is no derogation from the merits of Joash, and perhaps not\neven of Jehoiada, since if the law against the _bamoth_ then existed,\nit had become absolutely unknown, and these local sanctuaries were\nheld to be conducive to true religion.[258]\n\nIt was natural that the child of the Temple should have at heart the\ninterests of the Temple in which he had spent his early days, and to\nthe shelter of which he owed his life and throne. The sacred house had\nbeen insulted and plundered by persons whom the Chronicler calls \"the\nsons of Athaliah, that wicked woman,\"[259] meaning, probably, her\nadherents. Not only had its treasures been robbed to enrich the house\nof Baal, but it had been suffered to fall into complete disrepair.\nBreaches gaped in the outer walls, and the very foundations were\ninsecure. The necessity for restoring it occurred, not, as we should\nhave expected, to the priests who lived at its altar, but to the\nboy-king. He issued an order to the priests that they should take\ncharge of all the money presented to the Temple for the hallowed\nthings, all the money paid in current coin, and all the assessments\nfor various fines and vows,[260] together with every freewill\ncontribution. They were to have this revenue entirely at their\ndisposal, and to make themselves responsible for the necessary\nrepairs. According to the Chronicler, they were further to raise a\nsubscription throughout the country from all their personal friends.\n\nThe king's command had been urgent. Money had at first come in, but\nnothing was done. Joash had reached the twenty-third year of his\nreign, and was thirty years old; but the Temple remained in its old\nsordid condition. The matter is passed over by the king as lightly,\ncourteously, and considerately as he could; but if he does not charge\nthe priests with downright embezzlement, he does reproach them for\nmost reprehensible neglect. They were the appointed guardians of the\nhouse: why did they suffer its dilapidations to remain untouched year\nafter year, while they continued to receive the golden stream which\npoured--but now, owing to the disgust of the people, in diminished\nvolume--into their coffers? \"Take no more money, therefore,\" he said,\n\"from your acquaintances, but deliver it for the breaches of the\nhouse.\" For what they had already received he does not call them to\naccount, but henceforth takes the whole matter into his own hands. The\nneglectful priests were to receive no more contributions, and not to\nbe responsible for the repairs. Joash, however, ordered Jehoiada to\ntake a chest and put it beside the altar on the right.[261] All\ncontributions were to be dropped into this chest. When it was full, it\nwas carried by the Levites unopened into the palace,[262] and there\nthe king's chancellor and the high priest had the ingots weighed and\nthe money counted; its value was added up, and it was handed over\nimmediately to the architects, who paid it to the carpenters and\nmasons. The priests were left in possession of the money for the\nguilt-offerings[263] and for the sin-offerings, but with the rest of\nthe funds they had nothing to do. In this way was restored the\nconfidence which the management of the hierarchy had evidently\nforfeited, and with renewed confidence in the administration fresh\ngifts poured in. Even in the cautious narrative of the Chronicler it\nis clear that the priests hardly came out of these transactions with\nflying colours. If their honesty is not formally impugned, at least\ntheir torpor is obvious, as is the fact that they had wholly failed to\ninspire the zeal of the people till the young king took the affair\ninto his own hands.[264]\n\nThe long reign of Joash ended in eclipse and murder. If the later\ntradition be correct, it was also darkened with atrocious ingratitude\nand crime.\n\nFor, according to the Chronicler, Jehoiada died at the advanced age of\none hundred and thirty, and was buried, as an unwonted honour, in the\nsepulchres of the kings.[265] When he was dead, the princes of Judah\ncame to Joash, who had now been king for many years, and with a\nstrange suddenness tempted the zealous repairer of the Temple of\nJehovah into idolatrous apostasy. With soft speech they seduced him\ninto the worship of Asherim. It was marvellous indeed if the child of\nthe Temple became its foe, and he who had made a covenant with Jehovah\nfell away to Baalim. But worse followed. Prophets reproved him, and he\npaid them no heed, in spite of \"the greatness of the burdens\"--_i.e._,\nthe multitude of the menaces--laid upon him.[266] The stern,\ndenunciative harangues were despised. At last Zechariah, the son of\nhis benefactor Jehoiada, rebuked king and people. He cried aloud from\nsome eminence in the court of the Temple, that \"since they had\ntransgressed the commandments of Jehovah they could not prosper: they\nhad forsaken Him, and He would forsake them.\" Infuriated by this\nprophecy of woe, the guilty people, at the command of their guiltier\nking, stoned him to death.[267] As he lay dying, he exclaimed, \"The\nLord look upon it, and require it!\"[268]\n\nThe entire silence of the elder and better authority might lead us to\nhope that there may be room for doubt as to the accuracy of the much\nlater tradition. Yet there certainly was a persistent belief that\nZechariah had been thus martyred. A wild legend, related in the\nTalmud,[269] tells us that when Nebuzaradan conquered Jerusalem and\nentered the Temple he saw blood bubbling up from the floor of the\ncourt, and slaughtered ninety-four myriads, so that the blood flowed\ntill it touched the blood of Zechariah, that it might be fulfilled\nwhich is said (Hos. iv. 2), \"Blood toucheth blood.\" When he saw the\nblood of Zechariah, and noticed that it was boiling and agitated, he\nasked, \"What is this?\" and was told that it was the spilled blood of\nthe sacrifices. Finding this to be false, he threatened to comb the\nflesh of the priests with iron curry-combs if they did not tell the\ntruth. Then they confessed that it was the blood of the murdered\nZechariah. \"Well,\" he said, \"I will pacify him.\" First he slaughtered\nthe greater and lesser Sanhedrin: but the blood did not rest. Then he\nsacrificed young men and maidens: but the blood still bubbled. At\nlast he cried, \"Zechariah, Zechariah, must I then slay them all?\" Then\nthe blood was still, and Nebuzaradan, thinking how much blood he had\nshed, fled, repented, and became a Jewish proselyte!\n\nPerhaps the worst feature of the story against Joash might have been\nsusceptible of a less shocking colouring. He had naturally all his life\nbeen under the influence of priestly domination. The ascendency which\nJehoiada had acquired as priest-regent had been maintained till long\nafter the young king had arrived at full manhood. At last, however, he\nhad come into collision with the priestly body. He was in the right;\nthey were transparently in the wrong. The Chronicler, and even the older\nhistorian, soften the story against the priests as much as they can; but\nin both their narratives it is plain that Jehoiada and the whole\nhierarchy had been more careful of their own interests than of those of\nthe Temple, of which they were the appointed guardians. Even if they can\nbe acquitted of potential malfeasance, they had been guilty of\nreprehensible carelessness. It is clear that in this matter they did not\ncommand the confidence of the people; for so long as they had the\nmanagement of affairs the sources of munificence were either dried up or\nonly flowed in scanty streams, whereas they were poured forth with glad\nabundance when the administration of the funds was placed mainly in the\nhands of laymen under the king's chancellor. It is probable that when\nJehoiada was dead Joash thought it right to assert his royal authority\nin greater independence of the priestly party; and that party was headed\nby Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. The Chronicler says that he\nprophesied: that, however, would not necessarily constitute him a\nprophet, any more than it constituted Caiaphas. If he was a prophet, and\nwas yet at the head of the priests, he furnishes an all-but solitary\ninstance of such a position. The position of a prophet, occupied in the\ngreat work of moral reformation, was so essentially antithetic to that\nof priests, absorbed in ritual ceremonies, that there is no body of men\nin Scripture of whom, as a whole, we have a more pitiful record than of\nthe Jewish priests. From Aaron, who made the golden calf, to Urijah, who\nsanctioned the idolatrous altar of Ahaz, and so down to Annas and\nCaiaphas, who crucified the Lord of glory, they rendered few signal\nservices to true religion. They opposed Uzziah when he invaded their\nfunctions, but they acquiesced in all the idolatries and abominations of\nRehoboam, Abijah, Ahaziah, Ahaz, and many other kings, without a\nsyllable of recorded protest. When a prophet did spring from their\nranks, they set their faces with one consent, and were confederate\nagainst him. They mocked and ridiculed Isaiah. When Jeremiah rose among\nthem, the priest Pashur smote him on the cheek, and the whole body\npersecuted him to death, leaving him to be protected only by the pity of\neunuchs and courtiers. Ezekiel was the priestliest of the prophets, and\nyet he was forced to denounce the apostasies which they permitted in the\nvery Temple. The pages of the prophets ring with denunciations of their\npriestly contemporaries.[270]\n\nWe do not know enough of Zechariah to say much about his character;\nbut priests in every age have shown themselves the most unscrupulous\nand the most implacable of enemies. Joash probably stood to him in\nthe same relation that Henry II. stood to Thomas \u00e0 Becket. The\npriest's murder may have been due to an outburst of passion on the\npart of the king's friends, or of the king himself--gentle as his\ncharacter seems to have been--without being the act of black\ningratitude which late traditions represented it to be. The legend\nabout Zechariah's blood represents the priest's spirit as so\nruthlessly unforgiving as to awaken the astonishment and even the\nrebukes of the Babylonian idolater. Such a legend could hardly have\narisen in the case of a man who was other than a most formidable\nopponent. The murder of Joash may have been, in its turn, a final\noutcome of the revenge of the priestly party. The details of the story\nmust be left to inference and conjecture, especially as they are not\neven mentioned in the earlier and more impartial annalists.\n\nIt is at least singular that while Joash, the king, is blamed for\ncontinuing the worship at the _bamoth_, Jehoiada, the high priest, is\n_not_ blamed, though they continued throughout his long and powerful\nregency. Further, we have an instance of the priest-regent's autocracy\nwhich can hardly be regarded as redounding to his credit. It is\npreserved in an accidental allusion on the page of Jeremiah. In Jer.\nxxix. 26 we read his reproof and doom of the lying prophecy of the\npriest Shemaiah the Nehelamite, because as a priest he had sent a\nletter to the chief priest Zephaniah and all the priests, urging them\nas the successors of Jehoiada to follow the ruling of Jehoiada, which\nwas to put Jeremiah in a collar. For Jehoiada, he said, \"had ordered\nthe priests, as officers [_pakidim_] in the house of Jehovah, to put\nin the stocks every one that is mad and maketh himself a\nprophet.\"[271] If, then, the Jehoiada referred to is the\npriest-regent, as seems undoubtedly to be the case, we see that he\nhated all interference of Jehovah's prophets with his rule. That the\nprophets were usually regarded by the world and by priests as \"mad,\"\nwe see from the fact that the title is given by Jehu's captains to\nElisha's emissary;[272] and that this continued to be the case we see\nfrom the fact that the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem said of John\nthe Baptist that he had a devil, and of Christ that He was a\nSamaritan, and that He, too, had a devil. If Joash was in opposition\nto the priestly party, he was in the same position as all God's\ngreatest saints and reformers have ever been from the days of Moses to\nthe days of John Wesley. The dominance of priestcraft is the\ninvariable and inevitable death of true, as apart from functional,\nreligion. Priests are always apt to concentrate their attention upon\ntheir temples, altars, religious practices and rites--in a word, upon\nthe externals of religion. If they gain a complete ascendency over\ntheir fellow-believers, the faithful become their absolute slaves,\nreligion degenerates into formalism, \"and the life of the soul is\nchoked by the observance of the ceremonial law.\" It was a misfortune\nfor the Chosen People that, except among the prophets and the wise\nmen, the external worship was thought much more of than the moral law.\n\"To the ordinary man,\" says Wellhausen, \"it was not moral but\nliturgical acts which seemed to be religious.\" This accounts for the\nmonotonous iteration of judgments on the character of kings, based\nprimarily, not upon their essential character, but on their relation\nto the _bamoth_ and the calves.\n\nAlthough the historian of the Kings gives no hint of this dark story of\nZechariah's murder, or of the apostasy of Joash, and indeed narrates no\nother event of the long reign of forty years, he tells us of the\ndeplorable close. Hazael's ambition had been fatal to Israel; and now,\nin the cessation of Assyrian inroads upon Aram, he extended his arms\ntowards Judah. He went up against Gath and took it, and cherished\ndesigns against Jerusalem. Apparently he did not head the expedition in\nperson, and the historian implies that Joash bought off the attack of\nhis \"general.\" But the Chronicler makes things far worse. He says that\nthe Syrian host marched to Jerusalem, destroyed all the princes of the\npeople, plundered the city, and sent the spoil to Hazael, who was at\nDamascus. Judah, he says, had assembled a vast army to resist the small\nforce of the Syrian raid; but Joash was ignominiously defeated, and was\ndriven to pay blackmail to the invader. As to this defeat in battle the\nhistorian is silent; but he mentions what the Chronicler omits--namely,\nthat the only way in which Joash could raise the requisite bribe was by\nonce more stripping the Temple and the palace, and sending to Damascus\nall the treasures which his three predecessors had consecrated,--though\nwe are surprised to learn that after so many strippings and plunderings\nany of them could still be left.\n\nThe anguish and mortification of mind caused by these disasters, and\nperhaps the wounds he had received in the defeat of his army, threw\nJoash into \"great diseases.\" But he was not suffered to die of\nthese.[273] His servants--perhaps, if that story be authentic, to\navenge the slain son of Jehoiada, but doubtless also in disgust at\nthe national humiliation--rose in conspiracy against him, and smote\nhim at Beth-Millo,[274] where he was lying sick. The Septuagint, in 2\nChron. xxiv. 27, adds the dark fact that _all his sons_ joined in the\nconspiracy.[275] This cannot be true of Amaziah, who put the murderer\nto death. Such, however, was the deplorable end of the king who had\nstood by the Temple pillar in his fair childhood, amid the shouts and\ntrumpet-blasts of a rejoicing people. At that time all things seemed\nfull of promise and of hope. Who could have anticipated that the boy\nwhose head had been touched with the sacred oil and over-shadowed with\nthe Testimony--the young king who had made a covenant with Jehovah,\nand had initiated the task of restoring the ruined Temple to its\npristine beauty--would end his reign in earthquake and eclipse? If\nindeed he had been guilty of the black ingratitude and murderous\napostasy which tradition laid to his charge, we see in his end the\nNemesis of his ill-doing; yet we cannot but pity one who, after so\nlong a reign, perished amid the spoliation of his people, and was not\neven allowed to end his days by the sore sickness into which he had\nfallen, but was hurried into the next world by the assassin's knife.\n\nIt is impossible not to hope that his deeds were less black than the\nChronicler painted. He had made the priests feel his power and\nresentment, and their Levitic recorder was not likely to take a\nlenient view of his offences. He says that though Joash was buried in\nthe City of David, he was not buried in the sepulchres of his fathers.\nThe historian of the Kings, however, expressly says that \"they buried\nhim with his fathers in the City of David,\" and he was peaceably\nsucceeded by Amaziah his son.\n\nThere is a curious, though it may be an accidental, circumstance about\nthe name of the two conspirators who slew him. They are called\n\"Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his\nservants.\" The names mean \"Jehovah remembers,\" the son of \"Hearer,\"\nand \"Jehovah awards,\" the son of \"Watcher\"; and this strangely recalls\nthe last words attributed in the Book of Chronicles to the martyred\nZechariah. \"Jehovah look upon it, and require it!\" The Chronicler\nturns the names into \"Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonitess, and\nJehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabitess.\" Does he record this to\naccount for their murderous deed by the blood of hated nations which\nran in their veins?\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[233] 2 Chron. xxi. 2-4.\n\n[234] 2 Chron. xxi. 17.\n\n[235] \u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03ae (Jos.).\n\n[236] 2 Chron. xxii. 11. There are undoubted difficulties about the\nstatement (see _infra_). There is no other instance of the marriage of\na princess with a priest.\n\n[237] Jos., _Antt._, IX. vii. 1: \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03b1\u03bc\u03b9\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03ba\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd\u1ff6\u03bd. The chamber\nof beds was a sort of unoccupied wardrobe-room.\n\n[238] 2 Kings xi. 4: \"The centurions of the Carians and of the runners.\"\n\n[239] This is the second time that the word \"Sabbath\" occurs, or that\nthe institution is alluded to, in the history of either monarchy.\n\n[240] Nothing is known of \u05e1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e8, Sur, or \u05d9\u05b0\u05e1\u05d5\u05b9\u05d3 _y's\u00f4d_, the Foundation\n(2 Chron. xxiii. 5). They are not mentioned elsewhere. LXX., \u03b5\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7\n\u03c0\u03cd\u03bb\u1fc3 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f41\u03b4\u1ff6\u03bd, and (in Chronicles) \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03c0\u03cd\u03bb\u1fc3 \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1fc3.\n\n[241] Not as in A.V., \"that it be not broken down.\"\n\n[242] In reading side by side the narratives in the Books of Kings and\nChronicles (2 Chron. xxiii.), it is difficult to avoid the conclusion\nthat the main anxiety of the Chronicler is to leave the impression\nthat the work in the Temple was chiefly done by the Levites, and that\nthe sacred precincts were not polluted by the presence of alien\ntroops. He evidently stumbled at the notion, conveyed by the older\nnarrative, that Carians and suchlike semi-heathen mercenaries should\nhave stood by the altar at a high priest's command; so he substitutes\nLevites for guardsmen, and the profane laymen are relegated outside.\nIn details the two accounts are only reconcilable by a special\npleading which would reconcile _any_ discrepancy.\n\n[243] 1 Kings vii. 21. Comp., however, 2 Kings xxiii. 3.\n\n[244] See Exod. xxv. 16, 21, xvi. 34. \u05d4\u05b8\u05e6\u05b5\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea (see 2 Chron. xxiii.\n11). Kimchi takes it to mean \"a royal robe,\" and other Rabbis a\nphylactery on the coronet (Deut. vi. 8). In the Targum to Chronicles\nit is explained to mean the costly jewel (2 Sam. xii. 30), of which\nnone but a descendant of David could bear the weight. For _ha'ed\u00f4th_\nKlostermann therefore suggests _hats'ad\u00f4th_, \"the royal bracelets.\"\n\n[245] So says Josephus (\u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f30\u03b4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2), and it is certain\nthat she would hardly go unattended.\n\n[246] Jos., _Antt._, IX. vii. 3: \u03a4\u1f78\u03c5\u03c2 \u03b4\u1f72 \u1f11\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u1f41\u03c0\u03bb\u03af\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2 \u03b5\u1f36\u03c1\u03be\u03b1\u03bd\n\u03b5\u1f30\u03c3\u03b5\u03bb\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd.\n\n[247] The meaning of _al-ha'am\u00f4d_ is uncertain (A.V., \"by a pillar\";\nVulg., \"on the tribunal\"). Comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 3; 2 Chron. xxiii. 13;\n1 Kings viii. 22; 2 Chron. vi. 13.\n\n[248] 2 Kings xi. 15. Not as in A.V., \"without the ranges.\" Heb.,\n_lash'd\u00ear\u00f4th_; LXX., \u1f14\u03c3\u03c9\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c3\u03b1\u03b4\u03b7\u03c1\u03ce\u03b8.\n\n[249] A.V., \"And they laid hands on her\"; LXX., \u1f10\u03c0\u03ad\u03b2\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1fc3 \u03c7\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2;\nVulg., _imposuerunt ci manus_. But R.V. as in the text, following the\nTargum, and the Jewish commentators, \"They made for her two sides.\"\n\n[250] This is usually understood to be the \"horse gate\" of the city\n(Neh. iii. 28), and so Josephus seems to have taken it, for he says\nthat Athaliah was killed in \"the Kedron Valley.\" Canon Rawlinson says\nthat it was more probably in the Tyrop\u0153on Valley. But there could have\nbeen no object in dragging the wretched queen all this way. Jehoiada\nwas only anxious that she should not stain the Temple with her blood,\nand \"the way by which the horses came into the king's house\" seems to\nbe some private palace-gate. We are expressly told (ver. 16) that\nAthaliah was slain \"at the king's house,\" probably in \"the king's\ngarden\" (2 Kings xxv. 4).\n\n[251] Wellhausen, _Isr. and Jud._, p. 96.\n\n[252] 2 Chron. xv. 9-15.\n\n[253] 2 Chron. xxix. 10.\n\n[254] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31.\n\n[255] The name is perhaps an abbreviation from Mattan-Baal, \"gift of\nBaal.\" Comp. \"Methumballes\" (Plaut.). The names of Tyrian kings,\nMitinna, Mattun, occur in inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser II. See\nHerod., vii. 98 (Bahr, _ad loc._). \"Methumbaal of Arvad\" is mentioned\non a monument of Tiglath-Pileser II. (Schrader, ii. 249).\n\n[256] 2 Kings xii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6. Stanley,\n_Lectures_, ii. 399.\n\n[257] 2 Kings xii. 2. After \"all his days,\" the R.V. and A.V. add\n\"_wherein_ Jehoiada instructed him.\" This, however, is not accurate.\nThere is a stop at days, and \"wherein\" should be \"_because_.\" There\nseems, however, from the LXX., to be some variation in the text, and\naccording to the Chronicler Joash became an apostate. LXX., \u03a0\u03ac\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f70\u03c2\n\u1f21\u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f05\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c6\u03ce\u03c4\u03b9\u03b6\u03b5\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f41 \u1f31\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03c2; Vulg., _Cunctis diebus quibus\ndocuit eum Jojadas sacerdos_.\n\n[258] The Chronicler (2 Chron. xxiv. 1, 2) _more suo_ copies 2 Kings\nxii. 1, 2, but omits 3, because he dislikes the fact that not even his\nhero Jehoiada had anything to say against the _bamoth_. But it appears\nfrom 2 Kings xxiii. 9 that the _bamoth_ had regular priests of their\nown, who \"eat the priestly portions\" (according to an old MS.) among\ntheir brethren.\n\n[259] 2 Chron. xxiv. 7.\n\n[260] 2 Kings xii. 4: \"The money that every man is set at.\" Lit.,\n\"Each the money of the souls of his valuation.\" Comp. Numb. xviii. 16;\nLev. xxvii. 2.\n\n[261] The Chronicler says \"at the gate.\"\n\n[262] 2 Chron. xxiv. 11.\n\n[263] Lev. v. 1-6, xiv. 13. \"Trespass-money\" is here first mentioned.\n\n[264] 2 Chron. xxiv. 8-10. There is a difference between the historian\nand the Chronicler respecting the vessels of the house.\n\n[265] 2 Chron. xxiv. 15, 16. The statement of the Chronicler is (as so\noften) surrounded by difficulties and improbabilities. If Jehoiada was\none hundred and thirty years old when he died, he must have been\nninety when Ahaziah was murdered, at the age of twenty-three. But as\nAhaziah was (apparently) born when his father Jehoram was eighteen,\nJehosheba must have been under eighteen, and must have been married to\na man seventy years older than herself! See Lord Arthur Hervey, _On\nthe Genealogies_, p. 113.\n\n[266] 2 Chron. xxiv. 27.\n\n[267] Stanley charitably thinks that Joash may have only burst into\nhasty words like those of Henry II. against Becket.\n\n[268] The Chronicler says that \"the _sons_ of Jehoiada\" had helped to\ncrown him, and that he put \"the _sons_ of Jehoiada\" to death (2 Chron.\nxxiii. 11, xxiv. 25).\n\n[269] Gittin, f. 57, 2; Sanhedrin, f. 96, 2; Hershon, _Treasures of\nthe Talmud_, p. 276; Lightfoot on Matt. xxiii. 35. There can be little\ndoubt that the reading \"Berechiah\" is a later correction of some one\nwho remembered the murder narrated in Jos., _B. J._, IV. v. 4, and\nthat the true reading is \"son of Jehoiada.\" This is the last murder of\na prophet mentioned in the Old Testament, and we learn from the Gospel\nthe fact that he was slain \"between the Temple and the altar.\"\n\n[270] Isa. xxiv. 2; Jer. v. 31, xxiii. 11; Ezek. vii. 26, xxii. 26;\nHos. iv. 9; Mic. iii. 11, etc.\n\n[271] Jer. xxix. 24-32.\n\n[272] 2 Kings ix. 11.\n\n[273] But from the Book of Kings we should not infer that there had\nbeen any fighting at all. The Syrian commander had been bribed to\nretire.\n\n[274] We cannot understand the addition \"on the way that goeth down to\nSilla.\" Silla is nowhere else referred to.\n\n[275] LXX., 2 Chron. xxiv. 27, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f31 \u03c5\u1f31\u03bf\u1f76 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV\n\n _AMAZIAH OF JUDAH_\n\n B.C. 796-783 (?)\n\n 2 KINGS xiv. 1-22\n\n \"All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.\"--MATT.\n xxvi. 52.\n\n\nThe fate of Amaziah (\"Jehovah is strong\"), son of Joash of Judah,\nresembles in some respects that of his father. Both began to reign\nprosperously: the happiness of both ended in disaster. Amaziah at his\naccession was twenty-five years old. He was the son of a lady of\nJerusalem named Jehoaddin. He reigned twenty-nine years, of which the\nlater ones were passed in misery, peril, and degradation, and, like\nthe unhappy Joash, and at about the same age, he fell the victim of\ndomestic conspiracy.\n\nThe hereditary principle was too strongly established to enable the\nmurderers of Joash to set it aside, but Amaziah was not at first\nstrong enough to make any head against them. In time he became\nestablished in his kingdom, and then his earliest act was to bring the\nhead conspirators, Jozacar and Jehozabad, to justice. It was noted as\na most remarkable circumstance that he did not put to death their\nchildren, and extirpate their houses. In acting thus, if he were\ninfluenced by a spirit of mercy, he showed himself before his time;\nbut such mercy was completely contrary to the universal custom, and\nwas also regarded as most impolitic. Even the comparatively merciful\nGreeks had the proverb, \"Fool, who has murdered the sire, and left his\nsons to avenge him!\"[276]\n\nIn epochs of the wild justice of revenge, when blood-feuds are an\nestablished and approved institution, the policy of letting vengeance\nonly fall on the actual offender was regarded as fatal. Perhaps Amaziah\nfelt it beyond his power to do more than bring the actual murderers to\njustice, and it is possible that their children may have been among the\nconspirators who, in his hour of shame, intimately destroyed him.\n\nThe historian, it is true, attributes his conduct to magnanimity, or\nrather to his obedience to the law, \"The fathers shall not be put to\ndeath for the children, nor the children for the fathers; but every\nman shall die for his own sin.\" This is a reference to Deut. xxiv. 16,\nand is probably the independent comment of the writer who recorded the\nevent two centuries later. In the gradual growth of a milder\ncivilisation, and the more common dominance of legal justice, such a\nlaw may have come into force, as expressive of that voice of\nconscience which is to sincere nations the voice of God. That the book\nof Deuteronomy, as a book, was not in existence in its present form\ntill four reigns later we shall hereafter see strong reasons to\nbelieve. But even if any part of that book was in existence, it is not\neasy to understand how Amaziah would have been able to decide that the\nlaw which forbade the punishment of the children with the offending\nparents was the law which he was bound to follow, when Moses and\nJoshua and other heroes of his race had acted on the olden principle.\nThe innocent families of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were represented as\nhaving been swallowed up with the ambitious heads of their houses.\nJoshua and all Israel had not only stoned Achan, but with him all his\nunoffending house. What, too, was the meaning of the law which\nestablished the five Cities of Refuge as the best way to protect the\naccidental homicide from the recognised and unrebuked actions of the\nGoel--the avenger of blood? The vengeance of a Goel was regarded, as\nit is in the East and South to this day, not as an implacable\nfierceness, but as a sacred duty, the neglect of which would cover him\nwith infamy. Judging of our documents by the impartial light of honest\ncriticism, it seems impossible to deny that the law of Deuteronomy was\nthe law of an advancing civilisation, which became more mild as\njustice became firmer and more available. If Deuteronomy represents\nthe legislation of Moses, we can only say that in this respect Amaziah\nwas the first person who paid the slightest attention to it. Such\nexceptional obedience may well excite the notice of the historian, in\nwhose pages we see that prophets like Ahijah, Elijah, and Elisha had,\nagain and again, in accordance with the spirit of their times,\ncontemplated the total excision, not only of erring kings, but even of\ntheir little children and their most distant kinsfolk.\n\nFurther:--We are told that Amaziah \"did that which was right in the\nsight of Jehovah: he did according to all things _as Joash his father\ndid_.\" The Chronicler also bestows his eulogy on Amaziah; but having\ntold such dark stories of the apostasy of Joash to Asherah-worship\nand his murder of the prophets, he could hardly add \"as Joash his\nfather did\"; so he omits those words. The reservation that Amaziah did\nright, \"yet not like David his father\" (2 Kings xiv. 3), \"but not with\na perfect heart\" (2 Chron. xxv. 2), is followed by the stock abatement\nabout the _bamoth_, and the sacrifices and incense burnt in them. This\nwas a crime in the eyes of writers in B.C. 540, but certainly not in\nthe eyes of any king before the discovery of the \"Book of the Law\" in\nthe reign of Josiah, B.C. 621. We are compelled, therefore, by simple\ntruth, to ask, How came it that Amaziah should be so scrupulous as to\nobserve the Deuteronomic law by not slaying the sons of his father's\nmurderers, while he does not seem to be aware, any more than the best\nof his predecessors, that while he obeyed one precept he was violating\nthe essence and spirit of the entire code in which the precept occurs?\nThe one main object, the constantly repeated law of Deuteronomy, is\nthe centralisation of all worship, and the rigid prohibition of every\nlocal place of sacrifice. Strange that Amaziah should have selected\nfor attention a single precept, while he is profoundly unconscious of,\nor indifferent to, the fact that he is setting aside the regulation\nwith which the law, as Deuteronomy represents it, begins and ends, and\non which it incessantly insists!\n\nJoash had been something of a weakling, as though the gloom of his\nearly concealment in the Temple and the shadow of priestly dominance\nhad paralysed his independence. Amaziah, on the other hand, born in\nthe purple, was vigorous and restless. When he was secure upon the\nthrone, and had done his duty to his father's memory, he bent his\nefforts to recover Edom. The Edomites had revolted in the days of his\ngreat-grandfather Jehoram,[277] and since then \"did tear\nperpetually,\"[278] harassing with incessant raids the miserable\nfellah\u00een of Southern Judah. They reaped the crops of the settled\ninhabitants, cut down their fruit-trees, burnt their farmsteads, and\ncarried their children into cruel and hopeless slavery. One verse\ntells us all that the historian knew, or cared to relate, of Amaziah's\ncampaign. He only says that it was eminently successful. Amaziah\nconfronted the Edomites in the Valley of Salt,[279] on the border of\nEdom, to the south of the Dead Sea, and inflicted upon them a signal\ndefeat. He not only slaughtered ten thousand of them, but, advancing\nsouthwards, he stormed and captured Selah or Petra, their rocky\ncapital, two days' journey north of Ezion-Geber, on the gulf of\nAkabah.[280] Considering the natural strength of Petra, amid its\nmountain-fastnesses, this was a victory of which he might well be\nproud, and he marked his prowess by changing the name of the city to\nJoktheel, \"subdued by God.\" The historian, copying the ancient record\nbefore him, says that Selah continued to be so called \"to this\nday.\"[281] This is a curious instance of close transcription, for it\nis certain that Selah can only have retained the name of Joktheel for\na very short period, and had lost it long before the days of the\nExile. Even in the reign of Ahaz (B.C. 735-715) the Edomites had so\ncompletely recovered lost ground that they were able to make\npredatory excursions into Judah, and to threaten Hebron, which would\nhave been obviously impossible if they were not masters of their own\nchief capital.[282] The district which Amaziah seems to have conquered\nwas mainly west of the Arabah. He wished to restore Elath, and perhaps\nto carry out the old commerce with the Red Sea which Solomon began,\nand which had fired the ambition of Jehoshaphat. The conquest of Selah\nsecured the road for his commercial caravans.\n\nSo far the older and better authorities. The Chronicler expands the\nstory in his usual fashion, in which historical and critical verity is\nso often compelled, if not to suspect the disease of exaggeration and\nthe bias of Levitism, at least to feel uncertainty as to the details.\nHe says that Amaziah collected an army of three hundred thousand men\nof Judah, trained them to a high state of discipline, and armed them\nwith spear and shield. He hired in addition one hundred thousand\nIsraelitish mercenaries, mighty men of valour, at the heavy cost of\none hundred talents of silver. He was rebuked by a prophet for\nemploying Israelites, \"because the Lord was not with them,\" so that if\nhe used their aid he would certainly be defeated. Amaziah asked what\nhe was to do for the hundred talents, and the prophet told him that\nJehovah could give him much more than this.[283] So he dismissed his\nEphraimites who, returning home in great fury, \"fell upon the cities\nof Judah,\" from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, killed three thousand of\ntheir inhabitants, and took much spoil. Amaziah, however, defeated the\nEdomites without their aid, and not only slew ten thousand, but took\ncaptive ten thousand more, all of whom he dashed to pieces by hurling\nthem from the top of the rock of Petra.[284]\n\nThen, by an apostasy much more astounding than even that of his father\nJoash, he took home with him the idols of Mount Seir, worshipped them,\nand burnt incense before them. Jehovah sends a prophet to rebuke him\nfor his senseless infatuation in worshipping the gods of the Edomites\nwhom he had just so utterly defeated; but Amaziah returns him the\ninsolent answer, \"Who made thee of the king's council? Be silent, or I\nwill put thee to death.\" The prophet met his ironical sneer with words\nof deeper meaning: \"If I am not on _your_ council, I am on God's.\nBecause thou hast not hearkened to my counsel, I know that God has\ncounselled to destroy thee.\"\n\nThe later writer thus accounts for the folly and overthrow of this\nvalorous and hitherto eminently pious king. Certain it is, as we shall\nnarrate in the next chapter, that, in spite of warning, he had the\ntemerity to challenge to battle the warlike Joash ben-Jehoahaz of\nIsrael, grandson of Jehu. The kings met at Beth-Shemesh, and Amaziah\nwas utterly routed, with consequences so shameful to himself and to\nJerusalem that he was never able to hold up his head again. He could\nbut eat away his own heart in despair, a ruined man. After this he\n\"lived\" rather than reigned fifteen years longer.[285] The wall of\nJerusalem, broken down near the Damascus Gate, on the side towards\nIsrael, for a space of four hundred cubits, was a standing witness of\nthe king's infatuated folly. His people were ashamed of him, and weary\nof him; and at last, seeing that nothing more could be expected of one\nwhose spirit had evidently been broken from impetuosity into\nabjectness, they formed a conspiracy against him. To save his life he\nfled to the strong fort of Lachish, a royal Canaanite city, in the\nhills to the south-west of Judah.[286] But they pursued him thither,\nand even Lachish would not protect him. He was murdered. They threw\nthe corpse upon a chariot, conveyed it to Jerusalem, and buried it in\nthe sepulchres of his fathers. The people quietly elevated to the\nthrone his son Azariah, then sixteen years old, who had been born the\nyear before his father's crowning disgrace. What became of the\nconspirators we do not know. They were probably too strong to be\nbrought to justice, and we are not told that Azariah even attempted to\nvisit their crime upon their heads.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[276] \u039d\u03ae\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f43\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1 \u03ba\u03c4\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c5\u1f31\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9. Comp. Q. Curtius, vi.\n11: \"Lege cautum erat ut propinqui eorum qui regi insidiati cum ipsis\nnecarentur.\" Cic., _Ad Brut._, 15.\n\n[277] 2 Kings viii. 20-22.\n\n[278] Amos i. 11.\n\n[279] The Valley (_G\u00ea_) of Salt is \"the plain of the Sabkah,\" about\ntwo miles broad, between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the\nhills which separate the Gh\u00f4r from the Arabah (Seetzen, _Reisen_, ii.\n356; Robinson, _Researches_, ii. 450, 488). David had won a great\nvictory there (2 Sam. viii. 13; Psalm lx., _title_).\n\n[280] Selah, \"a rock\" (\u03a0\u03ad\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1). Eusebius calls it Rekem.\n\n[281] It is the name also of a city of Judah (Josh. xv. 38).\n\n[282] 2 Chron. xxviii. 17; Jos., _Antt._, XII. viii. 6.\n\n[283] 2 Chron. xxv. 5-10, 13.\n\n[284] \u039a\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03ba\u03c1\u03b7\u03bc\u03bd\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2. This mode of execution prevailed till quite\nrecent times in the little republic of Andorra.\n\n[285] 2 Kings xiv. 17. The phrase that \"he _lived_ fifteen years\" is\nunusual, and seems to imply that the historian saw,--\n\n \"In more of life true life no more.\"\n\n\n[286] Josh. x. 6, 31, xv. 39; 2 Kings xviii. 17; 2 Chron. xi. 9.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n\n _THE DYNASTY OF JEHU_\n\n B.C.\n Jehoahaz 814-797 2 Kings xiii. 1-9\n Joash 797-781 \" xiii. 10-21, xiv. 8-16\n Jeroboam II. 781-740 \" xiv. 23-29\n Zechariah 740 \" xv. 8-12\n\n \"Them that honour Me I will honour, and they that despise Me shall\n be lightly esteemed.\"--1 SAM. ii. 30.\n\n\nIsrael had scarcely ever sunk to so low a nadir of degradation as she\ndid in the reign of the son of Jehu. We have already mentioned that\nsome assign to his reign the ghastly story which we have narrated in\nour sketch of the work of Elisha. It is told in the sixth chapter of\nthe Second Book of Kings, and seems to belong to the reign of Jehoram\nben-Ahab; but it may have got displaced from this epoch of yet deeper\nwretchedness. The accounts of Jehoahaz in 2 Kings xiii. are evidently\nfragmentary and abrupt.\n\nJehoahaz reigned seventeen years.[287] Naturally, he did not disturb\nthe calf-worship, which, like all his predecessors and successors, he\nregarded as a perfectly innocent symbolic adoration of Jehovah, whose\nname he bore and whose service he professed. Why should he do so? It\nhad been established now for more than two centuries. His father, in\nspite of his passionate and ruthless zeal for Jehovah, had never\nattempted to disturb it. No prophet--not even Elijah nor Elisha, the\npractical establishers of his dynasty--had said one word to condemn\nit. It in no way rested on his conscience as an offence; and the\nformal condemnation of it by the historian only reflects the more\nenlightened judgment of the Southern Kingdom and of a later age. But\naccording to the parenthesis which breaks the thread of this king's\nstory (2 Kings xiii. 5, 6), he was guilty of a far more culpable\ndefection from orthodox worship; for in his reign, the Asherah--the\ntree or pillar of the Tyrian nature-goddess--still remained in\nSamaria, and therefore must have had its worshippers. How it came\nthere we cannot tell. Jezebel had set it up (1 Kings xvi. 33), with\nthe connivance of Ahab. Jehu apparently had \"put it away\" with the\ngreat st\u00eal\u00ea of Baal (2 Kings iii. 2), but, for some reason or other,\nhe had not destroyed it. It now apparently occupied some public place,\na symbol of decadence, and provocative of the wrath of Heaven.\n\nJehoahaz sank very low. Hazael's savage sword, not content with the\ndevastation of Bashan and Gilead, wasted the west of Israel also in\nall its borders. The king became a mere vassal of his brutal neighbour\nat Damascus. So little of the barest semblance of power was left him,\nthat whereas, in the reign of David, Israel could muster an army of\neight hundred thousand, and in the reign of Joash, the son and\nsuccessor of Jehoahaz, Amaziah could hire from Israel one hundred\nthousand mighty men of valour as mercenaries, Jehoahaz was only\nallowed to maintain an army of ten chariots, fifty horsemen, and ten\nthousand infantry! In the picturesque phrase of the historian, \"the\nKing of Syria had threshed down Israel to the dust,\" in spite of all\nthat Jehoahaz did, or tried to do, and \"all his might.\" How completely\nhelpless the Israelites were is shown by the fact that their armies\ncould offer no opposition to the free passage of the Syrian troops\nthrough their land. Hazael did not regard them as threatening his\nrear; for, in the reign of Jehoahaz, he marched southwards, took the\nPhilistine city of Gath, and threatened Jerusalem. Joash of Judah\ncould only buy them off with the bribe of all his treasures, and\naccording to the Chronicler they \"destroyed all the princes of the\npeople,\" and took great spoil to Damascus.[288]\n\nWhere was Elisha? After the anointing of Jehu he vanishes from the\nscene. Unless the narrative of the siege of Samaria has been displaced,\nwe do not so much as once hear of him for nearly half a century.\n\nThe fearful depth of humiliation to which the king was reduced drove\nhim to repentance. Wearied to death of the Syrian oppression of which\nhe was the daily witness, and of the utter misery caused by prowling\nbands of Ammonites and Moabites--jackals who waited on the Syrian\nlion--Jehoahaz \"besought the Lord,[289] and the Lord hearkened unto\nhim, and gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the\nhand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents,\nas beforetime.\" If this indeed refers to events which come out of\nplace in the memoirs of Elisha; and if Jehoahaz ben-Jehu, not Jehoram\nben-Ahab, was the king in whose reign the siege of Samaria was so\nmarvellously raised, then Elisha may possibly be the temporary\ndeliverer who is here alluded to.[290] On this supposition we may see\na sign of the repentance of Jehoahaz in the shirt of sackcloth which\nhe wore under his robes, as it became visible to his starving people\nwhen he rent his clothes on hearing the cannibal instincts which had\ndriven mothers to devour their own children. But the respite must have\nbeen brief, since Hazael (ver. 22) oppressed Israel all the days of\nJehoahaz. If this rearrangement of events be untenable, we must\nsuppose that the repentance of Jehoahaz was only so far accepted, and\nhis prayer so far heard, that the deliverance, which did not come in\nhis own days, came in those of his son and of his grandson.\n\nOf him and of his wretched reign we hear no more; but a very different\nepoch dawned with the accession of his son Joash, named after the\ncontemporary King of Judah, Joash ben-Ahaziah.\n\nIn the Books of Kings and Chronicles Joash of Israel is condemned with\nthe usual refrains about the sins of Jeroboam. No other sin is laid to\nhis charge; and breaking the monotony of reprobation which tells us of\nevery king of Israel without exception that \"he did that which was\nevil in the sight of the Lord,\" Josephus boldly ventures to call him\n\"a good man, and the antithesis to his father.\"\n\nHe reigned sixteen years. At the beginning of his reign he found his\ncountry the despised prey, not only of Syria, but of the paltry\nneighbouring bandit-sheykhs who infested the east of the Jordan; he\nleft it comparatively strong, prosperous, and independent.\n\nIn his reign we hear again of Elisha, now a very old man of past eighty\nyears. Nearly half a century had elapsed since the grandfather of Joash\nhad destroyed the house of Ahab at the prophet's command. News came to\nthe king that Elisha was sick of a mortal sickness, and he naturally\nwent to visit the death-bed of one who had called his dynasty to the\nthrone, and had in earlier years played so memorable a part in the\nhistory of his country. He found the old man dying, and he wept over\nhim, crying, \"My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the\nhorsemen thereof.\"[291] The address strikes us with some surprise.\nElisha had indeed delivered Samaria more than once when the city had\nbeen reduced to direst extremity; but in spite of his prayers and of his\npresence, the sins of Israel and her kings had rendered this chariot of\nIsrael of very small avail. The names of Ahab, Jehu, Jehoahaz, call up\nmemories of a series of miseries and humiliations which had reduced\nIsrael to the very verge of extinction. For sixty-three years Elisha had\nbeen the prophet of Israel; and though his public interpositions had\nbeen signal on several occasions, they had not been availing to prevent\nAhab from becoming the vassal of Assyria, nor Israel from becoming the\nappanage of the dominion of that Hazael whom Elisha himself had anointed\nKing of Syria, and who had become of all the enemies of his country the\nmost persistent and the most implacable.\n\nThe narrative which follows is very singular. We must give it as it\noccurs, with but little apprehension of its exact significance.\n\nElisha, though Joash \"did that which was evil in the sight of the\nLord,\" seems to have regarded him with affection. He bade the youth\ntake his bow,[292] and laid his feeble, trembling hands on the strong\nhands of the king. Then he ordered an attendant to fling open the\nlattice, and told the king to shoot eastward towards Gilead, the\nregion whence the bands of Syria made their way over the Jordan. The\nking shot, and the fire came back into the old prophet's eye as he\nheard the arrow whistle eastward. He cried, \"The arrow of Jehovah's\ndeliverance, even the arrow of victory over Syria: for thou shalt\nsmite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.\"[293] Then\nhe bade the young king to take the sheaf of arrows, and smite towards\nthe ground, as if he was striking down an enemy. Not understanding the\nsignificance of the act, the king made the sign of thrice striking the\narrows downwards, and then naturally stopped.[294] But Elisha was\nangry--or at any rate grieved.[295] \"You should have smitten five or\nsix times,\" he said, \"and then you would have smitten Syria to\ndestruction. Now you shall only smite Syria thrice.\" The king's fault\nseems to have been lack of energy and faith.\n\nThere are in this story some peculiar elements which it is impossible\nto explain, but it has one beautiful and striking feature. It tells\nus of the death-bed of a prophet. Most of God's greatest prophets have\nperished amid the hatred of priests and worldlings. The progress of\nthe truth they taught has been \"from scaffold to scaffold, and from\nstake to stake.\"\n\n \"Careless seems the Great Avenger. History's pages but record\n One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the\n Word--\n Truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the throne;\n Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim\n unknown\n Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own!\"\n\nNow and then, however, as an exception, a great prophetic teacher or\nreformer escapes the hatred of the priests and of the world, and dies in\npeace. Savonarola is burnt, Huss is burnt, but Wiclif dies in his bed at\nLutterworth, and Luther died in peace at Eisleben. Elijah passed away in\nstorm, and was seen no more. A king comes to weep by the death-bed of\nthe aged Elisha. \"For us,\" it has been said, \"the scene at his bedside\ncontains a lesson of comfort and even encouragement. Let us try to\nrealise it. A man with no material power is dying in the capital of\nIsrael. He is not rich: he holds no office which gives him any immediate\ncontrol over the actions of men; he has but one weapon--the power of his\nword. Yet Israel's king stands weeping at his bedside--weeping because\nthis inspired messenger of Jehovah is to be taken from him. In him both\nking and people will lose a mighty support, for this man is a greater\nstrength to Israel than chariots and horsemen are. Joash does well to\nmourn for him, for he has had courage to wake the nation's conscience;\nthe might of his personality has sufficed to turn them in the true\ndirection, and rouse their moral and religious life. Such men as Elisha\neverywhere and always give a strength to their people above the strength\nof armies, for the true blessings of a nation are reared on the\nfoundations of its moral force.\"\n\nThe annals are here interrupted to introduce a posthumous\nmiracle--unlike any other in the whole Bible--wrought by the bones of\nElisha. He died, and they buried him, \"giving him,\" as Josephus says,\n\"a magnificent burial.\" As usual, the spring brought with it the\nmarauding bands of Moabites. Some Israelites who were burying a man\ncaught sight of them, and, anxious to escape, thrust the man into the\nsepulchre of Elisha, which happened to be nearest at hand. But when he\nwas placed in the rocky tomb, and touched the bones of Elisha, he\nrevived, and stood up on his feet. Doubtless the story rests on some\nreal circumstance. There is, however, something singular in the turn\nof the original, which says (literally) that the man _went and\ntouched_ the bones of Elisha;[296] and there is proof that the story\nwas told in varying forms, for Josephus says that it was the Moabite\nplunderers who had killed the man, and that he was thrown by them into\nElisha's tomb.[297] It is easy to invent moral and spiritual lessons\nout of this incident, but not so easy to see what lesson is intended\nby it. Certainly there is not throughout Scripture any other passage\nwhich even _seems_ to sanction any suspicions of magic potency in the\nrelics of the dead.[298]\n\nBut Elisha's symbolic prophecy of deliverance from Syria was amply\nfulfilled. About this time Hazael had died, and had left his power in\nthe feebler hands of his son Benhadad III. Jehoahaz had not been able\nto make any way against him (2 Kings xiii. 3), but Joash his son\nthrice met and thrice defeated him at Aphek. As a consequence of these\nvictories, he won back all the cities which Hazael had taken from his\nfather on the west of Jordan. The east of Jordan was never recovered.\nIt fell under the shadow of Assyria, and was practically lost for ever\nto the tribes of Israel.\n\nWhether Assyria lent her help to Joash under certain conditions we do\nnot know. Certain it is that from this time the terror of Syria\nvanishes. The Assyrian king Ramm\u00e2nir\u00e2ri III. about this time\nsubjugated all Syria and its king, whom the tablets call Mari, perhaps\nthe same as Benhadad III. In the next reign Damascus itself fell into\nthe power of Jeroboam II., the son of Joash.\n\nOne more event, to which we have already alluded, is narrated in the\nreign of this prosperous and valiant king.\n\nAmity had reigned for a century between Judah and Israel, the result\nof the politic-impolitic alliance which Jehoshaphat had sanctioned\nbetween his son Jehoram and the daughter of Jezebel. It was obviously\nmost desirable that the two small kingdoms should be united as closely\nas possible by an offensive and defensive alliance. But the bond\nbetween them was broken by the overweening vanity of Amaziah ben-Joash\nof Judah. His victory over the Edomites, and his conquest of Petra,\nhad puffed him up with the mistaken notion that he was a very great\nman and an invincible warrior. He had the wicked infatuation to kindle\nan unprovoked war against the Northern Tribes. It was the most wanton\nof the many instances in which, if Ephraim did not envy Judah, at\nleast Judah vexed Ephraim, Amaziah challenged Joash to come out to\nbattle, that they might look one another in the face. He had not\nrecognised the difference between fighting with and without the\nsanction of the God of battles.\n\nJoash had on his hands enough of necessary and internecine war to make\nhim more than indifferent to that bloody game. Moreover, as the superior\nof Amaziah in every way, he saw through his inflated emptiness. He knew\nthat it was the worst possible policy for Judah and Israel to weaken\neach other in fratricidal war, while Syria threatened their northern and\neastern frontiers, and while the tread of the mighty march of Assyria\nwas echoing ominously in the ears of the nations from afar. Better and\nkinder feelings may have mingled with these wise convictions. He had no\nwish to destroy the poor fool who so vaingloriously provoked his\nsuperior might. His answer was one of the most crushingly contemptuous\npieces of irony which history records, and yet it was eminently kindly\nand good-humoured. It was meant to save the King of Judah from advancing\nany further on the path of certain ruin.\n\n\"The thistle that was in Lebanon\" (such was the apologue which he\naddressed to his would-be rival) \"sent to the cedar that was in\nLebanon, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to wife.[299] The cedar\ntook no sort of notice of the thistle's ludicrous presumption, but a\nwild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trod down the thistle.\"\n\nIt was the answer of a giant to a dwarf;[300] and to make it quite\nclear to the humblest comprehension, Joash good-naturedly added: \"You\nare puffed up with your victory over Edom: glory in this, and stay at\nhome. Why by your vain meddling should you ruin yourself and Judah with\nyou? Keep quiet: I have something else to do than to attend to you.\"\n\nHappy had it been for Amaziah if he had taken warning! But vanity is a\nbad counsellor, and folly and self-deception--ill-matched pair--were\nwhirling him to his doom. Seeing that he was bent on his own\nperdition, Joash took the initiative and marched to Beth-Shemesh, in\nthe territory of Judah.[301] There the kings met, and there Amaziah\nwas hopelessly defeated. His troops fled to their scattered homes, and\nhe fell into the hands of his conqueror. Joash did not care to take\nany sanguinary revenge; but much as he despised his enemy, he thought\nit necessary to teach him and Judah the permanent lesson of not again\nmeddling to their own hurt. He took the captive king with him to\nJerusalem, which opened its gates without a blow.[302] We do not know\nwhether, like a Roman conqueror, he entered it through the breach of\nfour hundred cubits which he ordered them to make in the walls,[303]\nbut otherwise he contented himself with spoil which would swell his\ntreasure, and amply compensate for the expenses of the expedition\nwhich had been forced upon him. He ransacked Jerusalem for silver and\ngold; he made Obed-Edom, the treasurer, give up to him all the sacred\nvessels of the Temple, and all that was worth taking from the palace.\nHe also took hostages--probably from among the number of the king's\nsons--to secure immunity from further intrusions. It is the first time\nin Scripture that hostages are mentioned. It is to his credit that he\nshed no blood, and was even content to leave his defeated challenger\nwith the disgraced phantom of his kingly power, till, fifteen years\nlater, he followed his father to the grave through the red path of\nmurder at the hand of his own subjects.[304]\n\nAfter this we hear no further records of this vigorous and able king,\nin whom the characteristics of his grandfather Jehu are reflected in\nsofter outline. He left his son Jeroboam II. to continue his career of\nprosperity, and to advance Israel to a pitch of greatness which she\nhad never yet attained, in which she rivalled the grandeur of the\nunited kingdom in the earlier days of Solomon's dominion.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[287] I have not thought it worth while to unravel by a series of\nuncertain conjectures the careless, and often self-contradictory,\nsynchronism of the reigns of the kings in the two kingdoms. The compiler\nof these books evidently attached little or no importance to accurate\nchronology. For instance, the data of 2 Kings xiii. 1, 10, do not\ncoincide; and instead of entering into tedious, doubtful, and confusing\nguesses, I have contented myself throughout with giving for the reigns\nof the kings such dates, or approximate dates, as seem to result from\nthe several notices compared with the contemporary annals of Assyria.\n\n[288] 2 Chron. xxiv. 23.\n\n[289] 2 Kings xiii. 4; \"besought,\" literally \"_stroked the face of_\"\n(1 Sam. xiii. 12; 1 Kings xiii. 6).\n\n[290] The reference is usually explained of Jeroboam II.\n\n[291] Comp. 2 Kings ii. 12.\n\n[292] Lit., \"Make thine hand to ride upon thy bow.\" There is not the\nslightest taint of belomancy in the story (comp. Ezek. xxi. 21), nor\ndoes it allude to shooting an arrow into an enemy's country as a\ndeclaration of war (Virg., _\u00c6n._, ix. 57).\n\n[293] Aphek, a name of good omen (1 Kings xx. 26-30).\n\n[294] Thrice. Comp. Num. xxii. 28; Exod. xxiii. 17, etc.\n\n[295] LXX., \u1f10\u03bb\u03c5\u03c0\u03ae\u03b8\u03b7.\n\n[296] See R.V., margin.\n\n[297] _Antt._, IX. viii. 6.\n\n[298] See Ecclus. xlviii. 13: \"When he was dead, he prophesied in the\ntomb.\" (But the clause may be spurious.)\n\n[299] Possibly some matrimonial proposal may have lain behind the\ninterchange of messages.\n\n[300] Stade. For similar parables see Judg. ix. 8; Herod., i. 141;\nRawlinson, _Anc. Mon._, iii. 226.\n\n[301] Beth-Shemesh, \"the house of the sun.\" It is mentioned in 1 Sam.\nvi. 9, 12, and was a priestly city, and one of Solomon's store-cities\n(1 Kings iv. 9). It ultimately fell into the hands of the Philistines\n(2 Chron. xxviii. 18). It is not the Beth-Shemesh of Josh. xix. 22.\n\n[302] Josephus says that this was the fault of Amaziah, whom Joash of\nIsrael threatened with death if Jerusalem resisted.\n\n[303] This implies that at least half the northern wall was\ndismantled--the wall towards Ephraim.\n\n[304] Some have conjectured that Amaziah of Judah became more or less\nthe vassal of Joash of Israel, and that the vassalage continued till\nafter the death of Jeroboam II. (1) For Jeroboam II. held Elath till\nhis death, when Uzziah recovered it (2 Kings xiv. 22), and he\ncertainly could not have held this southern Jud\u00e6an port if Judah was\nentirely independent; and (2) we read that Uzziah did not become king\nat all till the _twenty-seventh_ year of Jeroboam II. But if Amaziah\nonly survived Joash of Israel fifteen years (2 Kings xiv. 17), Uzziah\nmust have succeeded in the _fifteenth_ year of Jeroboam. Is the\nexplanation to be found in the fact that up to that time--for twelve\nyears--Jeroboam did not allow the Jud\u00e6ans to elect a king? or are\nthese among the hopeless confusion of synchronism which cannot be\nreconciled at all with our present data?\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n\n _THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (continued)--JEROBOAM II_\n\n B.C. 781-740\n\n 2 KINGS xiv. 23-29\n\n\nIf we had only the history of the kings to depend upon, we should\nscarcely form an adequate conception either of the greatness of\nJeroboam II. or of the condition of society which prevailed in Israel\nduring his long and most prosperous reign of forty-one years (B.C.\n781-740). In the Books of Chronicles he is merely mentioned\naccidentally in a genealogy. The Second Book of Kings only devotes one\nverse to him (xiv. 25) beyond the stock formul\u00e6 of connection so often\nrepeated. That verse, however, gives us at least a glimpse of his\ngreat importance, for it tells us that \"he restored the coast of\nIsrael from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain.\" Those\ntwo lines sufficiently prove to us that he was by far the greatest and\nmost powerful of all the kings of Israel, as he was also the\nlongest-lived and had the longest reign. His victories flung a broad\ngleam of sunset over the afflicted kingdom, and, for a time, they\nmight have beguiled the Israelites into lofty hopes for the future;\nbut with the death of Jeroboam the light instantly faded away, and\nthere was no after-glow.\n\nAnd this sudden brightness, if it deceived others, did not deceive the\nprophets of the Lord. It happened in accordance with the promise of\nJehovah given by Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher;[305] but\nAmos and Hosea saw that the glory of the reign was hollow and\ndelusive, and that the outward prosperity did but \"skin and film the\nulcerous place\" below.\n\nIn truth, the possibility of this sudden outburst of success was due to\nthe very enemy who, within a few years, was to grind Israel to powder.\nGod pitied the deplorable overthrow of His chosen people: He saw that\nthere was neither slave nor freeman--\"neither any shut up, nor any left\nat large, nor any helper for Israel\"; and in Jeroboam He gave them the\nsaviour who had been granted to the penitence of Jehoahaz.[306] It was,\nso to speak, a last pledge to them of the love and mercy of Jehovah,\nwhich gave them a respite, and would fain have saved them altogether, if\nthey had turned with their whole heart to Him. And, personally, Jeroboam\nII. seems to have been one of the better kings. Not a single crime is\nlaid to his charge; for under the circumstances of its deep-rooted\ncontinuance through the reigns of all his predecessors, it cannot be\ndeemed a heinous crime that he did not put down the symbolic cult of\nJehovah by the cherubic emblems at Dan and Bethel. The fact that he had\nbeen named after the founder of the kingdom of Israel shows that the\nkingdom was proud of the valiant and Heaven-commissioned rebel who had\nthrown off the yoke of the house of Solomon. The house of Jehu admired\nhis policy and his institutions. The son of Nebat did not by any means\nappear in the eyes of his people as only worthy of the monotonous\nepitaph, \"who made Israel to sin.\" It is true that now the voice of\nprophecy in Israel itself began to denounce the concomitants of the\n\"calf-worship\"; but the voices of the Jewish herdsman of Tekoa and of\nthe Israelite Hosea probably raised but faint murmurs in the ears of the\nwarrior-king, with whom they do not seem to have come into personal\ncontact. In no case would he rank them as equal in importance with the\nfiery Elijah or the king-making Elisha, who had been for four\ngenerations the counsellor of his race. Neither of those great prophets\nhad insisted on the Deuteronomic law of a centralised worship, nor had\nthey denounced the revered local sanctuaries with which Israel had been\nso long familiar. Jonah, indeed--who, if legend be correct, had been the\nboy of Zarephath, and the personal attendant of Elijah--had predicted\nthe king's unbroken success, and had neither made it conditional on a\nreligious revolution, nor, so far as we know, had in any way censured\nthe existing institutions.\n\nWhat rendered Jeroboam's glory possible was the immediate paralysis\nand imminent ruin of the power of Syria. The Israelitish king was\nprobably on good terms with Assyria, and, during this epoch, three\nAssyrian monarchs had struck blow after blow against the house of\nHazael. Damascus and its dependencies had received shattering defeats\nat the hands of Ramm\u00e2nir\u00e2ri III., Shalmaneser III. (782-772), and\nAssurdan III. (772-754). Ramm\u00e2nir\u00e2ri had made expeditions against\nDamascus (773) and Hazael (772), and Assurdan had invaded the Syrian\ndomains in 767, 755, and 754. Syria had more than enough to do to hold\nher own in a struggle for life and death against her atrocious\nneighbour. With Uzziah in Judah, Jeroboam II. seems to have been on\nthe friendliest terms; and probably Uzziah acted as a half-independent\nvassal, united with him by common interests. The day for Assyria to\nthreaten Israel had not yet come. Syria lay in the path; and Assurdan\nIII. had been succeeded by Assurnirari, who gave the world the unusual\nspectacle of a peaceful Assyrian king.\n\nJeroboam II., therefore, was free to enlarge his domains; and unless\nthere be a little patriotic exaggeration in the extent and reality of\nhis prowess, he exercised at least a nominal suzerainty over a realm\nnearly as extensive as that of David. He first advanced against\nDamascus, and so far \"recovered\" it as to make it acknowledge his\nrule.[307] His father Joash had won back all the Israelite cities\nwhich Benhadad III. had taken from Jehoahaz; and Jeroboam, if he did\nnot absolutely reconquer the district east of Jordan, yet kept it in\ncheck and repressed the predatory incursions of the Em\u00eers of Moab and\nAmmon.[308] He thus extended the border of Israel to the sea of the\nArabah and \"the brook of willows\" which divides Edom from Moab.[309]\nBut this was not all. He pushed his conquests two hundred miles\nnorthwards of Samaria, and became lord of Hamath the Great. Ascending\nthe gorge of the Lit\u00e2ny between the chains of Libanus and Antilibanus,\nwhich formed the northern limit of Israel, and following the river to\nits source near Baalbek, he then descended the Valley of the Orontes,\nwhich constitutes the \"pass\" or \"entering in\" of Hamath. Hamath was a\ntown of the Hittites, the most powerful race of ancient Canaan. They\nwere not of Semitic origin, but spoke a separate language. They were\nthe last great branch of the once famous and dominant Khetas, whose\nformer importance has only recently been revealed by their deciphered\ninscriptions. A century and a half earlier the Hamathites had thrown\noff the yoke of Solomon, and they governed nearly a hundred dependent\ncities. In alliance with the Ph\u0153nicians and Syrians, they had been\nvaluable members of a league, which, though defeated, had long formed\na barrier against the southward movement of the Assyrians. How\nstriking was the conquest of this city by Jeroboam is shown by the\ntitle of \"Hamath the Great,\" bestowed upon it by the contemporary\nprophets,[310] with whom literary prophecy begins.\n\nThe result of these conquests was unwonted peace. Agriculture once\nmore became possible, when the farmers of Israel were secure that\ntheir crops would not be reaped by plundering Bedou\u00een. Intercourse\nwith neighbouring nations was revived, as in the golden days of\nSolomon, though it was regarded with suspicion.[311] Civilisation\nsoftened something of the old brutality. Prophecy assumed a different\ntype, and literature began to dawn.\n\nBut to this state of things there was, as we learn from the\ncontemporary prophets Amos and Hosea, a darker side. Of Jonah we know\nnothing more; for it is impossible to see in the Book of Jonah much\nmore than a beautiful and edifying story, which may or may not rest on\nsome surviving legends. It differs from every other prophetic book by\nbeginning with the word \"And,\" and its late origin and legendary\ncharacter cannot any longer be reasonably disputed.[312] We may hope,\ntherefore, that the Northern prophet, whose home was not far from\nNazareth, was not quite the morose and ruthless grumbler so strikingly\nportrayed in the book which bears his name. Of any historical\nintervention of his in the affairs of Jeroboam we know nothing further\nthan the recorded promise of the king's prosperity.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[305] 2 Kings xiv. 25-27. There are other allusions to the historic\nevents in 2 Kings x. 32, 33, xiii. 3-7, 22-25. Hitzig conjectures that\nIsa. xv., xvi., are \"a burden of Moab\" quoted from Jonah.\n\n[306] 2 Kings xiii. 5, \"The Lord gave Israel a saviour\"; xiv. 27, \"And\nHe saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash.\" Some suppose\nthe saviour to be the Assyrian King.\n\n[307] It had owned the feudal supremacy of David (2 Sam. viii. 6), and\nAhab had extorted the privilege of having bazaars there (1 Kings xx.\n34). Considering how immense had been the resources of Damascus (2\nKings vi. 14), which had once been able to send to battle twelve\nthousand war-chariots (_Eponym Canon_, p. 108) under Benhadad, we see\nhow fearfully the Syrian capital must have been weakened.\n\n[308] If Isa. xv. 1, 2, refers to this invasion of Jeroboam II., as\nHitzig first conjectured, we infer that he had taken both Ar of Moab\n(Rabbath) and Kir of Moab, a strong fortress on a hill, by night\nassaults; and that he had also captured Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba, and\ninflicted on them summary chastisement. It appears that the Moabites\nhad advanced northwards from the Arnon, while Hazael occupied\nRamoth-Gilead, and had seized part of the tribe of Reuben. Jeroboam\nII. first expelled them, and then invaded their own proper country.\nHitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are really an old\nprophecy--perhaps by Jonah, son of Amittai--which Isaiah quotes, and\nto which he adds two verses (Isa. xvi. 12, 13). In such overthrow Moab\nmust have learnt to be ashamed of Chemosh (Jer. xlviii. 13).\n\n[309] Isa. xv. 7; Amos vi. 14.\n\n[310] Amos vi. 2.\n\n[311] Merchandise had hitherto been considered discreditable for a\npure Jew, so that a trader is called a Canaanite (Hos. xii. 7, 8).\n\n[312] See the writer's _Minor Prophets_ (\"Men of the Bible\" Series),\npp. 231-243.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n\n _AMOS, HOSEA, AND THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL_\n\n 2 KINGS xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-12\n\n \"In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt\n What makes a nation happy and keeps it so,\n What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat.\"\n MILTON, _Paradise Regained_.\n\n \"We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,\n Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate:\n But the soul is still oracular: amid the market's din\n List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,\n 'They enslave their children's children who make compromise with\n sin.'\"\n LOWELL.\n\n\nAmos and Hosea are the two earliest prophets whose \"burdens\" have come\ndown to us. From them we gain a near insight into the internal\ncondition of Israel in this day of her prosperity.\n\nWe see, first, that the prosperity was not unbroken. Though peace\nreigned, the people were not left to lapse unwarned into sloth and\ngodlessness. The land had suffered from the horrible scourge of locusts,\nuntil every _carmel_--every garden of God on hill and plain--withered\nbefore them.[313] There had been widespread conflagrations;[314] there\nhad been a visitation of pestilence; and, finally, there had been an\nearthquake so violent that it constituted an epoch from which dates\nwere reckoned.[315] There were also two eclipses of the sun, which\ndarkened with fear the minds of the superstitious.[316]\n\nNor was this the worst. Civilisation and commerce had brought luxury in\ntheir train, and all the bonds of morality had been relaxed. The country\nbegan to be comparatively depleted, and the innocent regularity of\nagricultural pursuits palled upon the young, who were seduced by the\nglittering excitement of the growing towns. All zeal for religion was\nlooked on as archaic, and the splendour of formal services was regarded\nas a sufficient recognition of such gods as there were. As a natural\nconsequence, the nobles and the wealthy classes were more and more\ninfected with a gross materialism, which displayed itself in\nostentatious furniture, and sumptuous palaces of precious marbles inlaid\nwith ivory. The desire for such vanities increased the thirst for gold,\nand avarice replenished its exhausted coffers by grinding the faces of\nthe poor, by defrauding the hireling of his wages, by selling the\nrighteous for silver, the needy for handfuls of barley, and the poor for\na pair of shoes. The degrading vice of intoxication acquired fresh\nvogue, and the gorgeous gluttonies of the rich were further disgraced by\nthe shameful spectacle of drunkards, who lolled for hours over the\nrevelries which were inflamed by voluptuous music. Worst of all, the\npurity of family life was invaded and broken down. Throwing aside the\nold veiled seclusion of women in Oriental life, the ladies of Israel\nshowed themselves in the streets in all \"the bravery of their tinkling\nornaments of gold,\" and sank into the adulterous courses stimulated by\ntheir pampered effrontery.\n\nSuch is the picture which we draw from the burning denunciations of the\npeasant-prophet of Tekoa. He was no prophet nor prophet's son, but a\nhumble gatherer of sycomore-fruit, a toil which only fell to the\nhumblest of the people.[317] Who is not afraid, he asks, when a lion\nroars? and how can a prophet be silent when the Lord God has spoken?\nIndignation had transformed and dilated him from a labourer into a seer,\nand had summoned him from the pastoral shades of his native\nvillage--whether in Judah or in Israel is uncertain--to denounce the\nmore flagrant iniquities of the Northern capital.[318] First he\nproclaims the vengeance of Jehovah upon the transgressions of the\nPhilistines, of Tyre, of Edom, of Ammon, of Moab, and even of Judah; and\nthen he turns with a crash upon apostatising Israel.[319] He speaks with\nunsparing plainness of their pitiless greed, their shameless debauchery,\ntheir exacting usury, their attempts to pervert even the abstinent\nNazarites into intemperance, and to silence the prophets by opposition\nand obloquy. Jehovah was crushed under their violence.[320] And did they\nthink to go unscathed after such black ingratitude? Nay! their mightiest\nshould flee away naked in the day of defeat. Robbery was in their houses\nof ivory, and the few of them who should escape the spoiler should only\nbe as when a shepherd tears out of the mouth of a lion two legs and a\npiece of an ear?[321] As for Bethel, their shrine--which he calls\nBethaven, \"House of Vanity,\" not Bethel, \"House of God\"--the horns of\nits altars should be cut off. Should oppression and licentiousness\nflourish? Jehovah would take them with hooks, and their children with\nfish-hooks, and their sacrifices at Bethel and Gilgal should be utterly\nunavailing. Drought, and blasting, and mildew, and wasting plague, and\nearth-convulsions like those which had swallowed Sodom and Gomorrha,\nfrom which they should only be plucked as a \"firebrand out of the\nburning,\" should warn them that they must prepare to meet their\nGod.[322] It was lamentable; but lamentation was vain, unless they would\nreturn to Jehovah, Lord of hosts,[323] and abandon the false worship of\nBethel, Beersheba, and Gilgal, and listen to the voice of the righteous,\nwhom they now abhorred for his rebukes. They talked hypocritically about\n\"the day of the Lord,\" but to them it should be blackness. They relied\non feast days, and services, and sacrifices; but since they would not\ngive the sacrifice of judgment and righteousness, for which alone God\ncared, they should be carried into captivity beyond Damascus: yes! even\nto that terrible Assyria with whose king they now were on friendly\nterms. They lay at ease on their carved couches at their delicate\nfeasts, draining the wine-bowls, and glistering with fragrant oils,\nheedless of the impending doom which would smite the great house with\nbreaches and the little house with clefts, and which should bring upon\nthem an avenger who should afflict them from their conquered Hamath\nsouthwards even to the wady of the wilderness.[324] The threatened\njudgments of locusts and fire had been mitigated at the prophet's\nprayer, but nothing could avert the plumb-line of destruction which\nJehovah held over them, and He would rise against the House of Jeroboam\nwith His sword.[325] We infer from all that Amos and Hosea say that the\ncalf-worship at Bethel (for Dan is not mentioned in this connexion[326])\nhad degenerated into an idolatry far more abject than it originally\nwas. The familiarity of such multitudes of the people with Baal-worship\nand Asherah-worship had tended to obliterate the sense that the \"calves\"\nwere cherubic emblems of Jehovah; and were it not for some confusions of\nthis kind, it is inconceivable that Jehoram ben-Jehu should have\nrestored the Asherah which his father had removed. Be that as it may,\nBethel and Gilgal seem to have become centres of corruption. Dan is\nscarcely once alluded to as a scene of the calf-worship.\n\nOthers, then, might be deceived by the surface-glitter of extended\nempire in the days of Jeroboam II. Not so the true prophets. It has\noften happened--as to Persia, when, in B.C. 388, she dictated the\nPeace of Antalcidas, and to Papal Rome in the days of the Jubilee of\n1300, and to Philip II. of Spain in the year of the Armada, and to\nLouis XIV. in 1667--that a nation has seemed to be at its zenith of\npomp and power on the very eve of some tremendous catastrophe. Amos\nand Hosea saw that such a catastrophe was at hand for Israel, because\nthey knew that Divine punishment inevitably dogs the heels of\ninsolence and crime. The loftiness of Israel's privilege involved the\nutterness of her ruin. \"You only have I known of all the families of\nthe earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.\"[327]\n\nSuch prophecies, so eloquent, so uncompromising, so varied, and so\nconstantly disseminated among the people, first by public harangues,\nthen in writing, could no longer be neglected. Amos, with his natural\nculture, his rhythmic utterances, and his inextinguishable fire, was far\ndifferent from the wild fanatics, with their hairy garments, and sudden\nmovements, and long locks, and cries, and self-inflicted wounds, with\nwhom Israel had been familiar since the days of Elijah whom they all\nimitated. So long as this inspired peasant confined himself to moral\ndenunciations the aristocracy and priesthood of Samaria could afford\ncomfortably to despise him. What were moral denunciations to them? What\nharm was there in ivory palaces and refined feasts? This man was a mere\nred socialist who tried to undermine the customs of society. The hold of\nthe upper classes on the people, whom their exactions had burdened with\nhopeless debt, and whom they could with impunity crush into slavery, was\ntoo strong to be shaken by the \"hysteric gush\" of a philanthropic\nfaddist and temperance fanatic like this. But when he had the enormous\npresumption to mention publicly the name of their victorious king, and\nto say that Jehovah would rise against him with the sword, it was time\nfor the clergy to interfere, and to send the intruder back to his native\nobscurity.\n\nSo Amaziah, the priest of Bethel,[328] invoked the king's authority.\n\"Amos,\" he said to the king, \"hath conspired against thee in the midst\nof the house of Israel.\" The charge was grossly false, but it did well\nenough to serve the priest's purpose. \"The land is not able to bear\nall his words.\"\n\nThat was true; for when nations have chosen to abide by their own\nvicious courses, and refuse to listen to the voice of warning, they\nare impatient of rebuke. They refuse to hear when God calls to them.\n\n \"For when we in our viciousness grow hard,\n Oh misery on it! the wise gods seal our eyes;\n In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us\n Adore our errors; laugh at us while we strut\n To our confusion.\"\n\nThe priest tried further to inflame the king's anger by telling him\ntwo more of Amos's supposed predictions. He had prophesied (which was\na false inference) that Israel should be led away captive out of their\nown land,[329] and had also prophesied (which was a perversion of the\nfact) \"that Jeroboam _should die_ by the sword.\"\n\nAt the first prophecy Jeroboam probably smiled. It might indeed come\ntrue in the long-run. If he was a man of prescience as well as of\nprowess, he probably foresaw that the elements of ruin lurked in his\ntransient success, and that though, for the present, Assyria was\noccupied in other directions, it was unlikely that the weaker Israel\nwould escape the fate of the far more powerful Syria. As for the\npersonal prophecy, he was strong, and was honoured, and had his army\nand his guards. He would take his chance. Nor does it seem to have\ntroubled any one that Amos looked for the ultimate union of Israel\nwith Judah. Since the time of Joash the inheritance of David had been\nbut as \"a ruined booth\" (ix. 11); but Amos prophesied its restoration.\nThis touch may have been added later, when he wrote and published his\n\"burdens\"; but he did not hesitate to speak as if the two kingdoms\nwere really and properly one.[330]\n\nWe are not told that Jeroboam II. interfered with the prophet in any\nway.[331] Had he done so, he would have been rebuked and denounced for\nit. He probably went no further than to allow the priest and the\nprophet to settle the matter between themselves. Perhaps he gave a\ncontemptuous permission that, if Amaziah thought it worth while to\nsend the prophet back into Judah, he might do so.\n\nArmed with this nonchalant mandate, Amaziah, with more mildness and\ngood-humour than might have been expected from one of his class, said\nto Amos, \"O Seer,[332] go home, and eat thy bread, and prophesy to thy\nheart's content at home; but do not prophesy any more at Bethel, for\nit is the king's sanctuary and the king's court.\"\n\nAmos obeyed perforce, but stopped to say that he had not prophesied\nout of his own mouth, but by Jehovah's bidding. He then hurled at the\npriest a message of doom as frightful as that which Jeremiah\npronounced upon Pashur, when that priest smote him on the face. His\nwife should be a harlot in the city; his sons and daughters should be\nslain; his inheritance should be divided; he should die in a polluted\nland; and Israel should go into captivity. And as for his mission, he\njustified it by the fact that he was not one of an hereditary or a\nprofessional community; he was no prophet or prophet's son. Such men\nmight--like Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, and his four hundred\nabettors--be led into mere function and professionalism, into\nmanufactured enthusiasm and simulated inspiration. From such\ncommunities freshness, unconventionality, courage, were hardly to be\nexpected. They would philippise at times; they would get to love their\norder and their privileges better than their message, and themselves\nbest of all. It is the tendency of organised bodies to be tempted into\nconventionality, and to sink into banded unions chiefly concerned in\nthe protection of their own prestige. Not such was Amos. He was a\npeasant herdsman in whose heart had burned the inspiration of Jehovah\nand the wrath against moral misdoing till they had burst into flame.\nIt was indignation against iniquity which had called Amos from the\nflocks and the sycomores to launch against an apostatising people the\nmenace of doom. In that grief and indignation he heard the voice and\nreceived the mandate of the Lord of hosts. He heads the long line of\nliterary prophets whose priceless utterances are preserved in the Old\nTestament. The inestimable value of their teaching lies most of all in\nthe fact that they were--like Moses--preachers of the moral law; and\nthat, like the Book of the Covenant, which is the most ancient and the\nmost valuable part of the Laws of the Pentateuch, they count external\nservice as no better than the small dust of the balance in comparison\nwith righteousness and true holiness.\n\nThe rest of the predictions of Amos were added at a later date. They\ndwelt on the certainty and the awful details of the coming overthrow;\nthe doom of the idolaters of Gilgal and Beersheba; the inevitable\nswiftness of the catastrophe in which Samaria should be sifted like\ncorn in a sieve in spite of her incorrigible security.[333] Yet the\nruin should not be absolute. \"Thus saith Jehovah: As the shepherd\nteareth out of the mouth of the lion two legs and the piece of an ear,\nso shall the children of Israel be rescued, that sit in Samaria on the\ncorner of a couch, and on the damask of a bed.\"\n\nThe Hebrew Prophets almost invariably weave together the triple strands\nof warning, exhortation, and hope. Hitherto Amos has not had a word of\nhope to utter. At last, however, he lets a glimpse of the rainbow\nirradiate the gloom. The overthrow of Israel should be accompanied by\nthe restoration of the fallen booth of David, and, under the rule of a\nscion of that house, Israel should return from captivity to enjoy days\nof peaceful happiness, and to be rooted up no more.[334]\n\n * * * * *\n\nHosea, the son of Beeri, was of a somewhat later date than Amos. He,\ntoo, \"became electric,\" to flash into meaner and corrupted minds the\nconviction that formalism is nothing, and that moral sincerity is all\nin all. That which God requires is not ritual service, but truth in\nthe inward parts. He is one of the saddest of the prophets; but\nthough he mingles prophecies of mercy with his menaces of wrath, the\ngeneral tenor of his oracles is the same. He pictures the crimes of\nEphraim by the image of domestic unfaithfulness, and bids Judah to\ntake warning from the curse involved in her apostasy.[335] Many of his\nallusions touch upon the days of that deluge of anarchy which followed\nthe death of Jeroboam II. (iv.-vi. 3). That he was a Northerner\nappears from the fact that he speaks of the King of Israel as \"our\nking\" (vii. 5). Yet he seems to blame the revolt of Jeroboam I. (i.\n11, viii. 4), although a prophet had originated it, and he openly\naspires after the reunion of the Twelve Tribes under a king of the\nHouse of David (iii. 5). He points more distinctly to Assyria, which\nhe frequently names as the scourge of the Divine vengeance, and\nindicates how vain is the hope of the party which relied on the\nalliance of Egypt.[336] He speaks with far more distinct contempt of\nthe cherub at Bethel and the shrine at Gilgal, and says scornfully,\n\"Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off.\"[337] Shalmaneser had taken\nBeth-Arbel, and dashed to pieces mother and children. Such would be\nthe fate of the cities of Israel.[338] Yet Hosea, like Amos, cannot\nconclude with words of wrath and woe, and he ends with a lovely song\nof the days when Ephraim should be restored, after her true\nrepentance, by the loving tenderness of God.\n\nJeroboam II. must have been aware of some at least of these prophecies.\nThose of Hosea must have impressed him all the more because Hosea was a\nprophet of his own kingdom, and all of his allusions were to such\nancient and famous shrines of Ephraim as Mizpeh, Tabor, Bethel, Gilgal,\nShechem,[339] Jezreel, and Lebanon. He was the Jeremiah of the North,\nand a passionate patriotism breathes through his melancholy strains. Yet\nin the powerful rule of Jeroboam II. he can only see a godless\nmilitarism founded upon massacre (i. 4), and he felt himself to be the\nprophet of decadence. Page after page rings with wailing, and with\ndenunciations of drunkenness, robbery, and whoredom--\"swearing, lying,\nkilling, stealing, and adultery\" (iv. 2).\n\nIf Jeroboam was as wise and great as he seemed to have been, he must\nhave seen with his own eyes the ominous clouds on the far horizon, and\nthe deep-seated corruption which was eating like a cancer into the\nheart of his people. Probably, like many another great sovereign--like\nMarcus Aurelius when he noted the worthlessness of his son Commodus,\nlike Charlemagne when he burst into tears at the sight of the ships of\nthe Vikings--his thoughts were like those of the ancient and modern\nproverbs--\"When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire.\" We have no\ntrace that Jeroboam treated Hosea as did those guilty priests to whom\nhe was a rebuke, and who called him \"a fool\" and \"mad\" (ix. 7, 8, iv.\n6-8, v. 2). Yet the aged king--he must have reached the unusual age\nof seventy-three at least, before he ended the longest and most\nsuccessful reign in the annals of Israel--could hardly have\nanticipated that within half a year of his death his secure throne\nwould be shaken to its foundation, his dynasty be hurled into\noblivion, and that Israel, to whom, as long as he lived, mighty\nkingdoms had curtsied, should,\n\n \"Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,\n Do shameful execution on herself.\"\n\nYet so it was. Jeroboam II. was succeeded by no less than six other\nkings, but he was the last who died a natural death. Every one of his\nsuccessors fell a victim to the assassin or the conqueror. His son\nZachariah (\"Remembered by Jehovah\") succeeded him (B.C. 740), the\nfourth in descent from Jehu. Considering the long reign of his father,\nhe must have ascended the throne at a mature age. But he was the child\nof evil times. That he should not interrupt the \"calf\"-worship was a\nmatter of course; but if he be the king of whom we catch a glimpse in\nHos. vii. 2-7, we see that he partook deeply of the depravity of his\nday. We are there presented with a deplorable picture. There was\nthievishness at home, and bands of marauding bandits began to appear\nfrom abroad. The king was surrounded by a desperate knot of wicked\ncounsellors, who fooled him to the top of his bent, and corrupted him\nto the utmost of his capacity. They were all scorners and adulterers,\nwhose furious passions the prophet compares to the glowing heat of an\noven heated by the baker. They made the king glad with their\nwickedness, and the princes with lying flatteries. On the royal\nbirthday, apparently at some public feast, this band of infamous\nrevellers, who were the boon companions of Zachariah, first made him\nsick with bottles of wine, and then having set an ambush in waiting,\nmurdered the effeminate and self-indulgent debauchee before all the\npeople.[340] The scene reads like the assassination of a Commodus or\nan Elagabalus. No one was likely to raise a hand in his favour. Like\nour Edward II., he was a weakling who followed a great and warlike\nfather. It was evident that troublous times were near at hand, and\nnothing but the worst disasters could ensue if there was no one better\nthan such a drunkard as Zachariah to stand at the helm of state.\n\nSo did the dynasty of the mighty Jehu expire like a torch blown out in\nstench and smoke.\n\nIts close is memorable most of all because it evoked the magnificent\nmoral and spiritual teaching of Hebrew prophecy. The ideal prophet and\nthe ordinary priest are as necessarily opposed to each other as the\nsaint and the formalist. The glory of prophecy lies in its recognition\nthat right is always right, and wrong always wrong, apart from all\nexpediency and all casuistry, apart from \"all prejudices, private\ninterests, and partial affections.\" \"What Jehovah demands,\" they\ntaught, \"is righteousness--neither more nor less; what He hates is\ninjustice. Sin or offence to the Deity is a thing of purely moral\ncharacter. Morality is that for the sake of which all other things\nexist; it is the most essential element of all sincere religion. It is\nno postulate, no idea, but a necessity and a fact; the most intensely\nliving of human powers--Jehovah, the God of hosts. In wrath, in ruin,\nthis holy reality makes its existence known; it annihilates all that\nis hollow and false.\"[341]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[313] Amos vii. 1. Famine (iv. 6); drought (iv. 7, 8); yellow blight\nand locusts (iv. 9); pestilence (iv. 10); earthquake and burning (iv.\n11).\n\n[314] Amos vii. 4.\n\n[315] Amos i. 1, iii. 14, iv. 11, viii 8; Zech. xiv. 5: \"Ye shall flee\nlike as ye fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah.\" Josephus\nsays that in an earthquake a little before the birth of Christ ten\nthousand were buried under the ruined houses (_Antt._, XV. v. 2), and\nhe has many Rabbinic haggadoth to tell us about the earthquake, which,\nhe says, happened at the moment when Uzziah burnt incense in the\nTemple (_Antt._, IX. x. 4).\n\n[316] According to Hind, they took place on June 15th, B.C. 763, and\nFebruary 9th, B.C. 784. Amos alludes to the capture of Gath by Uzziah,\nof Calneh (_Ktesiphon_), and of Hamath (vi. 2; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6). Gath\nhenceforth disappears from the Philistian Pentapolis (Amos i. 7, 8;\nZeph. ii. 4; Zech. ix. 5).\n\n[317] Or \"dresser of sycomore-trees\" (R.V.). LXX., \u03ba\u03bd\u03af\u03b6\u03c9\u03bd \u03c3\u03c5\u03ba\u03ac\u03bc\u03b9\u03bd\u03b1;\nVulg., _vellicans sycomoros_. The sycomore-fruit (fruit of the _Ficus\nsycomorus_, or wild fig) is ripened by puncturing it (Theoph., _H.\nPlant._, iv. 2; Pliny, _H. N._, xiii. 14).\n\n[318] The well-known town of Tekoa had been Solomon's horse-fair, and\nhad been fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6). It lay in a wild\ncountry six miles south of Bethlehem (2 Chron. xx. 20; 1 Macc. ix. 33;\nRobinson, _Bibl. Res._, i. 486). For a fuller account of these\nprophets, I must refer to my book on _The Minor Prophets_ in the \"Men\nof the Bible\" Series. It has always been assumed that Amos belonged to\nthe well-known Tekoa, and was therefore a subject of the Southern\nKingdom. In recent days this has become uncertain. No sycomores grow\nor can grow on the bleak uplands of Tekoa (Tristram, _Nat. Hist. of\nthe Bible_, p. 397); so that Jerome, in his preface to Amos, thinks\nthat \"brambles\" are intended. Even Kimchi conjectured that Tekoa was\nan unknown town in the tribe of Asher. Amos's allusions to scenery are\nall applicable to the Northern landscape.\n\n[319] Amos i. 1-ii. 5.\n\n[320] Amos ii. 6-13.\n\n[321] Amos iii. 9-15.\n\n[322] Amos iv. 1-13.\n\n[323] This title, \"Jehovah-Tsebaoth,\" now begins to occur. It is not\nfound in the Hexateuch. It probably means \"Lord of the _starry hosts_.\"\nContact with Assyria first made the Israelites acquainted with\nstar-worship. Amos alludes to the Pleiades and Orion (v. 8: comp. Job\nix. 9, xxxviii. 31). Star-worship is forbidden in Deuteronomy. In Amos\nv. 26 the true meaning is that the Israelites _would take with them, on\ntheir road to exile_, Sakkuth (Moloch?) and Kewan (the god-star Saturn).\n\n[324] Amos vi. 1-14.\n\n[325] Amos vii. 1-9.\n\n[326] Strange as it may seem, the early authority for the existence of\nany calf at Dan is very slight, and the extreme uncertainty of the\nreading and interpretation in one main passage (1 Kings xii. 32) makes\nit at least possible that there were _two calves at Bethel_, and that\nat Dan there was no calf, but only the old idolatrous ephod of Micah,\nstill served by the servant of Moses. See additional note at the end\nof the volume.\n\n[327] Amos iii. 2.\n\n[328] That the chief priest of Bethel bore the name \"Jehovah is\nstrong\" shows once more that \"calf-worship\" was in no sense a\n_substitute_ for the worship of Jehovah.\n\n[329] This was not quite accurate; he had rather prophesied the\ndevastation of the high places (vii. 9). In fact, his words had often\nbeen very vague. \"_Thus_ will I do unto thee\" (iv. 12).\n\n[330] Amos ix. 11-15. Comp. Hos. iii. 5.\n\n[331] The exaggerated haggadoth of later days say that Amaziah had\nAmos beaten with leaded thongs, and that he was carried home in a\ndying state (Epiphan., _Opp._, ii. 145), to which there is a supposed\nallusion in Heb. xi. 35: \u1f04\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9 \u03b4\u1f72 \u1f10\u03c4\u03c5\u03bc\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd.\n\n[332] We cannot be sure that the term \"Seer\" was meant to be\ncontemptuous, although from 1 Sam. ix. 9 we should infer that the\ntitle had become somewhat obsolete. Further, we must bear in mind that\nit may not have been always easy for worldlings to distinguish between\ntrue prophets and the unprincipled pretenders who, about this time,\nsucceeded in making the name and aspect of a prophet so complete a\ndisgrace that men had carefully to disclaim it (Zech. xiii. 2-6). It\nis true that the heading of Amos (i. 1), which may not, however, be by\nthe prophet himself, tells us of \"the words which he _saw_\" (_i.e._,\nspoke as a seer), and he also disclaims the name of prophet (vii. 14).\n\n[333] Amos viii. 1-ix. 9, 10.\n\n[334] Amos ix. 11-15.\n\n[335] Hos. iv. 15-19.\n\n[336] Hos. v. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, ix. 3-6, xi. 5, xii. 1, xiv. 3. It\nmust be borne in mind that the cuneiform inscriptions prove that\nAssyria had burst into sight like a lurid comet on the horizon far\nearlier than we had supposed. Jehu had paid tribute to Shalmaneser as\nfar back as B.C. 842, more than a century before Menahem's tribute in\n738. The destruction which Hosea prophesied took place within\nthirty-one years of his prophecies--probably in B.C. 722, when Sargon\nfinished the siege of Samaria begun by Shalmaneser. The king Hoshea\nwas perhaps taken captive before the siege.\n\n[337] Hos. viii. 5, ix. 15.\n\n[338] Hos. x. 13, 14.\n\n[339] Hos. vi. 9: for \"by consent\" read \"towards Shechem.\"\n\n[340] Hos. vii. 3-7. The allusions are vague, but we see a drunken\nking among his drunken princes, surrounded by wicked plotters who have\nflattered his vices. He is ignorant of his peril. The subjects aid the\nrulers in these abominations. All are blazing, like an oven, with\npassion and infamy, and only rest (as the baker does) to acquire new\nstrength for inflaming their burning desires. At the dawn their\ntreachery blazes into the crime of murder, and in the wine-sick\nfever-heat of the banquet the king is murdered by his corrupt\nintimates (see my _Minor Prophets_, p. 78).\n\n[341] Wellhausen, _Isr. and Jud._, 85.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n\n _AZARIAH-UZZIAH_ (B.C. 783(?)-737)\n\n _JOTHAM_ (B.C. 737-735)\n\n 2 KINGS xv. 1-7, 32-38\n\n \"This is vanity, and it is a sore sickness.\"--ECCLES. vi. 2.\n\n\nBefore we watch the last \"glimmerings and decays\" of the Northern\nKingdom, we must once more revert to the fortunes of the House of David.\nJudah partook of the better fortunes of Israel. She, too, enjoyed the\nrespite caused by the crippling of the power of Syria, and the cessation\nfrom aggression of the Assyrian kings, who, for a century, were either\nunambitious monarchs like Assurdan, or were engaged in fighting on their\nown northern and eastern frontiers. Judah, too, like Israel, was happy\nin the long and wise governance of a faithful king.\n\nThis king was Azariah (\"My strength is Jehovah\"), the son of Amaziah. He\nis called Uzziah by the Chronicler, and in some verses of the brief\nreferences to his long reign in the Book of Kings. It is not certain\nthat he was the eldest son of Amaziah;[342] but he was so distinctly the\nablest, that, at the age of sixteen, he was chosen king by \"all the\npeople.\" His official title to the world must have been Azariah, for in\nthat form his name occurs in the Assyrian records. Uzziah seems to have\nbeen the more familiar title which he bore among his people.[343] There\nseems to be an allusion to both names--Jehovah-his-helper, and\nJehovah-his-strength--in the Chronicles: \"God _helped him_, and made him\nto prosper; and his name spread far abroad, and he was marvellously\nhelped, _till he was strong_.\"\n\nThe Book of Kings only devotes a few verses to him; but from the\nChronicler we learn much more about his prosperous activity. His first\nachievement was to recover and fortify the port of Elath, on the Red\nSea,[344] and to reduce the Edomites to the position they had held in\nthe earlier days of his father's reign. This gave security to his\ncommerce, and at once \"his name spread far abroad, even to the\nentering in of Egypt.\"\n\nHe next subdued the Philistines; took Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod;\ndismantled their fortifications, filled them with Hebrew colonists,\nand \"smote all Palestine with a rod.\"[345]\n\nHe then chastised the roving Arabs of the Negeb or south country in\nGur-Baal and Maon, and suppressed their plundering incursions.\n\nHis next achievement was to reduce the Ammonite Em\u00eers to the position\nof tributaries, and to enforce from them rights of pasturage for his\nlarge flocks, not only in the low country (_shephelah_), but in the\nsouthern wilderness (_midbar_), and in the _carmels_ or fertile\ngrounds among the Trans-Jordanic hills.\n\nHaving thus subdued his enemies on all sides, he turned his attention\nto home affairs--built towers, strengthened the walls of Jerusalem at\nits most assailable points, provided catapults and other instruments\nof war, and rendered a permanent benefit to Jerusalem by irrigation\nand the storing of rain-water in tanks.\n\nAll these improvements so greatly increased his wealth and importance\nthat he was able to renew David's old force of heroes (Gibborim), and to\nincrease their number from six hundred to two thousand six hundred, whom\nhe carefully enrolled, equipped with armour, and trained in the use of\nengines of war. And he not only extended his boundaries southwards and\neastwards, but appears to have been strong enough, after the death of\nJeroboam II., to make an expedition northwards, and to have headed a\nSyrian coalition against Tiglath-Pileser III., in B.C. 738. He is\nmentioned in two notable fragments of the annals of the eighth year of\nthis Assyrian king. He is there called Azrijahu, and both his forces and\nthose of Hamath seem to have suffered a defeat.[346]\n\nIt is distressing to find that a king so good and so great ended his\ndays in overwhelming and irretrievable misfortune. The glorious reign\nhad a ghastly conclusion. All that the historian tells us is that \"the\nLord smote the king, so that he was a leper, and dwelt in a several\n[_i.e._, a separate] house.\" The word rendered \"a several house\" may\nperhaps mean (as in the margin of the A.V.) \"a lazar house,\" like the\n_Beit el Massak\u00een_ or \"house of the unfortunate,\" the hospital or\nabode of lepers, outside the walls of Jerusalem.[347] The rendering is\nuncertain, but it is by no means impossible that the prevalence of the\naffliction had, even in those early days, created a retreat for those\nthus smitten, especially as they formed a numerous class. Obviously\nthe king could no more fulfil his royal duties. A leper becomes a\nhorrible object, and no one would have been more anxious than the\nunhappy Azariah himself to conceal his aspect from the eyes of his\npeople.[348] His son Jotham was set over the household; and though he\nis not called a regent or joint-king--for this institution does not\nseem to have existed among the ancient Hebrews--he acted as judge over\nthe people of the land.\n\nWe are told that Isaiah wrote the annals of this king's reign, but we\ndo not know whether it was from Isaiah's biography that the Chronicler\ntook the story of the manner in which Uzziah was smitten with leprosy.\nThe Chronicler says that his heart was puffed up with his successes\nand his prosperity, and that he was consequently led to thrust himself\ninto the priest's office by burning incense in the Temple.[349]\nSolomon appears to have done the same without the least question of\nopposition; but now the times were changed, and Azariah, the high\npriest,[350] and eighty of his colleagues went in a body to prevent\nUzziah, to rebuke him, and to order him out of the Holy Place.[351]\nThe opposition kindled him into the fiercest anger, and at this moment\nof hot altercation the red spot of leprosy suddenly rose and burned\nupon his forehead. The priests looked with horror on the fatal sign;\nand the stricken king, himself horrified at this awful visitation of\nGod, ceased to resist the priests, and rushed forth to relieve the\nTemple of his unclean presence, and to linger out the sad remnant of\nhis days in the living death of that most dishonouring disease. Surely\nno man was ever smitten down from the summits of splendour to a lower\nabyss of unspeakable calamity! We can but trust that the misery only\nlaid waste the few last years of his reign; for Jotham was twenty-five\nwhen he began to reign, and he must have been more than a mere boy\nwhen he was set to perform his father's duties.\n\nSo the glory of Uzziah faded into dust and darkness. At the age of\nsixty-eight death came as the welcome release from his miseries, and\n\"they buried him with his fathers in the City of David.\" The\nLevitically scrupulous Chronicler adds that he was not laid in the\nactual sepulchre of his fathers, but in a field of burial which\nbelonged to them--\"for they said, He is a leper.\" The general outline\nof his reign resembled that of his father's. It began well; it fell by\npride; it closed in misery.\n\nThe annals of his son Jotham were not eventful, and he died at the age\nof forty-one or earlier. He is said to have reigned sixteen years, but\nthere are insuperable difficulties about the chronology of his reign,\nwhich can only be solved by hazardous conjectures.[352] He was a good\nking, \"howbeit the high places were not removed.\" The Chronicler\nspeaks of him chiefly as a builder. He built or restored the northern\ngate of the Temple, and defended Judah with fortresses and towns. But\nthe glory and strength of his father's reign faded away under his\nrule. He did indeed suppress a revolt of the Ammonites, and exacted\nfrom them a heavy indemnity; but shortly afterwards the inaction of\nAssyria led to an alliance between Pekah, King of Israel, and Rezin,\nKing of Damascus; and these kings harassed Jotham--perhaps because he\nrefused to become a member of their coalition. The good king must also\nhave been pained by the signs of moral degeneracy all around him in\nthe customs of his own people. It was \"in the year that King Uzziah\ndied\" that Isaiah saw his first vision, and he gives us a deplorable\npicture of contemporary laxity. Whatever the king may have been, the\nprinces were no better than \"rulers of Sodom,\" and the people were\n\"people of Gomorrha.\" There was abundance of lip-worship, but little\nsincerity; plentiful religionism, but no godliness. Superstition went\nhand in hand with formalism, and the scrupulosity of outward service\nwas made a substitute for righteousness and true holiness. This was\nthe deadliest characteristic of this epoch, as we find it portrayed in\nthe first chapter of Isaiah. The faithful city had become a\nharlot--but not in outward semblance. She \"reflected heaven on her\nsurface, and hid Gomorrha in her heart.\" Righteousness had dwelt in\nher--but now murderers; but the murderers wore phylacteries, and for a\npretence made long prayers. It was this deep-seated hypocrisy, this\npretence of religion without the reality, which called forth the\nloudest crashes of Isaiah's thunder. There is more hope for a country\navowedly guilty and irreligious than for one which makes its\nscrupulous ceremonialism a cloak of maliciousness. And thus there lay\nat the heart of Isaiah's message that protest for bare morality, as\nconstituting the end and the essence of religion, which we find in all\nthe earliest and greatest prophets:--\n\n \"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;\n Give ear unto the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha!\n To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith\n the Lord.\n I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;\n And I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of\n he-goats.\n When ye come to see My face, who hath required this at your hands, to\n trample My courts?\n Bring no more vain oblations!\n Incense is an abomination unto Me:\n New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--\n I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting...\n Wash you! make you clean!\"[353]\n\nOf Jotham we hear nothing more. He died a natural death at an early\nage. If the years of his reign are counted from the time when his\nfather's affliction devolved on him the responsibilities of office, it\nis probable that he did not long survive the illustrious leper, but\nwas buried soon after him in the City of David his father.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[342] Hence, perhaps, the expression that the people \"took him.\" If\nAmaziah died at fifty-nine, he probably had other sons.\n\n[343] Compare the interchange of the names Azariel and Uzziel (Exod.\nvi. 18) in 1 Chron. vi. 2, 18. Azariah means \"Jehovah hath helped,\"\nand Uzziah \"Strength of Jehovah.\" It is just possible that his name\nwas changed at his accession, as the chief priest also was named\nAzariah, and confusion might otherwise have arisen.\n\n[344] 2 Chron. xxvi. 2-15.\n\n[345] Isa. xiv. 29. A mixed language arose in this district in\nconsequence (Neh. xiii. 24; Zech. ix. 6). The word Palestine only\napplies strictly to the district of Philistia. Milton uses it, with\nhis usual accuracy, in the description of Dagon as\n\n \"That twice-battered god of Palestine.\"\n\n[346] Uzziah's opposition to Assyria--of which there seems to be no\ndoubt, for he must be the Azrijahu of the _Eponym Canon_--took place\nabout 738, and was a coalition movement. But it gives rise to great\nchronological and other difficulties. As the solution of these is at\npresent only conjectural, I refer to Schrader (E. Tr.), ii. 211-219.\nHe is called Azrijahu Jahudai.\n\n[347] 2 Kings xv. 5 (2 Chron. xxvi. 21, \"a house of sickness\"). LXX., \u1f10\u03bd\n\u03bf\u1f34\u03ba\u1ff3 \u1f00\u03c6\u03c6\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03ce\u03b8; Vulg., _in domo libera seorsim_. Comp Lev. xiii. 46.\nTheodoret understands it that he was shut up privately in his own\npalace: \u1f14\u03bd\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03bd \u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03ac\u03bc\u1ff3 \u1f51\u03c0' \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f41\u03c1\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2. Symmachus, \u1f10\u03b3\u03ba\u03b5\u03ba\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2.\n\n[348] His misfortune must have made a deep impression, and is possibly\nalluded to in Hos. iv. 4: \"For thy people are as they that strive with\nthe priest.\"\n\n[349] The Chronicler attributes the good part of his reign to the\ninfluence of an unknown Zechariah, \"who had understanding in the\nvisions of God\"; and says that when Zechariah died Uzziah altered for\nthe worse.\n\n[350] This high priest, Azariah, is only mentioned elsewhere in 2\nChron. xxvi. 17, 20.\n\n[351] Josephus says that he had put on a priestly robe, and that a\ngreat feast was going on, and that the earthquake (Amos i. 1; Zech.\nxiv. 5) happened at the moment, which broke the Temple roof, so that a\nsunbeam smote his head and produced the leprosy. We here see the\ngrowth of the Haggadah.\n\n[352] For instance, two verses earlier (2 Kings xv. 30) we read of the\ntwentieth year of Jotham.\n\n[353] Isa. i. 10-17.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n _THE AGONY OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM._\n\n B.C.\n Shallum 740\n Menahem 740-737\n Pekahiah 737-735\n Pekah 735-734\n\n 2 KINGS xv. 8-31\n\n \"Blood toucheth blood.\"--HOS. iv. 2.\n\n \"The revolters are profuse in murders.\"--HOS. v. 2.\n\n \"They have set up kings, but not by Me: they have made princes,\n and I knew it not.\"--HOS. viii. 4.\n\n \"Non tam reges fuere quam fures, latrones, et tyranni.\"--WITSIUS,\n _Decaph._, 326.\n\n\nWith the death of Zachariah begins the acute agony of Israel's\ndissolution. Four kings were murdered in forty years. Indeed, within\ntwo centuries, at least nine kings--Nadab, Elah, Zimri, Tibni,\nJehoram, Zachariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, Pekah--had made the steps of\nthe throne slippery with blood. Except in the house of Omri, all the\nkings of Israel either left no sons or left them to be slain. Amos, by\nhis vision of the basket of summer fruit, had intimated that the sins\nof Israel were ripe for punishment, and the lesson had been emphasised\nby the paronomasia of _qu\u00eets_, \"summer,\" and _queets_, \"end.\"[354] The\nprophet had singled four out of many crimes as the cause of her ruin.\nThey were (1) greedy oppression of the poor; (2) land-grabbing; (3)\nlicentious and idolatrous revelries; (4) cruelty to poor debtors, and\nrioting on the proceeds of unjust gains. In their drunkenness they\neven tempted God's Nazarites to break their vows. \"Behold,\" saith\nJehovah, \"I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of\nsheaves.\" Even women shared in the common intoxication, and showed\nthemselves utterly shameless, so that Amos contemptuously calls them\n\"fat cows of Bashan upon the mountain of Samaria,\" whom in punishment\nthe brutal conqueror should drag by the hair out of their ivory\npalaces, as a fisherman drags his prey out of the water by hooks.[355]\n\nShallum, son of Jabesh, the unknown murderer of Zachariah and the\nusurper of his throne, suffered the fate of Zimri, and only reigned for\none month. If his conspiracy was marked by the odious circumstances of\ntreachery and corruption, which we infer from the allusions of Hosea,\nShallum richly deserved the swift retribution which fell upon him. He\nseems to have destroyed Zachariah by means of his best affections--under\nthe guise of friendship, in the midst of boon companionship. But the\nslayer of his master had no peace, and from the moment of his fruitless\ncrime the unhappy country seems to have been plunged in the horrors of\ncivil war. Some dim glimpses of the evils of the day are gained from the\nearlier Zechariah,[356] just as some dim glimpses of the horrors of Rome\nin the days of the later C\u00e6sars may be seen in the Apocalypse. The\nprophet speaks of three shepherds cut off in one month, who abhorred\nGod, and His soul was impatient at them.[357]\n\nJust as Galba, Otho, and Vitellius flit across the stage of the Empire\namid war and assassinations, so Zachariah and Shallum are swept away by\n\"dagger-thrusts through the purple.\" Was there a third? Ewald and others\nthink that they detect a shadowy outline of him and of his name in 2\nKings xv. 10. If so, his name was Kobolam, but we know no more of him\nbeyond the fact that \"he was, and is not.\" For the sacred annals are but\nlittle concerned with this bloody phantasmagoria of feeble kings, who\nruled amid usurpation, anarchy, hostile attacks from without, and civil\nwar within. \"Israel,\" said Hosea, \"hath cast off the thing that is good:\nthe enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by Me: they\nhave made princes, and I knew it not.\" \"They are all as hot as an oven,\nand have devoured their judges; all their kings have fallen; there is\nnone among them that calleth upon Me.\"[358]\n\nIt was perhaps during this distracted epoch that for one moment there\nwas an attempt to place the ruling authority of the nation in the\nhands of the prophet himself. So it would appear from Zech. xi. 7-14.\nOf course these chapters may be allegorical throughout, as, in any\ncase, they are in great part. But if so, it becomes more difficult to\nunderstand the meaning. What the prophet says is as follows:--\n\nFirst, as though he saw the terrible conflagration of the Assyrian\ntyranny rolling southwards, and felt it to be irresistible, he bids\nLebanon open her doors, that the fire may devour her cedars. There is\nperhaps an allusion to the death of Jeroboam II. in the words, \"Howl\nfir tree, for the cedar is fallen.\" He sees in vision the forces of\ndevastation raging among the oaks of Bashan, the forest and the\nvintage, while the shepherds cry, and the ousted lions roar in vain.\nThen Jehovah bids him feed \"the flock of the slaughter\"--the flock\nsold remorselessly by its rich possessors, and slain, and left\nunpitied, as the people were despoiled by its nobles and its kings.\nThe prophet undertakes the charge of the miserable flock, and takes\ntwo staves, one of which he calls \"Prosperity,\" and the other \"Union.\"\nWhile he was thus engaged three shepherds were cut off in one\nmonth,[359] whom he loathed, and who abhorred him. But he finds his\ntask hopeless, and flings it up; and in sign that his covenant with\nthe people is broken, he breaks his staff \"Prosperity.\" The nation\nrefused to pay him anything for his services, except a paltry sum of\nthirty pieces of silver, and these he disdainfully flung into the\nsacred treasury.[360] Then seeing that all hope of union between\nIsrael and Judah was at an end, he broke his staff \"Union.\" Lastly,\nJehovah says He will raise up a foolish, neglectful, cruel shepherd\nwho would care for nothing but to eat the flesh of the fat and break\nthe hoofs of the flock. And as for this worthless shepherd, the sword\nshould be upon his arm and in his right eye; his arm shall be dried\nup, and his right eye utterly darkened.\n\nBy this cruel and self-seeking shepherd is probably meant Menahem. He\nhad been, according to Josephus, the captain of the guard, and was\nliving at Tirzah, the old beautiful capital of the land. From Tirzah,\nwhere he occupied the position of the captain of the chariots, he\nmarched on the ill-supported Shallum. Samaria apparently offered no\nprotection to the usurper. Menahem defeated him and put him to death.\nThen he proceeded to enforce the allegiance of the rest of the\ncountry. An otherwise unknown town of the name of Tiphsach[361]\nventured to resist him. Menahem conquered it, and perhaps thinking, as\nMachiavelli thought, that princes had better exhibit their utmost\ncruelty at first, to deter any further opposition, he let loose his\nferocity on the town in a way which created a shuddering remembrance.\nAs though he had been one of the ferocious heathen, who had never been\nrestrained by the knowledge of God, he exhibited the extreme of\ncallous brutality by ripping up all the women that were with\nchild.[362] In this he followed the remorseless example of Hazael.\nHosea had prophesied that this should be the fate of Samaria;[363]\nAmos had denounced the Ammonites for acting thus in the cities of\nGilead;[364] Shalmaneser III. had, in B.C. 732, thus avenged himself\non the resistance of Beth-Arbel,[365] and Assyria was ultimately to\nmeet an analogous retribution,[366] as also was Babylon.[367] But that\na king of Ephraim, of God's chosen people, should act thus to his own\nbrethren was a horrible portent, ominous of swift destruction.\n\nAnd the vengeance came. Menahem reigned, at least in name, for ten\nyears; for the sword which had slain mothers with their unborn infants\nreduced the stricken people to terrified silence. But at this epoch\nAssyria woke once more from her lethargy, and became the scourge of God\nto the guilty people and their guiltier kings. For a whole century the\nAssyrians had either been governed by kings who had abjured the lust of\nblood and conquest, or had been too seriously occupied on their own\neastern and northern frontiers to intermeddle with the southern\nkingdoms, or break down the barriers erected by the confederacy of\nHamath and Damascus between Nineveh and the weaker principalities of\nPalestine. But now (B.C. 745) there came to the throne a king who, in\nChald\u00e6a, was known by the name of Pul, and in Assyria by the name of\nTiglath-Pileser;[368] and being too formidable for any power to stay his\npath, he marched against Menahem. Already he was lord of the world from\nthe Caspian to the Gulf of Persia; already he had subdued Babylonia,\nElam, Media, Armenia, eastward--Mesopotamia and Syria westward. Who was\nMenahem, the petty usurper of a tenth-rate kingdom, that he should\nwithstand his power or even retard his advance?\n\nThe cruel usurper was in no condition to resist him. The brand of Cain\nwas on him and his kingdom. How could the weak, impoverished, harassed\ntroops of Israel stand up in battle against those numberless serried\nranks, or withstand their tremendous discipline? If the very name of\nPersia once struck terror into the brave Greeks before the spell of\nPersian ascendency was broken at Marathon, Thermopyl\u00e6, and Salamis,\nmuch more did the name of Assyria make the hearts of the wretched\nIsraelites melt like water. They now for the first time saw those\nbearded warriors with their broad swords, their tremendous bows, their\nfierce, sensual faces, their thickset figures. In the language of the\nprophets we still hear the echo of the fears which they excited by\ntheir swift, unfaltering marches, their sleepless vigilance, their\ngirded loins, stout sandals, and barbed arrows.[369]\n\n\"Their horses' hoofs,\" says Isaiah, \"shall be like flint, and their\nwheels like a whirlwind: their roaring shall be like a lion, they\nshall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the\nprey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver. And\nthey shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea;\nand if one look unto the land, behold darkness and distress, and the\nlight is darkened in the clouds thereof.\"\n\nAncient Assyria lay beneath the Snowy Mountains of Kurdistan; and its\ncapital, Nineveh--near Mosul, Kouyunjik, and Neby-Junus--lay six\nhundred miles from the Gulf of Persia. The people spoke, as their\ndescendants still speak, a dialect of Syriac, akin both grammatically\nand structurally to Hebrew. Assyria was constantly at war with\nBabylonia; but for the most part the kings of Assyria held Babylon in\nsubjection, and Tiglath-Pileser was a king of the Chald\u00e6ans under the\nname Pul, as well as a king of Nineveh.\n\nMenahem was warrior enough to know how hopeless it was to struggle\nagainst these trained forces. He was not even secure on his own\nthrone. He thought it best to offer himself without resistance as a\nfeudatory, if the Assyrian King would confirm his sovereignty.\nTiglath-Pileser did not think Menahem worth more trouble, and was\ngraciously pleased to accept by way of bribe a tribute of a thousand\ntalents of silver, or about \u00a3125,000. This, however, as we learn from\nthe _Eponym Canon_, was not all. Menahem had to pay a further tribute\nyear by year. Later on, in 738, Shalmaneser mentions Minik-himmi\n(Menahem), as well as Rasunnu (Rezin), among his tributaries.\n\nThe Assyrian withdrew, and Menahem had to exact this vast sum of money\nfrom his miserable subjects. To tax the poor was hopeless. He found that\nthere were some sixty thousand persons who might be reckoned among the\nwealthier farmers and proprietors,[370] and from them he at once exacted\nfifty shekels of silver (more than \u00a33) apiece. Probably they thought\nthat to pay the sum demanded was not too heavy a price for the\nretirement of these frightful Assyrians, whose forces Tiglath-Pileser\ndid not withdraw until he had the money in hand. The event took place in\n738, and Tiglath-Pileser continued to reign till 727. How bitterly the\nburden of foreign tribute was felt appears from Hos. viii. 9, 10, which\nshould perhaps be rendered, \"They are gone up to Assyria like a wild ass\nalone by himself. Ephraim hath hired lovers. And they begin to be\nminished by reason of the burden of the king of princes.\" \"The king of\nprinces\" was the haughty title usurped by Tiglath-Pileser, who said,\n\"Are not my princes all of them kings?\" (Isa. x. 8).\n\nAll this was a fulfilment of what Hosea had foreseen:--\n\n\"Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment, because he was content\nto walk after vanity. Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the\nhouse of Judah as rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and the\nhouse of Judah his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent unto an\navenging king:[371] yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your\nwound. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the\nHouse of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and\nnone shall rescue him.\" The Assyrian was irresistible, because he was\nthe destined instrument of the wrath of God. The \"mixing with the\nheathens\" was a sin, and Israel in cooing to Assyria was like a foolish\ndove; but the day sometimes comes to doomed nations when no course can\nsave them from the fate which they have provoked.[372]\n\nNot long afterwards Menahem died, and he had sufficiently established\nhis rule to be succeeded as a matter of course by his son Pekahiah. But\n\n \"Revenge and wrong bring forth their kind;\n The foul cubs like their parents are.\"\n\nSamaria had fearful object-lessons in the apparently immediate success\nof murder and rebellion. The prize looked near and splendid: the\nvengeance might be belated or might not come. Of Pekahiah we are told\nabsolutely nothing but that he reigned two years, with this\nstereotyped addition, that \"he did that which was evil in the sight of\nJehovah\" by continuing the calf-worship.[373] After this brief and\nuneventful reign, his captain Pekah got together fifty fierce\nGileadites, and with the aid of two otherwise unknown friends, Argob\nand Arieh, murdered Pekahiah in his own harem.[374] Argob was probably\nso named from the district in Bashan, and Arieh was a fit name for a\nlion-faced Gadite (1 Chron. xii. 8).\n\nThe sacred historian troubles himself but little about these kings.\nHis annals of them are brief to extreme meagreness. Like the prophet,\nhe viewed them as God-abandoned phantoms of guilty royalty.\n\n \"They that cry unto me, My God, we, Israel, know thee.\n Israel hath cast off that which is good:\n The enemy shall pursue him.\n They have set up kings, but not by Me;\n They have removed them, and I knew it not:\n Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols,\n That they may be cut off.\n He hath cast on thy calf, O Samaria.\"\n\nProbably Pekahiah was, as so often happens, the weak son of a\nvigorous father. The times could not tolerate incapable sovereigns;\nand the fact that Pekah not only maintained himself on the throne for\ntwenty years,[375] but was able to take active steps of aggression\nagainst Jerusalem, seems to show that he was a man of some\nadministrative capacity. If he had not achieved political and military\nimportance, it would hardly have been worth while for a fierce and\npowerful king like Rezin, the last king of Syria, to form so close an\nalliance with him. Probably Rezin saw that his throne and his very\nexistence were in danger, and Pekah wished with Rezin's aid to resist\nto the uttermost the encroachments of Assyria, and escape the\nburdensome tribute which Menahem had paid. Indeed, it may well be that\nPekahiah's passive continuance of this tribute may have been\ndistasteful to the people of the land, and that they condoned or even\ntacitly aided Pekah's rebellion in order to get rid of it, and to find\nprotection in an abler monarch. It was the last, perhaps the only,\nchance for the kings of Syria and of Israel. As we hear no more of\nHamath as a member of the alliance, we must suppose that it had now\nbeen reduced to impotence and vassalage by the all-powerful Assyrian.\nIf, however, there was to be any overbalance to the colossal menace\nof Nineveh, it could only be by a large confederacy; and it may have\nbeen the refusal of Jotham to join that confederacy, on the death of\nhis father Uzziah, which caused the joint invasion of Rezin and Pekah\nto force him to accept their alliance or to suppress him altogether.\nIn that case they might have formed a close alliance with Egypt, and\nthe forces of the united South might, they fancied, prove to be a\nmatch for the forces of the North.[376]\n\nWhatever designs they may have formed against Jotham, or to whatever\nextent they may have annoyed him, it was not till the reign of his son\nAhaz that they became formidable and ruinous. Of this we shall say\nmore in recounting the reign of Ahaz. All that we need now remark is\nthat their bold aggression on Judah became the cause of utter\ndestruction to them both. They advanced against Ahaz, and overran his\nhelpless country. It was their object to depose the descendant of\nDavid, and to crown in his place a certain unnamed \"son of _Tabeal_,\"\nwhom Ewald supposed to have been a Syrian, but whose name may possibly\nfurnish a specimen of the later Jewish device of Gematria.[377]\n\nIt is not impossible that behind these events we may find the efforts\nand yearnings of a party which cared more for Israel's unity than for\nDavid's throne. Such a party may easily have sprung up during the\nsplendid, prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. It has been conjectured by\nsome that the election of Uzziah by the people--delayed, according to\none reckoning, for twelve years--was in reality the triumph of the party\nwhich felt an unquenchable allegiance to David's house. In Deut.\nxxxiii. Reuben is put before Judah; Jeshurun (_i.e._, Israel) is\nmagnified far more than Judah; and some Northern shrine in Zebulon, as\nwell as the Temple, is celebrated as a sanctuary.[378] That there were\nmen in Jerusalem who preferred Rezin and Pekahiah to their own king is\nclearly stated in Isaiah. He compares them to those who prefer a turbid\ntorrent to a soft, sweet stream. \"Because,\" he says, \"this people\ndespise the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, and take delight in\nRezin and Remaliah's son; now, therefore, the Lord bringeth upon them\nthe waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria, and\nall his glory.\"[379] Isaiah seems to have had a contempt for the whole\nattack. He told Ahaz not to fear for the stumps of those two smoking\nfirebrands Rezin, King of Syria, and the Israelitish usurper, whom he\nonly condescends to call \"Remaliah's son.\" He promises the trembling\nAhaz that, since he had faithlessly _refused_ a sign, God would give him\na sign. The sign was that the young woman who accompanied\nIsaiah--perhaps his youthful wife--should bear a son, whose name should\nbe called Immanuel; and that before the child Immanuel--whose\ndesignation, \"God with us,\" was an omen of the loftiest hope--should be\nof an age to distinguish evil from good, the Northern land, which Ahaz\nabhorred, should be forsaken of both her kings.\n\nThe prophecy came true in every particular. Rezin and Pekah swept all\nbefore them, and besieged Jerusalem; but they wasted their time in\nvain before the fortifications which Jotham had strengthened and\nrepaired. Obliged to raise the siege, Rezin carried his army\nsouthward, and indemnified himself by seizing Elath, by driving out\nthe Jud\u00e6an garrison, and replacing them with Syrians.[380] It was the\nlast gleam of Syrian success, before the final overthrow of Damascus\nwhich prophecy had often and emphatically foretold.\n\nPekah also withdrew his forces--no doubt compelled to do so by the\nstep which Ahaz took in his desperation. For now the King of Judah\ninvoked the protection and invited the active interference of\nTiglath-Pileser against his enemies--\"to save him out of the hand of\nthe King of Syria, and out of the hand of the King of Israel, who were\nrisen up against him.\"\n\nRezin and Damascus first felt the might of the Assyrian's conquering\narm. The account of his decisive conquest is preserved in the _Eponym\nCanon_, and the passages which refer to the defeat of the Syrians will\nbe found in the First Appendix at the end of the volume. It appears\nfrom the monuments that Rezin (Rasannu) lost not only his kingdom, but\nhis life.\n\nIt is the death-knell of Aram\u00e6an greatness, as Amos had foretold.\n\n \"Thus saith Jehovah:\n For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,\n I will not turn away the punishment thereof;\n Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron:\n But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,\n Which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad.\n And I will break the bar of Damascus,[381]\n And cut off him that sitteth [on the throne] in the Valley of\n Aven,[382]\n And him that holdeth the sceptre from Beth-Eden:[383]\n And the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,[384]\n Saith Jehovah.\"\n\nRezin was slain--how we know not; very probably by one of the horrible\nmethods of torture--by being flayed alive, or decapitated, or having\nhis lips and nose cut off--which were practised by these demon-kings\nof Nineveh.\n\nNor did Pekah escape. Tiglath-Pileser advanced against the northern part\nof his dominions, and afflicted the land of Zebulon and Naphtali. Ijon;\nAbel-beth-Maachah, the city of Elisha; Zanoah, the ancient sanctuary of\nKedesh-Naphtali, the home of the hero Barak; Hazor, the former capital\nof the Canaanitish king Jabin; Gilead; Galilee,--all submitted to him,\napparently without striking a serious blow. He dealt with the miserable\ninhabitants in the way familiar to kings of Assyria. He deported them\n_en masse_ into a strange country of which they did not understand the\nlanguage, and in which they were reduced to hopeless subjection, while\nhe supplied their places by aliens from various parts of his own\ndominions. There could be no securer method of reducing to paralysis all\ntheir national aspirations. Strangers in a strange land, they forgot\ntheir nationality, forgot their religion, forgot their language, forgot\ntheir traditions. Their sole resource was to plunge into material\npursuits, and to melt away into indistinguishable obliteration among\nthe neighbouring heathen. It was the beginning of the Northern\nCaptivity--of the loss of the Ten Tribes.\n\nAs Tiglath-Pileser thus permanently subdued and depopulated the land\nof the Northern Tribes, it is a Jewish tradition that at this time he\ncarried away the golden \"calf\" from Dan among his spoils.[385]\nScripture does not record the fact, though in Hosea (viii. 5) there\nmay be an allusion to the fate of that at Bethel, whether the right\nversion be \"He hath cast off thy calf, O Samaria,\" or \"Thy calf, O\nSamaria, hath cast thee off.\"[386] \"The workman made it,\" he\ncontinues; \"therefore it is not God: for the calf of Samaria shall be\nbroken in pieces.\" And again (x. 5): \"The people of Samaria shall fear\nbecause of the heifer of the House of Vanity: for the people thereof\nshall mourn over it, and the _chemarim_ [_i.e._, the black-robed false\npriests thereof] shall tremble for it, for the glory thereof, because\nit is departed. It [the idol] shall also be carried to Assyria for a\npresent to King Combat.\"\n\nFor a time Pekah escaped; but unsuccess is fatal to a murderous usurper,\nweakened by the loss and plunder of dominions which he is unable to\ndefend. Instead of wasting time in the siege of a strong city like\nSamaria, Tiglath-Pileser in all probability stirred up Hoshea, the son\nof Elah, to rise in conspiracy against his master and slay him. For\nPekah and Israel seem to have made light of the Northern raid. They said\nin their pride and stoutness of heart, \"The bricks are fallen down, but\nwe will build with new stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will\nchange them into cedars.\" Such pretence of security was ill-timed and\nsenseless, and Isaiah denounced it. \"Therefore,\" he said, \"Jehovah hath\nset up against Israel the adversaries of Rezin [_i.e._, the Assyrians],\nand hath stirred up his enemies; the Syrians on the east, and the\nPhilistines on the west; and they have devoured Israel with open mouth.\nFor all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out\nstill. Yet the people have not turned unto Him that smote them, neither\nhave they sought the Lord of hosts. Therefore Jehovah hath cut off from\nIsrael palm-branch and rush in one day. The elder and the honourable\nman, he is the head; and the prophet that speaketh lies, he is the tail.\nFor they that lead this people cause them to err, and they that are led\nof them are swallowed up.\"[387]\n\nThe following verses furnish one of the numerous pictures of the anarchy\nand abounding misery of these evil days. \"For wickedness burneth as the\nfire: it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea, it kindleth in the\nthickets of the forest, and they roll upwards in thick clouds of smoke.\nThrough the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land burnt up; the people\nalso are the fuel of fire: _no man spareth his brother_. And one shall\nsnatch on the right, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand,\nand they shall not be satisfied: they shall _eat every man the flesh of\nhis own arm_: Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they\ntogether shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned\naway, but His hand is stretched out still.\"\n\nWe are told in the Book of Kings that Pekah reigned for twenty years;\nbut some of these later reigns must be shortened to suit the\nexigencies of known chronological data. It seems probable that he\noccupied the throne for a much shorter time.[388]\n\nSuch was the weakened, harassed, vassal kingdom--the gaunt spectre of\nitself--to the throne of which, after a period of anarchy and chaos,\nHoshea, by conspiracy and murder, succeeded as the miserable feudatory\nof Assyria.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[354] Amos viii. 2.\n\n[355] Amos iv. 1-3.\n\n[356] It is probable that our present Book of Zechariah is composed of\nthe works of three prophets of different dates, each of whom may have\nborne that name. See my _Minor Prophets_ (\"Men of the Bible\" Series).\n\n[357] Zech. xi. 8. In 2 Kings xv. 10 the LXX. read \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b1\u03be\u03b5\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd\n\u1f10\u03bd \u03ba\u03b5\u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03ac\u03bc; and Ewald thinks that \"before the people\" (\u05e7\u05b8\u05d1\u05b8\u05dc\u05be\u05e6\u05b8\u05dd) is\nreally a proper name of the third king in one month--\"and _Kobolam_\nslew him.\" There is insufficient ground for this; though a similar\nname is found in Assyrian records.\n\n[358] Hos. viii. 3, vii. 7.\n\n[359] Zachariah, Shallum, Kobolam (?).\n\n[360] Zech. xi. 1-17 (Heb. 13).\n\n[361] That this was Thapsacus on the Euphrates (1 Kings iv. 24), and\nthat Menahem was in a position to march northward three hundred miles,\nand offer so deadly and wanton an insult to the might of Assyria, is\nout of the question. The name means \"a ford,\" and might apply to any\ntown on a river. Thenius thinks the name is a clerical error for\n_Tappuach_, between Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. xvii. 7, 8).\n\n[362] Josephus says, \u1f60\u03bc\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u1f74\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03c0\u1f7c\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1f72 \u1f00\u03b3\u03c1\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2.\nIt is said that the same crime was committed in 1861 by a Mexican\nbandit. Machiavelli says, \"He who violently and without just right\nusurps a crown must use cruelty, if cruelty becomes necessary, once\nfor all\" (_De princ._, 8).\n\n[363] 2 Kings viii. 12; Hos. xiii. 16.\n\n[364] Amos i. 13.\n\n[365] Hos. x. 14. This allusion is, however, uncertain. Shalmaneser III.\nis not elsewhere found abbreviated into Shalman. Some suppose him to be\na Moabitish king, Salamannu, who was a vassal of Tiglath-Pileser. The\nLXX., Vulg., etc., identify him with the Zalmunna of Judg. viii. 18.\nPsalm lxxxiii. 11 renders the word _ex domo ejus qui judicavit Baal_\n(_i.e._, Gideon). Beth-Arbel is either Arbela in Galilee, or Irbid,\nnorth-east of Pella.\n\n[366] Nah. iii. 10.\n\n[367] Isa. xiii. 16.\n\n[368] The two predecessors of Tiglath-Pileser (_Tuklat-abal-isarra_)\nwere Assurdayan and Assurnirari.\n\n[369] Isa. v. 26-29.\n\n[370] Comp. Job xx. 15; Ruth ii. 1.\n\n[371] Hos. v. 11-13. Comp. x. 6: \"It [Samaria] shall be carried to\nAssyria for a present unto King Jareb.\" Sayce (_Bab. and Orient.\nRecords_, December 1887) thinks that Jareb may have been the original\nname of Sargon, and so too Neubauer, _Zeitschr. f\u00fcr Assyr._, 1886. The\nVulg. renders King Jareb _ad regem ultorem_, and so too Symmachus.\nAquila and Theodotion have \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03b6\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd. It may be the name of an\nunknown king of Assyria, or of Pul, or of Sargon--R.V., margin, \"a\nking that should contend.\"\n\n[372] Hos. vii. 8-12.\n\n[373] Josephus says, \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f00\u03ba\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03b8\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f60\u03bc\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03b9.\n\n[374] 2 Kings xv. 25, A.V., \"in the palace of the king's house\"\n(_armon_), rather \"fortress.\" For the character of the Gileadites see\n1 Chron. xii. 8, xxvi. 31.\n\n[375] The length of Pekah's reign is most doubtful. If the periods\nassigned to the reigns in the Northern and Southern Kingdoms be added\ntogether up to the Fall of Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah (2\nKings xviii. 9, 10), it will be found that the Southern chronology is\ntwenty years longer than the Northern. G. Smith would alter the text,\nand make Jeroboam II. reign fifty-one years and Pekah thirty years;\nothers invent an interregnum of eleven years between Jeroboam II. and\nZachariah, and an anarchy of nine years before Hoshea's accession;\nothers shorten Pekah's reign to _one_ year.\n\n[376] 2 Kings xv. 37.\n\n[377] Vide _infra_.\n\n[378] Deut. xxxiii. 19: \"They [Zebulon] shall call the peoples unto\nthe mountain: there shall they offer the sacrifices of righteousness.\"\n\n[379] Isa. viii. 6, 7.\n\n[380] Perhaps we should read Edomites (2 Kings xvi. 6).\n\n[381] The bar of its city gate.\n\n[382] Bikath-Aven--\"The cleft of Aven\"--C\u0153le Syria, or Hollow Syria,\nstill called by the Arabs El-Buk\u0101a. Comp. Josh. xi. 17, xii. 7. Aven--or\n\"Vanity\"--is perhaps Heliopolis or Baalbek. Comp. Ezek. xxx. 17.\n\n[383] Perhaps Beit el Jame, \"House of Paradise\"--about eight hours\nfrom Damascus (Porter, _Five Years in Syria_, i. 313).\n\n[384] Kir, in Armenia--the land of their origin (Amos ix. 7).\n\n[385] But, after all, was there a golden calf at Dan? It is scarcely\never alluded to, and the notion that there was one may have arisen (1)\nfrom a corruption or mistaken rendering of the text in 1 Kings xii.\n29, and (2) from the existence there of the idolatrous ephod. See\nKlostermann, _ad loc._; Isa. ix. 8-17.\n\n[386] LXX., \u1f08\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bc\u03cc\u03c3\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd \u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6, \u03a3\u03b1\u03bc\u03ac\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1; Vulg., _Projectus est\nvitulus tuus, Samaria_. Orelli renders it, \"Abscheulich ist dein Kalb,\nO Samaria.\" In Jer. xlvi. 15 we read (of Egypt), \"Why is thy strong\none swept away?\" where the true reading may be, \"Hath Khaph [_i.e._,\nApis], thy chosen one, fled?\" LXX., \u1f0e\u03c0\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f41 \u03bc\u03cc\u03c3\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c3\u03bf\u1fe6, \u1f41 \u1f10\u03ba\u03bb\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2. So\nAmos had prophesied that the \"god of Dan\" and the \"way of Beersheba\"\nshould fall for evermore (Amos viii. 14).\n\n[387] Isa. ix. 11-16. With this passage comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 5; Zeph.\ni. 4; Hos. vii. 9, 10.\n\n[388] Tiglath-Pileser says: \"Pakaha, their king, I killed: Ausi\n[Hoshea] I placed over them. The distant land of Bit-Khumri [the\n\"house of Omri\"]--_the whole of its inhabitants_, with their goods--I\ncarried away to Asshur\" (B.C. 734). In this year he mentions Ahaz\namong his tributaries.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI\n\n _HOSHEA, AND THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM_\n\n B.C. 734-725\n\n 2 KINGS xvii. 1-41\n\n \"As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the\n water.\"--HOS. x. 7.\n\n\nAs a matter of convenience, we follow our English Bible in calling the\nprophet by the name Ho_sea_, and the nineteenth, last, and best king\nof Israel Ho_shea_. The names, however, are identical (\u05d4\u05b9\u05d5\u05e9\u05b5\u05c1\u05e6\u05b7), and\nmean \"Salvation\"--the name borne by Joshua also in his earlier days.\nIn the irony of history the name of the last king of Ephraim was thus\nidentical with that of her earliest and greatest hero, just as the\nlast of Roman emperors bore the double name of the Founder of Rome and\nthe Founder of the Empire--Romulus Augustulus. By a yet deeper irony\nof events the king in whose reign came the final precipitation of ruin\nwore the name which signified deliverance from it.\n\nAnd more and more, as time went on, the prophet Hosea felt that he had\nno word of present hope or comfort for the king his namesake. It was\nthe more brilliant lot of Isaiah, in the Southern Kingdom, to kindle\nthe ardour of a generous courage. Like Tyrt\u00e6us, who roused the\nSpartans to feel their own greatness--like Demosthenes, who hurled\nthe might of Athens against Philip of Macedon--like Chatham, \"bidding\nEngland be of good cheer, and hurl defiance at her foes\"--like Pitt,\npouring forth, in the days of the Napoleonic terror, \"the indomitable\nlanguage of courage and of hope,\"--Isaiah was missioned to encourage\nJudah to despise first the mighty Syrian, and then the mightier\nAssyrian. Far different was the lot of Hosea, who could only be the\ndenouncer of an inevitable doom. His sad function was like that of\nPhocion after Ch\u00e6roneia, of Hannibal after Zama, of Thiers after\nSedan: he had to utter the Cassandra-voices of prophecy, which his\nbesotted and demented contemporaries--among whom the priests were the\nworst of all[389]--despised and flouted until the time for repentance\nhad gone by for ever.\n\nTrue it is that Hosea could not be content--what true heart could?--to\nbreathe nothing but the language of reprobation and despair. Israel\nhad been \"yoked to his two transgressions,\"[390] but Jehovah could not\ngive up His love for His chosen people:--\n\n \"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?\n How shall I surrender thee, Israel?\n How shall I make thee as Admah?\n How shall I treat thee as Zeboim?\n Mine heart is turned within Me;\n I am wholly filled with compassion!\n I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger;\n I will not again destroy Ephraim:\n For I am God, and not man.\n The Holy One in the midst of thee!\n I will not come to exterminate!\n They shall come after Jehovah as after a lion that roars!\n For he shall roar, and his sons shall come hurrying from the\n west,\n They shall come hurrying as a bird out of Egypt,\n And as a dove out of the land of Assyria;\n And I will cause them to dwell in their houses, Saith\n Jehovah.\"[391]\n\nAlas! the gleam of alleviation was imaginary rather than actual. The\nprophet's wish was father to his thought. He had prophesied that\nIsrael should be scattered in all lands (ix. 3, 12, 17, xiii. 3-16).\nThis was true; and it did not prove true, except in some higher ideal\nsense, that \"Israel shall again dwell in his own land\" (xiv. 4-7) in\nprosperity and joy.\n\nThe date of Hoshea's accession is uncertain, and we cannot tell in\nwhat sense we are to understand his reign as having lasted \"nine\nyears.\"[392] We have no grounds for accepting the statement of\nJosephus (_Antt._, IX. xiii. 1), that Hoshea had been a friend of\nPekah and plotted against him. Tiglath-Pileser expressly says that he\nhimself slew Pekah and appointed Hoshea.[393] His must have been, at\nthe best, a pitiful and humiliating reign. He owed his purely vassal\nsovereignty to Assyrian patronage. He probably did as well for Israel\nas was in his power. Singular to relate, he is the only one of all the\nkings of Israel of whom the historian has a word of commendation; for\nwhile we are told that \"he did that which was evil in the sight of\nthe Lord,\" it is added that it was \"not as the kings of Israel that\nwere before him.\" But we do not know wherein either his evil-doing or\nhis superiority consisted. The Rabbis guess that he did not replace\nthe golden calf at Dan which Tiglath-Pileser had taken away (Hos. x.\n6); or that he did not prevent his subjects from going to Hezekiah's\npassover.[394] \"It seems like a harsh jest,\" says Ewald, \"that this\nHoshea, who was better than all his predecessors, was to be the last\nking.\" But so it has often been in history. The vengeance of the\nFrench Revolution smote the innocent and harmless Louis XVI. and Marie\nAntoinette--not Louis XIV., or Louis XV. and Madame du Pompadour.\n\nHis patron Tiglath-Pileser ended his magnificent reign of conquest in\n727, soon after he had seated Hoshea on the throne. The removal of his\nstrong grasp on the helm caused immediate revolt. Ph\u0153nicia especially\nasserted her independence against Shalmaneser IV. He seems to have\nspent five years in an unavailing attempt to capture Island-Tyre.\nMeanwhile, the internal troubles which had harassed and weakened Egypt\nceased, and a strong Ethiopian king named Sabaco established his rule\nover the whole country.[395] It was perhaps the hope that Ph\u0153nicia\nmight hold out against the Assyrian, and that the Egyptian might\nprotect Samaria, which kindled in the mind of Hoshea the delusive plan\nof freeing himself and his impoverished land from the grinding tribute\nimposed by Nineveh. While Shalmaneser[396] was trying to quell Tyre,\nHoshea, having received promises of assistance from Sabaco, withheld\nthe \"presents\"--the _minchah_, as the tribute is euphemistically\ncalled--which he had hitherto paid. Seeing the danger of a powerful\ncoalition, Shalmaneser swept down on Samaria in 724. Possibly he\ndefeated the army of Israel in the plain of Jezreel (Hos. i. 5), and\ngot hold of the person of Hoshea. Josephus says that he \"besieged\nhim\"; but the sacred historian only tells us that \"he shut him up, and\nbound him in prison.\" Whether Hoshea was taken in battle, or betrayed\nby the Assyrian party in Samaria, or whether he went in person to see\nif he could pacify the ruthless conqueror, he henceforth disappears\nfrom history \"like foam\"--or like a chip or a bubble--\"upon the\nwater.\" We do not know whether he was put to death, but we infer from\nan allusion in Micah that he was subjected to the cruel indignities in\nwhich the Assyrians delighted; for the prophet says, \"They shall smite\nthe Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.\"[397] Perhaps in the\ntitle \"Judge\" (Shophet, _suffes_) we may see a sign that Hoshea's\nroyalty was little more than the shadow of a name.\n\nHaving thus got rid of the king, Shalmaneser proceeded to invest the\ncapital. But Samaria was strongly fortified upon its hill, and the\nJewish race has again and again shown--as it showed so conspicuously\nin the final crisis of its destiny, when Jerusalem defied the terrible\narmies of Rome--that with walls to protect them they could pluck up a\nterrible courage and endurance from despair. Strong as Assyria was,\nthe capital of Ephraim for three years resisted her beleaguering host\nand her crashing battering-rams. About all the anguish which prevailed\nwithin the city, and the wild vicissitudes of orgy and starvation,\nhistory is silent. But prophecy tells us that the sorrows of a\ntravailing woman came upon the now kingless city. They drank to the\ndregs the cup of fury.[398] The saddest Northern prophet, \"the\nJeremiah of Israel,\" sings the dirge of Israel's saddest king.[399]\n\n \"I am become to them as a lion;\n As a leopard will I watch by the way;\n I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps,\n And rend the caul of their heart,\n And there will I devour them like a lioness:\n The beast of the field shall tear them....\n Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities\n And thy judges, of whom thou saidst, 'Give me a king and\n prince'?\n I give thee a king in Mine anger,\n And take him away in My wrath.\"\n\nFor three years Samaria held out. During the siege Shalmaneser died,\nand was succeeded by Sargon, who--though he vaguely talks of \"the\nkings his ancestors,\" and says that he had been preceded by three\nhundred and thirty Assyrian dynasts--never names his father, and seems\nto have been a usurping general.[400]\n\nSabaco remained inactive, and basely deserted the miserable people\nwhich had relied on his protection. In this conduct Egypt was true to\nits historic character of untrustworthiness and inertness. Both in\nIsrael and in Judah there were two political parties. One relied on\nthe strength of Egypt; the other counselled submission to Assyria,\nor--in the hour when it became necessary to defy Assyria--confidence\nin God. Egypt was as frail a support as one of her own paper-reeds,\nwhich bent under the weight, and broke and ran into the hand of every\none who leaned on it.\n\nSargon did not raze the city, and we see from the _Eponym Canon_ that\nits inhabitants were still strong enough some years later to take part\nin a futile revolt. But we have one dreadful glimpse of the horrors\nwhich he inflicted upon it. They were the inevitable punishment of\nevery conquered city which had dared to resist the Assyrian arm.\n\n \"Samaria shall bear her guilt,\n For she hath rebelled against her God.\n They shall fall by the sword:\n Their infants shall be dashed in pieces,\n And their women in child shall be ripped up.\"[401]\n\nSargon's own record of the matter on the tablets at Khorsabad is: \"I\nbesieged, took, and occupied the city of Samaria, and carried into\ncaptivity twenty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty of its\ninhabitants. I changed the former government of this country, and\nplaced over it lieutenants of my own. And Sebeh, Sultan of Egypt, came\nto Raphia to fight against me. They met me, and I routed them. Sebeh\nfled.\"[402] The Assyrians were occupied in the unsuccessful siege of\nTyre between 720-715, during which years Sargon put down Yahubid of\nHamath, whose revolt had been aided by Damascus and Samaria. In 710 he\nmarched against Ashdod (Isa. xx. 1). In 709 he defeated\nMerodach-Baladan at Dur-Yakin, and reconquered Chald\u00e6a, deporting some\nof the population into Samaria. In 704, in the fifteenth year of his\nreign, he was assassinated, after a career of victory. He inscribes on\nhis palace at Khorsabad a prayer to his god Assur, that, after his\ntoils and conquests, \"I may be preserved for the long years of a long\nlife, for the happiness of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart.\nMay I accumulate in this palace immense treasures, the booties of all\ncountries, the products of mountains and valleys.\" Assur and the gods\nof Chald\u00e6a were invoked in vain; the prayer was scattered to the\nwinds, and the murderer's dagger was the comment on Sargon's happy\nanticipations of peace and splendour.\n\nIsrael fell unpitied by her southern neighbour, for Judah was still\nsmarting under memories of the old contempt and injury of Joash\nben-Jehoahaz, and the more recent wrongs inflicted by Pekah and Rezin.\nIsaiah exults over the fate of Samaria, while he points the moral of her\nfall to the drunken priests and prophets of Jerusalem. \"Woe,\" he says,\n\"to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading\nflower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of\nthem that are smitten down with wine! Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and\nstrong one [_i.e._, the Assyrian]; as a tempest of hail, a destroying\nstorm, as a tempest of mighty water overflowing, shall he cast down to\nthe earth with violence. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,\nshall be trodden underfoot: and the fading flower of his glorious\nbeauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as the first\nripe fig before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth,\nwhile it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.\"[403] Israel had begun in\nhostility to Judah, and perished by it at last.\n\nSuch, then, was the end of the once brilliant kingdom of Israel--the\nkingdom which, even so late as the reign of Jeroboam II., seemed to\nhave a great future before it. No one could have foreseen beforehand\nthat, when, with the prophetic encouragement of Ahijah, Jeroboam I.\nestablished his sovereignty over the greater, richer, and more\nflourishing part of the land assigned to the sons of Jacob, the new\nkingdom should fall into utter ruin and destruction after only two and\na half centuries of existence, and its tribes melt away amid the\nsurrounding nations, and sink into a mixed and semi-heathen race\nwithout any further nationality or distinctive history. It seemed far\nless probable that the mere fragment of the Southern Kingdom, after\nretaining its separate existence for more than one hundred and sixty\nyears longer than its more powerful brother, should continue to endure\nas a nation till the end of time. Such was the design of God's\nprovidence, and we know no more. The Northern Kingdom had, up to this\ntime, produced the greatest and most numerous prophets--Ahijah,\nElijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Nahum, and many\nmore.[404] It had also produced the loveliest and most enduring poetry\nin the Song of Songs, the Song of Deborah, and other contributions to\nthe Books of Jashar, and of the Wars of Jehovah. It had also brought\ninto vigour the earliest and best historic literature, the narratives\nof the Elohist and the Jehovist. These immortal legacies of the\nreligious spirit of the Northern Kingdom were incomparably superior in\nmoral and enduring value to the Levitic jejuneness of the Priestly\nCode, with its hierarchic interests and ineffectual rules, which, in\nthe exaggerated supremacy attached to rites, proved to be the final\nblight of an unspiritual Judaism. Israel had also been superior in\nprowess and in deeds of war, and in the days of Joash ben-Jehoahaz\nben-Jehu had barely conceded to Judah a right to separate existence.\nMore than all this, the apostasies of Judah, from the days of Solomon\ndownwards, were quite as heinous as Jezebel's Baal-worship, and far\nmore deadly than the irregular but not at first idolatrous cultus of\nBethel. The prophets are careful to teach Judah that if she was\nspared it was not because of any good deservings.[405] Yet now the\ncedar was scathed and smitten down, and its boughs were rent and\nscattered; and the thistle had escaped the wild beast's tread!\n\nIn the former volume we glanced at some of the causes of this, and the\nblessings which resulted from it. The central and chiefest blessing\nwas, first, the preservation of a purer form of monotheism, and a\nloftier ideal of religion--though only realised by a few in\nJudah--than had ever prevailed in the Northern Tribes; secondly, and\nabove all, the development of that inspiring Messianic prophecy which\nwas to be fulfilled seven centuries later, when He who was David's Son\nand David's Lord came to our lost race from the bosom of the Father,\nand brought life and immortality to light.\n\nAnd it was the work purely of \"God's unseen providence, by men nicknamed\n'Chance,'\" which, dealing with nations as the potter with his clay,\nchooses some to honour and some to dishonour. For, as all the prophets\nare anxious to remind the Jud\u00e6an Kingdom, their success, the\nprocrastination of their downfall, their restoration from captivity,\nwere not due to any merits of their own. The Jews were and ever had been\na stiff-necked nation; and though some of their kings had been faithful\nservants of Jehovah, yet many of them--like Rehoboam, and Ahaz, and\nManasseh--exceeded in wickedness and inexcusable apostasy the least\nfaithful of the worshippers at Gilgal and Bethel. They were plainly\nreminded of their nothingness: \"And thou shalt speak and say before the\nLord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down\ninto Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a\nnation.\"[406] \"Fear not, thou worm Jacob: I will help thee.\"[407]\n\nBut this was the end of the Ten Tribes. Nor must we say that Hosea's\nprediction of mercy was laughed to scorn by the irony of events, when\nhe had given it as God's promise that--\n\n \"I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger,\n I will not again destroy Israel;\n For I am God, and not man.\"[408]\n\nThe words mean that mercy is God's chiefest and most essential\nattribute; and, after all, a nation is composed of families and\nindividuals, and in political extinction there may have been many\nfamilies and individuals in Israel, like that of Tobias, and like that\nof Anna, the prophetess of the tribe of Asher, who found, either in\ntheir far exile, or among the scattered Jews who still peopled the old\nterritories, a peace which was impossible during the distracted\nanarchy and deepening corruption of the whole period which had elapsed\nsince the founding of the house of Omri. In any case God knows and\nloves His own. The words,\n\n \"I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger;\n For I am God, and not man,\"\n\nmight stand for an epitome of much that is most precious in Holy Writ.\nGod's orthodoxy is the truth; and the truth remaineth, though man's\northodoxy exercises all its fury and all its baseness to overwhelm it.\nWhat hope has any man, even a St. Paul--what hope had even the Lord\nHimself--before the harsh, self-interested tribunals of human\njudgment, or of that purely external religionism which has always\nshown itself more brutal and more blundering than secular cruelty?\nWhat chance has there been, humanly speaking, for God's best saints,\nprophets, and reformers, when priests, popes, or inquisitors have been\ntheir judges? If God resembled those generations of unresisted\necclesiastics, whose chief resort has been the syllogism of violence,\nand whose main arguments have been the torture-chamber and the stake,\nwhat hope could there possibly be for the vast majority of mankind but\nthose endless torments by the terrors of which corrupt Churches have\nforced their tyranny upon the crushed liberties and the paralysed\nconscience of mankind? The Indian sage was right who said that \"God\ncan only be truly described by the words No! No!\"--that is, by\nrepudiating multitudes of the ignoble and cruel basenesses which\nreligious teachers have imagined or invented respecting Him. Because\nGod is God, and not man--God, not a tyrant or an inquisitor--God, with\nthe great compassionate heart of unfathomable tenderness,--therefore,\nin all who truly love Him, perfect love casteth out fear, because fear\nhath torment. Sin means ruin; yet God is love.[409]\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe historian of the Kings here digresses, in a manner unusual to the\nOld Testament, to give us a most interesting glimpse of the fate of\nthe conquered people, and the origin of the race which was known to\nafter-ages by the name \"Samaritan.\"\n\nSargon, when he had sacked the capital, carried out the policy of\ndeportation which had now been established by the Assyrian kings. He\nachieved the double purpose of populating the capital and province of\nNineveh, while he reduced subject nations to inanition, by sweeping\naway all the chief of the inhabitants from conquered states, and\nsettling them in his own more immediate dominions. There they would be\nreduced to impotence, and mingle with the races among whom their lot\nwould henceforth be cast. He therefore \"carried Israel away\" into\nAssyria, and placed them in Halah, north of Thapsacus, on the\nEuphrates, and in Habor, the river of Gozan[410]--_i.e._, on the river\nin Northern Assyria which still bears the name of Khabour, and flows\ninto the Euphrates--and in the cities of the Medes.[411] He replaced\nthe old population by Dinaites, Tarplites, Apharsathchites,\nSusanchites, Elamites, Dehavites, and Babylonians, after carrying away\nthe great bulk of the better-class population.[412]\n\nAfter this the historian pauses to sum up and emphasise once more the\nmain lesson of his narrative. It is that \"righteousness exalteth a\nnation, and sin is the reproach of any people.\" God had called His son\nIsrael out of Egypt, delivered His chosen from Pharaoh, given them a\npleasant land; but \"Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, and\nhad feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen.\"\nThey had failed therefore in fulfilling the very purpose for which\nthey had been set apart. They had been intended \"to uplift among the\nnations the banner of righteousness\" and the banner of the One True\nGod. Instead of this, they were seduced by the heathen ritual of\n\n \"Gay religions full of pomp and gold.\"\n\nThey decked out alien institutions,[413] and alike in frequented and\npopulous places--\"from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced\ncity\"--set up _matstseboth_ (A.V., \"pillars\") and _Asherim_ on every\nhigh hill. The green trees became _obumbratrices scelerum_, the secret\nbowers of their iniquities. They burnt incense on the _bamoth_, and\nserved idols, and wrought wickedness. Useless had been the voices of\nall the prophets and the seers. They went after vain things, and\nbecame vain. Beginning with the two \"calves,\" they proceeded to lewd\nand orgiastic idolatries. Ahab and Jezebel seduced them into Tyrian\nBaal-worship. From the Assyrians they learnt and practised the\nadoration of the host of heaven.[414] From Moab and Ammon they\nborrowed the abominable rites of Moloch, and used divination and\nenchantments by means of belomancy (Ezek. xxi. 21, 22) and necromancy,\nand sold themselves to do wickedness.\n\nNor was this all. These idolatries, with their guilty ritualism, were\nnot confined to Israel, but also\n\n \"Infected Zion's daughters with like heat,\n Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch\n Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,\n His eye surveyed the dark idolatries\n Of alienated Judah.\"\n\nAnd thus, when Jehovah afflicted the seed of Israel and cast them out\nof His sight, Judah also had to feel the stroke of retribution.[415]\n\nAnd it is idle to object that even if Israel had been faithful she must\nhave inevitably perished before the superior might of Damascus, or\nNineveh, or Babylon. How can we tell? It is not possible for us thus to\nwrite unwritten history, and there is absolutely nothing to show that\nthe surmise is correct. In the days of David, of Uzziah, of Jeroboam\nII., Judah and Israel had shown what they could achieve. Had they been\nstrong in faithfulness to Jehovah, and in the righteousness which that\nfaith required, they would have shown an invincible strength amid the\nmoral enervation of the surrounding people. They might have held their\nown by welding into one strong kingdom the whole of Palestine, including\nPhilistia, Ph\u0153nicia, the Negeb, and the Trans-Jordanic region. They\nmight have consolidated the sway which they at various times attained\nsouthwards, as far as the Red Sea port of Elath; northwards over Aram\nand Damascus, as far as the Hamath on the Orontes; eastwards to\nThapsacus on the Euphrates; westward to the Isles of the Gentiles.\nThere is nothing improbable, still less impossible, in the view that, if\nthe Israelites had truly served Jehovah and obeyed His laws, they might\nthen have permanently established the monarchy which was ideally\nregarded as their inheritance, and which for brief and fitful periods\nthey partially maintained. And such a monarchy, held together by warrior\nstatesmen, strong and righteous, and above all secure in the blessing of\nGod, would have been a thoroughly adequate counterpoise, not only to\ndilatory and distracted Egypt, which had long ceased to be aggressive,\nbut even to brutal Assyria, which prevailed in no small measure because\nof the isolation and mutual dissension of these southern principalities.\n\nBut, as it was, \"Assyria and Egypt--the two world-powers in the dawn\nof history, the two chief sources of ancient civilisation, the twin\ngiant-empires which bounded the Israelite people on the right hand and\non the left--were cruel neighbours, between whom the ill-fated nation\nwas tossed to and fro in wanton sport like a shuttlecock. They were\ncruel friends before whom it must cringe in turns, praying sometimes\nfor help, suing sometimes for very life--alternate scourges in the\nhand of the Divine wrath. Now it is the fly of Egypt, and now it is\nthe bee of Assyria, whose ruthless swarms issue forth at the word of\nJehovah, settling in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and\nupon all bushes, with deadly sting, fatal to man and beast,\ndevastating the land far and wide. Holding the poor Israelite in their\nrelentless embrace, they threatened ever and again to crush him by\ntheir grip. Like the fabled rocks which frowned over the narrow\nstraits of the Bosporus, they would crash together and annihilate the\nhelpless craft which the storms of destiny had placed at their mercy.\nIsrael reeled under their successive blows. As was the beginning, so\nwas the end. As the captivity of Egypt had been the cradle of the\nnation, so was the captivity of Assyria to be its tomb.\"[416]\n\nIn any case the principle of the historian remains unshaken. Sin is\nweakness; idolatry is folly and rebellion; uncleanness is decrepitude.\nSt. Paul was not thinking of this ancient Philosophy of History when\nhe wrote his Epistle to the Romans; yet the intense and masterly\nsketch which he gives of that moral corruption which brought about the\nlong, slow, agonising dissolution of the beauty that was Greece, and\nthe grandeur that was Rome, is one of its strongest justifications.\nHis view only differs from the summary before us in the power of its\neloquence and the profoundness of its psychologic insight. He says the\nsame thing as the historian of the Kings, only in words of greater\npower and wider reach, when he writes: \"For the wrath of God is\nrevealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of\nmen, who hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Knowing God, they\nglorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in\ntheir reasonings\" (\u1f10\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03ce\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd, the very word used in the LXX. in 2\nKings xvii. 15), \"and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing\nthemselves to be wise, they became fools\" (words which might describe\nthe expediency-policy of Jeroboam I., and its fatal consequences),\n\"and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an\nimage of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and\ncreeping things. For this cause God gave them up to passions of\ndishonour, and unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are\nnot fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness,\ncovetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,\nmalignity,\"--and so on, through a long catalogue of iniquities which\nare identical with those which we find so burningly denounced on the\npages of the prophets of Israel and Judah.\n\nEven a Machiavelli, cool and cynical and audacious as was his\nscepticism, could see and admit that faithfulness to religion is the\nsecret of the happiness and prosperity of states.[417] An irreligious\nsociety tends inevitably and always to be a dissolute society; and a\n\"dissolute society is the most tragic spectacle which history has ever\nto present--a nest of disease, of jealousy, of dissensions, of ruin,\nand despair, whose last hope is to be washed off the world and\ndisappear. Such societies must die sooner or later of their own\ngangrene, of their own corruption, because the infection of evil,\nspreading into unbounded selfishness, ever intensifying and\nreproducing passions which defeat their own aim, can never end in\nanything but moral dissolution.\" We need not look further than the\ncollapse of France after the battle of Sedan, and the cause to which\nthat collapse was attributed, not only by Christians, but by her own\nmost worldly and sceptical writers, to see that the same causes ever\nissue and will issue in the same ruinous effects.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn order to complete the history of the Northern Kingdom, the\nhistorian here anticipates the order of time by telling us what\nhappened to the mongrel population whom Sargon transplanted into\ncentral Ephraim in place of the old inhabitants.\n\nThe king, we are told, brought them from Babylon--which was at this\ntime under the rule of Assyria; from Cuthah--by which seems to be\nmeant some part of Mesopotamia near Babylon;[418] from Avva, or\nIvah--probably the same as Ahavah or Hit, on the Euphrates, north-west\nof Babylon; from Sepharvaim, or Sippara, also on the Euphrates;[419]\nand from Hamath, on the Orontes, which had not long remained under\nJeroboam II.[420] It must not be supposed that the whole population of\nEphraim was deported; that was a physical impossibility. Although we\nare told in Assyrian annals that Sargon carried away with him so vast\na number of captives, it is, of course, clear that the lowest and\npoorest part of the population was left.[421] We can imagine the wild\nconfusion which arose when they found themselves compelled to share\nthe dismantled palaces and abandoned estates of the wealthy with the\nhorde of new colonists, whose language, in all probability, they but\nimperfectly understood. There must have been many a tumult, many a\nscene of horror, such as took place in the long antagonism of Normans\nand Saxons in England, before the immigrants and the relics of the\nformer populace settled down to amalgamation and mutual tolerance.\n\nSargon is said to have carried away with him the golden calf or calves\nof Bethel, as Tiglath-Pileser is said by the Rabbis to have carried away\nthat of Dan.[422] He also took away with him all the educated classes,\nand all the teachers of religion.[423] No one was left to instruct the\nignorant inhabitants; and, as Hosea had prophesied, there was neither a\nsacrifice, nor a pillar, nor an ephod, and not even teraphim to which\nthey could resort.[424] Naturally enough, the disunited dregs of an old\nand of a new population had no clear knowledge of religion. They \"feared\nnot Jehovah.\" The sparseness of inhabitants, with its consequent neglect\nof agriculture, caused the increase of wild beasts among them. There had\nalways been lions and bears in \"the swellings of Jordan,\"[425] and in\nall the lonelier parts of the land; and to this day there are leopards\nin the woods of Carmel, and hy\u00e6nas and jackals in many regions.\nConscious of their miserable and godless condition, and afflicted by the\nlions, which they regarded as a sign of Jehovah's anger, the Ephraimites\nsent a message to the King of Assyria. They only claimed Jehovah as\ntheir local god, and complained that the new colonists had provoked the\nwrath of \"the God of the land\" by not knowing His \"manner\"--that is,\nthe way in which He should be worshipped. The consequence was that they\nwere in danger of being exterminated by lions. The kings of Assyria were\ndevoted worshippers of Assur and Merodach, but they held the common\nbelief of ancient polytheists that each country had its own potent\ndivinities. Sargon, therefore, gave orders that one of the priests of\nhis captivity should be sent back to Samaria, \"to teach them the manner\nof the god of the land.\" The priest selected for the purpose returned,\ntook up his residence at the old shrine of Bethel, and \"taught them how\nthey should fear Jehovah.\" His success was, however, extremely limited,\nexcept among the former followers of Jeroboam's dishonoured cult. The\nold religious shrines still continued, and the immigrants used them for\nthe glorification of their former deities. Samaria, therefore, witnessed\nthe establishment of a singularly hybrid form of religionism. The\nBabylonians worshipped Succoth-Benoth,[426] perhaps Zirbanit, wife of\nMerodach or Bel; the Cuthites worshipped Nergal, the Assyrian war-god,\nthe lion-god;[427] the Hittites, from Hamath, worshipped Ashima or\nEsm\u00fbn, the god of air and thunder, under the form of a goat;[428] the\nAvites preferred Nibhaz and Tartak, perhaps Saturn--unless these names\nbe Jewish jeers, implying that one of these deities had the head of a\ndog, and the other of an ass.[429] More dreadful, if less ridiculous,\nwas the worship of the Sepharvites, who adored Adrammelech and\nAnammelech, the sun-god under male and female forms, to whom, as to\nMoloch, they burnt their children in the fire. As for ministers, \"they\nmade unto them priests from among themselves,[430] who offered\nsacrifices for them in the shrines of the bamoth.\" Thus the whole\nmongrel population \"feared the Lord, and served their own gods,\" as they\ncontinued to do in the days of the annalist whose record the historian\nquotes. He ends his interesting sketch with the words, that, in spite of\nthe Divine teaching, \"these nations\"--so he calls them, and so\ncompletely does he refuse to them the dignity of being Israel's\nchildren--feared the Lord, and served their graven images, their\nchildren likewise, and their children's children,--\"as did their\nfathers, so do they unto this day.\"[431]\n\nThe \"unto this day\" refers, no doubt, to the document from which the\nhistorian of the Kings was quoting--perhaps about B.C. 560, in the third\ngeneration after the fall of Samaria. A very brief glance will suffice\nto indicate the future history of the Samaritans. We hear but little of\nthem between the present reference and the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. By\nthat time they had purged themselves of these grosser idolatries, and\nheld themselves fit in all respects to co-operate with the returned\nexiles in the work of building the Temple. Such was not the opinion of\nthe Jews. Ezra regarded them as \"the adversaries of Judah and\nIsrael.\"[432] The exiles rejected their overtures. In B.C. 409 Manasseh,\na grandson of the high priest expelled by Nehemiah for an unlawful\nmarriage with a daughter of Sanballat, of the Samaritan city of\nBeth-horon, built the schismatic temple on Mount Gerizim.[433] The\nrelations of the Samaritans to the Jews became thenceforth deadly. In\nB.C. 175 they seconded the profane attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes to\npaganise the Jews, and in B.C. 130 John Hyrcanus, the Maccabee,\ndestroyed their temple. They were accused of waylaying Jews on their way\nto the Feasts, and of polluting the Temple with dead bones.[434] They\nclaimed Jewish descent (John iv. 12), but our Lord called them \"aliens\"\n(\u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03ae\u03c2, Luke xvii. 18), and Josephus describes them as \"residents\nfrom other nations\" (\u03bc\u03ad\u03c4\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9, \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b5\u03b8\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2). They are now a rapidly\ndwindling community of fewer than a hundred souls--\"the oldest and\nsmallest sect in the world\"--equally despised by Jews and Mohammedans.\nThe Jews, as in the days of Christ, have no dealings with them. When Dr.\nFrankl, on his philanthropic visit to the Jews of the East, went to see\ntheir celebrated Pentateuch, and mentioned the fact to a Jewish\nlady--\"What!\" she exclaimed: \"have you been among the worshippers of the\npigeon? Take a purifying bath!\" Regarding Gerizim as the place which\nGod had chosen (John iv. 20), they alone can keep up the old tradition\nof the _sacrificial_ passover. For long centuries, since the Fall of\nJerusalem, it is only on Gerizim that the Paschal lambs and kids have\nbeen actually slain and eaten, as they are to this day, and will be,\ntill, not long hence, the whole tribe disappears.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[389] Hos. iv. 4; v. 1, \"Hear ye this, O priests ... ye have been a\nsnare on Mizpah,\" etc.; vi. 9, \"The company of the priests murder by\nthe way to Shechem.\"\n\n[390] Hos. x. 10 (so R.V., and in the main the versions after the Hebrew\nmargin). LXX., \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03b4\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u1f00\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd;\nVulg., \"_cum corripientur propter duas iniquitates suas_\"; A.V., \"When\nthey shall bind themselves in their two furrows.\" I believe that the\n\"_two_ iniquities\" may mean _two_ cherubs at Bethel. See x. 15: \"So\nshall Bethel do unto you because of the evil of your evil.\"\n\n[391] Hos. xi. 8-11.\n\n[392] 2 Kings xvii. 1 is inconsistent with xv. 30, 33, and it is\nwholly useless for our purpose to enter into complicated chronological\nhypotheses, every one of which may be erroneous.\n\n[393] Schrader, _K. A. T._, p. 255.\n\n[394] _Seder Olam_, xxii. 2; 2 Chron. xxx. 6-11.\n\n[395] See Herod., ii. 137; called So (Heb., S\u00f4 or Seve) in 2 Kings xvii.\n4. Perhaps Shebek, the founder of the twenty-fifth dynasty. LXX., \u03a3\u03b7\u03b3\u03ce\u03c1;\nVulg., _Sua_; Manetho, _Sabachon_. In the _Eponym Canon_ he is called an\nEgyptian general, _Sibakhi_, who helped Gaza against Assyria, and was\ndefeated. The _ka_ appended at the end of his name (Egyptian Shaba-ka)\nis thought by some to be the Cushite article. The race of the priest\nHirhor died out with Piankhi, and the Ethiopians elected a noble named\nKashta. Shabak was his son. He conquered Sais, and burnt his rival\nBek-en-raut alive (B.C. 724). His dynasty ruled for fifty years; he was\nsucceeded by Sevechus (Shabatok), and he by Tehrak (Tirhakah).\n\n[396] His name means \"Salm\u00e2n, pardon.\" We have no monuments or\ninscriptions of this king; only an imperial weight.\n\n[397] Mic. v. 1.\n\n[398] Hos. xiii. 13.\n\n[399] Hos. xiii. 7-11. The prophecy is rhythmic, though not written in\nactual poetry.\n\n[400] Till the discovery of the Assyrian records, Sargon (Sharru-k\u00eanu,\n'the faithful king') was but a name. The Jews knew but little of him. He\nis but once mentioned in Scripture (Isa. xx. 1), and was probably\nconfused by some Jews with other kings. Yet he reigned sixteen years\n(722-705), and his records give the annals of fifteen campaigns. In 720\nhe crushed a confederacy headed by Yahubid of Hamath, and reduced that\ncity to a \"heap of ruins.\" He then advanced against Hanno, King of Gaza,\nwho was in alliance with Sabaco, and defeated the combined forces of the\nPhilistines and Egyptians at Raphia, half-way between Gaza and the\nWady-el-Ar\u00eesh, \"the torrent [_nachal_] of Egypt.\" Sargon was at the time\ntoo much occupied with other enemies to pursue his advantage over Egypt;\nfor Armenia, Media, and other countries needed his attention. This\nencouraged Ashdod to rebel, and its king, Azuri, refused his tribute\n(see Isa. xx. 1). Sargon deposed him, and put his brother Ahimit in his\nplace. Relying on Egyptian promises, Philistia joined Judah, Edom, and\nMoab in defying Assyria. They deposed Ahimit as an Assyrian nominee, and\nput Yaman in his place. Egypt, as usual, failed to help, and in 711 the\nAssyrian Turtan, or Commander-in-chief, took Ashdod after three years'\nresistance, and carried its people into captivity. The punishment of\nEgypt was reserved for the subsequent reigns of Esarhaddon (681-668) and\nAssurbanipal. See Driver's _Isaiah xlv._ (Isa. xx.). Isa. xiv. 29-32 is\nan ode of triumph for the Fall of Philistia.\n\n[401] Hos. xiii. 16.\n\n[402] See De Hincks in _Journ. of Sacr. Lit._, October 1858; Layard,\n_Nin. and Bab._, i. 148.\n\n[403] Isa. xxviii. 1-4.\n\n[404] 2 Kings xvii. 13, \"by all the prophets, and all the _seers_,\"\n(_ch\u00f4seh_). H\u0101vernick thinks that the _nebi'\u00eem_ were such _officially_.\n\n[405] See Amos ii. 4, 5; Isa. xxviii. 15; Jer. xvi. 19, 20; Ezek. xx.\n13-30, etc.\n\n[406] Deut. xxvi. 5.\n\n[407] Isa. xli. 14.\n\n[408] Hos. xi. 9.\n\n[409] See my _Minor Prophets_, 6-97.\n\n[410] Not as in A.V., \"Habor, _by_ the river of Gozan.\"\n\n[411] 2 Kings xvii. 6. The LXX. has \"rivers\" and \"mountains\": \u1f10\u03bd \u1f08\u03bb\u03b1\u1f72\n\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03bd \u1f08\u03b2\u1f7c\u03c1 \u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03b1\u03bc\u03bf\u1fd6\u03c2 \u0393\u03c9\u03b6\u1f70\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f45\u03c1\u03b7 \u039c\u03ae\u03b4\u03c9\u03bd. The river is not Ezekiel's\nChebar. These deportations _en masse_ of a whole population, with\ntheir women and children, their waggons and flocks, are depicted on\nSargon's series of tablets in his splendid palace at Khorsabad.\n\n[412] Ezra iv. 10. \"The great and noble Asnapper\" of the passage is\neither some Assyrian general, or a confusion of the name Assurbanipal.\n\n[413] 2 Kings xvii. 9. Heb., \"covered\"; A.V. and R.V., \"did secretly,\"\nrather \"perfidiously\"; LXX., \u1f20\u03bc\u03c6\u03b9\u03ad\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03ba\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd;\nVulg., _Et offenderunt verbis non rectis dominum suum_.\n\n[414] Star-worship is not mentioned in the Book of the Covenant (Exod.\nxx.-xxiii.) or the oldest sections of the Mosaic Law. It is first\nforbidden in Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3, when contact with Syrians and\nAssyrians made it known (comp. Job xxxi. 26-28; Jer. viii. 2, xix. 13;\nZeph. i. 5). The language of 2 Kings vii.-xxiii. frequently reflects\nthe prohibitions of Deuteronomy (see Deut. xii. 2, 30, 31, iv. 19, v.\n7, 8, xvi. 21, xviii. 10, xxxi. 16, etc.)\n\n[415] In 2 Kings xvii. 11, for \"they did wicked things,\" the LXX. has\n\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 (_i.e._, _qedesh\u00eem_) \u1f10\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b1\u03be\u03b1\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f11\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03c1\u03af\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 (_qedesh\u00f4th_);\n_i.e._, they had depraved _hieroduli_ of both sexes. Comp. Hos. iv.\n14; Gen. xxxviii. 21 (where the allusion is to one of the votaries of\nAsherah).\n\n[416] Bishop Lightfoot, _Sermons_, p. 267.\n\n[417] \"La quale Religione se ne Principi della Republica Christiana si\nfusse mantenuta, secondo che dal dottore d'essa ne fu ordinato,\nsarebbero gli State e le Republiche Christiane pi\u00f9 unite e pi\u00f9 felici\nassai ch' elle non sono\" (_Discorsi_, i. 12).\n\n[418] 2 Kings xvii. 24. Comp. xviii. 34. Hence the later Jews\ncomprehensively called the Samaritans Cuthites. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 13;\nIsa. xxxvii. 13.\n\n[419] Heliopolis, Ptolemy, v. 18, \u00a7 7; Isa. xxxvi. 19. Here, according\nto the Chald\u00e6an legends, Xisuthrus buried his tablets about the\nCreation, etc.\n\n[420] From Ezra iv. 2 some infer that the main immigrants were\nintroduced by Esarhaddon, who did not succeed till B.C. 681. He claims\nto have colonised Syria.\n\n[421] So we see from 2 Kings xix. 13, which applies to the reign of\nHezekiah.\n\n[422] See Appendix, \"The Golden Calves.\"\n\n[423] He uses the agency of \"the great and noble Asnapper\" (Ezra iv.\n10) for the deportation (see Botta, 145; Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, i.\n148; Dr. Hincks, _Jour. of Sacr. Lit._, October 1858), unless Asnapper\nbe a confusion for Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus).\n\n[424] Hos. iii. 4.\n\n[425] See Jer. xlix. 19, l. 44; Prov. xxii. 13, etc.\n\n[426] Lit., \"Daughter-huts\" (Selden, _De Dis Syr._, ii. 7), but probably\na transliteration. Zarpanit--\"She who gives seed\"--was Aphrodite\nPandemos (Mylitta--Herod., i. 199). The Rabbis--who only guess--say she\nrepresented \"the Clucking Hen\"--_i.e._, the Pleiades. There does not\nseem to be any connection between Succoth and \"Sakkuth,\" the various\nreading in Amos v. 26, which seems to be the Assyrian Moloch.\n\n[427] Said to be worshipped under the form of a cock.\n\n[428] LXX., \u1f18\u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03b6\u03ad\u03c1. Jarchi says these deities were worshipped under\nbase animal forms--but it is more than doubtful.\n\n[429] The Rabbis, from Exod. xxiii. 13; Josh. xxiii. 7, thought they\nwere bound to give scornful nicknames to heathen deities. Hence such\nchanges as Kir-Heres for Kir-Cheres, Beelzebub for Beelzebul, Bethaven\nfor Bethel, Bosheth for Baal, etc.\n\n[430] Not as in A.V., \"of the lowest of them,\" but \"of all classes.\"\nComp. 1 Kings xii. 31.\n\n[431] In 2 Kings xvii. 31-38 we again find repeated references to\nDeuteronomy (iv. 23, v. 32, x. 20, etc.).\n\n[432] Ezra iv. 1. The actual word \"Samaritans\" occurs only once in the\nOld Testament, in 2 Kings xvii. 29.\n\n[433] See Neh. xiii. 4-9, 28, 29; Jos., _Antt._, XI. vii. 2. Josephus\nmakes Manasseh a brother of the high priest Jaddua (B.C. 333).\n\n[434] Jos., _Antt._, IX. xiv. 3, XII. v. 5, XIII. ix. 1, XX. vi.,\nXVIII. ii. 2. The bitterly hostile relations between Jews and\nSamaritans in the time of Christ are illustrated by Luke ix. 52-54.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII\n\n _THE REIGN OF AHAZ_\n\n B.C. 735-715\n\n 2 KINGS xvi. 1-20\n\n \"Rimmon, whose delightful seat\n Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks\n Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams.\n He also against the House of God was bold:\n A leper once he lost, and gained a king--\n Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew\n God's altar to disparage and displace\n For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn\n His odious offerings, and adore the gods\n Whom he had vanquished.\"\n _Paradise Lost_, i. 467-476.\n\n\nAccording to our authorities, Ahaz (\"Possessor\")[435] began his reign\nof sixteen years at the age of twenty. Of the exactitude of these\nreferences we cannot be certain, because they also state (2 Kings\nxviii. 2) that Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to\nreign, and this reduces us to the absurdity of supposing that Hezekiah\nwas born when his father was only eleven years old.[436] We might\ninfer from Isa. iii. 4 that Ahaz was not so old as twenty when he\nsucceeded Jotham; for there--in a terrible prophecy which can only\nrefer to the beginning of this reign--we read, \"And I will give\nchildren to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them\"; or, as\nit should be perhaps rendered, \"And with childishness, or wilfulness,\nshall they rule over them.\"\n\nWhatever may have been the king's age, surely never king succeeded to\na more distracted kingdom, or reigned over a more terrified people! If\nhe could have had any choice in the matter, he might well have\ndeclined the fearful burden. Describing the state of things, the great\nprophet Isaiah, who now began his career, exclaims,--\n\n\"For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem\nand from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole\nstay of water; the mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the\nprophet, and the diviner, and the elder; the captain of fifty, and the\nhonourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning charmer, and the\nskilful enchanter. And the people shall be oppressed every one by\nanother, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself\nproudly against the elder, and the base against the honourable. Then a\nman shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying,\n'Thou hast clothing, be _thou our judge, and let this ruin be under thy\nhand_': in that day shall he lift his voice, saying, 'I will not be a\nbuilder-up; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: ye shall not\nmake me a ruler of the people.' For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is\nfallen. The show of their countenance is against them; and they declare\ntheir sin as Sodom, and hide it not. As for My people, children are\ntheir oppressors, and women rule over them.\"[437]\n\nThis is a frightful picture of famine--the dearth of intellect, the\ndearth of statesmen, of all genius, of all insight. It describes the\nprevalence of oppression and of ghastly destitution, accompanied by\nsuch utter despair that no one cared to exert himself for the arrest\nof the ruin which seemed imminent over that which was already no\nbetter than itself a ruin.\n\nThe Book of Isaiah is arranged in a most confused and unchronological\nmanner, and it is probable that the first five chapters should be\nplaced after the sixth, which describes the prophet's call in the year\nthat King Uzziah died. They paint a picture of moral collapse. His\nfirst chapter is called by Ewald \"the great arraignment,\" and by its\nreferences describes the awful period of alarm during the war of Syria\nand Ephraim against Judah. It might seem as if the combined host was\neven then in the country, or had only just retired from it; for we\nread,--\n\n\"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land,\nstrangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown\nby strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a\nwilderness, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.\"\n\nBut even in the midst of this afflictive dispensation there were no\nsigns of repentance. The children of Israel were rebels who despised\nthe Holy One of Israel,--\"Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with\niniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly!\" (i.\n7-9). They had all the externals of religion: they offered vain\nsacrifices, and kept a multitude of idle feasts, and offered many\nformal prayers; but all this was but a cumbrance to Him who desired\nclean hands and a pure heart as conditions of forgiveness (10-20).\nWhat hope could there be for a city of murderers, who loved bribes\nand perverted judgment (21-24)? The land was full of pride, full of\nidols, full of the luxury of the rich amid the starvation of the poor\n(ii. 1-22).[438] Women partook of the general corruption. They walked\nmincingly with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes,[439] thinking of\nnothing but their anklets, and crescents, and bracelets, and mufflers,\near-drops, head-tires, perfumes, mirrors, armlets, and nose-jewels:\ntherefore they should have sackcloth for stomachers, ropes for\ngirdles, and burning instead of beauty, and only a remnant should\nescape (iii. 16-iv. 1). Judah was like a vineyard,--rich in\nadvantages, blessed with fondest care; but when God looked for grapes,\nit only brought forth wild grapes--a semblance, but only a poisoned\nsemblance, of the true vintage: therefore it should be left neglected\nand rainless. Woe to the greedy land-grabbing, and drunkenness, and\nrevelry of the rich! Woe to their mockery of God and their devotion to\nvanity! Woe to their insane pride and wanton injustice! Could they\nescape vengeance? No! Jehovah had looked for judgment (_mishpat_), but\nbehold oppression (_mishpach_); for righteousness (_tse'dakah_), but\nbehold a cry (_tse'akah_) (v. 1-24).[440] They might escape--they\nwould escape--the Syrian and the Ephraimite; but behind these lay a\nmore terrible and a more portentous foe, even the Assyrian, the\nscourge of God's wrath (25-30).\n\n\"It was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with\nEphraim.\" Is it strange that in such a condition of things the heart\nof Ahaz and of his people \"was moved as the trees of the wood are\nmoved with the wind\"?\n\nSuch was the terrible crisis at which Isaiah began his ministry. He\nwas the son of Amoz,[441] who has been (much too precariously)\nidentified with a brother of Amaziah. It is probable that he was a man\nof distinguished, if not princely, birth, and he exercised a more\npowerful influence over the politics of his country than any other\nprophet--not even excepting Jeremiah.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[435] Probably a shortened form for Jehoahaz (\"The Lord taketh hold\").\nHe is called Jahuhazi in Tiglath-Pileser's inscription (Schrader,\n_Keilinschr._, p. 163).\n\n[436] For twenty-five it is not improbable that we should read fifteen.\n\n[437] Isa. iii. 1-12.\n\n[438] In Isa. ii. 2-4 we find, as so often in the prophetic books in\ntheir present too-often-haphazard arrangement, a glowing promise of\nuniversal peace placed before unsparing denunciations. The verses are\nalso found in Micah (iv. 1, 2), and it has been conjectured that in\nboth prophets they are a quotation from some older source--perhaps\nfrom Jonah, son of Amittai.\n\n[439] Heb., \"deceiving with their eyes.\"\n\n[440] Isa. v. 7. The paronomasia of the original is striking. Van Oort\nrenders it, \"He looked for _reason_, but behold _treason_; and for\n_right_, but behold _affright_.\"\n\n[441] His name means \"Jehovah saves,\" and is perhaps alluded to in Isa.\nviii. 18. Amos (\"One who bears a burden\"), needless to say, is a totally\ndifferent name from that of Amoz (\"Vigorous\"), the father of Isaiah.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII\n\n _ISAIAH AND AHAZ_\n\n 2 KINGS xvi\n\n \"Expediency is man's wisdom; doing right is God's.\"\n GEORGE MEREDITH.\n\n\nIsaiah was one of those men whom God provides for the need of\nkingdoms. He was not only a prophet, but a statesman, a reformer, a\npoet, a man of invincible faith and unequalled insight. If Ahaz had\naccepted his counsels and followed his moral guidance, the whole\nhistory of Judah might have been different.\n\nBut the position of things was indeed disastrous. Judah was attacked\nfrom every side. On the south-east the Edomites renewed their\ndevastating raids, and swept off multitudes of captives, who were sold\nas slaves in the Western slave-markets. On the south-west the\nPhilistines once more rose in revolt, and acquired permanent\nrepossession of many parts of the Shephelah, mastering Beth-Shemesh,\nAjalon, Gederoth, Shocho, Timnath, Gimzo, and all the adjacent\ndistricts. But this was nothing compared with the humiliation and\ndestruction inflicted by Rezin and Pekah. They shut up Ahaz in\nJerusalem; and though they could not storm its almost impregnable\ndefences, which had recently been fortified by Uzziah and Jotham, they\nwere undisputed masters of the rest of the land, so that Judah was\n\"brought low and made naked.\"[442] Rezin, indeed, weary of a tedious\nsiege, swept southwards to Elath, on the gulf of Akabah, seized it, and\npeopled it with an Edomite garrison, thereby destroying the commerce in\nwhich Solomon and Jehoshaphat had taken pride, and which Uzziah had\nrecently re-established. Having thus left an effectual annoyance to\nJudah in his rear, he gave up the design of dethroning Ahaz and\nsubstituting in his place \"_the son of Tabeal_,\" who would have been a\ntool in the hands of the confederate kings. He seized, however, a\nmultitude of captives, and with them and with much booty he returned to\nDamascus. \"The son of Tabeal\"--a name which occurs nowhere else--has\nbeen found very puzzling.[443] I believe it to be simply an instance of\nthe Rabbinic process of transposition, called _Themourah_. Some identify\nit with Itibi'alu of an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser. Others suppose\nthat he was a Syrian, and that Tabeal stands for Tabrimnon. But by the\napplication of Themourah (called the _Albam_) Tabeal simply gives us\n\"Remaliah,\" and is either a scornful variation of the name of Pekah's\nfather, or has arisen from the watchword of a secret conspiracy. Since\nin the text of Jeremiah (li. 41, xxv. 26) (by _Atbash_, another form of\nthe secret transposition of letters of which the generic name was\n_Gematria_) we read _Sheshach_ for Babel, the name Tabeal may have been\ndealt with in a similar method.[444] Pekah, according to the Chronicler,\ninflicted far deadlier injuries than Rezin. In one day he slew one\nhundred and twenty thousand \"sons of valour,\" because they had forsaken\nJehovah, God of their fathers. His general Zichri, a mighty Ephraimite,\nslew Maaseiah, the king's son;[445] and Azrikam, the chancellor; and\nElkanah, \"the second to the king.\" The army carried away two hundred\nthousand captives and much spoil to Samaria. But on their arrival, a\nprophet named Oded[446] reproved the Israelites for having massacred the\nJud\u00e6ans \"in a rage that reacheth to heaven.\" Aided by various princes,\nhe succeeded in inducing the people to refuse to harbour the captives,\nand clothed, fed, and sent them back unharmed to Jericho, mounting the\nfeeble on horses and asses. The story bears on the face of it the signs\nof enormous exaggeration.\n\nIn the crisis of their miseries, but just before the siege, Ahaz had\ngone outside the city walls \"at the end of the conduit of the upper\npool, in the causeway of the fuller's field,\" probably to look after\nthe water-supply, which had always been a difficulty for Jerusalem,\nand on which depended her capacity to withstand a siege. Here he was\nmet by the prophet Isaiah, who was leading by the hand the little son\nto whom he had given the name of \"Shear-jashub\" (\"A remnant shall\nreturn\"),[447] as a witness to the truth of the prophecy which he had\nheard on the occasion of his call,--\n\n\"And if there should yet be a tenth in it, this shall be again consumed;\nyet as the terebinth and the oak, though cut down, have their stock\nremaining, even so a sacred seed shall be the stock thereof.\"[448]\n\nThe object of the prophet was to cheer up the fainting heart of the\nking, and to say to him first,--\n\n\"Take heed, and be quiet.\"\n\nThis mandate probably refers to rumours--which Isaiah must have\nheard--of the king's intention to follow the counsels of the party which\nurged him to seek foreign assistance. One of these parties advised him\nto throw himself into the arms of Egypt, and rely on her protection; the\nother gave the more perilous counsel of invoking the aid of Assyria.\nIsaiah's mandate to the king and to the nation was to take neither step,\nbut to trust in the Lord, and to repent of individual and national\nmisdoing. He summed up his message in the rule,--\n\n\"In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence\nshall be your strength.\"\n\nThe advice was emphasised by a promise of the most decisive and\nencouraging kind. When all looked so helpless, the prophet was bidden\nto say,--\n\n\"Fear not, neither be faint-hearted, for these two stumps of smoking\ntorches, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of Remaliah's\nson. They have taken evil counsel against thee. But thus saith the\nLord God, 'It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the\nhead of Syria is only Rezin, and the head of Samaria is a mere\nRemaliah's son.'\"[449]\n\nAnd then, to confirm the lesson of confidence in God, the brief\nassurance,--\n\n \"If ye will not confide,\n Surely ye shall not abide.\"\n\nConvinced of the certainty of this immediate deliverance, Isaiah bade\nthe king to ask for a sign from Jehovah, either in the height above,\nor in the depth beneath.\n\nBut the timid and hypocritical king was not so to be influenced. He\nhad on his side \"the scornful men, who ruled Judah\"; the mocking\npriests, who sneered and jeered at Isaiah's teaching as repetitive and\ncommonplace, and only fit for children; and the princes and nobles,\nwho formed the Court party, headed by Shebna the scribe. He probably\nlooked on Isaiah as a mere unpractical faddist, an excited\nfanatic--all very well as a prophet, but not a man who ought to thrust\nhimself into the plans of politicians. Ahaz had his own plans, and he\nhad not the smallest intention of altering them in consequence of\nanything which Isaiah might say. He was far too timid and unfaithful\nto rely on anything so vague as Divine assurance. He was convinced\nthat his only chance lay in the horses of Egypt or the fierce infantry\nof Assyria. So he said with sham piety, merely intended to put the\nprophet off, \"I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah.\"\n\nThat moment marks what may be called the birth-throe of Messianic\nprophecy in its most specific character. For then the prophet, after\nreproving the king for wearying Jehovah as well as His servants, adds,\nin words of far wider and deeper significance than their immediate\nbearing, that Jehovah Himself should give a sign; for the maiden\nshould conceive and bear a Son, and call His name Immanuel (\"God with\nus\"). The child should grow up in a time of scarcity; for owing to the\ndevastation of the land, he would only be able to be nurtured on\ncurdled milk and honey. But before he had reached years of\ndiscretion--before he had arrived at the power of moral choice--the\nland whose two kings Ahaz abhorred should be a desert. Yet let not\nAhaz exult too much in the immediate deliverance! Days of unexampled\nmisery were at hand. Jehovah should hiss for the fly from the farthest\ncanals of Egypt, and for the bee of Assyria, and they should settle in\nswarms in the valleys and pastures. Ahaz--he had not alluded to the\ndesign, but Isaiah knew it well--was about to hire a razor from beyond\nthe Euphrates, but that razor should sweep away the hair and beard of\nJudah. Agriculture should languish, and the people should only be able\nto live in privation on whey and honey; and the vineyards should be\nfull of briers and thorns, and should be mere places for hunting.[450]\n\nThis event, therefore, as Caspari says, stands at the turning-point of\nOld Testament History. It marks the beginning of that second period of\nthe History of the Chosen People in which their hopes were granted as\na counterpoise to their anguish and their humiliation. \"It stood,\ntherefore, at the point where a prospect offered itself to the eye of\nthe prophet which reached out over the whole development of the people\nof God.\"\n\nTo all such prophecies Ahaz was utterly deaf: they did not for a\nmoment induce him to swerve from his purpose. But to call still\nfurther attention to his promise as the Syrian Ephraimitish host\npressed forward, Isaiah took a great piece of vellum, and inscribed on\nit, in the ordinary characters,--\n\n \"SPEED-PLUNDER-HASTE-SPOIL.\"\n\nHe put it up in some conspicuous place, before his own house or in the\nTemple, and took the priest Urijah and Zechariah, the son of\nJeberechiah, into his confidence as faithful witnesses. He told them the\nexplanation of his sign, and they would satisfy the curiosity of the\npeople on the subject. It meant that in nine months' time his wife\nshould bear a son, and that he and his wife, the prophetess, would call\nthe boy's name \"Speed-plunder-haste-spoil,\" as a sign that before the\nchild was able to say \"Father\" or \"Mother\" Rezin and Pekah should be\nextinguished. For the Assyrian should speed to the plunder and haste to\nthe spoil, and the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria should be\ncarried away by the King of Assyria. Since Judah despised \"the soft\nflowing waters of Shiloah,\"[451] and preferred Rezin and Pekah,[452]\nthey should be deluged by the Euphrates of Assyria, and Assyria's\noutspread wings should overshadow thy land, O Immanuel (viii. 1-8). How\nvain, then, of the people to try and meet the confederacy of Syria and\nEphraim by new confederacy of Judah with Assyria! This, after all, is\nImmanuel's land. God is with us. We have but to fear God, we have but to\nbe faithful to duty, and Jehovah shall be our sanctuary, though He be a\nstumbling-block to many in Israel, and a snare to many in\nJerusalem.[453] This is God's teaching and God's testimony, and Isaiah\nand his children are signs of it. For does not Isaiah mean \"Salvation of\nJehovah\"; and Shear-jashub, \"A remnant shall return\"; and\nMaher-shalal-hash-baz, \"Swift-spoil-speedy-prey\"; and Immanuel, \"God is\nwith us\"? What need, then, to seek wizards and necromancers? Seek God;\nconfide, abide![454] Trouble and darkness there should be; but all was\nnot utterly hopeless. Northern Israel had been bedimmed and afflicted;\nbut soon they should be exalted, and see light, and their yoke be broken\nas in the day of Midian, and the trampling boot and blood-stained mantle\nof the warrior shall be burned in the fire: for a Child is born, a Son\nis given unto us of David's line, who shall be a Mighty Deliverer, a\nPrince of Peace,--and Israel shall perish.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[442] 2 Chron. xxviii. 19.\n\n[443] It may mean \"God is good\" (Tabeel).\n\n[444] For further explanations I must refer to my paper on Rabbinic\nExegesis (_Expositor_, First Series, v. 373).\n\n[445] 2 Chron. xxviii. 7.\n\n[446] Of Oded nothing else is known.\n\n[447] Some, however, interpret the name \"A remnant repents\" (LXX., \u1f41\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03c6\u03b8\u03b5\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f38\u03b1\u03c3\u03bf\u03cd\u03b2; Vulg., _Qui derelictus est Jaseb_).\n\n[448] Isa. vi. 13.\n\n[449] The words \"And within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be\nbroken, that it be not a people\" (Isa. vii. 8), are almost certainly\nan interpolation: for (1) the overthrow came within far less than\nsixty years; (2) the clause awkwardly breaks the context; (3) the\n\"sixty years\" is inconsistent with the promise (vii. 16) that it\nshould be within very few years.\n\n[450] Isa. vii. 1-25.\n\n[451] Not improbably the water which afterwards flowed through\nHezekiah's new tunnel between the Virgin's Tomb and the Pool of\nSiloam. It is referred to in 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 30 (Isa. xxii. 9-11).\nSee Appendix II.\n\n[452] This, if it be correct, can only mean that the son of Tabeal had\na party in Jerusalem; but Hitzig renders it \"_dreadeth_,\" not\n\"rejoiceth in.\"\n\n[453] The meaning is by no means clear.\n\n[454] See Driver, _Isaiah_, p. 34.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV\n\n _THE APOSTASIES OF AHAZ_\n\n 2 KINGS xvi. 1-18\n\n \"For when we in our wickedness grow hard,\n Oh misery on't! the wise gods seal our eyes;\n In our own filth drop our clear judgments; make us\n Adore our errors; laugh at us while we strut\n To our confusion.\"\n\n\nAhaz was indifferent to these prophecies because his heart was\notherwhere. It is clear from our authorities that this king had excited\nan unusually deep antipathy in the hearts of those later writers who\njudged religion not only from the earlier standpoint, but from the stern\nand inexorable requirements of the Deuteronomic and the Priestly Codes.\nThe historian, adopting an unusual phrase, says that \"he did not that\nwhich was right in the sight of the Lord, but he walked in the ways of\nthe kings of Israel.\" He not only continued the high places, as the best\nof his predecessors had done, but he increased their popularity and\nimportance by personally offering sacrifices and burning incense \"on the\nhills and under every green tree.\" It is probable, too, that he\nintroduced into Judah horses and chariots dedicated to the sun.[455] \"He\nmade molten images for the Baalim,\" says the Chronicler, \"and burnt\nincense in the valley of the son of Himmon.\"\n\nThis last was his crowning atrocity: he actually sanctioned the\nrevolting worship of the abomination of the children of Ammon, which\nSolomon had tolerated on the mount of offence. \"He made his son to\npass through the fire.\" The Chronicler expresses it still more\ndreadfully by saying that \"he _burnt his children_ in the fire.\"[456]\n\nIn the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, or of the Ben\u00ee-Hinnom, of which the name\nis perpetuated in Gehenna, the place of torture for lost souls, there\nstood a frightful image of the king--Moloch, Melek, Malcham. It\nrepresented the sun-god, worshipped, not only as Baal under the\nemblems of prolific nature, but, like the Egyptian Typhon, as the\nemblem of the sun's scorching and blighting force. It was perhaps a\nhuman figure with the head of an ox. The arms of the brazen image\nsloped downwards over a cistern, which was filled with fuel; and when\na human sacrifice was to be offered to him, the child was probably\nfirst killed, and then placed on these brazen arms as a gift to the\nidol. It rolled down into the flaming tank, and was consumed amid the\nstrains of music. Recourse was only had to the most frightful form of\nhuman sacrifice--the burning of grown-up victims--in extremities of\ndisaster, as when Mesha of Moab offered up his eldest son to Chemosh\non the wall of Kir-Hareseth in the sight of his people and of the\nthree invading armies. But the sacrifice of children was public, and\nperhaps annual. Hence Milton, following the learned researches of\nSelden in his Syntagma _De Dis Syriis_, writes:--\n\n \"First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood\n Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;\n Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,\n Their children's cries unheard that pass'd through fire\n To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite\n Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain,\n In Argob and in Basan, to the stream\n Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such\n Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart\n Of Solomon he led by fraud to build\n His temple right against the Temple of God\n On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove\n The pleasant Valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence\n And black Gehenna call'd, the type of hell.\"[457]\n\nBut it may be doubted whether Ahaz, in spite of his frightful\nposition, or, in later days, the less excusable Manasseh, really\ndestroyed the lives of their young sons.[458] The ancients had a\nnotion that they could easily cheat their devil-deities. If a white ox\nof Clitumnus became unfitted for a victim to Jupiter of the Capitol by\nhaving on its body a few black spots, it was quite sufficient to make\nit pass with the _D\u00ee faciles_ by chalking the black spots over\nit.[459] If human victims had to be thrown into the Tiber to Hercules,\nNuma taught the people that little wickerwork images (_scirpea_) would\nsuit the purpose just as well.[460] Figures of dough were sometimes\noffered instead of human beings on the altar of Artemis of Tauris.\nThus it became the custom, it is believed, merely to throw or to pass\nchildren through or over the flames, and conventionally to _regard\nthem_ as having been sacrificed, though they might escape the ordeal\nwith little or no hurt. This was called _februatio_, or \"lustration by\nfire.\"[461] We may hope that this device was adopted by the two Jud\u00e6an\nkings, and, if so, they did not add to their horrible apostasy the\ncrime of infanticide. If, however, Ahaz was even to the smallest\nextent implicated in such foul idolatries, it is not surprising that\nhe was in no mood to listen to Isaiah. What is profoundly surprising,\nand is indeed a circumstance for which we cannot account, is that no\nword of fierce indignation was addressed to him on this account by\nUrijah, the high priest, whom Isaiah seems to describe as faithful, or\nby Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah, or by Micah, or by Isaiah, who\nfeared man so little and God so much.\n\nThe Assyrian party at the Court of Ahaz prevailed over the Egyptian.\nUntil the accession of the Ethiopian Sabaco[462] in 725, Egypt was\nindeed in so weak, harassed, and divided a condition under feeble\nnative Pharaohs, that her help was obviously unavailable. The King of\nJudah, seeing no extrication from his calamities except in the way of\nworldly expediency, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser. In this he followed\nthe precedent of his ancestor Asa, who had diverted the attack of\nBaasha by invoking the assistance of Syria. Ahaz sent to the Assyrian\npotentate the humble message, \"I am thy servant and thy son: come up\nand save me from the Kings of Syria and Israel.\" If he had not faith\nto accept Isaiah's promises, what else could he do, when Syria,\nIsrael, the Philistines, Edom, and Moab were all arrayed against him?\nThe ambassadors probably made their way, not without peril, along the\neast of Jordan, or else by sea from Joppa, and so inland. Whether they\ntook with them the enormous bribe without which the appeal of the\nhelpless king might have been in vain, or whether this was sent\nsubsequently under Assyrian escort, we do not know. It was\neuphemistically described as \"a present\" or \"a blessing,\" but must be\nregarded either as a tribute or a bribe.\n\nTiglath-Pileser II. saw his opportunity, and at once invaded Damascus.\nIn B.C. 733 he failed, but the next year he entirely subjugated the\nkingdom, and put an end to the dynasty. Rezin was probably put to death\nwith the horrible barbarities which were normal among the brutal\nNinevites; and as the Assyrians had no conception of colonisation or the\nwise government of dependencies, the Syrian population was deported _en\nmasse_ to Elam and an unknown Kir.[463] For a time Damascus was made \"a\nruinous heap,\" and the cities of Aroer were the desolated lairs of\npasturing flocks. Israel, as we have seen, was next overwhelmed by the\nsame irremediable catastrophe, none of her people being left except such\nas might be compared to the mere gleanings of a vintage, and the few\nberries on the topmost boughs of the olive tree.[464]\n\nTiglath-Pileser meant to make Ahaz feel his yoke. He summoned him to\ndo homage at Damascus, and there Ahaz once more displayed his\ncosmopolitan \u00e6stheticism at the expense of every pure tradition of the\nreligion of his fathers.\n\nHis visit to Damascus was no doubt compulsory. His worldly policy,\nwhich looked so expedient, and which--apart from the defiance which it\ninvolved to the voice of God by His prophets--seemed to be so\npardonable, had for the time succeeded. Isaiah's promises had been\nfulfilled to the letter. There was nothing more to fear either from\nRezin or from Remaliah's son. Their kingdoms were a desolation. In his\nown annals Tiglath-Pileser[465] does not exaggerate his\nachievements.[466] He wrote as follows:--\n\n \"Rezin's warriors I captured, and with the sword I destroyed.\n Of his charioteers and [his horsemen] the arms I broke:\n Their bow-bearing warriors, [their footmen] armed with spear and\n shield,\n With my hand I captured them, and those that fought in their\n battle-line.\n He to save his life fled away alone;\n Like a deer [he ran], and entered into the great gate of his city.\n His generals, whom I had taken alive, on crosses I hung;\n His country I subdued;\n Damascus, his city, I subdued, and like a caged bird I shut him in.\n I cut down the unnumbered trees of his forest; I left not one.\n Hadara, the palace of the father of Rezin of Syria, [I burnt].\n The city of Samaria I besieged, I captured; eight hundred of its\n people and children I took;\n Their oxen and their sheep I carried away.\n I took five hundred and ninety-one cities;\n Over sixteen districts of Syria like a flood I swept.\"\n\nBut the more complete destruction of Israel was due to Shalmaneser\nIV., who says,--\n\n \"The city of Samaria I besieged, I took,\n I carried away twenty-seven thousand two hundred of its inhabitants;\n I seized fifty of their chariots.\n I gave up to plunder the rest of their possessions.\n I appointed officers over them;\n I laid on them the tribute of the former king.\n In their place I settled the men of conquered countries.\"\n\nThe immediate service to Judah looked immense. The Assyrian might safely\nclaim, and Ahaz might truthfully confess, that the intervention of\nTiglath-Pileser had rescued him from the apparent imminence of\ndestruction. But the Assyrian kings served no one for nothing. The price\nwhich had to be paid for Tiglath-Pileser's intervention was vassalage\nand tribute. Ahaz, or, as the Assyrians call him, Jehoahaz,[467] had\nstyled himself Tiglath-Pileser's \"servant and his son,\" and the Assyrian\nchose to have substantial proof of this parental suzerainty. The great\nking therefore summoned the poor subject-potentate to Damascus, where he\nwas holding his victorious court.\n\nSo far Ahaz had no reason to complain of his \"dreadful patron\"; and if\nhe had returned when he paid his homage, no immediate harm would have\nhappened. But during his visit he saw \"the altar\" (_Heb._) at the\nconquered city. Was it the altar of the defeated Syrian god Rimmon? or\ndid the Assyrian persuade his willing vassal to sacrifice at the\nportable altar of his god Assur? We may, perhaps, infer the former\nfrom 2 Chron. xxviii. 23, where Ahaz says: \"Because the gods of the\nkings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that\nthey may help me.\" There is room to suspect some error here, because\nRezin had fallen, and Damascus was in ruins, and Rimmon had\nconspicuously failed to help or to avenge his votaries.[468] Ahaz\nadmired the altar, to whatever god it had been erected; and unmindful,\nor perhaps unconscious, that the altar of the Temple of Jerusalem was\ndeclared in the Pentateuch to have been divinely ordained--a fact to\nwhich the historian does not himself refer--he sent to the head priest\nUrijah a pattern of the altar which had struck his fancy at Damascus.\nThe subservient priest, without a murmur or a remonstrance, undertook\nto have a similar altar ready for Ahaz in the Temple by the time of\nhis return--a crime, if crime it were, which the Chronicler conceals.\n\"Never any prince was so foully idolatrous,\" says Bishop Hall, \"as\nthat he wanted a priest to second him. A Urijah is fit to humour an\nAhaz.[469] Greatness could never command anything which some servile\nwits were not ready both to applaud and justify.\" Certainly we should\nhave hoped for more fidelity to ancient tradition from a man who\nearned the approving word of Isaiah; but it is only fair and just to\nadmit that Urijah, in the universal ignorance which prevailed about\nthe codes which were afterwards collected and published as the total\nlegislation of the wilderness, may have viewed his obedience to the\nking's commands with very different eyes from those by which it was\nregarded in the sixth and fifth centuries before Christ. He may have\nbeen frankly unaware that he was guilty of an act which would\nafterwards be denounced as an apostatising enormity.[470]\n\nWhen Ahaz returned, he was so much pleased with his new plaything that\nhe at once acted as priest at his own new altar. Without the least\nopposition from the priests--who had so sternly resisted Uzziah--he\noffered burnt-offerings and meat-offerings and drink-offerings, and\nsprinkled the blood of peace-offerings on his altar.[471] Not content\nwith this, he did not hesitate to order the removal of the huge brazen\naltar from the position, in front of the Temple porch, which it had\nheld since the days of Solomon. He did this in order that his own\nfavourite altar might be in the line of vision from the court, and not\nbe overshadowed by the old one, which he shifted from the place of\nhonour to the north side. He proceeded to call his own altar \"the\ngreat altar,\" and ordered that the morning burnt-offering, and the\nevening _minchah_, and all the principal sacrifices should henceforth\nbe offered upon it.[472] He did not wholly supersede the old brazen\naltar, which, he said, \"shall be for me to inquire by,\" or, as the\nHebrew may perhaps mean, \"it should await\"--_i.e._, \"I will hereafter\nconsider what to do with it.\"\n\nAhaz is charged with the additional crime of removing the ornamental\nfestoons of bronze pomegranates from the lavers, and the brazen oxen\nfrom under the molten sea, which henceforth lay dishonoured, without its\nproper and splendid supports, on the pavement of the court.[473] He\nalso took away the balustrade of the royal \"ascent\" from the palace to\nthe Temple, and made a new entrance of a less gorgeous character than\nthat which, in the days of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba had admired.[474]\n\nNo doubt these proceedings helped to heighten the unpopularity of\nAhaz. But what could he do? He could, indeed, if he had had sufficient\nfaith, have \"trusted in Jehovah,\" as Isaiah bade him do. But he was\nunder the terrific pressure of hostile circumstances, and, being a\nweak and timid man, felt himself unable to resist the influence of the\nhaughty politicians and worldly priests by whom he was surrounded--men\nwho openly made Isaiah their scoff. When he invited the interposition\nof Tiglath-Pileser,[475] all the other consequences of humiliation\nwould naturally follow. He probably disliked as much as any one to see\nthe great molten laver taken off the backs of the oxen which showed\nthe skill of the ancient Hiram, and did not admire the despoiled\naspect of the shrine of his capital. But if the King of Assyria or his\nemissaries had (as the historian implies) cast greedy eyes on these\nsplendid objects of antiquity, the poor vassal could not refuse them.\nBetter, he may have thought, that these material ornaments should go\nto Nineveh than that he should be forced to exact yet heavier burdens\nfrom an impoverished people. His expedient is mentioned among his\ncrimes, yet no one blamed the pious Hezekiah when, under similar\ncircumstances, he acted in precisely the same manner.[476]\n\nThe Chronicler gives a darker aspect to his misdoings by saying that\nhe cut to pieces the vessels of the house of God, and made him altars\nin every corner of Jerusalem, and _bamoth_ to burn incense unto other\ngods in every several city of Judah. He says, further, that he closed\nthe great gates of the Temple; put an end to the kindling of the\nlamps, the burning of incense, and the daily offerings; and left the\nwhole Temple to fall into ruin and neglect.[477] We know no more of\nhim. He lived through an epoch marked by the final crisis in the\nexistence of the kingdom of Israel. Dark omens of every kind were\naround him, and he seems to have been too frivolous to see them. If he\nplumed himself on the removal of the two relentless invaders Rezin and\nPekah, he must have lived to feel that the terror of Assyria had come\nappreciably nearer. Tiglath-Pileser had only helped Judah in\nfurtherance of his own designs, and his exactions came like a chronic\ndistress after the acuter crisis. Nor was there any improvement when\nhe died in 727. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV., and Shalmaneser\nIV. by Sargon in 722, the year of the fall of Samaria. We know no more\nof Ahaz. The historian says that he was buried with his fathers, and\nthe Chronicler adds, as in the case of Uzziah and other kings, that\nhe was not permitted to rest in the sepulchres of the kings.[478] He\nhad sown the wind; his son Hezekiah had to reap the whirlwind.[479]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[455] See 2 Kings xxiii. 11, which shows that this was not an innovation\nof Manasseh's. They were common in Persia. See Q. Curtius, iii. 3.\n\n[456] 2 Kings xvii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 21, xxiii. 37, xxxiii. 6; Deut.\nxii. 31; Jer. xix. 5. See 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; for \"his son,\" \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05e0\u05d5\u05b9,\nit uses \u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e0\u05b8\u05d9\u05d5 \"his sons,\" but perhaps generically. Moloch-worship\nmay have been stimulated by accounts of the Assyrian fire-god\nAdrammelech (Movers, _Ph\u00f6niz._, ii. 101). On this sacrifice of\nchildren to Moloch, which the Ph\u0153nicians referred back to the god El\nor Il, once King of Byblos, who in a crisis of danger sacrificed his\neldest son Icond, see Plut., _De Superst._, \u00a7 13; Diod. Sic., xx.\n12-14; 2 Kings iii. 27, xvi. 3, xxi. 6; Mic. vi. 7; D\u00f6llinger,\n_Judenthum u. Heidenthum_ (E. T.), i. 427-429.\n\n[457] This worship was to be punished by stoning (Lev. xviii. 21, xx.\n2-5; Deut. xviii. 10). On the whole subject see Movers, _Ph\u00f6niz._, 64;\nJarchi _on Jer. vii._ 31; Euseb., _Pr\u00e6p. Ev._, iv. 16.\n\n[458] Josephus says that Ahaz made \"a whole burnt-offering\" of his\nson; but his authority is very small (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f34\u03b4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u1f61\u03bb\u03bf\u03ba\u03b1\u03cd\u03c4\u03c9\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u1fd6\u03b4\u03b1).\nComp. Psalm cvi. 37.\n\n[459] Ignorant Romanists have often cherished the same notions about\nthe saints. For centuries in Spain the people bought the old gowns and\ncowls of the monks, and buried their dead in them, to deceive St.\nPeter into the notion that they were Dominicans or Franciscans!\n\n[460] See Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 659: \"Scripea pro domino Tiberi jactatur\nimago.\" They were also called _Argei_, _id._ 621; Varro, _L. L._, vi. 3.\n\n[461] Varro, _L. L._, v. 3.\n\n[462] Herod., ii. 137. Egypt., _Sebek_; Heb., _So_ (2 Kings xvii. 4),\nor perhaps _Seve_; Arab., _Shab'i_. Rawlinson, _Hist. of Anct. Egypt_,\nii. 433-450.\n\n[463] Kir (see Amos ix. 7) is omitted in the LXX. Elam is added in Isa.\nxxii. 6. Tiglath-Pileser calls the king Rasunnu Sarimirisu--_i.e._, of\nAram. See Smith, _Assyr. Discoveries_, p. 274; _Eponym Canon_, 68;\nSchrader, _K. A. T._, 152 ff.\n\n[464] Isa. xvii. 1-11.\n\n[465] The name seems to be Tuklat-abal-isarra,--according to Oppert\nworshipper of the son of the Zodiac--_i.e._, of Nin or Hercules.\nAccording to Polyhistor, he was a usurper who had been a vine-dresser\nin the royal gardens. He never mentions his ancestry. But see\nSchrader, _K. A. T._, 217 ff., 240 ff., and in Riehm.\n\n[466] _Eponym Canon_, p. 121, lines 1-15. On this fall of Damascus and\nSamaria, see Isa. xvii.\n\n[467] Jahuhazi (Schrader, _Keilinschr._, p. 263). He probably bore\nboth names; but, as in the case of Jeconiah, who is called Coniah, the\nomission of the element \"Jehovah\" from his name may have been intended\nas a mark of reprobation.\n\n[468] The remark may refer to some earlier period in the reign of\nAhaz, before the capture of Damascus. It is more probable that the\naltar was used for some Assyrian deity, and the adoption of it may\nhave flattered Tiglath-Pileser.\n\n[469] 2 Kings xvi. 11, which records the zealous subservience of Urijah,\nis wanting in some MSS. of the LXX. But that the altar was made, and\nwithout his opposition, is clear from the narrative. Asa (2 Chron. xv.\n8) had repaired Solomon's great altar; Hezekiah subsequently cleansed it\n(_id._ xxix. 18); Manasseh rebuilt it (_Q'ri_). The brass of it\nultimately went to Babylon (Jer. lii. 17-20).\n\n[470] B\u00e4hr says: \"It seems that Urijah, like his companion, was only\nanxious for his revenues. At any rate, his conduct is a sign of the\ncharacter and standing of the priests of that time. They were 'dumb\ndogs who could not bark.' They all followed their own ways, every one\nfor his own gain\" (Isa. lvi. 10, 11). \"We have in this high priest,\"\nsays the _W\u00fcrtemberg Summary_, \"a specimen of those hypocrites and\nbelly-servants who say, 'Whose bread I eat, his song I sing'; who veer\nabout with the wind, and seek to be pleasant to all men; who wish to\nhurt no one's feelings, but teach just what any one wants to hear.\"\n\n[471] 1 Kings viii. 64; 2 Chron. iv. 1. In this and similar instances\ncommentators, biassed by _a priori_ considerations, have imagined that\nAhaz did not in person offer sacrifices. But this is what the text says,\nand it was the custom of kings to regard themselves as invested with\nDivine attributes. Ahaz may have had this lesson impressed on his mind\nby his visit to Tiglath-Pileser. See Gr\u00e4tz, _Gesch. der Juden._, ii.\n150. Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, 472 ff., gives us pictures of Assyrian\nkings ministering at their altars, which are of various shapes.\n\n[472] 2 Kings xvi. 15. Vulg., _paratum erit ad voluntatem meam_. The\nLXX. followed another reading: \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u03bc\u03bf\u1f76 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c0\u03c1\u03c9\u03af. Gr\u00e4tz (ii. 150),\nfor \u05dc\u05db\u05e7\u05e8, \"to inquire,\" reads \u05dc\u05e7\u05e8\u05d1 \"to draw near to.\"\n\n[473] 1 Kings vii. 23-39.\n\n[474] 2 Kings xvi. 18. The allusions are obscure. R.V., \"the covered\nway\"; A.V., \"the covert for the Sabbath.\" See 2 Chron. ix. 4. Here the\nHebr. _Q'ri_ has _M\u00fbsak_, and the Vulg. _Musach Sabbati_. The LXX.\nevidently did not understand it (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03b8\u03b5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03ad\u03b4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2\n\u1fa0\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd). For \"covert for the Sabbath,\" Geiger suggests \"molten\nimages for the Shame\" (Bosheth-Baal, by transposition of _Shabbath_).\nComp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 2.\n\n[475] 2 Chron. xxviii. 20: \"Tiglath-Pileser came unto him, and\ndistressed him, but helped him not.\"\n\n[476] 2 Kings xviii. 15, 16.\n\n[477] In justice to Ahaz, we should observe that (1) in every instance\nthe later account multiplies and magnifies and gives a darker\ncolouring to his offences; (2) that neither Isaiah, Micah, nor any\nother prophet has a word of reproach for such enormities in Ahaz.\n\n[478] It is a Jewish tradition that Hezekiah would not bury his father\nAhaz in a sarcophagus, but on a bier (_Pesachin_, f. 56, 1;\n_Sanhedrin_, f. 47, 1; Gr\u00e4tz, _Gesch. d. Juden._, ii, 224).\n\n[479] His name, _Chizqu\u00eeyyah_, is shortened from _Yechizqu\u00eeyyahoo_\n(Isa. i. 1; 2 Kings xx. 10; Hos. i. 1). It means \"Jehovah's strength\"\n(_Gesen._), or \"Yah is might\" (_F\u00fbrst_).\n\n\n\n\n PROBABLE DATES.\n\n\n B.C.\n\n 745. Accession of Tiglath-Pileser.\n\n 746. Death of Uzziah. Accession of Jotham. First vision of Isaiah\n (Isa. vi.).\n\n 735. Accession of Ahaz. Syro-Ephraimitish war.\n\n 734-732. Siege and capture of Damascus, and ravage of Northern\n Israel by Tiglath-Pileser. Visit of Ahaz to Damascus.\n\n 727. Accession of Shalmaneser IV.\n\n 722. Accession of Sargon. Capture of Samaria, and captivity of the\n Ten Tribes.\n\n 720. Defeat of Sabaco by Sargon at Raphia.\n\n 715(?). Accession of Hezekiah.\n\n 711. Sargon captures Ashdod.\n\n 707. Sargon defeats Merodach-Baladan, and captures Babylon.\n\n 705. Murder of Sargon. Accession of Sennacherib.\n\n 701. Sennacherib besieges Ekron. Defeats Egypt at Altaqu. Invades\n Judah, and spares Hezekiah. Invades Egypt, and sends the Rabshakeh\n to Jerusalem. Disaster of Assyrians at Pelusium, and disappearance\n from before Jerusalem.\n\n 697. Death of Hezekiah. Accession of Manasseh.\n\n 681. Death of Sennacherib.\n\n 608. Battle of Megiddo. Death of Josiah.\n\n 607. Fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Triumph of Babylon.\n\n 605. Battle of Carchemish. Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by\n Nebuchadrezzar.\n\n 599. First deportation of Jews to Babylon by Nebuchadrezzar.\n\n 588. Destruction of Jerusalem. Second deportation.\n\n 538. Cyrus captures Babylon.\n\n 536. Decree of Cyrus. Return of Zerubbabel and the first Jewish\n exiles.\n\n 458. Return of Ezra.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV\n\n _HEZEKIAH_\n\n B.C. 715-686[480]\n\n 2 KINGS xviii\n\n \"For Ezekias had done the thing that pleased the Lord, and was\n strong in the ways of David his father, as Esay the prophet, who\n was great and faithful in his vision, had commanded him,\"--ECCLUS.\n xlviii. 22.\n\n\nThe reign of Hezekiah was epoch-making in many respects, but especially\nfor its religious reformation, and the relations of Judah with Assyria\nand with Babylon. It is also most closely interwoven with the annals of\nHebrew prophecy, and acquires unwonted lustre from the magnificent\nactivity and impassioned eloquence of the great prophet Isaiah, who\nmerits in many ways the title of \"the Evangelical Prophet,\" and who was\nthe greatest of the prophets of the Old Dispensation.\n\nAccording to the notice in 2 Kings xviii. 2, Hezekiah was twenty-five\nyears old when he began to reign in the third year of Hoshea of\nIsrael. This, however, is practically impossible consistently with the\ndates that Ahaz reigned sixteen years and became king at the age of\ntwenty, for it would then follow that Hezekiah was born when his\nfather was a mere boy--and this, although Hezekiah does not seem to\nhave been the eldest son; for Ahaz had burnt \"his son,\" and, according\nto the Chronicler, more than one son, to propitiate Moloch. Probably\nHezekiah was a boy of fifteen when he began to reign. The chronology\nof his reign of twenty-nine years is, unhappily, much confused.\n\nThe historian of the Kings agrees with the Chronicler, and the son of\nSirach, in pronouncing upon him a high eulogy, and making him equal\neven to David in faithfulness. There is, however, much difference in\nthe method of their descriptions of his doings. The historian devotes\nbut one verse to his reformation--which probably began early in his\nreign, though it occupied many years. The Chronicler, on the other\nhand, in his three chapters manages to overlook, if not to suppress,\nthe one incident of the reformation which is of the deepest interest.\nIt is exactly one of those suppressions which help to create the deep\nmisgiving as to the historic exactness of this biassed and late\nhistorian. It must be regarded as doubtful whether many of the Levitic\ndetails in which he revels are or are not intended to be literally\nhistoric. Imaginative additions to literal history became common among\nthe Jews after the Exile, and leaders of that day instinctively drew\nthe line between moral homiletics and literal history. It may be\nperfectly historical that, as the Chronicler says, Hezekiah opened and\nrepaired the Temple; gathered the priests and the Levites together,\nand made them cleanse themselves; offered a solemn sacrifice;\nreappointed the musical services; and--though this can hardly have\nbeen till after the Fall of Samaria in 722--invited all the Israelites\nto a solemn, but in some respects irregular, passover of fourteen\ndays. It may be true also that he broke up the idolatrous altars in\nJerusalem, and tossed their _d\u00e9bris_ into the Kidron; and (again after\nthe deportation of Israel) destroyed some of the _bamoth_ in Israel as\nwell as in Judah. If he reinstituted the courses of the priests, the\ncollection of tithes, and all else that he is said to have done,[481]\nhe accomplished quite as much as was effected in the reign of his\ngreat-grandson Josiah. But while the Chronicler dwells on all this at\nsuch length, what induces him to omit the most significant fact of\nall--the destruction of the brazen serpent?\n\nThe historian tells us that Hezekiah \"removed the _bamoth_\"--the\nchapels on the high places, with their ephods and teraphim--whether\ndedicated to the worship of Jehovah or profaned by alien idolatry.\nThat he did, or attempted, something of this kind seems certain; for\nthe Rabshakeh, if we regard his speech as historical in its details,\nactually taunted him with impiety, and threatened him with the wrath\nof Jehovah on this very account. Yet here we are at once met with the\nmany difficulties with which the history of Israel abounds, and which\nremind us at every turn that we know much less about the inner life\nand religious conditions of the Hebrews than we might infer from a\nsuperficial study of the historians who wrote so many centuries after\nthe events which they describe. Over and over again their incidental\nnotices reveal a condition of society and worship which violently\ncollides with what seems to be their general estimate. Who, for\ninstance, would not infer from this notice that in Judah, at any rate,\nthe king's suppression of the \"high places,\" and above all of those\nwhich were idolatrous, had been tolerably thorough? How much, then,\nare we amazed to find that Hezekiah had not effectually desecrated\neven the old shrines which Solomon had erected to Ashtoreth, Chemosh,\nand Milcom[482] \"at the right hand of the mount of corruption\"--in\nother words, on one of the peaks of the Mount of Olives, in full view\nof the walls of Jerusalem and of the Temple Hill!\n\n\"And he brake the images,\" or, as the R.V. more correctly renders it,\n\"the pillars,\" the _matstseboth_. Originally--that is, before the\nappearance of the Deuteronomic and the Priestly Codes--no objection\nseems to have been felt to the erection of a _matstsebah_. Jacob erected\none of these _baitulia_ or anointed stones at Bethel, with every sign of\nDivine approval.[483] Moses erected twelve round his altar at\nSinai.[484] Joshua erected them in Shechem and on Mount Ebal. Hosea, in\none passage (iii. 4), seems to mention pillars, ephods, and teraphim as\nlegitimate objects of desire. Whether they have any relation to\nobelisks, and what is their exact significance, is uncertain; but they\nhad become objects of just suspicion in the universal tendency to\nidolatry, and in the deepening conviction that the second commandment\nrequired a far more rigid adherence than it had hitherto received.\n\n\"And cut down the groves\"--or rather the Asherim, the wooden, and\nprobably in some instances phallic, emblems of the nature-goddess\nAsherah, the goddess of fertility.[485] She is sometimes identified with\nAstarte, the goddess of the moon and of love; but there is no\nsufficient ground for the identification. Some, indeed, doubt whether\nAsherah is the name of a goddess at all. They suppose that the word only\nmeans a consecrated pole or pillar, emblematic of the sacred tree.[486]\n\nThen comes the startling addition, \"And brake in pieces the brazen\nserpent that Moses had made: _for unto those days the children of\nIsrael did burn incense to it_.\" This addition is all the more\nsingular because the Hebrew tense implies habitual worship. The story\nof the brazen serpent of the wilderness is told in Num. xxi. 9; but\nnot an allusion to it occurs anywhere, till now--some eight centuries\nlater--we are told that up to this time the children of Israel had\nbeen in the habit of burning incense to it! Comparing Num. xxi. 4,\nwith xxxiii. 42, we find that the scene of the serpent-plague of the\nExodus was either Zalmonah (\"the place of the image\") or Punon, which\nBochart connects with Phainoi, a place mentioned as famous for\ncopper-mines.[487] Moses, for unknown reasons, chose it as an innocent\nand potent symbol; but obviously in later days it subserved, or was\nmingled with, the tendency to ophiolatry, which has been fatally\ncommon in all ages in many heathen lands. It is indeed most difficult\nto understand a state of things in which the children of Israel\nhabitually _burned incense_ to this venerable relic, nor can we\nimagine that this was done without the cognisance and connivance of\nthe priests. Ewald makes the conjecture that the brazen _Saraph_ had\nbeen left at Zalmonah, and was an occasional object of Israelite\nadoration in pilgrimage for the purpose. There is, however, nothing\nmore extraordinary in the prevalence of serpent-worship among the Jews\nthan in the fact that, \"in the cities of Judah and the streets of\nJerusalem, we\" (the Jews), \"and our fathers, our kings, and our\nprinces, burnt incense unto the Queen of Heaven.\"[488] If this were\nthe case, the serpent may have been brought to Jerusalem in the\nidolatrous reign of Ahaz. It shows an intensity of reforming zeal, and\nan inspired insight into the reality of things, that Hezekiah should\nnot have hesitated to smash to pieces so interesting a relic of the\noldest history of his people, rather than see it abused to idolatrous\npurposes.[489] Certainly, in conduct so heroic, and hatred of idolatry\nso strong, the Puritans might well find sufficient authority for\nremoving from Westminster Abbey the images of the Virgin, which, in\ntheir opinion, had been worshipped, and before which lamps had been\nperpetually burned. If we can imagine an English king breaking to\npieces the shrine of the Confessor in the Abbey, or a French king\ndestroying the sacred ampulla of Rheims or the _goupillon_ of St.\nEligius, on the ground that many regarded them with superstitious\nreverence, we may measure the effect produced by this startling act of\nPuritan zeal on the part of Hezekiah.\n\n\"And he called it _Nehushtan_.\" If this rendering--in which our A.V. and\nR.V. follow the LXX. and the Vulgate--be correct, Hezekiah justified the\niconoclasm by a brilliant play of words.[490] The Hebrew words for \"a\nserpent\" (_nachash_) and for brass (_nechosheth_) are closely akin to\neach other; and the king showed his just estimate of the relic which had\nbeen so shamefully abused by contemptuously designating it--as it was in\nitself and apart from its sacred historic associations--\"nehushtan,\" a\nthing of brass. The rendering, however, is uncertain, for the phrase may\nbe impersonal--\"one\" or \"they\" called it Nehushtan[491]--in which case\nthe assonance had lost any ironic connotation.[492]\n\nFor this act of purity of worship, and for other reasons, the\nhistorian calls Hezekiah the best of all the kings of Judah, superior\nalike to all his predecessors and all his successors. He regarded him\nas coming up to the Deuteronomic ideal, and says that therefore \"the\nLord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth.\"\n\nThe date of this great reformation is rendered uncertain by the\nimpossibility of ascertaining the exact order of Isaiah's prophecies.\nThe most probable view is that it was gradual, and some of the king's\nmost effective measures may not have been carried out till after the\ndeliverance from Assyria. It is clear, however, that the wisdom of\nHezekiah and his counsellors began from the first to uplift Judah from\nthe degradation and decrepitude to which it had sunk under the reign of\nAhaz. The boy-king found a wretched state of affairs at his accession.\nHis father had bequeathed to him \"an empty treasury, a ruined peasantry,\nan unprotected frontier, and a shattered army\";[493] but although he was\nstill the vassal of Assyria, he reverted to the ideas of his\ngreat-grandfather Uzziah. He strengthened the city, and enabled it to\nstand a siege by improving the water-supply. Of these labours we have,\nin all probability, a most interesting confirmation in the inscription\nby Hezekiah's engineers, discovered in 1880, on the rocky walls of the\nsubterranean tunnel (_siloh_) between the spring of Gihon and the Pool\nof Siloam.[494] He encouraged agriculture, the storage of produce, and\nthe proper tendance of flocks and herds, so that he acquired wealth\nwhich dimly reminded men of the days of Solomon.\n\nThere is little doubt that he early meditated revolt from Assyria; for\nrenewed faithfulness to Jehovah had elevated the moral tone, and\ntherefore the courage and hopefulness, of the whole people. The\nForty-Sixth Psalm, whatever may be its date, expresses the invincible\nspirit of a nation which in its penitence and self-purification began\nto feel itself irresistible, and could sing:--\n\n \"God is our hope and strength,\n A very present help in trouble.\n Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved,\n Though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea.\n There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of\n God,\n The Holy City where dwells the Most High.\n God is in the midst of her; therefore shall she not be\n shaken:\n God shall help her, and that right early.\n Heathens raged and kingdoms trembled:\n He lifted His voice--the earth melted away.\n Jehovah of Hosts is with us;\n Elohim of Jacob is our refuge.\"[495]\n\nIt was no doubt the spirit of renewed confidence which led Hezekiah to\nundertake his one military enterprise--the chastisement of the\nlong-troublesome Philistines. He was entirely successful. He not only\nwon back the cities which his father had lost,[496] but he also\ndispossessed them of their own cities, even unto Gaza, which was their\nsouthernmost possession--\"from the tower of the watchman to the fenced\ncity.\"[497] There can be no doubt that this act involved an almost open\ndefiance of the Assyrian King; but if Hezekiah dreamed of independence,\nit was essential for him to be free from the raids and the menace of a\nneighbour so dangerous as Philistia, and so inveterately hostile. It is\nnot improbable that he may have devoted to this war the money which\nwould otherwise have gone to pay the tribute to Shalmaneser or Sargon,\nwhich had been continued since the date of the appeal of Ahaz to\nTiglath-Pileser II. When Sargon applied for the tribute Hezekiah refused\nit, and even omitted to send the customary present.\n\nIt is clear that in this line of conduct the king was following the\nexhortations of Isaiah. It showed no small firmness of character that\nhe was able to choose a decided course amid the chaos of contending\ncounsels. Nothing but a most heroic courage could have enabled him, at\nany period of his reign, to defy that dark cloud of Assyrian war which\never loomed on the horizon, and from which but little sufficed to\nelicit the destructive lightning-flash.\n\nThere were three permanent parties in the Court of Hezekiah, each\nincessantly trying to sway the king to its own counsels, and each\nrepresenting those counsels as indispensable to the happiness, and\neven to the existence, of the State.\n\nI. There was the Assyrian party, urging with natural vehemence that\nthe fierce northern king was as irresistible in power as he was\nterrible in vengeance. The fearful cruelties which had been committed\nat Beth-Arbel, the devastation and misery of the Trans-Jordanic\ntribes, the obliteration and deportation of the heavily afflicted\ndistricts of Zebulon, Naphtali, and the way of the sea in Galilee of\nthe nations, the already inevitable and imminent destruction of\nSamaria and her king and the whole Northern Kingdom, together with\nthat certain deportation of its inhabitants of which the fatal policy\nhad been established by Tiglath-Pileser, would constitute weighty\narguments against resistance. Such considerations would appeal\npowerfully to the panic of the despondent section of the community,\nwhich was only actuated, as most men are, by considerations of\nordinary political expediency. The foul apparition of the Ninevites,\nwhich for five centuries afflicted the nations, is now only visible to\nus in the bas-reliefs and inscriptions unearthed from their burnt\npalaces. There they live before us in their own sculptures, with their\n\"thickset, sensual figures,\" and the expression of calm and settled\nferocity on their faces, exhibiting a frightful nonchalance as they\nlook on at the infliction of diabolical atrocities upon their\nvanquished enemies. But in the eighth century before Christ they were\nvisible to all the eastern world in the exuberance of the most brutal\nparts of the nature of man. Men had heard how, a century earlier,\nAssurnazipal boasted that he had \"dyed the mountains of the Nairi with\nblood like wool\"; how he had flayed captive kings alive, and dressed\npillars with their skins; how he had walled up others alive, or\nimpaled them on stakes; how he had burnt boys and girls alive, put out\neyes, cut off hands, feet, ears, and noses, pulled out the tongues of\nhis enemies, and \"at the command of Assur his god\" had flung their\nlimbs to vultures and eagles, to dogs and bears. The Jews, too, must\nhave realised with a vividness which is to us impossible the cruel\nnature of the usurper Sargon. He is represented on his monuments as\nputting out with his own hands the eyes of his miserable captives;\nwhile, to prevent them from flinching when the spear which he holds in\nhis hand is plunged into their eye-sockets, a hook is inserted\nthrough their nose and lips and held fast with a bridle. Can we not\nimagine the pathos with which this party would depict such horrors to\nthe tremblers of Judah? Would they not bewail the fanaticism which led\nthe prophets to seduce their king into the suicidal policy of defying\nsuch a power? To these men the sole path of national safety lay in\ncontinuing to be quiet vassals and faithful tributaries of these\ndestroyers of cities and treaders-down of foes.\n\nII. Then there was the Egyptian party, headed probably by the powerful\nShebna, the chancellor.[498] His foreign name, the fact that his\nfather is not mentioned, and the question of Isaiah--\"What hast thou\nhere? and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a\nsepulchre here?\"--seem to indicate that he was by birth a foreigner,\nperhaps a Syrian.[499] The prophet, indignant at his powerful\ninterference with domestic politics, threatens him, in words of\ntremendous energy, with exile and degradation.[500] He lost his place\nof chancellor, and we next find him in the inferior, though still\nhonourable, office of secretary (_sopher_, 2 Kings xviii. 18), while\nEliakim had been promoted to his vacant place (Isa. xxii. 21). Perhaps\nhe may have afterwards repented, and the doom have been\nlightened.[501] Circumstances at any rate reduced him from the\nscornful spirit which seems to have marked his earlier opposition to\nthe prophetic counsels, and perhaps the powerful warning and menace of\nIsaiah may have exercised an influence on his mind.\n\nIII. The third party, if it could even be called a party, was that of\nIsaiah and a few of the faithful, aided no doubt by the influence of\nthe prophecies of Micah. Their attitude to both the other parties was\nantagonistic.\n\ni. As regards the Assyrian, they did not attempt to minimise the\ndanger. They represented the peril from the kingdom of Nineveh as\nGod's appointed scourge for the transgressions of Judah, as it had\nbeen for the transgressions of Israel.\n\nThus Micah sees in imagination the terrible march of the invader by\nGath, Akko, Beth-le-Aphrah, Maroth, Lachish, and Adullam. He plays with\nbitter anguish on the name of each town as an omen of humiliation and\nruin, and calls on Zion to make herself bald for the children of her\ndelight, and to enlarge her baldness as the vultures, because they are\ngone into captivity.[502] He turns fiercely on the greedy grandees, the\nfalse prophets, the blood-stained princes, the hireling priests, the\nbribe-taking soothsayers, who were responsible for the guilt which\nshould draw down the vengeance. He ends with the fearful prophecy--which\nstruck a chill into men's hearts a century later, and had an important\ninfluence on Jewish history--\"Therefore, because of you shall Zion be\nploughed as a field, and Jerusalem become ruins, and the hill of the\nTemple as heights in the wood\";--though there should be an ultimate\ndeliverance from Migdal-Eder, and a remnant should be saved.[503]\n\nSimilar to Micah's, and possibly not uninfluenced by it, is Isaiah's\nimaginary picture of the march of Assyria, which must have been full\nof terror to the poor inhabitants of Jerusalem.[504]\n\n \"He is come to Aiath!\n He is passed through Migron!\n At Michmash he layeth up his baggage:\n They are gone over the pass:\n 'Geba,' they cry, 'is our lodging.'\n Ramah trembleth:\n Gibeah of Saul is fled!\n Raise thy shrill cries, O daughter of Gallim!\n Hearken, O Laishah! Answer her, O Anathoth!\n Madmenah is in wild flight (?).\n The inhabitants of Gebim gather their stuff to flee.\n This very day shall he halt at Nob.\n He shaketh his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion,\n The hill of Jerusalem.\"\n\nYet Isaiah, and the little band of prophets, in spite of their perils,\ndid _not_ share the views of the Assyrian party or counsel submission.\nOn the contrary, even as they contemplate in imagination this terrific\nmarch of Sargon, they threaten Assyria. The Assyrian might smite Judah,\nbut God should smite the Assyrians. He boasts that he will rifle the\nriches of the people as one robs the eggs of a trembling bird, which\ndoes not dare to cheep or move the wing.[505] But Isaiah tells him that\nhe is but the axe boasting against the hewer, and the wooden staff\nlifting itself up against its wielder. Burning should be scattered over\nhis glory. The Lord of hosts should lop his boughs with terror, and a\nmighty one should hew down the crashing forest of his haughty Lebanon.\n\nii. Still more indignant were the true prophets against those who\ntrusted in an alliance with Egypt. From first to last Isaiah warned\nAhaz, and warned Hezekiah, that no reliance was to be placed on\nEgyptian promises--that Egypt was but like the reed of his own Nile.\nHe mocked the hopes placed on Egyptian intervention as being no less\nsure of disannulment than a covenant with death and an agreement with\nSheol. This rebellious reliance on the shadow of Egypt was but the\nweaving of an unrighteous web, and the adding of sin to sin. It should\nlead to nothing but shame and confusion, and the Jewish ambassadors to\nZoan and Egypt should only have to blush for a people that could\nneither help nor profit. And then branding Egypt with the old\ninsulting name of Rahab, or \"Blusterer,\" he says,--\n\n \"Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose.\n Therefore have I called her 'Rahab, that sitteth still.'\"\n\nIndolent braggart--that was the only designation which she deserved!\nIntrigue and braggadocio--smoke and lukewarm water,--this was all\nwhich could be expected from _her_![506]\n\nSuch teaching was eminently distasteful to the worldly politicians,\nwho regarded faith in Jehovah's intervention as no better than\nridiculous fanaticism, and forgot God's wisdom in the inflated\nself-satisfaction of their own. The priests--luxurious, drunken,\nscornful--were naturally with them. Men were fine and stylish, and in\ntheir religious criticisms could not express too lofty a contempt for\nany one who, like Isaiah, was too sincere to care for the mere\npolishing of phrases, and too much in earnest to shrink from\nreiteration. In their self-indulgent banquets these sleek, smug\neuphemists made themselves very merry over Isaiah's simplicity,\nreiteration, and directness of expression. With hiccoughing insolence\nthey asked whether they were to be treated like weaned babes; and then\nwagging their heads, as their successors did at Christ upon the cross,\nthey indulged themselves in a mimicry, which they regarded as witty,\nof Isaiah's style and manner. With him they said it is all,--\n\n \"Tsav-la-tsav, tsav-la-tsav,\n Quav-la-quav, quav-la-quav,\n Z'eir sham, Z'eir sham!\"--\n\nwhich may be imitated thus:--With him it is always \"Bit and bit, bid\nand bid, for-bid and for-bid, for_bid_ and for_bid_, a lit-tle bit\nhere, a lit-tle bit there.\"[507] Monosyllable is heaped on\nmonosyllable; and no doubt the speakers tipsily adopted the tones of\nfond mothers addressing their babes and weanlings. Using the Hebrew\nwords, one of these shameless roysterers would say, \"_Tsav-la-tsav,\ntsav-la-tsav, quav-la-quav, quav-la-quav, Z'eir sham, Z'eir\nsham_,--that is how that simpleton Isaiah speaks.\" And then doubtless\na drunken laugh would go round the table, and half a dozen of them\nwould be saying thus, \"_Tsav-la-tsav, tsav-la-tsav_,\" at once. They\nderided Isaiah just as the philosophers of Athens derided St. Paul--as\na mere _spermologos_, \"a seed-pecker!\"[508] or \"picker-up of\nlearning's crumbs.\" Is all this petty monosyllabism fit teaching for\npersons like us? Are we to be taught by copybooks? Do we need the\ncensorship of this Old Morality?\n\nOn whom, full of the fire of God, Isaiah turned, and told these\nscornful tipsters, who lorded it over God's heritage in Jerusalem,\nthat, since they disdained his stammerings, God would teach them by\nmen of strange lips and alien tongue. They might mimic the style of\nthe Assyrians also if they liked; but they should fall backward, and\nbe broken, and snared, and taken.[509]\n\nIt must not be forgotten that the struggle of the prophets against these\nparties was far more severe than we might suppose. The politicians of\nexpediency had supporters among the leading princes. The priests--whom\nthe prophets so constantly and sternly denounce--adhered to them; and,\nas usual, the women were all of the priestly party (comp. Isa. xxxii.\n9-20). The king, indeed, was inclined to side with his prophet, but the\nking was terribly overshadowed by a powerful and worldly aristocracy, of\nwhich the influence was almost always on the side of luxury, idolatry,\nand oppression.\n\niii. But what had Isaiah to offer in the place of the policy of these\nworldly and sacerdotal advisers of the king? It was the simple command\n\"Trust in the Lord.\" It was the threefold message \"God is high; God\nis near; God is Love.\"[510] Had he not told Ahaz not to fear the\n\"stumps of two smouldering torches,\" when Rezin and Pekah seemed\nawfully dangerous to Judah? So he tells them now that, though their\nsins had necessitated the rushing stroke of Assyrian judgment, Zion\nshould not be utterly destroyed. In Isaiah \"the calmness requisite for\nsagacity rose from faith.\" Mr. Bagehot might have appealed to Isaiah's\nwhole policy in illustration of what he has so well described as the\nmilitary and political benefits of religion. Monotheism is of\nadvantage to men not only \"by reason of the high concentration of\nsteady feeling which it produces, but also for the mental calmness and\nsagacity which surely springs from a pure and vivid conviction that\nthe Lord reigneth.\"[511] Isaiah's whole conviction might have been\nsummed up in the name of the king himself: \"Jehovah maketh strong.\"\n\nKing Hezekiah, apparently not a man of much personal force, though of\nsincere piety, was naturally distracted by the counsels of these three\nparties: and who can judge him severely if, beset with such terrific\ndangers, he occasionally wavered, now to one side, now to the other?\nOn the whole, it is clear that he was wise and faithful, and deserves\nthe high eulogy that his faith failed not. Naturally he had not within\nhis soul that burning light of inspiration which made Isaiah so sure\nthat, even though clouds and darkness might lower on every side, God\nwas an eternal Sun, which flamed for ever in the zenith, even when not\nvisible to any eye save that of Faith.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[480] The first of these dates is highly uncertain, as is the entire\nchronology of this reign. I follow Kittel.\n\n[481] 2 Chron. xxxi. 2-21.\n\n[482] Josiah did this many years later (2 Kings xxiii. 13).\n\n[483] Gen. xxxv. 14. See Spencer, _De legg. Hebr._, i. 444; Bochart,\n_Canaan_, ii. 2.\n\n[484] Exod. xxiv. 4. Comp. Deut. vii. 5, xii. 3, xvi. 22; Lev. xxvi.\n1; 2 Chron. xiv. 3, xxxi. 1; Jer. xliii. 13; Hos. x. 2; Mic. v. 13\n(where the A.V. often has \"statue\" or \"image\"). Comp. Clem. Alex.,\n_Strom._, i. 24; Arnob., _c. Gent._, i. 39.\n\n[485] The rendering \"grove\" in the A.V. is borrowed from the \u1f04\u03bb\u03c3\u03bf\u03c2 of\nthe LXX., and the _lucus_ of the Vulgate. On the connection of the\nAsherah with the sacred tree of the Assyrian, see my article on\n\"Grove\" in Smith's _Dict. of the Bible_; and Fergusson, _Nineveh and\nPersepolis Restored_, 299-304. On the worship of Asherah, see 1 Kings\nxv. 13; 2 Kings xxi. 3-7, xxiii. 4; 2 Chron. xv. 16; Judg. iii. 5-7,\nvi. 25, xviii. 18. Baudissin in _Herzog Realencykl._, _s.v._ We may\nwell be startled by the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem revealed\nin Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxix. 11, xxx. 9, 22, etc.\n\n[486] See Wellhausen, _Hist._, 235; Stade, _Gesch. d. V. I._, 460; W.\nR. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, 171; Cheyne, _Isaiah_, ii. 303;\nRenan, _Hist. du Peuple d'Israel_, i. 230 (Prof. Driver, _Bibl.\nDict._, i. 258, 2nd edition).\n\n[487] _Hierozoicon_, ii. 3, \u00a7 13.\n\n[488] Jer. xliv. 17. In the collection of antiquities of Baron\nUstinoff at Jaffa are five or six dragon-headed serpents, with ears of\ncopper and hollow inside. They are ancient, and were perhaps used as\ntalismanic copies of Nehushtan.\n\n[489] If this was a genuine relic, it must have been nearly eight\nhundred years old. It is never mentioned elsewhere.\n\n[490] \u05e0\u05b0\u05d7\u05bb\u05e9\u05c1\u05ea\u05b8\u05bc\u05df, \"a brazen thing.\" The king certainly showed a horror\nof sacerdotal imposture and religious materialism. Yet Renan argues,\nfrom Isa. x. 11, xxvii. 9, xxx. 9, 22, that he must have had a certain\namount of tolerance. See _Hist. du Peuple d'Israel_, iii. 30.\n\n[491] 2 Kings xviii. 4. _Vayyikra_ is like the English indefinite\nplural. The impersonal rendering (as in other passages) is adopted in\nthe Targum of Jonathan, the Peshito, etc., and by Luther, Bunsen,\nEwald, and most moderns.\n\n[492] This relic is still shown in the Church of St. Ambrose at Milan.\nIt used to be the popular notion that it would hiss at the end of the\nworld. The history of the Milan \"relic\" is that a Milanese envoy to\nthe court of the Emperor John Zimisces at Constantinople chose it from\nthe imperial treasures, being assured that it was made of the same\nmetal that Hezekiah had broken up (Sigonius, _Hist. Regn. Ital._,\nvii.). It is probably a symbol used by some ophite sect. See Dean\nPlumptre, _Dict. of Bibl._, _s.v._ \"Serpent.\"\n\n[493] 2 Kings xvi. 8; Driver, _Isaiah_, 68.\n\n[494] The diverting of the water-courses enabled him to bring the water\ninto the city by a subterranean tunnel. The Saracens took a similar\nprecaution (Gul. Tyr., viii. 7). See Appendix II., where the inscription\nis given; and compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. Apparently it carried the\nwater of Gihon to the south-east gate, where were the king's gardens.\nEcclus. xlviii. 17: \"Ezekias fortified his city, and brought in water\ninto the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made\nwells for water.\" For \"water\" the MSS. read \"Gog,\" a corruption probably\nfor \u1f00\u03b3\u03c9\u03b3\u1f78\u03bd, \"a conduit\" (Geiger) or \"Gihon\" (Fritzsche).\n\n[495] Psalm xlvi. 1-11.\n\n[496] 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.\n\n[497] 2 Kings xviii. 8: comp. xvii. 9. Josephus says that he failed to\ntake Gath (_Antt._, IX. xiii. 3).\n\n[498] A.V., \"treasurer\" (_soken_; lit., \"deputy\" or \"associate\": Isa.\nxxii. 15). He was \"over the household.\" The Egyptian alliance had for\nJudah, as Renan points out, some of the fascination that a Russian\nalliance has often had for troubled spirits in France (_Hist. du\nPeuple d'Israel_, iii. 12).\n\n[499] Renan says that he may have been a Sebennyite, and his name\nSebent.\n\n[500] Isa. xxii. 17, 18: \"Behold, the Lord shall sling and sling, and\npack and pack, and toss and toss thee away like a ball into a distant\nland; and there thou shalt die\" (Stanley). The versions vary\nconsiderably.\n\n[501] Isa. xxxvii. 2. There can be little doubt that there were not\n_two_ Shebnas.\n\n[502] Mic. i. 10-16. See the writer's _Minor Prophets_ (\"Men of the\nBible\" Series), pp. 130-133, for an explanation of this enigmatic\nprophecy.\n\n[503] Jer. xxvi. 8-24. He tells us that the prophecy was delivered in\nthe reign of Hezekiah. See my _Minor Prophets_, pp. 123-140.\n\n[504] Isa. x. 28-32. It would involve a cross-country route over\nseveral deep ravines--_e.g._, the Wady Suweinit, near Michmash. In 1\nSam. xiv. 2, Thenius, for \"Migron,\" reads \"the Precipice.\" Some take\nAiath for Ai, three miles south of Bethel. Renan says (_Hist. du\nPeuple d'Israel_, iii.): \"Nom d'Anathoth, arrang\u00e9 symboliquement.\"\n\n[505] Isa. x. 14. The metaphor of a bird's nest occurs more than once\nin the boastful Assyrian records.\n\n[506] Isa. xxx. 1-7. Rahab means \"fierceness,\" \"insolence.\" For the\nvarious uses of the word, see Job xxvi. 12; Isa. li. 9, 10, 15; Psalm\nlxxxix. 9, 10, lxxxvii. 4, 5.\n\n[507] See Dr. S. Cox (_Expositor_, i. 98-104) on Isa. xxviii. 7-13.\n\n[508] Acts xvii. 18.\n\n[509] Isa. xxviii. 7-22.\n\n[510] Professor Smith, _Isaiah_, i. 12.\n\n[511] Bagehot, _Physics and Politics_, p. 73; Smith, _Isaiah_, 109.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI\n\n _HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS, AND THE EMBASSY FROM\n BABYLON_\n\n 2 KINGS xx. 1-19\n\n \"Thou hast loved me out of the pit of nothingness.\"--ISA. xxxviii.\n 17 (A.V., margin).\n\n \"See the shadow of the dial\n In the lot of every one\n Marks the passing of the trial,\n Proves the presence of the Sun.\"\n E. B. BROWNING.\n\n\nIn the chaos of uncertainties which surrounds the chronology of King\nHezekiah's reign, it is impossible to fix a precise date to the\nsickness which almost brought him to the grave. It has, however, been\nconjectured by some Assyriologists that the story of this episode has\nbeen displaced, because it seemed to break the continuity of the\nnarrative of the Assyrian invasion; and that, though it is placed in\nthe Book of Kings after the deliverance from Sennacherib, it really\nfollowed the earlier incursion of Sargon. This is rendered more\nprobable by Isaiah's promise (2 Kings xx. 6), \"I will deliver thee and\nthis city out of the hand of the King of Assyria,\" and by the fact\nthat Hezekiah still possessed such numerous and splendid treasures to\ndisplay to the ambassadors of Merodach-Baladan. This could hardly have\nbeen the case after he had been forced to pay a fine to the King of\nAssyria of all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and\nin the treasures of the king's house, to cut off the gold from the\ndoors and pillars of the Temple, and even to send as captives to\nNineveh some of his wives, and of the eunuchs of his palace.[512] The\ndate \"in those days\" (2 Kings xx. 1) is vague and elastic, and may\napply to any time before or after the great invasion.\n\nHe was sick unto death. The only indication which we have of the\nnature of his illness is that it took the form of a carbuncle or\nimposthume,[513] which could be locally treated, but which, in days of\nvery imperfect therapeutic knowledge, might easily end in death,\nespecially if it were on the back of the neck. The conjecture of\nWitsius and others that it was a form of the plague which they suppose\nto have caused the disaster to the Assyrian army has nothing whatever\nto recommend it.\n\nSeeing the fatal character of his illness, Isaiah came to the king\nwith the dark message, \"Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die,\nand not live.\"\n\nThe message is interesting as furnishing yet another proof that even\nthe most positive announcements of the prophets were, and were always\nmeant to be, to some extent hypothetical and dependent on unexpressed\nconditions. This was the case with the famous prophecy of Micah that\nZion should be ploughed down into a heap of ruins. It was never\nfulfilled; yet the prophet lost none of his authority, for it was well\nunderstood that the doom which would otherwise have been carried out\nhad been averted by timely penitence.\n\nBut the message of Isaiah fell with terrible anguish on the heart of\nthe suffering king. He had hoped for a better fate. He had begun a\ngreat religious reformation. He had uplifted his people, at least in\npart, out of the moral slough into which they had fallen in the days\nof his predecessor. He had inspired into his threatened capital\nsomething of his own faith and courage. Surely he, if any man, might\nclaim the old promises which Jehovah in His loving-kindness and truth\nhad sworn to his father David and his father Abraham, that he being\ndelivered out of the hand of his enemies should serve God without\nfear, walking in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of\nhis life. He was but a young man still--perhaps not yet thirty years\nold; further, not only would he leave behind him an unfinished work,\nbut he was childless,[514] and therefore it seemed as if with him\nwould end the direct line of the house of David, heir to so many\nprecious promises. He has left us--it is preserved in the Book of\nIsaiah--the poem which he wrote on his recovery, but which enshrines\nthe emotion of his agonising anticipations[515]:--\n\n \"I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of\n Sheol.\n I am deprived of the residue of my years.\n I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah, in the land of the living,\n I shall behold no man more, when I am among them that cease to be.\n Mine habitation is removed, and is carried away from me like a\n shepherd's tent.\n Like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he will cut me from the\n thrum.\n\n * * * * *\n\n Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter;\n I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward.\n O Lord, I am oppressed; be Thou my surety.\"\n\nWe must remember, as we contemplate his utter prostration of soul,\nthat he was not blessed, as we are, with the sure and certain hope of\nthe resurrection to eternal life. All was dim and dark, to him in the\nshadowy world of _eidola_ beyond the grave, and many a century was to\nelapse before Christ brought life and immortality to light. To enter\nSheol meant to Hezekiah to pass beyond the cheerful sunshine of earth\nand the felt presence of God. No more worship, no more gladness there!\n\n \"For Sheol cannot praise Thee, Death cannot celebrate Thee;\n They that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.\"\n\nOn every ground, therefore, the feelings of Hezekiah, had he not been a\nworshipper of God, might have been like those of Mycerinus, and, like\nthat legendary Egyptian king, he might have cursed God before he died.\n\n \"My father loved injustice, and lived long;\n I loved the good he scorned and hated wrong--\n The gods declare my recompense to-day.\n I looked for life more lasting, rule more high;\n And when six years are measured, lo, I die!\n Yet surely, O my people, did I ween\n Man's justice from the all-just gods was given,\n A light that from some upper point did beam,\n Some better archetype whose seat was heaven:\n A light that, shining from the blest abodes,\n Did shadow somewhat of the life of gods.\"\n\nThe indignation of Mycerinus often finds an echo on Pagan tombstones,\nas in the famous epitaph on the grave of the girl Procope:--\n\n \"I, Procope, lift up my hands against the gods,\n Who took me hence undeserving,\n Aged nineteen years.\"\n\nIt was far otherwise with Hezekiah. There was anguish in his heart,\nbut no rebellion or defiance. He wept sore; he turned his face to the\nwall and wept;[516] but as he wept he also prayed, and said,--\n\n\"O Lord, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with\na perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight.\"\n\nIsaiah, after delivering his dark message, and doubtless adding to it\nsuch words of human consolation as were possible--if under such\ncircumstances any were possible--had left the king's chamber. On every\nground his feelings must have been almost as overwhelmed with sorrow as\nthose of the king. Hezekiah was personally his friend, and the hope of\nhis nation. Doubtless the prophet's prayers rose as fervently and as\neffectually as those of Luther, which snatched his friend Melanchthon\nback from the very gates of death. By the time that he had reached the\nmiddle of the court,[517] he felt borne in upon him, by that Divine\nintuition which constituted his prophetic call, the certainty that God\nwould withdraw the immediate doom which he had been commissioned to\nannounce. It has been conjectured by some that the conviction was\ndeepened in his mind by observing on the steps of Ahaz one of those\nremarkable but rare effects of refraction--or, as some have conjectured,\nof a solar eclipse, involving an obscuration of the upper limb of the\nsun--which had seemed to take the advancing shadow ten steps backwards;\nand that this was to him a sign from heaven of the promise of God and\nthe prolongation of the king's life. Awestruck and glad, he hastened\nback into the presence of the dying king with the life-giving message\nthat God had heard his prayer, and seen his tears, and would add fifteen\nyears to his life, and would defend him, and deliver him and Jerusalem\nout of the hand of the King of Assyria. And this should be the sign to\nhim from Jehovah--Jehovah would bring again the shadow ten steps up the\nstairs of Ahaz. To this sign--if it was visible from the\nchamber-window--he called the attention of the astonished king.[518]\n\nWe here naturally follow the narrative of Isaiah himself, as more\nauthoritative than that of the historian of the Kings as to details in\nwhich they differ.[519] Not only is it quite in accordance with all\nthat we know of history that slight variations should occur in the\ntraditions of long-past times, but the text of the Book of Kings\nsuggests some difficulty. There we read that Hezekiah asked Isaiah\nwhat should be the sign of the promise--not mentioned in Isaiah--that\nhe should go up to the House of the Lord the third day. Isaiah then\nasked him whether the sign should be that the shadow should advance\nten steps, or recede ten steps. But there is no interrogation in the\nHebrew, which rather means, \"The shadow hath advanced ten steps ... if\nit shall recede ten steps?\" or if we insert the interrogation in the\nfirst clause, \"Hath the shadow advanced ten steps?\"[520] The king's\nnatural answer to so strange an alternative would be that for the\nshadow to advance ten steps was nothing; whereas its retrogression\nwould be a sign indeed. Then Isaiah cried unto Jehovah, and the shadow\nwent backward. In the obvious divergence of details we naturally\nfollow Isaiah himself; and if it be a true and understood rule of all\ntheology, \"_Miracula non sunt multiplicanda pr\u00e6ter necessitatem_,\" the\nmiracle in this case--in the opportuneness of its occurrence, and the\nissues which it inspired--was none the less a miracle because it was\ncarried out in direct accordance with God's unseen, perpetual,\nmiraculous Providence, which none but unbelievers will nickname\nChance. That we are here dealing with an historic incident is certain;\nand they who see and acknowledge God in all history find no difficulty\nat all in seeing His dealings with men in striking interpositions. But\nthese, by the analogy of His whole Divine economy, would naturally be\nout in accordance with natural laws.\n\nThe words rendered \"the sun-dial of Ahaz\" mean no more than \"the steps\n[_ma'aloth_] of Ahaz.\" Ahaz evidently was a king of \u00e6sthetic tastes,\nwho was fond of introducing foreign novelties and curiosities into\nJerusalem.[521] Steps, with a staff on the top of them as a gnomon, to\nserve as sun-dials had been invented at Babylon, and Ahaz may probably\nhave become acquainted with their form and use when he paid his visit to\nTiglath-Pileser at Damascus. No one could blame him--it was indeed a\nmeritorious act--to introduce to his people so useful an invention. The\nword \"hour\" first occurs in Dan. iii. 6, and it was doubtless from\nBabylon that the Hebrews borrowed the division of days into hours. This\nis the earliest instance in the Bible of the mention of any instrument\nto measure time. That the recession of the shadow could be caused by\nrefraction is certain, for it has been observed in modern days. Thus, as\nis mentioned by Rosenm\u00fcller, on March 27th, 1703, P\u00e8re Romauld, prior of\nthe monastery at Metz, noticed that the shadow on his dial deviated an\nhour and a half, owing to refraction in the higher regions of the\natmosphere.[522] Or again, according to Mr. Bosanquet, the same effect\nmight have been produced by the darkening shadow of an eclipse. But\nwhile he appealed to Divine indications the great prophet did not\nneglect natural remedies. He ordered that a cake of figs should be laid\non the imposthume. It was a recognised and an efficient remedy, still\nrecommended, centuries later, by Dioscorides, by Pliny, and by St.\nJerome. By God's blessing on man's therapeutic care, the king was\nspeedily rescued from the gates of death. Constantly in Scripture what\nwe call the miraculous and what we call the providential are mingled\ntogether. To those who regard the providential as a constant miracle,\nthe question of the miraculous becomes subordinate.[523]\n\nWith intense joy and gratitude the king hailed the respite which God\nhad granted him. In fifteen years much might be done, much might be\nhoped for. All this he acknowledged with deep feeling in the song\nwhich he wrote on his recovery.\n\n \"I shall go as in solemn procession[524] all my years because of the\n bitterness of my soul.\n O Lord, by these things men live,\n And wholly therein is the life of my spirit.\n Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness;\n But Thou hast loved my soul from the pit of nothingness:\n For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back.\n\n * * * * *\n\n The Lord is ready to save me;\n Therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments\n All the days of our life in the house of the Lord.\"[525]\n\n\"The wonder done in the land\" was, according to the Chronicler, one of\nthe grounds for the embassy which, after his recovery, Hezekiah\nreceived from Merodach-Baladan, the patriot prince of Babylon. The\nother ostensible object of the embassy was to send letters and a\npresent in congratulation for the king's restoration to health. But\nthe real object lay deeper, out of sight. It was to secure a southern\nalliance for Babylon against the incessant tyranny of Nineveh.\n\nMerodach-Baladan is mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon.[526] He\nis described as \"Merodach-Baladan, son of Baladan, King of Sum\u00eer and\nAccad, king of the four countries, and conqueror of all his enemies.\"\nThere had been long struggles, lasting indeed for centuries, between\nthe city on the Euphrates and the city on the Tigris. Sometimes one,\nsometimes the other, had been victorious. Babylon--on the monuments\nKur-Dunyash--had its original Accadian name of Ca-dinirra, which, like\nits Semitic equivalent Bal-el, means \"Gate of God.\" Kalah (Larissa and\nBirs Nimroud) had been built by Shalmaneser I. before B.C. 1300. His\nson conquered Babylon, but not permanently; for in some later raid the\nBabylonians got possession of his signet-ring, with its proud\ninscription, \"Conqueror of Kur-Dunyash,\" and it was not recovered by\nthe Assyrians till six centuries later, when it fell into the hands of\nSennacherib. About 1150 Nebuchadrezzar I. of Babylon thrice invaded\nAssyria, but there was again peace and alliance in 1100.\nMerodach-Baladan I. reigned before 900. The king who now sought the\nfriendship of Hezekiah was the second of the name. He seized or\nrecovered the throne of Babylon in 721, after the death of\nShalmaneser, perhaps because Sargon was a usurper of dubious descent.\nHe helped the Elamites against Assyria. Sargon was compelled to\nretreat to Assyria, but returned in 712, and drove Merodach-Baladan to\nflight. He was captured and taken to Assyria. But on the murder of\nSargon in 705, he again managed to seize the throne of Babylon, killed\nthe viceroy who had been set up, and became king for six months. After\nthis, Sennacherib invaded his country, defeated him, and drove him\nonce more to flight. He was perhaps killed by his successor.\n\nWhether his overtures to Hezekiah took place before his defeat by\nSargon, or after his escape, is uncertain. In either case he doubtless\nsent a splendid embassy, for Babylon was far-famed for its golden\nmagnificence as \"the glory of kingdoms\" and \"the beauty of the\nChaldees' excellency.\"[527] At that time the Jews knew but little of\nthe far-off city which was destined to be so closely interwoven with\ntheir future fortunes, as it was mingled with their oldest and dimmest\ntraditions.[528] Apart from the magnificence of the presents brought\nto him, it was not unnatural that Hezekiah should regard this embassy\nwith intense satisfaction. It was flattering to the power of his\nlittle kingdom that its alliance should be sought by the far-off and\npowerful capital on the great river;[529] it was still more\nencouraging to know that the frightful Nineveh had a strong enemy not\nfar from her own frontier. Merodach-Baladan's ambassadors would be\nsure to inform Hezekiah that their lord had flung off the authority of\nSargon, had kept him at bay for many years, and was still the\nundisputed king of the dominions snatched from the common enemy. It\nmight have seemed reasonable that Hezekiah, for his part, should\ndesire to leave the most favourable impression of his wealth and power\non the mind of his distant and magnificent ally. He \"hearkened unto\"\nthe ambassadors, or, more properly, \"he was glad of them\" (R.V.),[530]\nand \"showed them all the house of his spicery and other treasures, his\nprecious unguents, his armoury, his bullion, plate, and the whole\nresources of his kingdom.\" The Chronicler regards this as ingratitude\nto God. He says that \"Hezekiah rendered not again according unto the\nbenefits done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there\nwas wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.\" It is a severe\njudgment of later times, and the historian of the Kings pronounces no\nsuch censure. Nevertheless, he records the stern sentence pronounced\nby Isaiah. The prophet had seen through the secret diplomacy of the\nBabylonian ambassadors, and knew that the real object of their mission\nwas to induce his king to revolt against Assyria in reliance on an arm\nof flesh. He came to ask Hezekiah whose these men were, whence they\ncame, and what they had said. The king told him who they were, and how\nhe had received them; but he did not think it wise to reveal their\nsecret proposals. If Isaiah had so vehemently reproved all\nnegotiations with Egypt, there was little probability that he would\nsanction the overtures of Babylon. He saw in Hezekiah's conduct a vein\nof ostentatious elation, a swerving from theocratic faith; and with\nremarkable prophetic insight convinced the king of the error and\nimpolicy of his proceedings, by announcing that the final and, in\nfact, irrevocable captivity of Judah would ultimately come, not from\nNineveh, the fierce enemy, whose cloud of war was lurid on the\nhorizon, but from Babylon, the apparently weaker friend, who was now\nmaking overtures of amity. With what heartrending grief must the king\nhave heard the doom that the display of his treasures would prove to\nbe in the future an incentive to the cupidity of the kings of Babylon,\nand that they would sweep away all those precious things to the banks\nof the Euphrates with such final overthrow that even the descendants\nof David should be sunk to the infinite degradation of being eunuchs\nin the palace of the King of Babylon.[531] The doom seems to have been\nfulfilled in part in the reign of Hezekiah's son, and more fearfully\nin the days of his great-grandchildren.[532]\n\nThe king's pride was humbled to the dust. In the spirit of Job--\"The\nLord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the\nLord\"[533]--he resigned himself without a murmur to the will of\nHeaven, and exclaimed that all which God did must be well done. At\nleast God granted him a respite. Peace and truth would be in his own\ndays; for that let him be thankful. They were words of humble\nresignation, uttered by one who had learnt to believe that whatever\nGod decreed was just and right.\n\nIt would be unjust to measure the feelings of those far centuries by\nthose of our own day, and there was none of the gross selfishness in\nthe words of Hezekiah which led Nero to quote the line--\n\n \"When I am dead, let earth be mixed with fire\";\n\nor which led Louis XIV. to say--\n\n \"Apr\u00e8s moi le d\u00e9luge.\"\n\nWe may perhaps trace in his exclamation something of the fatalism\nwhich gives a touch of apathy to the submissiveness of the Oriental.\nSome, too, have imagined that his distress was tinged by a gleam of\nhappiness at the implicit promise that he should have a son. His\nwife's name was Hephzibah (\"My delight is in her\"), and within two\nyears she brought forth the firstborn son, whose career, indeed, was\ndark and evil, but who became in due time an ancestor of the promised\nMessiah. The name \"Manasseh\" given him by his parents recalled the\nchild born to Joseph in the land of his exile who had caused him to\nforget his sorrows.[534] Hezekiah had the spirit which says,--\n\n \"That which Thou blessest is most good,\n And unblest good is ill;\n And all is right which seems most wrong,\n So it be Thy sweet will.\"\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[512] One of the first to point out the _necessary_ rearrangement of\nthe events of Hezekiah's reign was Dr. Hincks, in his paper on \"A\nRectification of Chronology which the newly discovered Apis-st\u00eal\u00eas\nrender necessary\" (_Journ. of Sacred Lit._, October 1858). See my\narticle on Hezekiah, Smith, _Dict. of the Bible_, 2nd ed., ii. 1251.\n\n[513] Heb., _sh'ch\u00een_; LXX., \u1f15\u03bb\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2; Vulg., _ulcus_.\n\n[514] The Rabbis even make his sickness the punishment for his having\nneglected to secure an heir. He pleads that he foresaw the wickedness\nof his son. Isaiah tells him not to try to forestall God (_Berachoth_,\nf. 10, 1).\n\n[515] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.\n\n[516] Comp. 1 Kings xxi. 4 (Ahab).\n\n[517] 2 Kings xx. 4. The _Q'r\u00ee_ or \"read\" text is, as here rendered,\n_chatsee_ (comp. 1 Kings vii. 8), and is followed by the LXX. ( \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7\n\u03b1\u1f50\u03bb\u1fc7 \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u1fc3), by the Vulgate (_mediam partem atrii_), and by the A.V.\nThe R.V., which adopts the Keth\u00eeb or written text, _ha'\u00eer_, renders it\n\"the middle part of the city.\" If this be the true reading, it would\nmean that Isaiah had gone some distance from the palace, and was now\nperhaps in the Valley between the Upper and the Lower City. But it\nseems not improbable that (1) \"the steps of Ahaz\" would be in the\nroyal court, and (2) the answer of God, like the mercy of Christ to\nthe suffering, may have come promptly as an echo to the appealing cry.\n\n[518] The LXX. calls \"the stairs\" \u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1\u03b8\u03bc\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03bf\u1f34\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03cc\u03c2 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c5,\nand so, too, Josephus (_Antt._, X. ii. 1). The Targum calls them \"an\nhour-stone.\" Symmachus has, \u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03ad\u03c8\u03c9 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03c3\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f25 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03b2\u03b7 \u1f10\u03bd\n\u1f61\u03c1\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03af\u1ff3 \u1f08\u03c7\u03ac\u03b6.\n\n[519] It should, however, be observed that on the question of priority\ncritics are divided. Grotius, Vitringa, Paulus, Drechsler, etc.,\nthought that the account in the Book of Isaiah is the original; De\nWette, Maurer, Koster, Winer, Driver, etc., regard that account as a\nlater abbreviation, perhaps from a common source.\n\n[520] See Professor Lumby, _ad loc._\n\n[521] There is an exactly similar sun-dial not far from Delhi.\n\n[522] _Journ. of Asiatic Soc._, xv. 286-293.\n\n[523] Figs have a recognised use for imposthumes. See Dioscorides and\nPliny quoted in Celsius, _Hierobot._, ii. 373. In the passage of\n_Berachoth_ quoted above, Hezekiah in his sickness asks Isaiah to give\nhim his daughter in marriage, that he may have an heir. Isaiah replies\nthat the decree of his death is irrevocable. The king bids Isaiah\ndepart, and says (quoting Job xiii. 15) that a man must not despair,\neven if a sword is laid on his neck.\n\n[524] Comp. Psalm xlii. 4.\n\n[525] Isa. xxxviii. 10-20.\n\n[526] The Babylonian form of his name is Marduk-habal-iddi-na--_i.e._,\n\"Merodach gave a son.\" He is the Mardokempados of the _Ptolemaic\nCanon_, and the second fragment of his reign (six months) is mentioned\nby Polyhistor (_ap._ Euseb.). Josephus calls him Baladan (_Antt._, X.\nii. 2). He was originally the prince of the Chald\u00e6an _Bit Yak\u00eem_.\nSargon calls him \"Merodach-Baladan, the foe, the perverse, who,\ncontrary to the will of the great gods, ruled as king at Babylon.\" He\ndisplaced him for a time by \"Belibus, the son of a wise man, whom one\nhad reared like a little dog\" (as we might say \"like a tame cat\") \"in\nmy palace\" (Schrader, ii. 32). In the Assyrian records he is often\ncalled (by mistake?) \"the son of Yakim.\" For the adventures of the\nBabylonian hero, see Schrader, _K. A. T._, 213 ff., 224 ff., 227, and\nin Riehm, _Handw\u00f6rterbuch_, ii. 982.\n\n[527] Isa. xiv. 4, xiii. 19.\n\n[528] Gen. x. 10, 11, xi. 1-9.\n\n[529] Jos., _Antt._, X. ii. 2: \u03a3\u03cd\u03bc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c7\u03cc\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b5\u03ba\u03ac\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76\n\u03c6\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[530] 2 Kings xx. 13. LXX., \u1f10\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b7.\n\n[531] See Dan. i. 6.\n\n[532] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.\n\n[533] Job i. 21.\n\n[534] Manasseh seems to mean \"one who forgets.\" See Gen. xli. 51. It\nwas the name of the husband of Judith (Judith viii. 2), and is found\nin Ezra x. 30, 33.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVII\n\n _HEZEKIAH AND ASSYRIA_\n\n B.C. 701\n\n 2 KINGS xviii. 13--xix. 37.\n\n \u1f08\u03bb\u03bb' \u1f41 \u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03ce\u03c4\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u1f7a\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c7 \u1f45\u03c0\u03bb\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c2 \u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03c6\u03b7\u03bc\u03af\u03b1\u03b9\u03c2, \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70\n \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b5\u03c5\u03c7\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c1\u03c5\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c3\u03ac\u03ba\u03ba\u03bf\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03c4\u03ad\u03c4\u03b1\u03be\u03b5\u03bd.--THEODORET.\n\n \"When, sudden--how think ye the end?\n Did I say 'without friend'?\n Say rather from marge to blue marge\n The whole sky grew his targe,\n With the sun's self for visible boss,\n While an Arm ran across\n Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast,\n Where the wretch was safe pressed.\"\n BROWNING.\n\n\nAlthough during a few memorable scenes the relations of Judah with\nAssyria in the reign of Hezekiah leap into fierce light, many previous\ndetails are unfortunately left in the deepest obscurity--an obscurity\nall the more impenetrable from the lack of certain dates. It will\nperhaps help to simplify our conceptions if we first sketch what is\nknown of Assyria from the cuneiform inscriptions, and then fill up the\nsketch of those scenes which are more minutely delineated in the Book\nof Kings and in the prophecies of Isaiah.\n\nSargon--perhaps a successful general of royal blood, though he never\ncalls himself the son of any one[535]--seems to have usurped the\nthrone on the death of Shalmaneser IV., during the siege of Samaria in\nB.C. 722. He took Samaria, deported its inhabitants, and repeopled it\nfrom the Assyrian dominions. \"In their place,\" he says, in his tablets\nin the halls of his palace at Khorsabad, \"I settled the men of\ncountries conquered [by my hand].\"[536] In 720 he suppressed a futile\nattempt at revolt, headed by a pretender named Yahubid, in Hamath,\nwhich he reduced to \"a heap of ruins.\" For some years after this he\nwas occupied mainly on his northern frontiers, but he tells us that\nuntil 711 tribute continued to come in from Judah and Philistia.\nMeanwhile, these terrified and oppressed feudatories, writhing under\nthe remorseless dominion of Nineveh, naturally began to listen to the\nintrigues of Egypt, whose interest it was to create a bulwark between\nherself and the invasion of the armies which were the abhorrence of\nthe world. Under the influence of Sabaco, which gave new strength and\nunity to Egypt, she succeeded in seducing Ashdod from its allegiance\nto Sargon. Sargon at once deposed Azuri, King of Ashdod, and put his\nbrother Ahimit in his place. The Ashdodites soon after deposed Ahimit,\nand elected in his place Jaman, who was in alliance with Sabaco.[537]\nThis revolt was evidently favoured by Judah, Edom, and Moab; for\nSargon says that they, as well as the people of Philistia, \"were\nspeaking treason.\" The rebellion was crushed by Sargon's\npromptitude.[538] He tells his own tale thus:--\n\n\"In the wrath of my heart I did not divide my army, and I did not\ndiminish the ranks, but I marched against Ashdod with my warriors,\nwho did not separate themselves from the traces of my sandals. I\nbesieged, I took Ashdod and Gunt-Asdodim. I then re-established these\ntowns. I placed [in them] the people whom my arms had conquered, I put\nover them my lieutenant as governor. I regarded them as Assyrians, and\nthey practised obedience.\"[539]\n\nSargon does not, however, seem to have conducted this campaign in\nperson; for we read in Isa. xx. 1 that he sent his Turtan--_i.e._, his\ncommander-in-chief,[540] whose name seems to have been Zir-b\u00e2ni--to\nAshdod, who fought against it and took it. The wretched Philistines\nhad put their trust in Sabaco. \"The people,\" says Sargon, \"and their\nevil chiefs sent their presents to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a prince\nwho could not save them, and besought his alliance.\" Isaiah had for\nthree years been indicating how vain this policy was by one of those\nacted parables which so powerfully affect the Eastern mind. He had, by\nthe word of the Lord, stripped the shoes from on his feet and the\nupper robe of sackcloth from his loins, and walked, \"naked and\nbarefoot, for a sign and portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,\" to\nindicate that even thus should the people of Egypt and Ethiopia be\ncarried away as captives, naked and barefoot, by the kings of Assyria.\nEgypt was the boast of one party at Jerusalem, and Ethiopia, which had\nnow become master of Egypt under Sabaco, was their expectation; but\nIsaiah's public self-humiliation showed how utterly their hopes\nshould come to nought.[541] Before the outbreak at Ashdod, Sargon had\nsuppressed a revolt of Hanun, or Hanno, King of Gaza, and Egypt and\nAssyria first met face to face at Raphia (about B.C. 720), where\nSabaco fought in person with an Egyptian contingent, at a spot\nhalf-way between Gaza and the \"river of Egypt.\"[542] Sabaco, whom\nSargon calls \"the Sultan of Egypt\" (Siltannu Muzri), had been\ndefeated, and fled precipitately, but Sargon was not then sufficiently\nfree from other complications to advance to the Nile. The hoarded\nvengeance of Assyria was inflicted upon Egypt nearly a century later\nby Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.\n\nIn the two suppressions of revolt at Ashdod, Sargon or his Turtan must\nhave come perilously near Jerusalem, and perhaps he may have inflicted\nsufficient damage to admit of the boast that he had \"conquered\" Jud\u00e6a.\nIf so, his military vanity made him guilty of an exaggeration.\n\nFar more serious to Sargon was the revolt of Merodach-Baladan, King of\nChald\u00e6a. Babylon had always been a rival of Nineveh in the competition\nfor world-wide dominion, and for twelve years, as Sargon says,\nMerodach-Baladan had been \"sending ambassadors\"[543]--to Hezekiah among\nothers--in the patient effort to consolidate a formidable league. Elam\nand Media were with him; and at a solemn banquet, for which they had\n\"spread the carpets,\"[544] and eaten and drank, the cry had risen,\n\"Arise, ye princes! anoint the shield.\" Standing in ideal vision on his\nwatch-tower, Isaiah saw the sweeping rush of the Assyrian troops on\ntheir horses and camels on their way to Babylon. What should come of it?\nThe answer is in the words, \"Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the\nimages of her gods he [Sargon] hath broken to the ground.\" Alas! there\nis no hope from Babylon or its embassy! Would that Isaiah could have\nheld out a hope! But no, \"O my threshed one, son of my threshing-floor,\nthat which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, that\nhave I declared unto you.\"[545] And so it came to pass. The brave\nBabylonian was defeated. In 709 Sargon occupied his palace, took\nDur-yakin, to which he had fled for refuge, and made himself Lord\nParamount as far as the Persian Gulf. It was his last great enterprise.\nHe built and adorned his palaces, and looked forward to long years of\npeace and splendour; but in 705 the dagger-thrust of an assassin--a\nmalcontent of the town of Kullum--found its way to his heart; and\nSennacherib reigned in his stead.\n\nSennacherib--Sin-ahi-irba (\"Sin, the moon-god, has multiplied\nbrothers\")[546]--was one of the haughtiest, most splendid, and most\npowerful of all the kings of Assyria, though the petty state of Judah,\nrelying on her God, defied and flouted him. The son of a mighty\nconqueror, at the head of a magnificent army, he regarded himself as\nthe undisputed lord of the world.[547] Born in the purple, and bred up\nas crown prince, his primary characteristic was an overweening pride\nand arrogance, which shows itself in all his inscriptions. He calls\nhimself \"the Great King, the Powerful King, the King of the Assyrians,\nof the nations of the four regions, the diligent ruler, the favourite\nof the Great Gods, the observer of sworn faith, the guardian of law,\nthe establisher of monuments, the noble hero, the strong warrior, the\nfirst of kings, the punisher of unbelievers, the destroyer of wicked\nmen.\"[548] He was mighty both in war and peace. His warlike glories\nare attested by Herodotus, by Polyhistor, by Abydenus, by Demetrius,\nand by his own annals. His peaceful triumphs are attested by the great\npalace which he erected at Nineveh, and the magnificent series of\nsculptured slabs with which he adorned it; by his canals and\naqueducts, his gateways and embankments, his Bavian sculpture, and his\n_st\u00eal\u00ea_ at the Nahr-el-Kelb. He was a worthy successor of his father\nSargon, and of the second Tiglath-Pileser--active in his military\nenterprises, indefatigable, persevering, full of resource.[549]\n\nOn one of his bas-reliefs we see this magnificent potentate seated on\nhis throne, holding two arrows in his right hand, while his left\ngrasps the bow. A rich bracelet clasps each of his brawny arms. On his\nhead is the jewelled pyramidal crown of Assyria, with its embroidered\nlappets. His dark locks stream down over his shoulders, and the long,\ncurled beard flows over his breast. His strongly marked, sensual\nfeatures wear an aspect of unearthly haughtiness. He is clad in\nsuperbly broidered robes, and his throne is covered with rich\ntapestries, and bas-reliefs of Assyrians or captives, who, like the\nGreek caryatides, uphold its divisions with their heads and arms.\n\nYet all this glory faded into darkness, and all this colossal pride\ncrumbled into dust. Sennacherib not only died, like his father, by\nmurder, but by the murderous hands of his own sons, and after the\nshattering of all his immense pretensions--a defeated and dishonoured\nman.\n\nOne of his invasions of Jud\u00e6a occupies a large part of the Scripture\nnarrative.[550] It was the fourth time of that terrible contact\nbetween the great world-power which symbolised all that was tyrannic\nand idolatrous, and the insignificant tribe which God had chosen for\nHis own inheritance.\n\nIn the reign of Ahaz, about B.C. 732, Judah had come into collision\nwith Tiglath-Pileser II.\n\nUnder Shalmaneser IV. and Sargon, the Northern Kingdom had ceased to\nexist in 722.\n\nUnder Sargon, Judah had been harassed and humbled, and had witnessed\nthe suppression of the Philistian revolt, and of the defeat of the\npowerful Sabaco at Raphia about 720.\n\nNow came the fourth and most overwhelming calamity. If the patriots of\nJerusalem had placed any hopes in the disappearance of the ferocious\nSargon, they must speedily have recognised that he had left behind him\na no less terrible successor.\n\nSennacherib reigned apparently twenty-four years (B.C. 705-681). On\nhis accession he placed a brother, whose name is unknown, on the\nvice-regal throne of Babylon, and contented himself with the title of\nKing of the Assyrians. This brother was speedily dethroned by a\nusurper named Hagisa, who only reigned thirty days, and was then slain\nby the indefatigable Merodach-Baladan, who held the throne for six\nmonths. He was driven out by Belibus, who had been trained \"like a\nlittle dog\" in the palace of Nineveh,[551] but was now made King of\nSum\u00eer and Accad--_i.e._, of Babylonia. Sennacherib entered the palace\nof Babylon and carried off the wife of Merodach and endless spoil in\ntriumph, while Merodach fled into the land of Guzumman, and (like the\nDuke of Monmouth) hid himself \"among the marshes and reeds,\" where the\nAssyrians searched for him for five days, but found no trace of him.\nAfter three years (702-699) Belibus proved faithless, and Sennacherib\nmade his son Assur-nadin-sum viceroy of Babylon.\n\nHis second campaign was against the Medes in Northern Elam.\n\nHis third (701) was against the Khatti (the Hittites)--_i.e._, against\nPh\u0153nicia and Palestine.[552] He drove King Luli from Sidon \"by the mere\nterror of the splendour of my sovereignty,\" and placed Tubalu (_i.e._,\nIthbaal) in his place, and subdued into tributary districts Arpad,\nByblos, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom, suppressing at the same time a\nvery abortive rising in Samaria. \"All these brought rich presents and\nkissed my feet.\" He also subdued Zidka, King of Askelon, from whom he\ntook Beth-Dagon, Joppa, and other towns. Pad\u00ee, the King of Ekron, was a\nfaithful vassal of Assyria; he was therefore deposed by the revolting\nEkronites, and sent in chains into the safe custody of Hezekiah, who\n\"imprisoned him in darkness.\" The rebel states all relied on the\nEgyptians and Ethiopians. Sennacherib fought against Egyptians and\nEthiopians, \"in reliance upon Assur my God,\" at Altaqu (B.C. 701), and\nclaims to have defeated them, and carried off the sons and charioteers\nof the King of Egypt, and the charioteers of the kings of Ethiopia.[553]\nHe then tells us that he punished Altaqu and Timnath.[554] He impaled\nthe rebels of Ekron on stakes all round the city. He restored Pad\u00ee, and\nmade him a vassal. \"Hezekiah [Chazaqiahu] of Judah, who had not\nsubmitted to my yoke, the terror of the splendour of my sovereignty\noverwhelmed. Himself as a bird in a cage, in the midst of Jerusalem, his\nroyal city, I shut up. The Arabians and his dependants, whom he had\nintroduced for the defence of Jerusalem, his royal city, together with\nthirty talents of gold, eight hundred of silver, bullion, precious\nstones, ivory couches and thrones, an abundant treasure, with his\ndaughters, his harem, and his attendants, I caused to be brought after\nme to Nineveh. He sent his envoy to pay tribute and render homage.\" At\nthe same time, he overran Jud\u00e6a, took forty-six fenced cities and many\nsmaller towns, \"with laying down of walls, hewing about, and trampling\ndown,\" and carried off more than two hundred thousand captives with\ntheir spoil. Part of Hezekiah's domains was divided among three\nPhilistine vassals who had remained faithful to Assyria.\n\nIt was in the midst of this terrible crisis that Hezekiah had sent to\nSennacherib at Lachish his offer of submission, saying, \"I have\noffended; return from me; that which thou puttest upon me I will\nbear.\"[555] The spoiling of the palace and Temple was rendered necessary\nto raise the vast mulct which the Assyrian King required.[556]\n\nIt is at Lachish--now Um-Lakis, a fortified hill in the Shephelah,\nsouth of Jerusalem, between Gaza and Eleutheropolis--that we catch\nanother personal glimpse of the mighty oppressor. We see him depicted,\non his triumphal tablets, in the palace-chambers of Kouyunjik,\nengaged in the siege; for the town offered a determined\nresistance,[557] and required all the energies and all the trained\nheroism of his forces. We see him next, carefully painted, seated on\nhis royal throne in magnificent apparel, with his tiara and bracelets,\nreceiving the spoils and captives of the city. The inscription says:\n\"Sennacherib, the mighty king, the king of the country of Assyria,\nsitting on the throne of judgment at the entrance of the city of\nLakisha. I give permission for its slaughter.\" He certainly implied\nthat he took the city, but a doubt is thrown on this by 2 Chron.\nxxxii. 1, which only says that \"he _thought_ to win these cities\"; and\nthe historian says (2 Kings xix. 8) that he \"departed from Lachish.\"\nLachish was evidently a very strong city, and it is so depicted in the\npalace-tablets at Kouyunjik. It had been fortified by Rehoboam, and\nhad furnished a refuge to the wretched Amaziah.[558]\n\nIf Judah and Jerusalem had listened to the messages of Isaiah,[559]\nthey might have been saved the humiliating affliction which seemed to\nhave plunged the brief sun of their prosperity into seas of blood. He\nhad warned them incessantly and in vain. He had foretold their\npresent desolation, in which Zion should be like a woman seated on the\nground, wailing in her despair. He had taught them that formalism was\nno religion, and that external rites did not win Jehovah's approval.\nHe had told them how foolish it was to put trust in the shadow of\nEgypt, and had not shrunk from revealing the fearful consequences\nwhich should follow the setting up of their own false wisdom against\nthe wisdom of Jehovah. Yet, intermingled with pictures of suffering,\nand threats of a harvestless year, designed to punish the vanity and\ndisplay of their women, and the intimation--never actually\nfulfilled--that even the palace and Temple should become \"the joy of\nwild asses, a pasture of flocks,\" he constantly implies that the\ndisaster would be followed by a mysterious, divine, complete\ndeliverance, and ultimately by a Messianic reign of joy and peace.\nNight is at hand, he said, and darkness; but after the darkness will\ncome a brighter dawn.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[535] One legend of his birth resembles the finding of Moses in the\nbulrushes.\n\n[536] Schrader, _K. A. T._, pp. 272-274; _Records of the Past_, vii. 28.\n\n[537] Smith, _Eponym Canon_, p. 130.\n\n[538] See Prof. Smith, _Isaiah_, p. 198.\n\n[539] _Records of the Past_, vii. 40. Sargon's words are, \"The people\nof Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab were speaking treason. The people\nand their evil chiefs, to fight against me, unto _Pharaoh, the King of\nEgypt, a monarch who could not save them_, their presents carried, and\nbesought his alliance\" (G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_, 290).\n\n[540] On the monuments called _Turtanu_, \"Holder of power.\" See\nSchrader in Riehm, _s.v._\n\n[541] Raphia, or Ropeh, is on the borders of the desert. Asia beat\nAfrica in every encounter--at Raphia, at Altaqu, at Carchemish. The\nimpression of the seal of Shabak, attached to his capitulations with\nSargon, was found at Nineveh by Sir A. H. Layard, and is now in the\nBritish Museum. Shabak died in 712. His son Shabatoh succeeded him in\nEgypt, and his nephew(?) Tirhakah in Ethiopia. Sabaco's name assumes\nmany forms (LXX., \u03a3\u03b7\u03b3\u03ce\u03c1; Herod., ii. 137; \u03a3\u03b1\u03b2\u03b1\u03ba\u03ce\u03c2; Vulg., _Sua_). The\nEgyptians called him Shaba(ka).\n\n[542] Isa. xx. 1-6.\n\n[543] Lenormant, _Les Premi\u00e8res Civilisations_, ii. 203; _Records of\nthe Past_, vii. 41-46.\n\n[544] Isa. xxi. 6, A.V., \"Watch in the watch-tower.\" Hitzig, Cheyne,\n\"They spread the carpets.\" Much in this short oracle (xxi. 1-10) is\nobscure. Isaiah seems, in denouncing the fate of Babylon, to mourn for\nthe ruin of the smaller states of which it was the prelude (G. Smith,\n_Soc. of Bibl. Arch._, ii. 320 Kleinert, _Stud. u. Krit._, 1877 W. R.\nSmith in _Enc. Brit._, _s.v._ \"Isaiah\").\n\n[545] Isa. xxi. 10--_i.e._, \"My people threshed and trodden\"; LXX., \u1f41\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bc\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bf\u1f31 \u1f40\u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ce\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9 _Records of the Past_, vii. 47.\n\n[546] Herod., \u03a3\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2; Jos., \u03a3\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c7\u03ae\u03c1\u03b9\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2. See Appendix I. Sin was\nthe moon-god; Merodach, the planet Jupiter; Adar, Saturn; Ishtai,\nVenus; Nebo, Mercury; Nergal, Mars (Schrader, ii. 117).\n\n[547] Sargon seems to have been murdered in the palace of unparalleled\nsplendour which he built at Dur-Sharrukin (\"The City of Sargon\"). It\ntook him five years to build it with armies of workmen. Its halls,\nopened by Botta, were the first Assyrian halls ever entered by a\nmodern's foot. It is strange that this greatest of Assyrian kings is\nonly mentioned once in the Bible (Isa. xx. 1). We owe to Assyriology\nhis restoration to his proper place in the annals of mankind. See\nRagozin, _Assyria_, 247-254.\n\n[548] Rawlinson, _Ancient Monarchies_, ii. 178.\n\n[549] Canon Rawlinson, _Kings of Israel and Judah_, 187.\n\n[550] On his own monuments this campaign, except its final catastrophe,\nis narrated in four sections: (1) The subjugation of Ph\u0153nicia, and of\nPhilistine towns; (2) the conquest of King Zidka of Askelon; (3) the\ndefeat of Ekron, the restoration of their vassal king Pad\u00ee to his\nthrone, and the defeat of Egypt at Altaqu; (4) the expedition against\nJerusalem (Schrader, E. Tr., i. 298). See Appendix I.\n\n[551] This allusion is said to be the only instance of humour--\"_grim_\nhumour, or it would not be Assyrian\"--which occurs in the Assyrian\nannals.\n\n[552] Schrader, pp. 234-279. The account of the memorable campaign is\nnarrated in duplicate on the Taylor Cylinder in the British Museum,\nand on the Bull Inscription at Kouyunjik.\n\n[553] Sennacherib calls Tirhakah's army \"a host that no man could\nnumber\"; but it was defeated by the better discipline, the heavier\narmour, and the superior physical strength of the Assyrians.\n\n[554] See Josh. xix. 43.\n\n[555] This very phrase \"I imposed on them\" is found on Sennacherib's\nmonument (Schrader, ii. 1). The references, when not otherwise\nspecified, are to Whitehouse's English translation.\n\n[556] In 2 Kings xviii. 16 the word \"pillars\" or \"doorposts\" is\nuncertain. LXX., \u1f10\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c1\u03b9\u03b3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b1; Vulg., _laminas auri_.\n\n[557] 2 Chron. xxxii. 9. He had to besiege it \"with all his power.\" He\nseems to have thought it even more important than Jerusalem, for he\nsuperintended the siege in person (Layard, _Nineveh and Babylon_, 150;\n_Monuments of Nineveh_, 2nd series, pl. 21). The ruined Tel of\nUmm-el-Lak\u00ees lies between the Wady Simsim and the Wady-el-Ahsy (Riehm).\n\n[558] See 2 Chron. xi. 9, xxv. 27; Jer. xxxiv. 7. The allusion to this\ncity in Micah (i. 13) is obscure: \"O thou inhabitant of Lachish [swift\nsteed], bind the chariot to the swift steed: she is the beginning of\nsin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were\nfound in thee.\" This seems to imply that some form of idolatry had\ncome from Israel to Lachish, and from Lachish to Jerusalem. In\nSennacherib's picture of the city, foreign worship is represented as\ngoing on in it (Layard, _Monuments of Nineveh_, Pls. 21 and 24;\nRawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 477).\n\n[559] Isa. xxix., xxx., xxxi.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII\n\n _THE GREAT DELIVERANCE_\n\n B.C. 701\n\n 2 _Kings_ xix. 1-37\n\n \"There brake He the lightnings of the bow, the shield, the sword,\n and the battle.\"--PSALM lxxvi. 3.\n\n \"\u1fa0\u03b4\u1f74 \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u0391\u03c3\u03c3\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd.\"--LXX.\n\n \"And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,\n Hath melted like snow at the glance of the Lord.\"\n BYRON.\n\n \"Vuolsi cosi col\u00e0 dove si puote\n Cio che si vuole: e pi\u00f9 non dimandare.\"\n DANTE.\n\n \"Through love, through hope, through faith's transcendent dower,\n We feel that we are greater than we know.\"\n WORDSWORTH.\n\n \"God shall help her, and that when the morning dawns.\"--PSALM\n xlvi. 5.\n\n\nIn spite of the humble submission of Hezekiah, it is a surprise to learn\nfrom Isaiah that Sennacherib--after he had accepted the huge fine and\nfixed the tribute, and departed to subdue Lachish--broke his\ncovenant.[560] He sent his three chief officers--the Turtan, or\ncommander-in-chief, whose name seems to have been Belemurani;[561] the\nRabsaris, or chief eunuch;[562] and the Rabshakeh, or chief\ncaptain[563]--from Lachish to Hezekiah, with a command of absolute,\nunconditional surrender, to be followed by deportation. By this conduct\nSennacherib violated his own boast that he was \"a keeper of treaties.\"\nYet it is not difficult to conjecture the reason for his change of plan.\nHe had found it no easy matter to subdue even the very minor fortress of\nLachish; how unwise, then, would it be for him to leave in his rear an\nuncaptured city so well fortified as Jerusalem! He was advancing towards\nEgypt. It was obviously a strategic error to spare on his route a\nhostile and almost impregnable stronghold as a nucleus for the plans of\nhis enemies. Moreover, he had heard rumours that Tirhakah, the third and\nlast Ethiopian king of Egypt, was advancing against him, and it was most\nimportant to prevent any junction between his forces and those of\nHezekiah.[564] He could not come in person to Jerusalem, for the siege\nof Lachish was on his hands; but he detached from his army a large\ncontingent under his Turtan, to win the Jews by seductive promises, or\nto subdue Jerusalem by force. Once more, therefore, the Holy City saw\nbeneath her often-captured walls the vast beleaguering host, and\n\"governors and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon\nhorses, all of them desirable young men.\" Isaiah describes to us how the\npeople crowded to the house-tops, half dead with fear, weeping and\ndespairing, and crying to the hills to cover them, and bereft of their\nrulers, who had been bound by the archers of the enemy in their attempt\nto escape. They gazed on the quiver-bearing warriors of Elam in their\nchariots, and the serried ranks of the shields of Kir, and the cavalry\nround the gates. And he tells us how, as so often occurs at moments of\nmad hopelessness, many who ought to have been crying to God in sackcloth\nand ashes, gave themselves up, on the contrary, to riot and revelry,\neating flesh, and drinking wine, and saying: \"Let us eat and drink; for\nto-morrow we die.\"[565] The king alone had shown patience, calmness, and\nactive foresight; and he alone, by his energy and faith, had restored\nsome confidence to the spirits of his fainting people.\n\nAlthough the city had been refortified by the king, and supplied with\nwater, the hearts of the inhabitants must have sunk within them when\nthey saw the Assyrian army investing the walls, and when the three\ncommissioners--taking their station \"by the conduit of the upper pool\nwhich is in the highway of the fuller's field\"--summoned the king to\nhear the ultimatum of Sennacherib.\n\nThe king did not in person obey the summons; but he, too, sent out his\nthree chief officers. They were Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who, as\nthe chamberlain (_al-hab-ba\u00eeth_), was a great prince (_nag\u00eed_);\nShebna, who had been degraded, perhaps at the instance of Isaiah, from\nthe higher post, and was now secretary (_sopher_); and Joah, son of\nAsaph, the chronicler (_mazk\u00eer_), to whom we probably owe the minute\nreport of the memorable scene. No doubt they went forth in the pomp of\noffice--Eliakim with his robe, and girdle, and key.[566] The\nRabshakeh proved himself, indeed, \"an affluent orator,\" and evinced\nsuch familiarity with the religious politics of Judah and Jerusalem,\nthat this, in conjunction with his perfect mastery of Hebrew, gives\ncolour to the belief that he was an apostate Jew. He began by\nchallenging the idle confidence of Hezekiah, and his vain words[567]\nthat he had counsel and strength for the war. Upon what did he rely?\nOn the broken and dangerous bulrush of Egypt?[568] It would but pierce\nhis hand! On Jehovah? But Hezekiah had forfeited his protection by\nsweeping away His _bamoth_ and His altars! Why, let Hezekiah make a\nwager;[569] and if Sennacherib furnished him with two thousand horses,\nhe would be unable to find riders for them! How, then, could he drive\nback even the lowest of the Assyrian captains? And was not Jehovah on\ntheir side? It was He who had bidden them destroy Jerusalem!\n\nThat last bold assertion, appealing as it did to all that was\nerroneous and abject in the minds of the superstitious, and backed, as\nit was, by the undeniable force of the envoy's argument, smote so\nbitterly on the ear of Hezekiah's courtiers, that they feared it would\nrender negotiation impossible. They humbly entreated the orator to\nspeak to \"his servants\" in the Aramaic language of Assyria, which they\nunderstood,[570] and not in Hebrew, which was the language of all the\nJews who stood in crowds on the walls. Surely this was a diplomatic\nembassy to their king, not an incitement to popular sedition?\n\nThe answer of the Rabshakeh was truly Assyrian in its utterly brutal\nand ruthless coarseness. Taking up his position directly in front of\nthe wall,[571] and ostentatiously addressing the multitude, he ignored\nthe representatives of Hezekiah. Who were they? asked he. His master\nhad not sent him to speak to them, or to their poor little puppet of a\nking, but to the people on the wall, the foul garbage of whose\nsufferings of thirst and famine they should share.[572] And to all the\nmultitude the great king's[573] message was:--Do not be deceived.\nHezekiah cannot save you. Jehovah will not save you. Come to terms\nwith me, and give me hostages and pledges and a present, and then live\nin happy peace and plenty until I come and deport you to a land as\nfair and fruitful as this. How should Jehovah deliver them? Had any of\nthe gods of the nations delivered them out of the hands of the King of\nAssyria? \"Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the\ngods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have the gods of Samaria\ndelivered Samaria out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver\nJerusalem out of my hand?\"[574]\n\nIt was a very powerful oration, but the orator must have been a little\ndisconcerted to find that it was listened to in absolute silence. He\nhad disgracefully violated the comity of international intercourse by\nappealing to subjects against their lawful king; yet from the starving\npeople there came not a murmur of reply. Faithful to the behest of\ntheir king in the midst of their misery and terror, they answered not\na word. Agamemnon is silent before the coarse jeers of Thersites. \"The\nsulphurous flash dies in its own smoke, only leaving a hateful stench\nbehind it!\" And in this attitude of the people there was something\nvery sublime and very instructive. Dumb, stricken, starving, the\nwretched Jews did not answer the envoy's taunts or menaces, because\nthey would not. They were not even in those extremities to be seduced\nfrom their allegiance to the king whom they honoured, though the\nspeaker had contemptuously ignored his existence. And though the\nRabshakeh had cut them to the heart with his specious appeals and\nbraggart vaunts, yet \"this clever, self-confident, persuasive\npersonage, with two languages on his tongue, and an army at his back,\"\ncould not shake the confidence in God, which, however unreasonable it\nmight seem, had been elevated into a conviction by their king and\ntheir prophet. The Rabsak had tried to seduce the people into\nrebellion, but he had failed.[575] They were ready to die for Hezekiah\nwith the fidelity of despair. The mirage of sensual comfort in exiled\nservitude should not tempt them from the scorched wilderness from\nwhich they could still cry out for the living God.\n\nYet the Assyrian's words had struck home into the hearts of his\ngreatest hearers, and therefore how much more into those of the\nignorant multitudes! Eliakim and Shebna and Joah came to Hezekiah\nwith their clothes rent, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. And\nwhen the king heard it, when he found that even his submission had\nbeen utterly in vain, he too rent his clothes, and put on\nsackcloth,[576] and went into the only place where he could hope to\nfind comfort, even into the house of the Lord, which he had cleansed\nand restored to beauty, although afterwards he had been driven to\ndespoil it. Needing an earthly counsellor, he sent Eliakim and Shebna\nand the elders of the priests to Isaiah. They were to tell him the\noutcome of this day of trouble, rebuke, and contumely; and since the\nRabshakeh had insulted and despised Jehovah, they were to urge the\nprophet to make his appeal to Him, and to pray for the remnant which\nthe Assyrians had left.[577]\n\nThe answer of Isaiah was a dauntless defiance. If others were in\ndespair, he was not in the least dismayed. \"Be not afraid\"--such was\nhis message--\"of the mere words with which the boastful boys of the\nKing of Assyria have blasphemed Me.[578] Behold, I will put a spirit\nin him, and he shall hear a rumour,[579] and shall return to his own\nland; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.\"\n\nMuch crestfallen at the total and unexpected failure of the embassy, and\nof his own heart-shaking appeals, the Rabshakeh returned. But meanwhile\nSennacherib had taken Lachish, and marched to Libnah (Tel-es-Saf\u00eea),\nwhich he was now besieging.[580] There it was that he heard the \"rumour\"\nof which Isaiah had spoken--the report, namely, that Tirhakah, the third\nking of the Ethiopian dynasty of Pharaohs,[581] was advancing in person\nto meet him. This was B.C. 701, and it is perhaps only by anticipation\nthat Tirhakah is called \"King\" of Ethiopia. He was only the general and\nrepresentative of his father Shabatok, if (as some think) he did not\nsucceed to the throne till 698.\n\nIt was impossible for Sennacherib under these circumstances to return\nnorthwards to Jerusalem, of which the siege would inevitably occupy\nsome time. But he sent a menacing letter,[582] reminding Hezekiah that\nneither king nor god had ever yet saved any city from the hands of the\nAssyrian destroyers. Where were the kings, he asked again, of Hamath,\nArpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, Ivvah? What had the gods of Gozan, Haran,\nRezeph, and the children of Eden in Telassar done to save their\ncountries from Sennacherib's ancestors, when they had laid them under\nthe ban?[583]\n\nAgain the pious king found comfort in God's Temple. Taking with him the\nscornful and blasphemous letter, he spread it out before Jehovah in the\nTemple with childlike simplicity, that Jehovah might read its insults\nand be moved by this dumb appeal.[584] Then both he and Isaiah cried\nmightily to God, \"who sitteth above the cherubim,\" admitting the truth\nof what Sennacherib had said, and that the kings of Assyria had\ndestroyed the nations, and burnt their vain gods in the fire. But of\nwhat significance was that? Those were but gods of wood and stone, the\nworks of men's hands.[585] But Jehovah was the One, the True, the Living\nGod. Would He not manifest among the nations His eternal supremacy?\n\nAnd as the king prayed the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah, and he sent\nto Hezekiah this glorious message about Sennacherib:--\n\n\"The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee\nto scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.\"[586]\n\nThe blasphemies, the vaunts, the menacing self-confidence of\nSennacherib, were his surest condemnation. Did he count God a cypher?\nIt was to God alone that he owed the fearful power which had made the\nnations like grass upon the housetops, like blasted corn, before him.\nAnd because God knew his rage and tumult, God would treat him as\nSargon his father had treated conquered kings:--\n\n\"I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips.[587] And I\nwill turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.\" He had thought\nto conquer Egypt:[588] instead of that he should be driven back in\nconfusion to Assyria.\n\nIt was but a plainer enunciation of the truths which Isaiah had again\nand again intimated in enigma and parable. It was the fearless\nsecurity of Judah's lion; the safety of the rock amid the deluge; the\nsafety of the poor brood under the wings of the Divine protection from\n\"the great Birds'-nester of the world\"; the crashing downfall of the\nlopped Lebanonian cedar, while the green shoot and tender branch out\nof the withered stump of Jesse should take root downward and bear\nfruit upward.[589]\n\nAnd the sign was given to Hezekiah that this should be so.[590] This\nyear there should be no harvest, except such as was spontaneous; for\nin the stress of Assyrian invasion sowing and reaping had been\nimpossible. The next year the harvest should only be from this\naccidental produce. But in the third year, secure at last, they should\nsow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.[591] And\nthough but a remnant of the people was left out of the recent\ncaptivity, they should grow and flourish, and Jerusalem should see the\nbesieging host of Assyria no more for ever; for Jehovah would defend\nthe city for His own sake, and for His servant David's sake.\n\nThereafter occurred the great deliverance.[592] In some way--we know\nnot and never shall know how--by a blast of the simoom, or sudden\noutburst of plague, or furious panic, or sudden assault, or by some\nother calamity,[593] the host of Assyria was smitten in the camp, and\none hundred and eighty-five thousand, including their chief leaders,\nperished. The historian, in a manner habitual to pious Semitic\nwriters, attributes the devastation to the direct action of the \"angel\nof the Lord\";[594] but as Dr. Johnson said long ago, \"We are certainly\nnot to suppose that the angel went about with a sword in his hand,\nstriking them one by one, but that some powerful natural agent was\nemployed.\"[595]\n\nThe Forty-Sixth Psalm is generally regarded as the _Te Deum_ sung in\nthe Temple over this deliverance, and its opening words, \"God is our\nrefuge and strength,\" are inscribed over the cathedral of St. Sophia\nat Constantinople.\n\nIt is usually supposed that this overwhelming disaster happened to the\nhost of Assyria _before Jerusalem_. This, however, is not stated; and\nas the capture of Lachish was an urgent necessity, it is probable that\nthe Turtan led back the forces which had accompanied him, and took\nthem afterwards to Libnah.[596] Yet, since Libnah was but ten miles\nfrom Jerusalem, the Jews could not feel safe for a day until the\nmighty news came that the\n\n \"Angel of God spread his wings on the blast,\n And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed,\n And the eyes of the sleepers waxed heavy and chill,\n And their breasts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.\"\n\nWhen the catastrophe which had happened to the main army and the flight\nof Sennacherib became known, the scattered forces would melt away.\n\nAll the Assyrians who escaped were now hurrying back[597] to Nineveh\nwith their foiled king. Sennacherib seems to have occupied himself in\nthe north, except so far as he was forced to fight fiercely against\nhis own rebel subjects. He never recovered this complete humiliation.\nHe never again came southwards. He survived the catastrophe for\nseventeen or twenty years,[598] and fought five or six campaigns; but\nat the end of that period, while he was worshipping in the house of\nNisroch or Assarac (Assur), his god,[599] he was murdered by his two\nsons Adrammelech (Adar-malik--\"Adar is king\") and Sharezer\n(Nergal-sarussar--\"Nergal protect the king\"),[600] who envied him his\nthrone. They escaped into the land of Ararat, but were defeated and\nkilled by their younger brother Esarhaddon (Assur-\u00e2kh-iddin--\"Assur\nbestowed a 'brother'\") at the battle of Hani-Rabbat, on the Upper\nEuphrates. He succeeded Sennacherib, and ultimately avenged on Egypt\nhis father's overwhelming disaster. He is perhaps the \"cruel lord\" of\nIsa. xix. 4, and it is not unnatural that he should have prevailed\nagainst his parricidal brothers, for we are told that in a previous\nbattle at Melitene he had shown such prowess that the troops then and\nthere proclaimed him King of Assyria with shouts of \"This is our\nking.\"[601] He reigned from B.C. 681-668, and in his reign Assyria\nculminated before her last decline.[602] He was the builder of the\ntemple at Nimr\u00fbd, and erected thirty other temples. Babylon and\nNineveh were both his capitals,[603] and he had previously been\nviceroy of the former.\n\nThe glorious deliverance in which the faith and courage of the King of\nJudah had had their share naturally increased the prosperity and\nprestige of Hezekiah, and lifted the authority of Isaiah to an\nunprecedented height. Hezekiah probably did not long survive the\nuplifting of this dark cloud, but during the remainder of his life \"he\nwas magnified in the sight of all nations.\"[604] When he died, all\nJudah and Jerusalem did him honour, and gave him a splendid burial.\nApparently the old tombs of the kings--the catacomb constructed by\nDavid and Solomon--had in the course of two and a half centuries\nbecome full, so that he had to be buried \"in the ascent of the\nsepulchres,\" perhaps some niche higher than the other graves of the\ncatacomb, which was henceforth disused for the burial of the kings of\nJudah. We have had occasion to observe the many particulars in which\nhis reign was memorable, and to his other services must be added the\nliterary activity to which we owe the collection and editing, by his\nscribes, of the Proverbs of Solomon. His reign had practically\nwitnessed the institution of the faithful Jewish Church under the\ninfluence of his great prophetic guide.[605]\n\nThe question whether the portent of the destruction of the Assyrian\nwas identical with that related by Herodotus has never been finally\nanswered. Herodotus places the scene of the disaster at Pelusium,[606]\nand tells this story:--Sennacherib, King of the Arabs and Assyrians,\ninvaded Egypt. Its king, Sethos, of the Tanite dynasty, in despair\nentered the temple of his god Pthah (or Vulcan), and wept.[607] The\ngod appeared to him with promises of deliverance, and Sethos marched\nto meet Sennacherib with an army of poor artisans, since he was a\npriest, and the caste of warriors was ill-affected to him. In the\nnight the god Pthah sent hosts of field-mice, which gnawed the\nquivers, bow-strings, and shield-straps of the Assyrians, who\nconsequently fled, and were massacred. An image of the priest-king\nwith a mouse in his hand stood in the temple of Pthah, and on its\npedestal the inscription, which might also point the moral of the\nBiblical narrative, \u1f18\u03c2 \u1f10\u03bc\u03ad \u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f41\u03c1\u03b5\u1ff6\u03bd \u03b5\u1f50\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u1f74\u03c2 \u1f14\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9 (\"Let him who looks\non me be pious\"). Josephus seems so far to accept this version that he\nrefers to Herodotus, and says that Sennacherib's failure was the\nresult of a frustration in Egypt.[608] The _mouse_ in the hand of the\nstatue probably originated the details of the legend; but according to\nHorapollion it was the hieroglyphic sign of destruction by\nplague.[609] B\u00e4hr says that it was also the symbol of Mars. Readers of\nHomer will remember the title Apollo _Smintheus_ (\"the destroyer of\nmice\"), and the story that mice were worshipped in the Troas because\nthey gnawed the bow-strings of the enemy.\n\nBut whatever may have been the mode of the retribution, or the scene in\nwhich it took place, it is certainly historical. The outlines of the\nnarrative in the sacred historian are identical with those in the\nAssyrian records. The annals of Sennacherib tell us the four initial\nstages of the great campaign in the conquest of Ph\u0153nicia, of Askelon,\nand of Ekron, the defeat of the Egyptians at Altaqu, and the earlier\nhostilities against Hezekiah. The Book of Kings concentrates our\nattention on the details of the close of the invasion. On this point,\nwhether from accident, or because Sennacherib did not choose to register\nhis own calamity, and the frustration of the gods of whose protection he\nboasted, the Assyrian records are silent. Baffled conquerors rarely\ndwell on their own disasters. It is not in the despatches of Napoleon\nthat we shall find the true story of his abandonment of Syria, of the\ndefeats of his forces in Spain, or of his retreat from Moscow.[610]\n\nThe great lesson of the whole story is the reward and the triumph of\nindomitable faith. Faith may still burn with a steady flame when the\ndifficulties around it seem insuperable, when all refutation of the\nattacks of its enemies seems to be impossible, when Hope itself has\nsunk into white ashes in which scarcely a gleam of heat remains.\nIsaiah had nothing to rely upon; he had no argument wherewith to\nfurnish Hezekiah beyond the bare and apparently unmeaning promise,\n\"Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our Lawgiver; Jehovah is our King.\nHe will save us.\" It was a magnificent vindication of his inspired\nconviction, when all turned out--not indeed in minute details, but in\nevery essential fact--exactly as he had prophesied from the first.\nEven in B.C. 740 he had declared that the sins of Judah deserved and\nwould receive condign punishment, though a remnant should be\nsaved.[611] That the retribution would come from some foreign\nenemy--Assyria or Egypt, or both--he felt sure. Jehovah would hiss for\nthe fly in the uttermost canals of Egypt, and for the bee that is in\nthe land of Assyria, and both should swarm in the crevices of the\nrocks, and over the pastures.[612] Later on in 732, in the reign of\nAhaz, he pointed to Assyria,[613] as the destined scourge, and he\nrealised this still more clearly in 725 and 721, when Shalmaneser and\nSargon were tearing Samaria to pieces.[614] Contrary, indeed, to his\nexpectation, the Assyrians did not then destroy Jerusalem, or even\nformally besiege it. The revolt from Assyria, the reliance on Egypt,\ndid not for a moment blind his judgment or alter his conviction; and\nin 701 it came true when Sennacherib was on the march for\nPalestine.[615] Yet he never wavered in the apparently impossible\nconclusion, that, in spite of all, in spite even of his own darker\nprophecies (xxxii. 14), Jerusalem shall in some Divine manner be\nsaved.[616] The deliverance would be, as he declared from first to\nlast, the work of Jehovah, not the work of man,[617] and because of it\nSennacherib would return to his own land and perish there.[618] The\ndetails might be dim and wavering; the result was certain. Isaiah was\nno thaumaturge, no peeping wizard, no muttering necromancer, no\nmonthly prognosticator.[619] He was a prophet--that is, an inspired\nmoral and spiritual teacher who was able to foresee and to foretell,\nnot in their details, but in their broad outlines, the events yet\nfuture, because he was enabled to read them by the eye of faith ere\nthey had yet occurred. His faith convinced him that predictions\nfounded on eternal principles have all the certainty of a law, and\nthat God's dealings with men and nations in the future can be seen in\nthe light of experience derived from the history of the past. Courage,\nzeal, unquenchable hope, indomitable resolution, spring from that\nperfect confidence in God which is the natural reward of innocence and\nfaithfulness. Isaiah trusted in God, and he knew that they who put\ntheir trust in Him can never be confounded.\n\nNo event produced a deeper impression on the minds of the Jews, though\nthat impression was soon afterwards, for a time, obliterated.\nNaturally, it elevated the authority of Isaiah into unquestioned\npre-eminence during the reign of Hezekiah. It has left its echo, not\nonly in his own triumphant p\u00e6ans, but also in the Forty-Sixth Psalm,\nwhich the Septuagint calls \"An ode to the Assyrian,\" and perhaps also\nin the Seventy-Fifth and Seventy-Sixth Psalms. In the minds of all\nfaithful Israelites it established for ever the conviction that God\nhad chosen Judah for Himself, and Israel for His own possession; that\nGod was in the midst of Zion, and she should not be confounded: \"God\nshall help her, and that right early.\" And it contains a noble and\ninspiring lesson for all time. \"It is not without reason,\" says Dean\nStanley, \"that in the Churches of Moscow the exultation over the fall\nof Sennacherib is still read on the anniversary of the retreat of the\nFrench from Russia, or that Arnold, in his lectures on Modern History,\nin the impressive passage in which he dwells on that great\ncatastrophe, declared that for the memorable night of the frost in\nwhich twenty thousand horses perished, and the strength of the French\narmy was utterly broken, he knew of no language so well fitted to\ndescribe it as the words in which Isaiah described the advance and\ndestruction of the hosts of Sennacherib.\"[620]\n\nThey had been brought face to face, the two kings--Sennacherib and\nHezekiah. One was the impious boaster who relied on his own strength,\nand on the mighty host which dried up rivers with their trampling\nmarch--the worldling who thought to lord it over the affrighted globe;\nthe other was the poor kinglet of the Chosen People, with his one city\nand his enfeebled people, and his dominion not so large as one of the\nsmallest English counties. But \"one with God is irresistible,\" \"one\nwith God is always in a majority.\" The poor, weak prince triumphs over\nthe terrific conqueror, because he trusts in Him to whom\nworld-desolating tyrants are but as the small dust of the balance,\nand who \"taketh up the isles as a very little thing.\"[621]\n\nAs Assyria now vanishes almost entirely from the history of the Chosen\nPeople, we may here recall with delight one large and loving prophecy,\nto show that the Hebrews were sometimes uplifted by the power of\ninspiration above the narrowness of a bigoted and exclusive spirit.\nDesperately as Israel had suffered, both from Egypt and Assyria, Isaiah\ncould still utter the glowing Messianic Prophecy which included the\nGentiles in the privileges of the Golden Age to come. He foretold that--\n\n\"In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, as a\nblessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless,\nsaying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands,\nand Israel Mine inheritance.\"[622]\n\n \"That strain I heard was of a higher mood!\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nKing Hezekiah can have no finer panegyric than that of the son of\nSirach: \"Even the kings of Judah failed, for they forsook the law of\nthe Most High: all except David, and Ezekias, and Josias failed.\"[623]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[560] Isa. xxxiii. 8.\n\n[561] Isa. xx. 1.\n\n[562] Jer. xxxix. 3. The meaning of the name is not certain. _Sar\u00ees_,\nin Hebrew, is \"eunuch\"; but the word is not known in Assyrian records,\nand we should expect _Rabsar\u00ees\u00eem_, as in Dan. i. 3.\n\n[563] Rabsak perhaps means _chief officer_ or vizier, and is Hebraised\ninto Rabshakeh. Prof. G. A. Smith (_Isaiah_, p. 345) calls him\n\"Sennacherib's Bismarck.\" Rabshakeh, usually rendered \"chief cupbearer,\"\nis an Aramaised form of Rabsak (great chief); but we know of no chief\ncupbearer at the Assyrian court (Schrader, _K. A. T._, 199 f.).\n\n[564] From an Apis-st\u00eal\u00ea he seems to have reigned twenty-six years\n(B.C. 694-668?).\n\n[565] Isa. xxii. 1-13.\n\n[566] Eliakim. See Isa. xxii. 21, 22.\n\n[567] \"Vain words\"; lit., \"a word of the lips.\" LXX., \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03b9 \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03ad\u03c9\u03bd.\n\n[568] Comp. Isa. xxx. 1-7; Ezek. xxix. 6. It seems to be an\nover-refinement to suppose that Sennacherib refers to the divisions\nbetween Egypt and Ethiopia.\n\n[569] 2 Kings xviii. 23, A.V.: \"Let Hezekiah give pledges.\"\n\n[570] Heb., _Ar\u00e2m\u00eeth_.\n\n[571] 2 Kings xviii. 28, where _stood_ should be rendered _came\nforward_.\n\n[572] The coarse expression is softened down by the Chronicler (2\nChron. xxxii. 18).\n\n[573] The kings of Assyria usually called themselves \"great king,\nmighty king, king of the multitude, king of the land Assur.\"\n\n[574] Every one must notice the glaring inconsistency between this\n_defiance_ of Jehovah and the previous claim to the possession of His\nsanction. On Hamath, Arpad, etc., see Schrader, ii. 7-10.\n\n[575] Isa. xxxiii. 8: \"He hath broken the covenant, he hath despised\nthe cities, he regardeth no man.\"\n\n[576] 1 Kings xx. 32; 2 Kings vi. 30.\n\n[577] Sennacherib had already carried off vast numbers. See Isa. xxiv.\n1-12; Demetrius _ap._ Clem. Alex., _Strom._, i. 403.\n\n[578] Isaiah's phrase, _na'ar\u00ee melek_, \"lads of the king,\" is\ncontemptuous. LXX., \u03c0\u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03b1.\n\n[579] Heb., _ruach_; LXX., \u03b4\u03af\u03b4\u03c9\u03bc\u03b9 \u1f10\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03bd\u03b5\u1fe6\u03bc\u03b1. Theodoret calls this\n\"spirit\" _cowardice_ (\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03b1\u03bd \u03bf\u1f36\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b4\u03b7\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd).\n\n[580] Libnah means \"whiteness.\" Dean Stanley (_S. and P._, 207, 258)\nidentifies it with a white-faced hill, the Blanchegarde of the\nCrusaders.\n\n[581] The dates usually given are Sabaco, B.C. 725-712; Shabatok,\n712-698; Tirhakah, 698-672. Manetho, \u03a4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b1\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2; Strabo, \u03a4\u03b5\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03c9\u03bd, \u1f41\n\u0391\u1f30\u03b8\u03b9\u03ce\u03c8. He was third king of the twenty-fifth dynasty, and the\ngreatest of the Egyptian sovereigns who came from Ethiopia. He reigned\ngloriously for many years. We see his figure at Medinet Abou, smiting\nten captive princes with an iron mace; but he was finally defeated by\nEsarhaddon, and in 668 by Assurbanipal at Karbanit (Canopus). He is\ncalled by his conqueror \"Tar-ku-u, King of Egypt and Cush\" (Schrader,\n_K. A. T._, 336 ff.).\n\n[582] Heb., _Sephar\u00eem_; Vulg., _litter\u00e6_; 2 Chron. xxxii. 17. The more\nordinary term for a letter is _iggereth_.\n\n[583] 2 Kings xix. 12 (Heb.); Ezek. xxvii. 23. On these places see\nSchrader, ii. 11, 12. It had been indeed Sennacherib's work \"to reduce\nfenced cities to ruinous heaps.\" He boasts on the Bellino Cylinder,\n\"Their smaller towns without number I overthrew, and reduced them to\nheaps of rubbish\" (_Records of the Past_, i. 27).\n\n[584] \"It is a prayer without words, a prayer in action, which then\npasses into a spoken prayer\" (Delitzsch).\n\n[585] The Assyrians are sometimes represented in their monuments as\nhewing idols to pieces in honour of their god Assur (Botta, _Monum._,\npl. 140).\n\n[586] LXX., \u03ba\u03b9\u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03b5\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u03ae\u03bd, \"a gesture of scorn\" (Psalm xxii. 7,\ncix. 25; Lam. ii. 15). With the vaunts of Sennacherib compare\nClaudian, _De bell. Geth._, 526-532.\n\n \"Cum cesserit omnis\n Obsequiis natura meis? Subsidere nostris\n Sub pedibus montes, _arescere vidimus amnes_ ...\n Fregi Alpes, _galeis Padum victricibus hausi_.\"\n KEIL, _ad loc._\n\n\n[587] Comp. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 (Heb.); Psalm xxxix. 1; Isa. xxx. 28;\nEzek. xxxviii. 4, xxix. 4. The Assyrians drove a ring through the\nlower lip, the Babylonians through the nose. See Rawlinson, _Ancient\nMonarchies_, ii. 314, iii. 436.\n\n[588] 2 Kings xix. 33. \"The river of Egypt\" (_Nachal-ha-Mizraim_) is\nthe Wady-el-Arish.\n\n[589] Isa. x. 33, 34, xi. 1, xiv. 8; Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 410.\n\n[590] \u05d0\u05d5\u05b9\u05ea. A sign \"is a thing, an event, or an action intended as a\npledge of the Divine certainty of another. Sometimes it is a miracle\n(Gen. iv. 15, Heb.), or a permanent symbol (Isa. viii. 18, xx. 3,\nxxxvii. 30; Jer. xliv. 29)\" (Delitzsch).\n\n[591] The first year they should eat _saph\u00eeach_ (LXX., \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1;\nVulg., _qu\u00e6 repereris_); the second year, _sach\u00eesh_ (LXX., \u03c4\u1f70\n\u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1; Vulg., _qu\u00e6 sponte nascuntur_).\n\n[592] 2 Kings xix. 35: \"It came to pass that night.\" Isaiah only has\n\"then\"; Josephus, \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03c0\u03c1\u03ce\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03c1\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u03bd\u03cd\u03ba\u03c4\u03b1. Menochius\nunderstands it \"_in celebri illa nocte_.\" The LXX. omits \"that,\" and\nsimply says \"in the night\" (\u03bd\u03c5\u03ba\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2). Comp. Psalm xlvi. 5 (Heb.); Isa.\nxvii. 14.\n\n[593] Josephus, followed by many moderns, and even by Keil, suggests a\nplague. The malaria of the Pelusiotic marshes easily breeds pestilence.\nThe \"_maleak Jehovah_\" is \"the destroyer\" (_mashchith_) (Exod. xii. 23;\n2 Sam. xxiv. 16.) Comp. Justin., xix. 11; Diod. Sic., xix. 434.\n\n[594] Comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 15, 16.\n\n[595] The Babyl. Talmud and some Targums, followed by Vitringa, etc.,\nattribute to it storms of lightning; Prideaux, Heine, and Faber, to\nthe simoom; R. Jos\u00e9, Ussher, etc., to a nocturnal attack of Tirhakah.\n\n[596] It is, however, perfectly possible that a contingent was left on\nguard. \"Where is the [past] terror? Where is he that rated the\ntribute? Where is he that received it?\" (Isa. xxxiii. 18). \"At the\nnoise of the tumult the people flee\" (Isa. xxxiii. 3); \"At Thy rebuke,\nO God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep\"\n(Psalm lxxvi. 6). Comp. Psalm xlviii. 4-6.\n\n[597] This is the meaning of \"he departed, and went, and returned.\"\n\n[598] Not, only fifty-five days, as we read in Tobit i. 21.\n\n[599] Jos., _Antt._, X. i. 5: \"In his own temple to Arask\u00ea\"; LXX.,\n\u1f08\u03c3\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03c7; Isa. xxxvii. 38. One guess connects the word with Nesher, \"the\neagle-god,\" often seen on the Assyrian bas-reliefs. Lenormant calls\nhim \"the god of human destiny.\"\n\n[600] Alex. Polyhistor _ap._ Euseb., i. 27; Kimchi _ad_ 2 Kings xix.\n37. Buxtorf (_Bibl. Rabbinic._) says that Sennacherib entered the\ntemple to ask his counsellors why Jehovah favoured Israel. Being told\nthat it was because of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac, he said,\n\"Then I will offer my two sons.\" Rashi adds that they slew him to save\ntheir own lives. (See Schenkel and Riehm, _s.v._ \"Sanherib\"--both\narticles by Schrader).\n\n[601] See Schrader in Riehm's _Handw\u00f6rterbuch_, _s.vv._ \"Sanherib,\"\n\"Asarhaddon.\" Esarhaddon, judging from what is called \"Sennacherib's\nwill,\" in which the king leaves him splendid presents, seems to have\nbeen a favourite of his father (_Records of the Past_, i. 136). He\nsays that on hearing of his father's murder, \"I was wrathful as a\nlion, and my soul raged within me, and I lifted my hands to the great\ngods to assume the sovereignty of my father's house.\" See Appendix I.\n\n[602] The Book of Tobit (i. 21) calls him Sarchedonas.\n\n[603] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11.\n\n[604] 2 Chron. xxxii. 23.\n\n[605] Wellhausen, p. 116.\n\n[606] Herod., ii. 14. \"Sin\" (Tanis?), Ezek. xxx. 15. It lay in the\nmidst of morasses, and some attribute the catastrophe to the malaria.\n\n[607] The deliverance is really connected with Tirhakah, whose deeds\nare recorded in a temple at Medinet Habou, but the jealousy of the\nMemphites attributed it to the piety of Sethos. See G. W. Wilkinson,\n_Ancient Egyptians_, i. 141; Rawlinson, _Herodotus_, i. 394.\n\n[608] _Antt._, X. i. 1-5.\n\n[609] Comp. 1 Sam. v., vi., where, after a plague, the Philistines\nsent an expiation of five golden mice.\n\n[610] We may add that even the Chronicler drops a veil over\nSennacherib's actual capture of fortresses in Judah (\"he _thought_ to\nwin them for himself,\" 2 Chron. xxxii. 1: comp. 2 Kings xviii. 13;\nIsa. xxxvi. 1).\n\n[611] Isa. vi. 11-13.\n\n[612] Isa. v. 26-30.\n\n[613] Isa. vii. 18.\n\n[614] Isa. viii., xxviii. 1-15, x. 28-34.\n\n[615] Isa. xiv. 29-32, xxix., xxx.\n\n[616] Isa. i. 19, 20.\n\n[617] Isa. x. 33, xxix. 5-8, xxx. 20-26, 30-33.\n\n[618] Isa. xxxviii. 6. See for this paragraph an admirable chapter in\nProf. Smith's _Isaiah_, pp. 368-374.\n\n[619] Isa. xlvii. 13.\n\n[620] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 531.\n\n[621] Isa. xl. 15.\n\n[622] Isa. xix. 24, 25.\n\n[623] Ecclus. xlix. 4.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIX\n\n _MANASSEH_\n\n B.C. 686-641\n\n 2 KINGS xxi. 1-16\n\n \"Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with Thee,\n That frameth mischief by statute?\n They gather themselves in troops against the soul of the righteous,\n And condemn the innocent blood.\"--PSALM xciv. 20, 21.\n\n \"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind\n exceeding small;\n Though with patience long He waiteth, with exactness grinds\n He all.\"\n\n\nManasseh was born after Hezekiah's recovery from his terrible illness.\nHe was but twelve years old when he began to reign. Of his mother\nHephzibah we know nothing, nor of the Zechariah who was her father;\nbut perhaps Isaiah in one passage (lxii. 4) may refer to her name, \"My\ndelight is in her.\"[624] The son of Hezekiah and Hephzibah was the\nworst of all the kings of Judah, and had the longest reign.\n\nThe tender age of Manasseh when he came to the throne may perhaps\naccount for the fact that the \"forgetfulness\" which his name\nimplied[625] was not a forgetting of other sorrows, but of all that\nwas noble and righteous in the attempted reformation which had been\nthe main religious work of his father's life. In Judah, as in England,\na king was not supposed to be of age until he was eighteen.[626] For\nsix years Manasseh must have been to a great extent under the\ninfluence of his regents and counsellors.\n\nThere always existed in Jerusalem, even in the best times, a\nheathenising party, and it was, unfortunately, composed of princes and\naristocrats who could bring strong influence to bear upon the\nking.[627] They did not deny Jehovah, but they did not recognise Him\nas the sole or the supreme God of heaven and earth. To them He was the\nlocal deity of Israel and Judah. But there were other gods, the gods\nof the nations, and their aim always was to recognise the existence of\nthese deities and to pay homage to their power. If their favour could\nnot be purchased except by their immediate votaries, at least their\nanger might be averted. These politicians advocated a fatal and\nincongruous syncretism, or at least an unlimited tolerance for heathen\nidols, for which they could, unhappily, quote the precepts and example\nof the Wise King, Solomon. If any one questioned their views as a\ndangerous idolatry, and an insult to\n\n \"Jehovah thundering out of Zion, throned\n Between the cherubim,\"\n\nthey had but to point from the walls of Jerusalem to the confronting\nsummit of Olivet, where still remained the shrines which the son of\nDavid had erected three centuries earlier to Chemosh, and Milcom, and\nAshtoreth, who, since his day, had always found, even in Jerusalem,\nsome worshippers, open or secret, to acknowledge their divinity.\n\nAnd these worldlings, in their tolerance for the intolerable, could\nalways appeal to two powerful instincts of man's fallen\nnature--sensuality and fear--\"lust hard by hate.\" There was something\nin the worship of Baal-Peor and of Moloch which appealed to the\nundying ape and tiger in the unregenerate human heart.\n\nThe true worship of Jehovah is exactly that form of religion which man\nfinds it least easy to render to Him--the religion of pure morality.\nServices, rites, functions, look like religious diligence, and readily\nsecure a reverent outward devotion. Even self-maceration, fasts, and\nflagellation are a cheap way of escaping the \"endless torments\" which\nalways loom so hugely in terrifying superstition.\n\nSuch superstitions are children of the fear and faithlessness which hath\ntorment. They are the corruptions with which every form of false\nreligion, and with which also a corrupt and perverted Christianity, are\nalways tainted. And they demand the easy expiation of physical ritual.\nBut all the best and most spiritual teachers of Scripture--alike the\nHebrew Prophets and the Christian Apostles--are at one with the Lord\nChrist in perpetual insistence on the truth that \"mercy is better than\nsacrifice,\" and that true religion consists in that good mind and good\nlife which are the sole proof of genuine sincerity.\n\nIf Jehovah would but be contented with gifts, men would gladly offer\nHim thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil. But the\nprophets taught that He was above all mean bribes, and that such\nofferings never could be anything to One whose were all the beasts of\nthe forests and the cattle upon a thousand hills. It was not easy,\nthen, to bribe such a God, or to make Him a respecter of persons.\n\nHow easy, again, would it be, if He would even accept human\nsacrifices! A child was but a child. How easy to kill a child, and\nplace it in the brazen arms which sloped over the fiery cistern!\nMoloch and Chemosh were supremely to be won by such holocausts; and\nsurely Moloch and Chemosh must be lords of power! But here again the\nprophets of Jehovah stepped in, and said that it was of no avail with\nthe High, the Holy, the Merciful, to give even our firstborn for our\ntransgressions, or the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul.\n\nAsceticism, then--occasional fasting, severe self-deprivations--surely\nthe gods would accept these? And they were as nothing compared to the\nburden of sin and the agony of conscience! Baal and Asherah could\ncommand agonised devotees, and could approve of them. By Jehovah and\nHis prophets such bodily service is discouraged and forbidden.\n\nPleasure, then?--the consecration of the natural impulses, the\ndevotion in religious cultus of the passions and appetites of the\nflesh--why should that be so abhorrent to Jehovah? Other deities\nexulted in licentiousness. Was not the temple of Astarte full of her\nwomen-worshippers and of her eunuchs? Was there no fascination in the\nvoluptuous allurements, the orgiastic dances, the stolen waters, the\nbread eaten in secret, when not only was the conscience lulled by the\nremoval therefrom of all sense of guilt and degradation, but such\norgies were even crowned with merit, as part of an acceptable worship?\nAfter all, there was \"a fascination of corruption\" in these idols of\ngold and jewels, of lust and blood!\n\nHow stern, how cold, how bare, by comparison, was the moral law which\nonly said, \"Thou shalt not,\" and emphasised its prohibition with the\nunalterable sanctions, \"This do, and thou shalt live\"; \"Do it not, and\nthou shalt die\"! What could they make of a religion which was so\neloquently silent as to the meritoriousness of ritual?\n\nAnd how chill and simple and dreary was that which--according to\nMicah--Jehovah had shown to be good, and which He required of every\nman,--which was nothing more than to do justly, and to love mercy, and\nto walk humbly with God!\n\nAnd what right had the prophets--so asked these apostates--to lord it\nover God's heritage in this way? Solomon was the greatest king of\nIsrael and Judah; and Solomon had never been so exclusive in his\nreligionism, though he had built the Temple of the Lord; nor Rehoboam;\nnor the great Ph\u0153nician Queen Athaliah; nor the cultivated and\n\u00e6sthetic Ahaz; nor, in the kingdom of Israel, the lordly warrior Ahab;\nnor the splendid and long-lived victor Jeroboam II. Had not Manasseh\nplenty of examples of religious syncretism, to which he might appeal\nin the joy of his youthful age?\n\nNot impossibly there lay in the background another reason why the\nyoung king might be inclined to listen to these evil counsellors.\nMicah may still have been living; but of Isaiah we hear no more.\nProbably he was dead. It is not recorded that he delivered any\nprophecy during the reign of Manasseh, nor is it certain that he\noutlived the former king. Tradition, indeed, in later days, asserted\nthat he had confronted Manasseh, and been doomed to death; that he had\ntaken refuge in a cedar tree, and in that cedar had been sawn asunder;\nbut the tradition is wholly without a vestige of authority. One of\nMicah's sternest oracles was perhaps uttered in the days of\nManasseh.[628] But Micah was only a provincial prophet of\nMoresheth-Gath. He never moved in the midst of princes as Isaiah had\ndone, or possessed a tithe of the authority which had rested for so\nmany years on the shoulders of his mighty contemporary.\n\nMoreover--so the heathen party might suggest--had not Isaiah's\nprophecies been falsified by the result? Had he not distinctly\npromised and pledged his credit to two things? and had not both turned\nout to be unworthy of reliance?\n\ni. Surely he had prophesied the utter downfall of the Assyrians. And it\nwas true that after his disaster on the confines of Egypt, Sennacherib\nhad fled in haste to Nineveh, and his occupations with rebels on his own\nfrontiers had left Judah unmolested, and he had been murdered by his\nsons. But, on the other hand, in no sense of the word had Assyria\nfallen. On the contrary, she had never been more powerful. Not one of\nhis predecessors had seemed more irresistible than Esarhaddon. He was\nundisputed king of Babylon and of Nineveh. There would be no more\nembassies from Merodach-Baladan, or any revolted viceroy! And rumour\nwould early begin to narrate that Esarhaddon had not forgotten the\ncatastrophe at Pelusium, but intended to avenge it, and to teach Egypt\nthe forgotten lessons of Raphia (B.C. 720) and Altaqu (B.C. 701).\n\nii. And as for Judah, where was the golden Messianic age which Isaiah\nhad promised? Where did they see the Divine Prince whom he had\nforetold, or the lion lying down with the lamb, and the child laying\nhis hand on the cockatrice's den?\n\nAll this, they would argue, had greatly shaken Isaiah's prophetic\nauthority. Judah was a mere vassal--safe only in so far as she\nremained a vassal, and did not join Tyre or any other rebellious\npower, but abode safe under the shadow of Assyria's mighty wings.\n\nWas it not, then, as well to look facts in the face? to accept things\nas they were? And--so they would argue, with false plausibility--since\nthe triumph, after all, had remained with the gods of the nations,\nmight it not be as well to dethrone Jehovah from His exclusive\ndominion, and at least to propitiate the potent and less-exacting\ndeities, the charming _D\u00ee faciles_ who smiled at lewd aberrations, and\neven flung over them the glamour of devotion?\n\nWith these bolder renegades would be the whole body of the priests of\nthe _bamoth_. Those old sanctuaries had been repressed by Hezekiah\nwithout any compensation; for in those days life-interests were\nlittle, or not at all, regarded. Multitudes of priests and Levites\nmust have been flung out of employment and reduced to poverty by the\nrecent religious revolution. It is not likely that they bore without a\nmurmur the obliteration of forms of worship sanctioned by immemorial\ncustom, or that they made no efforts to procure the re-establishment\nof what the people loved.\n\nThus a vast weight of evil influence was brought to bear upon the\nboy-king; and it was also the more powerful because repeated\nindications exist that, while the king was nominally a despot, and was\nsurrounded with external observance, the real control of affairs was,\nto a large extent, in the hands of an aristocracy of priests and\nprinces, except when the king was a man of great personal force.\n\nManasseh went over to these retrogressionists heart and soul, and he\ncontentedly remained a tributary of Assyria. Even when Esarhaddon's\nforces marched to the chastisement of Egypt, he felt secure in his\nallegiance to the dominant tyrant of Babylon and Nineveh, whose\ninterest it would be not to disturb a faithful subject.\n\nThere followed a reaction, an absolute rebound from the old\nmonotheistic strictness and righteousness. The nation emancipated\nitself from the moral law as with a shout of relief, and plunged into\nsuperstition and licentiousness. The reign of Manasseh resembled at\nonce the recrudescence of Popery in the reign of Mary Tudor, with its\nrekindling of the fires of Smithfield, and the foul orgies of\ndebauchery at the Restoration of 1660, when human nature, loving\ndegraded licence better than strenuous liberty, flung away the noble\nfreedom of Puritanism for the loathly mysteries of Cotytto. The age of\nManasseh resembled that of Charles II., in the famous description of\nLord Macaulay. \"Then came days never to be recalled without a blush,\nthe days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love, of\ndwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and\nnarrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave.\nIn every high place worship was paid to Belial and Moloch, and England\npropitiated these obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best\nand bravest children.\" Sensuous intoxication is in all cases closely\nconnected with fiendish cruelty, and the introducer of voluptuous\nidolatries naturally became the first persecutor of the true religion.\n\n1. The first step of the king, and probably the one which the people\nwelcomed most, was the restoration of the chapelries under the trees\nand on the hills, which, more strenuously than any of his\npredecessors, Hezekiah had at least attempted to put down. For this\nstep Manasseh might have pleaded the sanction of ages to which the\nBook of Deuteronomy had either been wholly unknown, or during which\nits laws had become as utterly forgotten as though they had never\nexisted. To many worshippers these old shrines had become extremely\nprecious. They felt it to be either an actual impossibility, or at the\nbest intolerably burdensome, to make their way by long, dreary, and\ndifficult journeys to Jerusalem, when they desired to pay the most\nordinary rites of worship. They knew no reason, and had never known of\nany reason, why Jehovah should be worshipped in one Temple only. All\ntheir religious instincts led them the other way. They could point to\nthe example of all the highly honoured saints who had worshipped God\nat Gilgal, Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba, Kedesh, Gibeah, and\nmany another shrine; and of all the saintly kings who had not dreamt\nof interfering with such free worship. Why should Jerusalem monopolise\nall sanctity? It might be a politic view for kings to maintain, and\nhighly profitable for priests to establish; but none of their great\nprophets, not even the princely Isaiah, had said one syllable against\nthe innocent high places of Jehovah. In those days there were no\nsynagogues. The extinction of the high places doubtless seemed to many\nof the people an extinction of religion in daily life, and they were\nmore than half disposed to agree with the Rabshakeh that Jehovah was\noffended by what they regarded as a burdensome, unwise, and sweeping\ninnovation.--If it be necessary to answer arguments which might have\nseemed natural, against a custom which might have seemed innocent, it\nmust suffice to say that it was the chief mission of Israel to keep\nalive among the nations of the world the knowledge of the One True\nGod, and that, amid the constant temptations to accept the gods of the\nheathen as they were adored in groves and on high places, the faith of\nIsrael could no longer be kept pure except by the Deuteronomic\ninstitution of one central and exclusive shrine.\n\n2. But Manasseh did far worse than rehabilitate the worship at the high\nplaces which his father had discouraged. \"He reared up altars for\nBaal,[629] and made an Asherah, as did Ahab, King of Israel.\" This was\nthe first bad element of the new cosmopolitan eclecticism. It involved\nthe acceptance of the Ph\u0153nician nature-worship with its manifold\nabominations. The people had grown familiar with it under Athaliah (2\nKings xi. 18), and under Ahaz (2 Chron. xxviii. 2); but Manasseh, as we\ninfer from the account given of Josiah's reformation, had gone further\nthan either. He had actually ventured to introduce the image of Baal\ninto the Temple, and to set up the Asherah-pillar in front of it (2\nKings xxiii. 4). Worse even than this, he had erected in the very\nTemple (_id._ 7) houses devoted to the execrable _Qedeshim_ (Vulg.,\n_effeminati_), in which also the women wove broidered hangings to adorn\nthe shrines of the idol image, as in the worship of the Assyrian\nMylitta.[630] He, at the same time, displaced the altar and removed the\nArk. To the latter circumstances is perhaps due the Rabbinic legend that\nHezekiah hid the Ark till the coming of the Messiah.\n\n3. To this Ph\u0153nician worship he added Sabaism, the worship of the\nstars, \"all the host of heaven, whom he served.\" This was an entirely\nnew phase of idolatry, unknown to the Hebrews till they came in\ncontact with Assyria.[631] It came rapidly into vogue, and exercised\nover their imaginations the spell of a seductive novelty, as we see\nfrom the strong testimony of the prophet Jeremiah.[632] This is why it\nis so emphatically forbidden in the Book of Deuteronomy.[633] The king\nbuilt altars to the stars of the Zodiac (_Mazzaroth_), both in the\nouter court of the Temple, and in the court of the priests, and on\nthese altars incense or victims were continually burned. He also\nintroduced or encouraged the introduction into the Temple precincts of\nthe horses and chariots dedicated to the sun.[634]\n\nWhen we read of the actual invasion of the Temple-precincts in this as\nin preceding and subsequent reigns, we cannot but ask, Were these\natrocities committed with the sanction or with the connivance of the\npriests? We are not told. Yet how can it have been otherwise? If the\nhigh priest Azariah could muster eighty priests to oppose King Uzziah,\nwhen he merely wished to burn incense in the Temple, as Solomon had\ndone before him, and as Ahaz did after him--if Jehoiada could,\naccording to the Chronicler, muster a perfect army of priests and\nLevites to dethrone Athaliah, and could so stir up the people that\nthey rose _en masse_ to tear down the temple of Baal, and slay Mattan,\nhis high priest,--how was it possible for Manasseh to perpetrate these\nflagrant acts of idolatrous apostasy, if the priests were all ranged\nin opposition to his power? Was their authority suddenly paralysed?\nDid their influence with the people shrivel into nothing when Hezekiah\nhad been carried to his tomb? Or did these priests follow the easy and\nprofitable course which they seem to have followed throughout the\nwhole history of the kings without an exception?--did they simply\nanswer the kings according to their idols?\n\n4. Another, and the most hideous, element of the new mixture of cults\nwas the reintroduction of the ancient Canaanite worship of Moloch with\nits human sacrifices. Manasseh, like Ahaz, made his son or, according\nto the Chronicler and the Septuagint, \"his sons\"--pass through the\nfire to this grim Ammonite idol in Tophet of the Valley of Hinnom, so\nas to leave no chance untried. And herein he was far more inexcusable\nthan his grandfather; for Ahaz had at least been driven by desperate\nextremity to this last expedient, but Manasseh was living, if not in\nprosperity, at least in unbroken peace. Moreover, he not only did this\nhimself, but did his utmost to make a popular institution of\nchildren-sacrifice, so that many practised it in the dreadful valley\nand amid the rocks outside Jerusalem.[635]\n\n5. Even this did not suffice him. To these Assyrian, Ph\u0153nician, and\nCanaanite elements of idolatry he added Babylonian novelties. He\npractised augury, and used enchantments, and he dealt with familiar\nspirits and wizards, as though without Egyptian necromancy and\nMesopotamian shamanism his eclectic worship would be incomplete.[636]\n\n6. Thus \"he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to\nprovoke Him to anger.\" He placed a graven image of his Asherah inside\nthe Temple, and utterly profaned the sacred house, and seduced his\npeople \"to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed\nbefore the children of Israel.\"\n\nWhatever was the conduct of the priests, the prophets were not silent.\nThey denounced Manasseh for having done worse than even the ancient\nAmorites, and declared that, in consequence of his crimes, God would\nbring upon Jerusalem such evil as would cause both the ears of him\nthat heard it to tingle;[637] that he would stretch over Jerusalem for\nruin the line and the level of Ahab;[638] that He would cast off even\nthe remnant, and deliver them to their enemies; that He would wipe out\nJerusalem \"as a man wipeth a dish, wiping and turning it upside\ndown.\"[639]\n\nThe finest oracles of Micah (vi. 1-vii. 7) were probably uttered in the\nreign of Manasseh, and give the simplest and purest expression to the\nsupremacy of morality as the one true end and test of religion. Micah is\nas indifferent as the Decalogue to all claims of rites, ceremonies, and\noutward worship. \"Jehovah demands nothing for Himself; all that He asks\nis for man: this is the fundamental law of the theocracy.\"\n\nThe apostasies of the king and the denunciation of the prophets thus\ncame into fierce collision, and led naturally to persecution and\nbloodshed. Perhaps in Mic. vii. 1-7 we catch the echoes of the Reign\nof Terror. The king resorted to violence, using, no doubt, the\ntyrant's devilish plea of necessity. He made blood run like water in\nthe streets of Jerusalem from end to end,[640] and in the exaggerated\nphrase of Josephus, was _daily_ slaying the prophets.[641] It was\nduring this persecution, according to Rabbinic tradition, that Isaiah\nreceived the martyr's crown.[642]\n\nAnd no miracles were wrought to save the martyrs. Elijah and Elisha\nhad been surrounded with a blaze of miracles, but in Judah no prophet\narose who could so wield the power of Heaven.\n\nAt this point the narrative of the historian about Manasseh ends. If\nhe shared the current opinion of his day, which connected individual\nand national prosperity with well-doing, and regarded length of days\nas a sign of the favour of Heaven, while, on the other hand,\nmisfortune and misery invariably resulted from the wrath of Jehovah,\nhe could not have been otherwise than surprised, and perhaps even\npained, to have to relate that Manasseh reigned fifty-five years. Not\nonly was his reign longer than that of any other king of Israel or\nJudah; not only did he attain a greater age than any of them; but,\nfurther, no calamity seems to have marked his rule. A contented and\nprotected vassal of Esarhaddon, secure from his attacks, and also\nunmolested by the weakened and subjugated nations around him, he would\nseem, in the story of the Kings, to have enjoyed an enviable external\nlot, and to have presided over a people who were happy, in that,\nduring his rule, they had no history. But whatever the writer may have\nfelt, he tells us no more, and lets us see Manasseh sink peacefully\ninto his grave \"in the garden of his own house, in the garden of\nUzza,\" and leave to his son Amon a peaceful realm and an undisputed\ncrown. Such a career would undoubtedly perplex and confound all the\npreconceived opinions of Jewish orthodoxy. The prosperity of Manasseh\nwould have presented as great a problem to them as the miseries of\nJob. They looked to temporal prosperity as the reward of\nrighteousness, and to acute misery as the retribution of apostasy and\nsin. They had little or no conception of a future which should redress\nthe balance of apparent earthly inequalities. Alike the sight of\nManasseh's long reign and Josiah's undeserved death in battle would\ngive a powerful shock to their fixed convictions.\n\nFar different is the end of the story in the Book of Chronicles. The\nrecords of Esarhaddon tell us that in 680 he made an expedition into\nPalestine to restore the shaken influence of his father,[643] and\nabout 647 he mentions among his submissive tributaries the kings of\nTyre, Edom, Moab, Gaza, Ekron, Askelon, Gebal, Ammon, Ashdod, and\nManasseh, King of Judah (\"Minasi-sar-Yahudi\"), as well as ten princes\nof Cyprus. Whether the King of Judah rebelled later on, and intrigued\nwith Tirhakah, we do not know; but in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 we read that\nEsarhaddon sent his generals to Jerusalem, took Manasseh by stratagem,\ndrove rings through his lips, bound him in chains, and brought him to\nBabylon, where Esarhaddon was holding his court.[644] We find from the\n_Eponym Canon_ that Tyre revolted from Assyria in the tenth year of\nEsarhaddon, and Manasseh may have been drawn away to join in the\nrevolt; or he may have joined Shamash-shum-uk\u00een, the Viceroy of\nBabylon, in his revolt against his brother Assurbanipal. As a rule,\nthe lot of a conquered vassal at the Assyrian Court was horrible, and\nin his utter misery Manasseh repented, humbled himself, and\nprayed.[645] His prayer was heard. The despots of Nineveh were\ncapricious alike in their insults and in their favours, and\nEsarhaddon not only pardoned Manasseh, but sent him back to\nJerusalem,[646] thinking that he would be more useful to him there\nthan in a Babylonian dungeon. After this reprieve he lived like a\npenitent and a patriot. Esarhaddon was preparing for his expedition\nagainst Tirhakah, and would not attack a king who was now bound to him\nby gratitude as well as fear. But the times were very troublous.\nManasseh prepared for eventualities by building an outer wall on the\nwest of the city of David, unto Gihon in the Valley, by surrounding\nOphel with a high wall, and by garrisoning the fenced cities.[647] All\nthis was necessary and patriotic work, considering that Judah might be\nattacked by other enemies as well as the Assyrians. She was like a\ngrain of corn amid the grinding mills of the nations. Media and Lydia\nwere rising into strong kingdoms. Babylon was becoming daily more\nformidable. Dim rumours reached the East of movements among vast hosts\nof Cimmerian and Scythian barbarians. Jerusalem had no human strength\nfor war. She could only rely upon her battlements, on the natural\nstrength of her position, and on the protection of her God. Almost in\nthe last year of Manasseh, the powerful Psammetichus I., king of a now\nunited Egypt, made an assault on Ashdod; but he did not venture on the\ndifficult task of besieging Jerusalem.\n\nThe religious reformation of Manasseh attested the sincerity of his\namendment. He flung out the Asherah from the Temple, put away the\nstrange gods, destroyed the altars, burnt sacrifices to God, and used\nall his power to restore the worship of Jehovah. He did not, however,\ndestroy the high places. For this story the Chronicler refers to \"the\nwords of Chozai,\"[648] according to the present text, which some\nsuppose to have meant \"the story of the Seers.\" He also refers to a\nprayer of Manasseh, which cannot of course be the Greek forgery of the\nsecond or third century which goes by that name in the Apocrypha.[649]\nHis repentance doubtless secured his own salvation. \"Whoso saith\n'Manasseh hath no part in the world to come,'\" said Rabbi Johanan,\n\"discourageth the penitent\";--but the partial reformation was too late\nto save his land.\n\nIs this a literal history, or an edifying Haggadah? The non-historical\ncharacter of the story is maintained by De Wette, Graf, N\u00f6ldeke, and\nmany others. Both views have been taken. This we can, at any rate,\nassert--that there seems to be nothing in the story which is\ninconsistent with probability. The Chronicler may have derived it from\ngenuine documents or traditions, though it is difficult to account for\nthe silence of the elder and more trustworthy historian. Nor is it\nonly his silence for which we have to account; it is the continuance\nof his positive statements. It would be, in any case, a strange\nconception of history which, after narrating a man's crimes, omitted\nalike the retribution which befell him on account of them, the\nheartfelt penitence for the sake of which they were forgiven, and the\nseriously earnest endeavour to undo at least something of the evil\nwhich he had done. Not only does the historian make these omissions,\nbut in no subsequent allusion to Manasseh does he so much as indicate\nthat he is aware of his amendment.[650] He says that Amon \"did evil in\nthe sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did.\"[651] He speaks of\nthe altars to the hosts of heaven which Manasseh had made in the two\ncourts of the Temple as still standing in the reign of Josiah, though\nthe Chronicler tells us that Manasseh had cast them all out of the\ncity.[652] He says that, notwithstanding all that Josiah did, \"the\nLord turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, because of all\nthe provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him withal,\"[653] and that\non this account God cast off Jerusalem. Never, even by the most\ndistant allusions, does he refer to Manasseh's captivity, his prayer,\nhis penitence, or his counter-efforts. Had he been aware of these, his\nsilence would have been neither generous nor just. Nay, he even leaves\napparent facts at conflict with the Chronicler's story, for he makes\nJosiah do all that the Chronicler tells us that Manasseh himself had\ndone in the removal of his worst abominations.\n\nEven now we have not exhausted the historic difficulties which\nsurround the repentance of Manasseh. During his reign Jeremiah\nreceived his call, and while still a young boy began his work. Neither\nhe, nor Zephaniah, nor Habakkuk drop the slightest hint that the\nwicked, idolatrous king had ever turned over a new leaf. Jeremiah's\nsilence is specially difficult to account for. He, too, records\nJehovah's final and irrevocable decree, that He would give up Judah to\ndeath, to exile, and to famine, to the sword to slay, to the dogs to\ntear, to the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour\nand to destroy.[654] And the cause of the pitiless doom pronounced by\na Judge weary of repenting is \"because of Manasseh, the son of\nHezekiah, King of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.\"[655]\n\nThe judgment was not long delayed.\n\nIt was the vast movement of the Scythians in Media and Western Asia,\nand the rumours of it, which gave to Manasseh and Amon such respite as\nthey had; and even this respite was full of misery and fear.[656]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[624] One legend says that Hephzibah was a daughter of Isaiah. Not so\nJosephus (_Antt._, X. iii. 1).\n\n[625] See Gen. xli. 51. His name may have referred to the new union\nbetween the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Comp. 2 Chron. xxx. 6,\nxxxi. 1.\n\n[626] Chron. xxxiv. 1-3.\n\n[627] See Zeph. i. 8. Comp. 2 Chron. xxiv. 17; Isa. xxviii. 14; Jer.\nv. 5, etc.\n\n[628] Mic. vii. 1-20.\n\n[629] LXX., \u03c4\u1fc7 \u0392\u03b1\u03ac\u0308\u03bb. The feminine, however, does not imply that Baal\nwas here worshipped as a female deity, but is probably due to the fact\nthat later Jews always avoided using the _names_ of idols (from a\nmisapprehension or too literal view of Exod. xxiii. 13), and therefore\ncalled Baal _Bosheth_ (\"shame\"), which is feminine. Hence the names\nMephibosheth, Jerubbesheth, Ishbosheth. In Suidas (_s.v._ \u039c\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c3\u03c3\u1fc6\u03c2) he\nis charged with having set up in the Temple \"a four-faced image of\nZeus.\"\n\n[630] For \u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05ea\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9\u05dd, in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, the LXX. read \u03c7\u03b5\u03c4\u03c4\u03af\u03bc (?).\nGr\u00e4tz, (_Gesch. d. Juden._, ii. 277) suggests \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05e0\u05b8\u05d3\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd, \"broidered\nrobes.\" Ezek. xvi. 16. See Herod., i. 199; Strabo, xvi. 1058; Luc.,\n_De De\u00e2. Syr._, \u00a7 6; Libanius, _Opp._, xi. 456, 557; _Ep. of Jeremy_,\n43; D\u00f6llinger, _Judenthum u. Heidenthum_, i. 431; Rawlinson,\n_Ph\u0153nicia_, 431.\n\n[631] Chron. xxxiii. 3; 2 Kings xxiii. 5. Movers, _Rel. d. Ph\u00f6niz._,\ni. 65 \"In all the books of the Old Testament written before the\nAssyrian period no trace of star-worship is to be to found.\" 2 Kings\nxvii. 16.\n\n[632] Jer. vii. 18, viii. 2, xix. 13; Zeph. i, 5.\n\n[633] See Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3.\n\n[634] 2 Kings xxiii. 11, 12.\n\n[635] See Jer. vii, 31, 32, xix. 2-6, xxxii. 35; Psalm cvi. 37, 38.\n\n[636] Ewald infers from Isa. lvii. 5-9; Jer. ii. 5-13, that he actually\n_sought_ for all foreign kinds of worship, in order to introduce them.\n\n[637] 1 Sam. iii. 11; Jer. xix. 3.\n\n[638] Comp. Isa. xxxiv. 11; Lam. ii. 8.\n\n[639] 2 Kings xxi. 13. LXX., \u1f00\u03bb\u03ac\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, _al._ \u03c0\u03c5\u03be\u03af\u03bf\u03bd. The Vulgate\nalso takes it to mean the obliteration of writing on a tablet: \"Delebo\nJerusalem sicut deleri solent tabul\u00e6; et ducam crebrius stylum super\nfaciem ejus.\"\n\n[640] 2 Kings xxi. 16; Heb., \"from mouth to mouth\"; LXX., \u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2\n\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bc\u03b1; Vulg., _donec impleret Jerusalem usque ad os_. Comp. 2 Kings x.\n21.\n\n[641] _Antt._, X. iii, 1: \"He butchered alike all the just among the\nHebrews.\" To this reign of terror some refer Psalm xii. 1; Isa. lvii.\n1-4.\n\n[642] This (as I have said) cannot be regarded as certain. Isaiah\nbegan to prophesy in the year that King Uzziah died, sixty years\nbefore Manasseh. It is a Jewish Haggadah. See Gesen on Isa. i., p. 9,\nand the Apocryphal \"Ascension of Isaiah.\"\n\n[643] Esarhaddon reigned only eight years, till 668, and then resigned\nin favour of his son Assurbanipal. In his reign Psammetichus recovered\nEgypt, and put an end to the Dodecarchy. In the reign of his\nsuccessor, Assuredililani, Assyria began to decline (647-625).\n\n[644] Comp. Isa. xxxix. 6; Jos., _Antt._, X. iii. 2. The phrase \"among\nthe thorns\" means \"_with rings_\" (comp. Isa. xxx. 28, xxxvii. 29;\nEzek. xxxviii. 4; Amos iv. 2). Assurbanipal says similarly that he\nseized Necho, \"bound him with bonds and iron chains, hands and feet,\"\nbut afterwards allowed him to return to Egypt (Schrader, ii. 59).\n\n[645] Late and worthless Haggadoth, echoed by still later writers\n(Suidas and Syncellus), say he was kept in a brazen cage, fed on bran\nbread dipped in vinegar, etc. See _Apost. Constt._, ii. 22: \"And the\nLord hearkened to his voice, and there became about him a flame of\nfire, and all the irons about him melted.\" John Damasc., _Parall._,\nii. 15, quotes from Julius Africanus, that while Manasseh was saying a\npsalm his iron bonds burst, and he escaped. See _Speakers Commentary_,\non Apocrypha, ii. 363.\n\n[646] Such pardon from a king of Assyria was rare, but not\nunparalleled. Pharaoh Necho I. was taken in chains to Nineveh, and\nafterwards set free (Schrader, _K. A. T._, p. 371).\n\n[647] See 2 Chron. xxvii. 3. The \"fish gate\" was, perhaps, a weak\npoint (Zeph. i. 10).\n\n[648] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 19. Heb., _dibhr\u00ee Chozai_; A.V., \"the story of\nthe Seers\"; R.V., \"in the history of Hozai\"; LXX., \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03c9\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd\n\u03bf\u1f50\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u1ff6\u03bd; Vulg., _in sermonibus Hozai_. The elements of doubt\nsuggested by the name \"Babylon,\" and by the liberation of Manasseh,\nhave been removed by further knowledge. See Budge, _Hist. of\nEsarhaddon_, p. 78; Schrader, _K. A. T._, 369 ff.\n\n[649] Since the Council of Trent this prayer has been relegated to the\nend of the Vulgate with 3, 4, Esdras. Verse 8 (the supposed sinlessness\nof the Patriarchs) at once shows it to be a mere composition.\n\n[650] 2 Kings xxiii. 12.\n\n[651] 2 Kings xxi. 20.\n\n[652] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 15.\n\n[653] 2 Kings xxiii. 26.\n\n[654] Jer. xv. 1-9.\n\n[655] The later Jews certainly took no account of his repentance. His\nname was execrated (see the substitution of Manasseh for Moses in\nJudg. xviii. 30), and he was denied all part in the world to come. The\nApocryphal \"Prayer of Manasses\" has no authority, though it is\ninteresting (Butler, _Analogy_, pt. ii., ch. v.).\n\n[656] In estimating the Chronicler's story, we cannot wholly forget the\nfact that a number of Haggadic legends clustered thickly round the name\nof Manasseh in the literature of the later Jews. He is charged with\nincest, with the murder of Isaiah, the distortion of Scripture, etc.,\nand is represented as having got to heaven, not by real repentance, but\nby challenging God on His superiority to idols. The Targum, after 2\nChron. xxxiii. 11, adds, \"And the Chaldees made a copper mule, and\npierced it all over with little holes, and put him therein. And when he\nwas in straits, he cried in vain to all his idols. Then he prayed to\nJehovah and humbled himself; but the angels shut every window and\nlattice of heaven, that his prayer might not enter. But forthwith the\npity of the Lord of the world rolled forth, and He made an aperture in\nheaven, and the mule burst asunder, and the Spirit breathed on him, and\nhe forsook all his idols.\" \"No books,\" says Dr. Neubauer, \"are more\nsubject to additions and various adaptations than popular histories.\"\nSee Mr. Ball's commentary (_Speaker's Commentary_, ii. 309, and\n_Sanhedrin_, f. 99, 2; 101, 1; 103, 2).\n\n\n\n\n _AMON_[657]\n\n B.C. 641-639\n\n 2 KINGS xxi. 19-26\n\nThe brief reign of Amon is only a sort of unimportant and miserable\nannex to that of his father. As he was twenty-two years old when he\nbegan to reign, he must have witnessed the repentance and reforming zeal\nof his father, if, in spite of all difficulties, we assume that\nnarrative to be historical. In that case, however, the young man was\nwholly untouched by the latter phase of Manasseh's life, and flung\nhimself headlong into the career of the king's earlier idolatries. \"He\nwalked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols\nthat his father served, and worshipped them\"--which was the more\nextraordinary if Manasseh's last acts had been to dethrone and destroy\nthese strange gods. He even \"multiplied trespass,\" so that in his son's\nreign we find every form of abomination as triumphant as though Manasseh\nhad never attempted to check the tide of evil. We know nothing more of\nAmon. Apparently he only reigned two years.[658] He is the only Jewish\nking who bears the name of a foreign--an Egyptian--deity.\n\nFor pictures of the state of things in this reign we may look to the\nprophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah, and they are forced to use the\ndarkest colours.\n\nThis is Zephaniah's picture:--\n\n \"Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city!\n She obeyed not the voice; she received not instruction;\n She trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.\n Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions;\n Her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones on the morrow.\n Her prophets are light and treacherous persons:\n Her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to\n the law.\"[659]\n\nHe tells us that Baal and his black-robed _chemarim_[660] are still\nprevalent--that men worshipped on their house-tops the host of heaven,\nand swore by \"Moloch their king.\" Therefore would God search Jerusalem\nwith candles, and would visit the men who had sunk, like thick wine on\nthe lees, and who said in their infidel hearts, \"Jehovah will not do\ngood, neither will He do evil.\" He is an Epicurean God, a cypher, a\n_fain\u00e9ant_. \"Men make all kinds of fine calculations,\" says Luther,\n\"but the Lord God says to them, 'For whom, then, do you hold Me? For a\ncypher? Do I sit here in vain, and to no purpose? You shall know that\nI will turn their accounts about finely, and make them all false\nreckonings.'\"\n\nNot less dark is the view of Jeremiah.[661] Like Diogenes in Athens,\nJeremiah in vain searches Jerusalem for a faithful man. Among the poor\nhe finds brutish obstinacy, among the rich insolent defiance. They\nwere like fed horses in the morning--lecherous and unruly. They are\nslanderers, adulterers, corrupters, murderers. They worship Baal and\nstrange gods. \"They set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is full of\nbirds, so are their houses full of deceit. They are waxen fat, they\nshine; yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness.\"[662] \"An\nastonishment and horror is done in the land; the prophets prophesy\nfalsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love\nto have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?\"[663]\n\n\"From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is\ngiven to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every\none dealeth falsely. They have treated also the hurt of My people\nlightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. Were they\nashamed when they had committed abominations? Nay, they were not at\nall ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among\nthem that fall.\"[664]\n\nThe wretched reign ended wretchedly. Amon met the fate of Amaziah and\nof Joash. He was murdered by conspirators--by some of his own\ncourtiers--in his own palace. He was not the victim of any general\nrebellion. The people of the land were apparently content with the\nexistent idolatry, which left them free for lives of lust and luxury,\nof greed and gain. They resented the disorder introduced by an\nintrigue of eunuchs or court officials. They rose and slew the whole\nband of conspirators. Amon was buried with his father in the new\nburial-place of the Kings in the garden of Uzza, and the people placed\nhis son Josiah--a child of eight years old--upon the throne.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[657] The name Amon is unusual. Some identify it with the name of the\nEgyptian sun-god (Nah. iii. 8). If so, we see yet another element of\nManasseh's syncretism, and (as some fancy) an attempt to open\nrelations with Psammetichus of Egypt. But perhaps the name may be\nHebrew for \"Architect\" (1 Kings xxii. 26; Neh. vii. 59).\n\n[658] 2 Kings xxi. 19. The LXX. reads \"twelve years,\" but not so\nJosephus (_Antt._, X. iv. 1), or 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21.\n\n[659] Zeph. iii. 1-11. Comp. i. 4.\n\n[660] _Chemarim_, 2 Kings xxiii. 5; Hos. x. 5. The root in Syriac\nmeans \"to be sad,\" but Kimchi derives it from a root \"to be black.\"\nThe Vulgate renders it _\u00e6ditui_ and _aruspices_.\n\n[661] We are told in the titles of their books that both these\nprophets prophesied in the days of Josiah; but such pictures can only\napply to the earliest years of his reign.\n\n[662] See Jer. v., vi., vii., _passim_.\n\n[663] Jer. vi. 13-15.\n\n[664] Jer. v. 30, 31.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXX\n\n _JOSIAH_\n\n B.C. 639-608[665]\n\n 2 KINGS xii., xxiii\n\n \"\u03a4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b4\u1f72 \u03c6\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f04\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u1fc6\u03c1\u03c7\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u1f74\u03bd \u03b5\u1f57\n \u03b3\u03b5\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd\u03ce\u03c2.\"--Jos., _Antt._, iv. 1.\n\n \"In outline dim and vast\n Their fearful shadows cast\n The giant forms of Empires, on their way\n To ruin: one by one\n They tower, and they are gone.\"\n KEBLE.\n\n\nIf we are to understand the reign of Josiah as a whole, we must preface\nit by some allusion to the great epoch-marking circumstances of his age,\nwhich explain the references of contemporary prophets, and which, in\ngreat measure, determined the foreign policy of the pious king.\n\nThe three memorable events of this brief epoch were, (I.) the movement\nof the Scythians, (II.) the rise of Babylon, and (III.) the\nhumiliation of Nineveh, followed by her total destruction.\n\nI. Many of Jeremiah's earlier prophecies belong to this period, and we\nsee that both he and Zephaniah--who was probably a great-great-grandson\nof King Hezekiah himself,[666] and prophesied in this reign[667]--are\ngreatly occupied with a danger from the North which seems to threaten\nuniversal ruin.\n\nSo overwhelming is the peril that Zephaniah begins with the\ntremendously sweeping menace, \"_I will utterly consume all things off\nthe earth_, saith the Lord.\"\n\nThen the curse rushes down specifically upon Judah and Jerusalem; and\nthe state of things which the prophet describes shows that, if Josiah\nbegan himself to seek the Lord at eight years old, he did not\ntake--and was, perhaps, unable to take--any active steps towards the\nextinction of idolatry till he was old enough to hold in his own hand\nthe reins of power.\n\nFor Zephaniah denounces the wrath of Jehovah on three classes of\nidolaters--viz., (1) the remnant of Baal-worshippers with their\n_chemarim_, or unlawful priests, and the syncretising priests\n(_kohanim_) of Jehovah, who combine His worship with that of the stars,\nto whom they burn incense upon the housetops; (2) the waverers, who\nswear at once by Jehovah and by Malcham, their king; and (3) the open\ndespisers and apostates. For all these the day of Jehovah is near; He\nhas prepared them for sacrifice, and the sacrificers are at hand.[668]\nGaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Ekron, the Cherethites, Canaan, Philistia, are\nall threatened by the same impending ruin, as well as Moab and Ammon,\nwho shall lose their lands. Ethiopia, too, and Assyria shall be smitten,\nand Nineveh shall become so complete a desolation that \"pelicans and\nhedgehogs shall bivouac upon her chapiters, the owl shall hoot in her\nwindows, and the crow croak upon the threshold, 'Crushed! desolated!'\nand all that pass by shall hiss and wag their hands.\"[669]\n\nThe pictures of the state of society drawn by Jeremiah do not, as we\nhave seen, differ from those drawn by his contemporary.[670] Jeremiah,\ntoo, writing perhaps before Josiah's reformation, complains that God's\npeople have forsaken the fountains of living water, to hew out for\nthemselves broken cisterns. He complains of empty formalism in the place\nof true righteousness, and even goes so far as to say that backsliding\nIsrael has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah (iii.\n1-11). He, too, prophesies speedy and terrific chastisement. Let Judah\ngather herself into fenced cities, and save her goods by flight, for God\nis bringing evil from the North, and a great destruction.[671]\n\n\"The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the\nnations is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy\nland desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an\ninhabitant. Behold, he cometh as clouds, and his chariots shall be as\nthe whirlwind.\" Besiegers come from a far country, and give out their\nvoice against the cities of Judah. The heart of the kings shall\nperish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be\nastonished, and the prophets shall wonder.\n\n\"For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet\nwill I not make a full end\"--and, \"O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from\nwickedness, that thou mayest be saved!\"[672]\n\n\"I will bring a nation upon you from far, O House of Israel, saith the\nLord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose\nlanguage\"--unlike that of the Assyrians--\"thou knowest not, neither\nunderstandest what they say. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they\nare all mighty men. They shall batter thy fenced cities, in which thou\ntrustest with weapons of war.\"[673]\n\n\"O ye children of Benjamin, save your goods by flight: for evil is\nimminent from the North, and a great destruction. Behold, a people\ncometh from the North Country, and a great nation shall be raised from\nthe farthest part of the earth. They lay hold on bow and spear; they are\ncruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they\nride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter\nof Zion. We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble.\"[674]\n\nAnd the judgment is close at hand. The early blossoming bud of the\nalmond tree is the type of its imminence. The seething caldron, with\nits front turned from the North, typifies an invasion which shall soon\nboil over and flood the land.[675]\n\nWhat was the fierce people thus vaguely indicated as coming from the\nNorth? The foes indicated in these passages are not the long-familiar\nAssyrians, but the Scythians and Cimmerians.[676]\n\nAs yet the Hebrews had only heard of them by dim and distant rumour.\nWhen Ezekiel prophesied they were still an object of terror, but he\nforesees their defeat and annihilation. They should be gathered into\nthe confines of Israel, but only for their destruction.[677] The\nprophet is bidden to set his face towards Gog, of the land of Magog,\nthe Prince of Rosh,[678] Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him\nthat God would turn him about, and put hooks in his jaws, and drive\nforth all his army of bucklered and sworded horsemen, the hordes of\nthe uttermost part of the North. They should come like a storm upon\nthe mountains of Israel, and spoil the defenceless villages; but they\nshould come simply for their own destruction by blood and by\npestilence. God should smite their bows out of their left hands, and\ntheir arrows out of the right, and the ravenous birds of Israel should\nfeed upon the carcases of their warriors. There should be endless\nbonfires of all the instruments of war, and the place of their burial\nshould be called \"the valley of the multitude of Gog.\"\n\nMuch of this is doubtless an ideal picture, and Ezekiel may be\nthinking of the fall of the Chald\u00e6ans. But the terms he uses remind us\nof the dim Northern nomads, and the names Rosh and Meshech in\njuxtaposition involuntarily recall those of Russia and Moscow.[679]\n\nOur chief historical authority respecting this influx of Northern\nbarbarians is Herodotus.[680] He tells us that the nomad Scythians,\napparently a Turanian race, who may have been subjected to the pressure\nof population, swarmed over the Caucasus, dispossessed the Cimmerians\n(Gomer), and settled themselves in Saccasene, a province of Northern\nArmenia. From this province the Scythians gained the name of the Saqu\u00ee.\nThe name of Gog seems to be taken from Gugu, a Scythian prince, who was\ntaken captive by Assurbanipal from the land of the Saqu\u00ee.[681] Magog is\nperhaps Mat-gugu, \"land of Gog.\" These rude, coarse warriors, like the\nhordes of Attila, or Zenghis Khan, or Tamerlane--who were descended from\nthem--magnetised the imagination of civilised people, as the Huns did in\nthe fourth century.[682] They overthrew the kingdom of Urartis\n(Armenia), and drove the all-but exterminated remnant of the Moschi and\nTabali to the mountain-fortresses by the Black Sea, turning them, as it\nwere, into a nation of ghosts in Sheol.[683] Then they burst like a\nthunder-cloud on Mesopotamia, desolating the villages with their\narrow-flights, but too unskilled to take fenced towns. They swept down\nthe Shephelah of Palestine, and plundered the rich temple of Aphrodite\n(Astarte Ourania) at Askelon, thereby incurring the curse of the goddess\nin the form of a strange disease. But on the borders of Egypt they were\ndiplomatically met by Psammetichus (_d._ 611) with gifts and prayers.\nJudah seems only to have suffered indirectly from this invasion. The\nmain army of Scyths poured down the maritime plain, and there was no\nsufficient booty to tempt any but their straggling bands to the barren\nhills of Judah.[684] It was the report of this over-flooding from the\nNorth which probably evoked the alarming prophecies of Zephaniah and\nJeremiah, though they found their clearer fulfilment in the invasion of\nthe Chaldees.\n\nII. This rush of wild nomads averted for a time the fate of Nineveh.\n\nThe Medes, an Aryan people, had settled south of the Caspian, B.C.\n790; and in the same century one of these tribes--the Persians--had\nsettled south-east of Elam the northern coast of the Persian Gulf.\nCyaxares founded the Median Empire, and attacked Nineveh. The Scythian\ninvasion forced him to abandon the siege, and the Scythians burnt the\nAssyrian palace and plundered the ruins. But Cyaxares succeeded in\nintoxicating and murdering the Scythian leaders at a banquet, and\nbribed the army to withdraw. Then Cyaxares, with the aid of the\nBabylonians under Nabopolassar their rebel viceroy, besieged and took\nNineveh--probably about B.C. 608--while its last king and his captains\nwere revelling at a banquet.[685]\n\nThe fall of Nineveh was not astonishing. The empire had long been\n\"slowly bleeding to death\" in consequence of its incessant wars. The\ncity deemed itself impregnable behind walls a hundred feet high, on\nwhich three chariots could drive abreast, and mantled with twelve\nhundred towers; but she perished, and all the nations--whom she had\nknown how to crush, but had with \"her stupid and cruel tyranny\" never\nknown how to govern--shouted for joy. That joy finds its triumphant\nexpression in more than one of the prophets, but specially in the\nvivid p\u00e6an of Nahum. His date is approximately fixed at about B.C.\n660, by his reference to the atrocities inflicted by Assurbanipal on\nthe Egyptian city of No-Amon. \"Art thou [Nineveh] better,\" he asks,\n\"than No-Amon, that was situate among the canals, that had the water\nround about her, whose rampart was the Nile, and her wall was the\nwaters? Yet she went into captivity! Her young children were dashed to\npieces at the head of all the streets: they cast lots for her\nhonourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. Thou also\nshalt be drunken: thou shalt faint away, thou shalt seek a stronghold\nbecause of the enemy.\"[686]\n\nAll the details of her fall are dim; but Nineveh was, in the language\nof the prophets, swept with the besom of destruction. Her ruins became\nstones of emptiness, and the line of confusion was stretched over her.\nNahum ends with the cry,--\n\n \"There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous:\n All that hear the bruit of this, clap the hands over thee:\n For upon whom hath thy wickedness not passed continually?\"\n\nIn truth, Assyria, the ferocious foe of Israel, of Judah, and all the\nworld, vanished suddenly, like a dream when one awaketh;[687] and those\nwho passed over its ruins, like Xenophon and his Ten Thousand in B.C.\n401, knew not what they were.[688] Her very name had become forgotten in\ntwo centuries. \"_Etiam periere ruin\u00e6!_\" The burnt relics and cracked\ntablets of her former splendour began to be revealed to the world once\nmore in 1842, and it is only during the last quarter of a century that\nthe fragments of her history have been laboriously deciphered.\n\nIII. Such were the events witnessed in their germs or in their\ncompletion by the contemporaries of Josiah and the prophets who\nadorned his reign. It was during this period, also, that the power to\nwhom the ultimate ruin and captivity of Jerusalem was due sprang into\nformidable proportions. The ultimate scourge of God to the guilty\npeople and the guilty city was not to be the Assyrian, nor the\nScythian, nor the Egyptian, nor any of the old Canaanite or Semitic\nfoes of Israel, nor the Ph\u0153nician, nor the Philistine. With all these\nshe had long contended, and held her own. It was before the Chaldee\nthat she was doomed to fall, and the Chaldee was a new phenomenon of\nwhich the existence had hardly been recognised as a danger till the\nwarning prophecy of Isaiah to Hezekiah after the embassy of the rebel\nviceroy Merodach-Baladan.[689]\n\nIt is to Habakkuk, in prophecies written very shortly after the death\nof Josiah, that we must look for the impression of terror caused by\nthe Chaldees.\n\nNabopolassar,[690] sent by the successor of Assurbanipal to quell a\nChald\u00e6an revolt, seized the viceroyalty of Babylon, and joined Cyaxares\nin the overthrow of Nineveh. From that time Babylon became greater and\nmore terrible than Nineveh, whose power it inherited. Habakkuk (ii.\n1-19) paints the rapacity, the selfishness, the inflated ambition, the\ncruelty, the drunkenness, the idolatry of the Chald\u00e6ans. He calls them\n(i. 5-11) a rough and restless nation, frightful and terrible, whose\nhorsemen were swifter than leopards, fiercer than evening wolves, flying\nto gorge on prey like the vultures, mocking at kings and princes, and\nflinging dust over strongholds. Nor has he the least comfort in looking\non their resistless fury, except the deeply significant oracle--an\noracle which contains the secret of their ultimate doom--\n\n \"Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright in him:\n But the righteous man shall live by his fidelity.\"\n\nThe prophet places absolute reliance on the general principle that\n\"pride and violence dig their own grave.\"[691]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[665] Kamphausen (_Die Chronologie der hebr\u00e4ischer K\u00f6nige_) makes\nJosiah succeed to the throne in 638.\n\n[666] Otherwise his genealogy would not be mentioned for four\ngenerations (Hitzig).\n\n[667] Zeph. i. 1. Jeremiah also was highly connected. He was a priest\nand his father Hilkiah may be the high priest who found the book; \"for\nhis uncle Shallum, father of his cousin Hanameel, was the husband of\nHuldah the prophetess\" (2 Kings xxii. 14; Jer. xxxii. 7). The fact\nthat Jeremiah's property was at Anathoth, where lived the descendants\nof Ithamar (1 Kings ii. 26), whereas Hilkiah was of the family of\nEleazar (1 Chron. vi. 4-13), does not seem fatal to the view that his\nfather was the high priest.\n\n[668] Zeph. ii. 4-7.\n\n[669] Zeph. ii. 12-15.\n\n[670] Jer. ii. 1-35. Considering the very great part played by\nJeremiah for nearly half a century of the last history of Judah, the\nnon-mention of his name in the Book of Kings is a circumstance far\nfrom easy to explain.\n\n[671] Jer. iv. 6, A. V., \"retire, stay not.\" Comp. Isa. x. 24-31.\n\n[672] Jer. iv. 7-27.\n\n[673] Jer. v. 15-17.\n\n[674] Jer. vi. 1, 22, 23, 24.\n\n[675] The almond tree (_sh\u00e2q\u00e2d_) \"seems to be awake (_sh\u00e2q\u00e2d_),\nwhatsoever trees are still sleeping in the torpor of winter\" (Tristram\n_Nat. Hist. of the Bible_, 332; Jer. i. 11-14).\n\n[676] The name Kimmerii (on the Assyrian inscriptions Gimirrai) is\nconnected with Gomer. The Persians call them Sakai or Scyths. The\nnomad Scyths had driven the Kimmerii from the Dniester while\nPsammetichus was King of Egypt. For allusions to this see Jer. vi. 22\n_seq._, viii. 16, ix. 10. The first notice of them is in an\ninscription of Esarhaddon, B.C. 677, who says that he defeated\n\"Tiushpa, _the Gimirrai, a roving warrior_, whose own country was\nremote.\" Zephaniah and Jeremiah were certainly thinking of the\nScythians (Eichhorn, Hitzig, Ewald; and more recently Kuenen,\n_Onderzoek_, ii. 123; Wellhausen, _Skizzen_, 150). In B.C. 626 they\ncould not have consciously had the Chald\u00e6ans in view, though,\ntwenty-three years later, Jeremiah may have had.\n\n[677] See Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix.\n\n[678] Ezek. xxxviii. 2. So Gesenius, H\u00e4vernick, etc., and R.V.\n\n[679] The form in the Vulgate and the Alexandrian MS. of the LXX. is\nMosech; in the Assyrian inscription, Muski. As far back as 1120\nTiglath-Pileser I. had overrun Tubal (the Tublai, Tabareni) and\nMoschi, between the Black Sea and the Taurus. They were neither Aryans\nnor Semites. In Gen. x. 2; 1 Chron. i. 5, Gog, Magog, Meshech, and\nGomer are sons of Japheth. They are referred to in Rev. xx. 8.\n\n[680] Herod., i. 74, 103-106, iv. 1-22, vii. 64; Pliny, _H. N._, v.\n16; Jos., _Antt._, I. vi. 1; Syncellus, _Chronogl._, i. 405.\n\n[681] Sayce, _Ethnology of the Bible; Records of the Past_, ix. 40;\nSchrader, _K. A. T._, 159. Some identify Gog with Gyges, King of\nLydia, who was killed in battle _against_ the Scythians, but whose\nname stood for a geographical symbol of Asia Minor, sometimes called\nLud. It is said that in 665 Gyges (Gugu) sent two Scythian chiefs as a\npresent to Nineveh.\n\n[682] Hence, in 2 Macc. iv. 47, 3 Macc. vii. 5, Scythian is used with\nthe modern connotation of \"Barbarian.\"\n\n[683] Ezek. xxxii. 26, 27; Cheyne, _Jeremiah_ (\"Men of the Bible\") p.\n31.\n\n[684] _Expositor_, 2nd series, iv. 263; Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, 31. Hitzig\nand Ewald (erroneously?) refer Psalms lv., lix., to these events, and\nit seems also to be an error to suppose that the later name of\nBethshan--Scythopolis--has anything to do with this incursion. Like\nthe names of Pella, Philadelphia, etc., it is later than the age of\nAlexander the Great. See 2 Macc. xii. 30; Jos., _B. J._, II. xviii.,\n_Vit._ vi. Perhaps Scythopolis is a corruption of Sikytopolis, the\ncity of Sikkuth; or Scythian may merely stand for \"Barbarian,\" as in 3\nMacc. vii. 5; Col. iii. 11 (Cheyne, _l.c._).\n\n[685] Nah. i. 10, ii. 5, iii. 12; Diod. Sic., ii. 26.\n\n[686] Nah. iii. 8-11.\n\n[687] Strabo, xvi. 1, 3: \u1f20\u03c6\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03b8\u03b7 \u03c0\u03b1\u03bf\u03b1\u03c7\u03c1\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1.\n\n[688] Xen., _Anab._, III. iv. 7.\n\n[689] Chaldees, Kardim, Kasdim, Kurds.\n\n[690] Nabu-pal-ussur, \"Nebo protect the son\" B.C. 625-7. Jos., _Antt._\nX. xi. 1: comp. _Ap._, i. 19.\n\n[691] Newman, _Hebrew Monarchy_, p. 315.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXI\n\n _JOSIAH'S REFORMATION_\n\n 2 KINGS xxii. 8-20, xxiii. 1-25\n\n \"And the works of Josias were upright before his Lord with a heart\n full of godliness.\"--1 ESDRAS i. 23.\n\n \"From Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from\n Jerusalem.\"--ISA. ii. 3.\n\n\nIt is from the Prophets--Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum, Habakkuk,\nEzekiel--that we catch almost our sole glimpses of the vast\nworld-movements of the nations which must have loomed large on the\nminds of the King of Judah and of all earnest politicians in that day.\nAs they did not directly affect the destiny of Judah till the end of\nthe reign, they do not interest the historian of the Kings or the\nlater Chronicler. The things which rendered the reign memorable in\ntheir eyes were chiefly two--the finding of \"the Book of the Law\" in\nthe House of the Lord, and the consequent religious reformation.\n\nIt is with the first of these two events that we must deal in the\npresent chapter.\n\nJosiah began to reign as a child of eight, and it may be that the\nemphatic and honourable mention of his mother--Jedidah (\"Beloved\"),\ndaughter of Adaiah of Boscath--may be due to the fact that he owed to\nher training that early proclivity to faithfulness which earns for him\nthe unique testimony, that he not only \"walked in the way of David his\nfather,\" but that \"he turned not aside to the right hand or to the\nleft.\"\n\nAt first, of course, as a mere child, he could take no very active\nsteps. The Chronicler says that at sixteen he began to show his\ndevotion, and at twenty set himself the task of purging Judah and\nJerusalem from the taint of idols. Things were in a bad condition, as we\nsee from the bitter complaints and denunciations of Zephaniah and\nJeremiah. Idolatry of the worst description was still openly tolerated.\nBut Josiah was supported by a band of able and faithful advisers.\nShaphan, grandfather of the unhappy Gedaliah--afterwards the Chald\u00e6an\nviceroy over conquered Judah--was scribe; Hilkiah, the son of Shallum\nand the ancestor of Ezra, was the high priest.[692] By them the king was\nassisted, fist in the obliteration of the prevalent emblems of idolatry,\nand then in the purification of the Temple. Two centuries and a half had\nelapsed since it had been last repaired by Joash, and it must have\nneeded serious restoration during long years of neglect in the reigns of\nAhaz, of Manasseh, and of Amon. Subscriptions were collected from the\npeople by \"the keepers of the door,\" and were freely entrusted to the\nworkmen and their overseers, who employed them faithfully in the objects\nfor which they were designed.[693]\n\nThe repairs led to an event of momentous influence on all future time.\nDuring the cleansing of the Temple Hilkiah came to Shaphan, and said, \"I\nhave found the Book of the Law in the House of the Lord.\" Perhaps the\ncopy of the book had been placed by some priest's hand beside the Ark,\nand had been discovered during the removal of the rubbish which neglect\nhad there accumulated. Shaphan read the book; and when next he had to\nsee the king to tell him about the progress of the repairs, he said to\nhim, \"Hilkiah the priest hath handed me a book.\" Josiah bade him read\nsome of it aloud. It is evident that he read the curses contained in\nDeut. xxviii. They horrified the pious monarch; for all that they\ncontained, and the laws to which they were appended, were wholly new to\nhim. He might well be amazed that a code so solemn, and purporting to\nhave emanated from Moses, should, in spite of maledictions so fearful,\nhave become an absolute dead letter. In deep alarm he sent the priest,\nthe scribe Shaphan, with his son Ahikam, and Abdon, the son of Micaiah,\nand Asahiah, a court official, to inquire of Jehovah, whose great anger\ncould not but be kindled against king and people by the obliteration and\nnullity of His law. They consulted Huldah, the only prophetess mentioned\nin the Old Testament, except Miriam and Deborah.[694] She was the wife\nof Shallum and keeper of the priests' robes,[695] and she lived in the\nsuburbs of the city.[696] Her answer was an uncompromising menace. All\nthe curses which the king had heard against the place and people should\nbe pitilessly fulfilled,--only, as the king had showed a tender heart,\nand had humbled himself before Jehovah, he should go to his own grave in\npeace.[697]\n\nThereupon the king summoned to the Temple a great assembly of priests,\nprophets, and all the people, and, standing by the pillar (or \"on the\nplatform\")[698] in the entrance of the inner court, read \"all the\nwords of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the House of\nthe Lord\" in their ears, and joined with them in \"the covenant\" to\nobey the hitherto unknown or totally forgotten laws which were\ninculcated in the newly discovered volume.\n\nImmediate action followed. The priests were ordered to bring out of the\nTemple all the vessels made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for the host\nof heaven; they were burnt outside Jerusalem in the Valley of Kedron,\nand their ashes taken to Bethel.[699] The _chemarim_ of the high places\nwere suppressed, as well as all other idolatrous priests who burnt\nincense to the signs of the Zodiac, the Hyades, and the heavenly\nbodies.[700] The Asherah itself was taken out of the Temple, and it is\ntruly amazing that we should find it there so late in Josiah's reign. He\nburnt it in the Kedron, stamped it to powder, and scattered the powder\n\"on the graves of the common people.\" The Chronicler says \"on the graves\nof them that had sacrificed\" to the idols[701];--but this is an\ninexplicable statement, since it is (as Professor Lumby says) very\nimprobable that idolaters had a separate burial-place. It is equally\nshocking, and to us incomprehensible, to read that the houses of the\ndegraded _Qedeshim_ still stood, not \"by the Temple\" (A.V.), but \"_in_\nthe Temple,\"[702] and that in these houses, or chambers, the women still\n\"wove embroideries[703] for the Asherah.\" What was Hilkiah doing? If the\npriests of the _high places_ were so guilty from Geba to Beersheba, did\nno responsibility attach to the high priest and other priests of the\nTemple who permitted the existence of these enormities, not only in the\n_bamoth_ at the city gates,[704] but in the very courts of the mountain\nof the Lord's House? If the priests of the immemorial shrines were\ndegraded from their prerogatives, and were not allowed to come up to the\naltar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, by what law of justice were they to be\nregarded as so immeasurably inferior to the highest members of their own\norder, who, for years together, had permitted the worship of a wooden\nphallic emblem, and the existence of the worst heathen abominations\nwithin the very Temple of the Lord? Every honest reader must admit that\nthere are inexplicable difficulties and uncertainties in these ancient\nhistories, and that our knowledge of the exact circumstances--especially\nin all that regards the priests and Levites, who, in the Chronicles, are\ntheir own ecclesiastical historians--must remain extremely imperfect.\n\nAnd what can be meant by the clause that the degraded priests of the\nold high places, though they were not allowed to serve at the great\naltar, yet \"did eat of the _unleavened bread_ among their brethren\"?\nUnleavened bread was only eaten at the Passover; and when there _was_\na Passover, was eaten by all alike. Perhaps the reading for\n\"unleavened bread\" should be (priestly) \"portions\"--a reading found by\nGeiger in an old manuscript.\n\nContinuing his work, Josiah defiled Tophet;[705] took away the horses\ngiven by the kings of Judah to the sun, which were stabled beside the\nchamber of the eunuch Nathan-Melech in the precincts;[706] and burnt\nthe sun-chariots in the fire. He removed the altars to the stars on\nthe roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz,[707] and ground them to powder.\nHe also destroyed those of his grandfather Manasseh in the two Temple\ncourts--which we supposed to have been removed by Manasseh in his\nrepentance--and threw the dust into the Kedron. He defiled the\nidolatrous shrines reared by Solomon to the deities of Sidon, Ammon,\nand Moloch, broke the pillars, cut down the Asherim, and filled their\nplaces with dead men's bones.[708] Travelling northwards, he burnt,\ndestroyed, and stamped to powder the altars and the Asherim at Bethel,\nand burnt upon the altars the remains found in the sepulchres,[709]\nonly leaving undisturbed the remains of the old prophet from Judah,\nand of the prophet of Samaria.[710] He then destroyed the other\nSamaritan shrines, exercising an undisputed authority over the\nNorthern Kingdom. The mixed inhabitants did not interfere with his\nproceedings; and in the declining fortunes of Nineveh, the Assyrian\nviceroy--if there was one--did not dispute his authority. Lastly, in\naccordance with the fierce injunction of Deut. xvii. 2-5, \"he slew all\nthe priests of the high places\" on their own altars, burnt men's bones\nupon them, and returned to Jerusalem.\n\nIt is very difficult, with the milder notions which we have learnt\nfrom the spirit of the Gospel, to look with approval on the\nrecrudescence of the Elijah-spirit displayed by the last proceeding.\nBut many centuries were to elapse, even under the Gospel Dispensation,\nbefore men learnt the sacred principle of the early Christians that\n\"violence is hateful to God.\" Josiah must be judged by a more lenient\njudgment, and he was obeying a mandate found in the new Book of the\nLaw. But the question arises whether the fierce commands of\nDeuteronomy were ever intended to be taken _au pied de la lettre_. May\nnot Deut. xiii. 6-18 have been intended to express in a concrete but\nideal form the spirit of execration to be entertained towards\nidolatry? Perhaps in thinking so we are only guilty of an anachronism,\nand are applying to the seventh century before Christ the feelings of\nthe nineteenth century after Christ.\n\nAfter this Josiah ordered the people to keep a Deuteronomic Passover,\nsuch as we are told--and as all the circumstances prove--had not been\nkept from the days of the Judges. The Chronicler revels in the details\nof this Passover, and tells us that Josiah gave the people thirty\nthousand lambs and kids, and three thousand bullocks; and his priests\ngave two thousand six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen;\nand the chief of the Levites gave the Levites five thousand small\ncattle, and five hundred oxen. He goes on to describe the slaying,\nsprinkling of blood, flaying, roasting, boiling in pots, pans, and\ncaldrons, and attention paid to the burnt-offerings and the fat;[711]\nbut neither the historians nor the chroniclers, either here or\nanywhere else, say one word about the Day of Atonement, or seem aware\nof its existence. It belongs to the Post-Exilic Priestly Code, and is\nnot alluded to in the Book of Deuteronomy.\n\nContinuing his task, he put away them that had familiar spirits\n(_oboth_), and the wizards, and the _teraphim_, with a zeal shown by\nno king before or after him; but Jehovah \"turned not from the\nfierceness of His anger, because of all the provocations which\nManasseh had provoked Him withal.\" Evil, alas! is more diffusive, and\nin some senses more permanent, than good, because of the perverted\nbias of human nature. Judah and Jerusalem had been radically corrupted\nby the apostate son of Hezekiah, and it may be that the sudden and\nhigh-handed reformation enforced by his grandson depended too\nexclusively on the external impulse given to it by the king to produce\ndeep effects in the hearts of the people. Certain it is that even\nJeremiah--though he was closely connected with the finders of the\nbook, had perhaps been present when the solemn league and covenant was\ntaken in the Temple, and lived through the reformation in which he\nprobably took a considerable part--was profoundly dissatisfied with\nthe results. It is sad and singular that such should have been the\ncase; for in the first flush of the new enthusiasm he had written,\n\"Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant, which\nI commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of\nthe land of Egypt, saying, 'Obey My voice.'\"[712] Nay, it has been\ninferred that he was even an itinerant preacher of the newly found\nlaw; for he writes: \"And the Lord said unto me, 'Proclaim all these\nwords in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying,\nHear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.'\"[713]\n\nThe style of Deuteronomy, as is well known, shows remarkable\naffinities with the style of Jeremiah. Yet it is clear that after the\ndeath of Josiah the prophet became utterly disillusioned with the\noutcome of the whole movement. It proved itself to be at once\nevanescent and unreal. The people would not give up their beloved\nlocal shrines.[714] The law, as Habakkuk says (i. 4), became torpid;\njudgment went not forth to victory; the wicked compassed about the\nrighteous, and judgment was perverted. It was easy to obey the\nexternal regulations of Deuteronomy; it was far more difficult to be\ntrue to its noble moral precepts. The reformation of Josiah, so\nviolent and radical, proved to be only skin-deep; and Jeremiah, with\nbitter disappointment, found it to be so. External decency might be\nimproved, but rites and forms are nothing to Him who searcheth the\nheart.[715] There was, in fact, an inherent danger in the place\nassumed by the newly discovered book. \"Since it was regarded as a\nState authority, there early arose a kind of book-science, with its\npedantic pride and erroneous learned endeavours to interpret and apply\nthe Scriptures. At the same time there arose also a new kind of\nhypocrisy and idolatry of the letter, through the new protection which\nthe State gave to the religion of the book acknowledged by the law.\nThus scholastic wisdom came into conflict with genuine prophecy.\"[716]\n\nHow entirely the improvement of outward worship failed to improve men's\nhearts the prophet testifies.[717] \"The sin of Judah,\" he says, \"is\nwritten with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is\ngraven upon the tablets of their hearts, and upon the horns of their\naltars, and their Asherim by the green trees[718] upon the high hills. O\nMy mountain in the field, I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in\nthe land thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in Mine eyes,\nwhich shall burn for ever.\" While Josiah lived this apostasy was secret;\nbut as soon as he died the people \"turned again to folly,\"[719] and\ncommitted all the old idolatries except the worship of Moloch. There\narose a danger lest even the moderate ritualism of Deuteronomy should be\nperverted and exaggerated into mere formality. In the energy of his\nindignation against this abuse, Jeremiah has to uplift his voice against\nany trust even in the most decided injunctions of this newly discovered\nlaw. He was \"a second Amos upon a higher platform.\" The Deuteronomic Law\ndid not as yet exhibit the concentrated sacerdotalism and ritualism\nwhich mark the Priestly Code, to which it is far superior in every way.\nIt is still prophetic in its tone. It places social interests above\nrubrics of worship. It expresses the fundamental religious thought \"that\nJehovah is in no sense inaccessible; that He can be approached\nimmediately by all, and without sacerdotal intervention; that He asks\nnothing for Himself, but asks it as a religious duty that man should\nrender unto man what is right; that His Will lies not in any known\nheight, but in the moral sphere which is known and understood by\nall.\"[720] The book ordained certain sacrifices; yet Jeremiah says with\nstartling emphasis, \"To what purpose cometh there to Me frankincense\nfrom Sheba, and the sweet calamus from a far country? Your\nburnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasant unto\nMe.\"[721] Therefore He bids them, \"Put your burnt-offerings to your\nsacrifices, and eat them as flesh\"--_i.e._, \"Throw all your offerings\ninto a mass, and eat them at your pleasure (regardless of sacerdotal\nrules): they have neither any inherent sanctity nor any secondary\nimportance from the characters of the offerers.\"[722] And in a still\nmore remarkable passage, \"_For I spake not unto your fathers, nor\ncommanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,\nconcerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices_: but this thing I commanded\nthem, saying, 'Obey My voice.'\"[723]\n\nNay, in the most emphatic ordinances of Deuteronomy he found that the\npeople had created a new peril. They were putting a particularistic\ntrust in Jehovah, as though He were a respecter of persons, and they\nHis favourites. They fancied, as in the days of Micah, that it was\nenough for them to claim His name, and bribe Him with sacrifices.[724]\nAbove all, they boasted of and relied upon the possession of His\nTemple, and placed their trust on the punctual observance of external\nceremonies. All these sources of vain confidence it was the duty of\nJeremiah rudely to shatter to pieces. Standing at the gates of the\nLord's House, he cried: \"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, 'The\nTemple of the Lord! the Temple of the Lord! the Temple of the Lord,\nare these!' Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will\nye steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense unto\nBaal, and walk after other gods; and come and stand before Me in this\nhouse, whereupon My name is called, and say, 'We are delivered,' that\nye may do all these abominations? Is this house become a den of\nrobbers in your eyes? But go ye now to My place which was in Shiloh,\nwhere I caused My name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it\nfor the wickedness of My people. I will do unto this house as I have\ndone to Shiloh; and I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast\nout the whole house of Ephraim.\"[725]--Yet all hope was not\nextinguished for ever. The Scythian might disappear; the Babylonian\nmight come in his place; but one day there should be a new covenant of\npardon and restitution; and as had been promised in Deuteronomy,\n\"_all_ should know Jehovah, from the least to the greatest.\"\n\nAt last he even prophesies the entire future annulment of the solemn\ncovenant made on the basis of Deuteronomy, and says that Jehovah will\nmake a new covenant with His people, not according to the covenant\nwhich He made with their fathers.[726] And in his final estimate of\nKing Josiah after his death, he does not so much as mention his\nreformation, his iconoclasm, his sweeping zeal, or his enforcement of\nthe Deuteronomic Law, but only says to Jehoiakim:--\n\n\"'Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice?--then\nit was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then\nit was well. _Was not this to know Me?' saith the Lord_.\"[727]\n\nWhether because its methods were too violent, or because it only\naffected the surface of men's lives, or because the people were not\nreally ripe for it, or because no reformation can ever succeed which\nis enforced by autocracy, not spread by persuasion and conviction, it\nis certain that the first glamour of Josiah's movement ended in\ndisillusionment. A religion violently imposed from without as a\nstate-religion naturally tends to hypocrisy and externalism. What\nJehovah required was, not a changed method of worship, but a changed\nheart; and this the reformation of Josiah did not produce. It has\noften been so in human history. Failure seems to be written on many of\nthe most laudable human efforts. Nevertheless, truth ultimately\nprevails. Isaiah was murdered, and Urijah, and Jeremiah. Savonarola\nwas burnt, and Huss, and many a martyr more; but the might of\npriestcraft was at last crippled, to be revived, we hope, no more,\neither by open violence or secret apostasy.\n\n \"Then to side with Truth is noble, when we share her wretched\n crust,\n Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to\n be just;\n Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands\n aside,\n Doubting in his abject spirit till his Lord is crucified,\n And the multitude make virtue of the faith they have denied.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[692] 2 Kings xxiii. 4. We have here the first mention of \"the second\npriest\" (if, with Gr\u00e4tz, we read _Cohen mishneh_, as in 2 Kings xxv.\n18; Jer. lii. 24). In later days he was called \"the Sagan.\" At this\ntime he probably acted as \"Captain of the Temple\" (Gr\u00e4tz, ii. 319).\n\n[693] Comp. 2 Kings xii. 15, where we find the same remark.\n\n[694] Exod. xv. 20; Judg. iv. 4; Isa. viii. 3. \"The prophetess\" seems\nto mean \"prophet's wife.\" Noadiah was a false prophetess.\n\n[695] Exod. xxviii. 2, etc.\n\n[696] 2 Kings xxii. 14. Heb., _mishneh_, lit. \"second\"; A.V., \"the\ncollege\"; R.V., \"the second quarter.\" Perhaps it means \"the lower\ncity\" (Neh. xi. 9; Zeph. i. 10). It puzzled the LXX.: \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd\u1fb7.\nVulg., _in secunda_. Jerome says, \"_Haud dubium quin urbis partem\nsignificet qu\u00e6 interiori muro vallabatur_.\" Comp. Zeph. i. 10, \"an\nhowling from the _second_\" (_i.e._, quarter of the city); Neh. xi. 9,\nwhere, for \"_second over the city_\" (A. and R.V.), read \"over the\nsecond part of the city.\"\n\n[697] Another reading is \"in Jerusalem,\" which gets over an historic\ndifficulty.\n\n[698] Comp. 2 Kings xi. 14; LXX., \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c3\u03c4\u03cd\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5; Heb., _al-ha-ammud_;\nVulg., _super gradum_.\n\n[699] 2 Kings xxiii. 4; for \"in the fields of Kedron\" one version has\n\u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u1f10\u03bc\u03c0\u03c5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u1ff7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03bc\u03ac\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03bf\u03c5, \"in the burning-place of the\nwady,\"--perhaps reading _bemisrephoth_ for _bishedamoth_, and alluding\nto lime-kilns in the wady. It is surprising that they should carry the\nashes \"to Bethel.\" Thenius suggests the reading \u05d1\u05b5\u05bc\u05d9\u05ea\u05be\u05d0\u05b7\u05dc, \"place of\nexecution\" (lit., \"house of nothingness\").\n\n[700] Hos. x. 5; Zeph. i. 4 (the only other places where the word\noccurs). The _delevit_ of the Vulgate (2 Kings xxiii. 5) only means that\nhe put them down, and the \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03ba\u03b1\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5 of the LXX. should be \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c0\u03b1\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5.\n\n[701] Comp. Jer. ii. 23, where the LXX. has \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03c5\u03b1\u03bd\u03b4\u03c1\u03af\u1ff3. In 2\nChron. xxxiv. 4, perhaps the true reading is, not _Ben\u00ee-ha-'\u00e2m_, but\n_Ben\u00ee-hinnom_--which would mean that he scattered the dust in the\ngehenna of Jerusalem. Comp. 1 Kings xv. 13.\n\n[702] For these Galli, see Seneca, _De Vit. Beat._, 27; Pliny, _H.\nN._, xi. 49.\n\n[703] Heb., _bath\u00eem_, lit. \"tents\" or \"houses\"; Vulg., _quasi\ndomunculas_.\n\n[704] In 2 Kings xxiii. 8, Geiger would read \"the high places of the\n_satyrs_\" (\u05e9\u05c2\u05e6\u05d9\u05e8\u05d9\u05dd).\n\n[705] Usually derived (as by Selden and Milton) from _toph_, \"drum,\"\nbut perhaps from _tuph_ (to _spit_ in sign of abhorrence).\n\n[706] _Parvar_--perhaps \"open portico.\" Renan connects the word with\nthe Greek \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2. On horses dedicated to the sun, see Xen.\n_Cyrop._, viii. 3, 5, 12; _Anab._, iv. 5.\n\n[707] See Zeph. i. 5; Jer. xix. 13, xxxii. 29.\n\n[708] 2 Kings xxiii. 13: \"The Mount of Corruption\"; Vulg., _Mons\noffensionis_; LXX., \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f44\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u039c\u03bf\u03c3\u03b8\u03ac\u03b8. Some conjecture that\n_Maschith_ may be a derisive change for some word which meant\n\"anointing\" (from being the _Oil_ Mountain, _Har ham-mischchah_).\n\n[709] In burning the bones of the dead, he violated all Jewish feeling.\nAmos (ii. 1) had severely rebuked this form of revenge and insult even\nin the case of the heathen King of Moab. Bones defiled the touch (Num.\nxix. 16; Herod., iv. 73). Josiah's question at Bethel was, \"What\n_pillar_ is that?\" (_tsiyun_). LXX., \u03c3\u03ba\u03cc\u03c0\u03b5\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd. Comp. Gen. xxxv. 20.\n\n[710] 1 Kings xiii. 29-31.\n\n[711] 2 Chron. xxxv. 1-19.\n\n[712] Jer. xi. 3, 4. Since, in this part of my subject, I make\nfrequent reference to the prophecies of Jeremiah which are\nindispensable to the right understanding of the history, I may here\nsay that modern critics (Cheyne and others) arrange them as follows:--\n\nIn the reign of _Josiah_, Jer. ii. 1-iii. 5, iii. 6-vi. 30, vii. 1-ix.\n25, xi. 1-17.\n\nIn the reign of _Jehoiakim_, xxvi. 2-6, xlvi. 2-12, xxv., xxxv., and\npossibly xvi. 1, xviii. 19-27, xiv., xv., xviii., xi. 18-xii. 17.\n\nIn the reign of _Jehoiachin_, x. 17-23, xiii.\n\nIn the reign of _Zedekiah_, xxii.-xxiv., xxvii.-xxix. 1-11 (?), lii.\n\nIn the _Exile_, xxxix.-xliv.\n\n[713] See Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, p. 56, _id._ 6.\n\n[714] Canon Cheyne shows that even Mohammed could not persuade the\nQurashites wholly to give up their black stone at the Kaaba, and their\ndolmens and sacred trees (_id._ 103). He left the _au\u00e7ab_, or\nsacrificial stones (_matstseboth_), though he warns his followers\nagainst them (_Quran_, v. 92).\n\n[715] Jer. xvii. 9-11.\n\n[716] Ewald, _The Prophets_, iii. 63, 64.\n\n[717] Jer. xvii. 1-4.\n\n[718] The Qurashites and other heathen Arabs accounted holy a large\ngreen tree, and every year had a sacrifice in its honour. \"On the way to\nHunain we called to God's Messenger (Mohammed) that he should appoint\nfor us such trees. But he was terrified, and said, 'Lord God, Lord God!\nYe speak even as the Israelites ... ye are still in ignorance,--thus are\nheathen enslaved'\" (Vak\u00efdi, _Book of the Campaigns of God's Messenger_,\nquoted by Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, p. 103, from Wellhausen).\n\n[719] Psalm lxxxv. 8.\n\n[720] Deut. xxx. 11-14. See Wellhausen, p. 165.\n\n[721] Jer. vi. 20. The passages of Jeremiah which seem of a different\nspirit may have been added by later hands--_e.g._, xxxiii. 18, which\nis not in the LXX.\n\n[722] Jer. vii. 21; Ewald; and Cheyne, _l.c._ 120. So the Jews seem to\nhave understood it, for they appoint this passage to be read on the\n_Haphtara_ after the _Parashah_ about sacrifices from Leviticus.\n\n[723] Jer, vii. 22, 23. This alone would show that Jeremiah did not\n(as earlier critics thought) _write_ \"Deuteronomy,\" in spite of the\nnumerous close resemblances in phraseology. Thus, Jeremiah often\ndenounces the priests (i. 18, ii. 8-26, iv. 9, v. 31, viii. 1, xiii.\n13, xxxii. 32). Cheyne, p. 82.\n\n[724] Mic. iii. 11.\n\n[725] Jer. vii. 4, 8-15.\n\n[726] Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.\n\n[727] Jer. xxii. 15, 16.\n\n\n\n\n NOTE TO CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n \"Jehovah is our Lawgiver.\"--ISA. xxxiii. 22.\n\n\nWhat was the Book of the Law which Hilkiah found in the Temple?\n\nThe great majority of eminent modern critics have now come to the\nconclusion that it was the kernel of the Book of Deuteronomy. Nor is\nthis in any sense a mere modern notion. It occurs as far back as St.\nJerome (_Adv. Jovin._, i. 5) and St. Chrysostom (_Hom. in Matt._, ix.,\np. 135, B. See W. Rob. Smith, p. 258).\n\nIt is no part of my immediate duty to argue this question, but I may\nstate that the arguments for this conclusion are partly historical,\npartly literary, and partly depend on internal evidence.\n\nI. As regards the _literary_ argument, it is maintained that--\n\n1. The full, rounded, rhetorical style of Deuteronomy, so widely\ndifferent from the extreme dryness of other parts of the Torah, could\nnot have been as yet developed in the days of Moses, and required the\nslow training of centuries for its perfection. It is a new phenomenon,\nand differs widely from earlier prophetic writings, such as those of\nAmos and Hosea.\n\n2. The style and language of the Deuteronomist are so marked, that\nthey can scarcely escape an intelligent reader of the English Version.\nRiehm enumerates sixty-four characteristic words or phrases. Their\nsignificance lies in the fact that they express obvious ideas, and are\nnot names for special objects, which force a writer to use peculiar\nwords. The style closely resembles in many phrases and particulars the\nstyle of Jeremiah, and of him alone among the prophets. \"Even\nsupposing that no historic text,\" it has been said, \"taught us that\nthe articles of Smalkald were the work of Luther, we should still have\nthe right to affirm that these articles closely resemble the ideas of\nLuther, and could hardly have been published without his cognisance.\"\n\nII. As regards _historical_ evidence, we observe that--\n\n1. No author earlier than Josiah shows any acquaintance with\nDeuteronomy: after that date, proofs of such knowledge abound.\n\n2. The Book of Deuteronomy insisted with reiterated emphasis on the\ncentralisation of worship. All its ordinances are framed with a view\nto promote this end. But we have seen that there is not a trace of any\nbelief that local shrines were prohibited earlier than the reign of\nHezekiah, who certainly would have defended his boldness by appeal to\na written law if he had known of such as existing.\n\nIII. As regards _internal_ evidence, we see that--\n\n1. Many passages and injunctions of the Book of Deuteronomy differ\nentirely from those found in the old Book of the Covenant which forms\nthe most ancient nucleus of Exodus (Exod. xx. 22-xxiii. 33).\n\n2. Even the most conservative English critics--even those who, with any\npretence to competent knowledge, argue against the more advanced\nconclusions of the Higher Criticism--cannot help admitting that at least\nthree codes, which in many, and in some fundamental, respects differ\nwidely from each other, and which make no reference to each other, are\nfound in our present Pentateuch--viz., that of the Book of the Covenant,\nthat of the Deuteronomist (D.), and that of the Priestly writer (P.).\nAll three may contain elements as old as the days of Moses; but most\ncritics (with scarcely an exception in Germany) now believe that the\nDeuteronomic Code, in its present form, is not earlier than the date of\nJosiah's reformation (_circ._ B.C. 621); and the Priestly Codex\n(whatever older documents may exist in it) not older, in its present\nform, than about the time of Ezra (B.C. 444). Dillmann, Kittel, and in\nhis later days Delitzsch, have been of necessity compelled to give up\nthe views that, in their present form, D. and P. are as ancient as the\ndays of Moses. The last German critic who held that Moses wrote our\npresent Pentateuch was Keil (_d._ 1888). Canon Cheyne argues for the\nlate date of this misnamed \"Deuteronomy,\" on the grounds that the\nauthors (1) used documents manifestly later than Moses; (2) alluded to\nevents which only occurred long after Moses; and (3) expressed ideas\nwhich, in the age of Moses, are not psychologically possible.\n\nThe Book of Deuteronomy consists mainly of an historical introduction,\nprobably added later (i. 1-5); Moses' _first_ discourse (i. 6-iv. 40);\nMoses' _second_ discourse (iv. 44-xxvi.); a section marked specially\nby blessings and curses (xxvii.-xxix.); a _third_ discourse of Moses\n(xxix. 2-xxx. 20); his farewell (xxxi. 1-13); his song (xxxi.\n14-xxxii. 47); conclusion, narrating his blessing and death (xxxii.\n48-xxxiv. 12).\n\nI have no space here to enter fully into the arguments which seem\ndecisive as to the date of the main part of Deuteronomy. Those who\ndesire to see them must study Colenso, _The Pentateuch_, pt. iii.;\nReuss, _Hist. Sainte et la Loi_, i. 154-211; W. Robertson Smith, _Old\nTest. in the Jewish Church_, lect. xvi.; Kuenen, _The Hexateuch_, E.\nT., 1886; Kittel, _Gesch. d. Hebr\u00e4er_, pp. 43-59; Cheyne, _Jeremiah_,\npp. 48-86; S. R. Driver, _s.v._ \"Deuteronomy\" (Smith's _Dict. of the\nBible_, new ed.); W. Aldis Wright, _The Documents of the Hexateuch_,\npp. lvii.-lxxix. The name \"Deuteronomy\" (or \"second law\") arises from\nthe mistaken rendering of the LXX. and Vulgate in Deut. xvii. 18.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXII\n\n _THE DEATH OF JOSIAH_\n\n B.C. 608\n\n 2 KINGS xxiii. 29, 30\n\n \"Howl, O fir tree; for the cedar is fallen.\"--ZECH. xi. 2.\n\n\nJosiah survived by thirteen years the reformation and covenant which\nare the chief events of his reign. He lived in prosperity and peace.\nHe did justice and judgment; the poor and needy flourished under his\nroyal protection; and it was well with him. It seemed as if the\nDeuteronomic blessings on faithfulness to its law were about to be\nabundantly fulfilled, when \"the azure calm of heaven\" was suddenly\nshattered, and \"down came the thunderbolt.\" The great and victorious\nAssurbanipal of Assyria had died, and left his power to weaker\nsuccessors. Meanwhile, Egypt was growing in power and splendour under\nPharaoh Necho II. (B.C. 612-596), the sixth king of the twenty-fifth\nor Saitic dynasty. He nearly anticipated M. de Lesseps in making the\nSuez Canal,[728] and perhaps actually anticipated Vasco de Gama in\nrounding the Cabo Tormentoso, or Cape of Good Hope, in a three years'\nvoyage. He was fired by the ambitious dream of succeeding the\nAssyrians as the chief power in the world, or at any rate of seizing\npart of the dominions which they had conquered.[729] Accordingly, in\nB.C. 608, he went up against the King of Assyria to the river\nEuphrates. The Chronicler says that his destination was Carchemish, on\nthe Euphrates, and some have conjectured that the vague phrase\n\"against the King of Assyria\" is incorrect, and that, as Josephus\nstates, he was really marching against the Medes and Babylonians after\nthe fall of Nineveh.[730]\n\nWith this expedition Josiah was not greatly concerned. He may have\nbegun his reign as the vassal of Assurbanipal; but if so, it is\nprobable that he had long since ceased to pay tribute to a power which\nwas tottering to its fall under the attacks of Scythians and\nBabylonians. He had availed himself of the disorganisation of the\nAssyrian power to re-establish some, at least, of the old authority of\nthe House of David over the Northern Kingdom, and perhaps he only\nundertook the desperate expedient of withstanding the northward march\nof the Egyptian host under the notion that either on the march or on\nhis return the Pharaoh intended to subjugate Palestine to Egypt.\n\nPharaoh Necho II., among his other achievements, had created a\npowerful fleet,[731] and it is nearly certain that he did not advance\nalong the coast of Palestine, but made his way by sea to Acco or\nDor.[732] Here he received the news that Josiah meant to block his\npath at Megiddo, on the plain of Jezreel. That plain has been the\ngreat and only possible battle-field of Palestine, from the revolt in\nwhich Barak destroyed the host of Jabin,[733] to that in which Tryphon\nmet Jonathan the Maccabee,[734] and Kleber in 1799 defeated\ntwenty-five thousand Turks with three thousand French.\n\nThe Chronicler here adds a very remarkable incident.[735] Necho, like\nJoash of Israel in former days, did not care to fight with the poor\nlittle King of Judah--or at any rate did not wish to do so at present,\nwhen he was on his way to the greater encounter. He therefore sent an\nembassy to Josiah, saying, \"What have I to do with thee, King of\nJudah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house\nwherewith I have war.[736] For God [Elohim] commanded me [in a dream]\nto make haste.[737] Forbear, then, from meddling with God, who is with\nme, that He destroy thee not.\"\n\nThe conjecture \"in a dream\" is not unlikely, nor is it in disaccord\nwith other events in the annals of the Pharaohs and the Sargonid\u00e6 of\nAssyria.[738] We may indeed be surprised that an Egyptian Pharaoh\nshould profess to deliver to a Jewish king the messages of Elohim,\nthough we have seen something like this in the case of the\nRabshakeh.[739] The variation in 1 Esdras i. 26-28 is curious and\ninteresting. We are there told that the message was sent to Josiah,\nnot only by Pharaoh Necho, who had sent to say \"The Lord is with me\nhastening me forward: depart from me, and be not against the Lord,\"\nbut also by \"the prophet Jeremy.\" Josephus frankly ascribes the error\nof Josiah to destiny, as though he had been infatuated by the\ndementation which the Greeks attributed to At\u00e8.[740]\n\nThis, however, is not likely; for it is clear that Jeremiah, though\nnot mentioned in the Book of Kings, must have had a strong influence\nover the mind of Josiah, whom he loved, whose views he shared, in\nwhose religious revolution he had taken part. Further, we do not read\nof any warning recorded by the prophet himself; and had he uttered\none, it would certainly have been mentioned, when he committed his\nprophecies to writing twenty-three years after their commencement. A\nwarning of which the neglect had led to fatal issues would have been\nso decisive a confirmation of Jeremiah's prophetic insight that it\ncould not have been passed over in silence.\n\nIndeed, Jeremiah may have shared the conviction which, founded on\nimperfect generalisation, perhaps dazzled the unfortunate king to his\nruin. Josiah had accepted the Book of Deuteronomy with the whole\nstrength of his belief, and the Book of Deuteronomy had proclaimed to\nIsrael as the reward of faithfulness this promise: \"And it shall come\nto pass that Jehovah, thy God, shall set thee on high above all the\nnations of the earth.... Jehovah shall cause thine enemies which rise\nup against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out\nagainst thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.\"[741] In the\nstrength of that promise, Josiah was perhaps saying to himself, in the\nlanguage of the Psalms, that Jehovah could not fail to save His\nanointed, and dash His enemies to pieces under His feet;[742] in the\nlanguage, perhaps, of later days, that the sound of a shaken leaf\nshould chase them, and they should flee when none pursued.[743]\n\nAlas! such passages do not apply invariably to our worldly fortunes!\nGod's promises are general. The individual must be considered apart\nfrom the universal in the region of spiritual and eternal blessings.\nIn the affairs of earth the wicked often seem to be in prosperity,\nwhile the righteous are overwhelmed by all God's waves and storms.\nFurther, Josiah evidently received a warning--a warning which\nprofessed to come, and really came, from God[744]--whether uttered by\nPharaoh or by Jeremiah. And in this instance Josiah had sought war; he\nhad not been forced into it. It was not for him to go out of his way\nto champion the cause either of cruel Assyria or vaunting Babylon.\n\nThe result was entire disenchantment. No more disheartening and\ndisastrous calamity could have happened to the kingdom, which had just\nbegun to struggle out of the slough of idolatry and humiliation.\n\nHeedless of the message he had received, strong in mistaken hopes,\nJosiah opposed his poor, weak forces to the powerful host of renovated\nEgypt. The result was instantaneous ruin.[745] Judah was defeated and\nscattered without a blow,--Necho came, saw, conquered. Josiah,\naccording to the present record of the Chronicles, like Ahab,\n\"disguised himself\"[746] and went into the battle; and as he drove\nfrom rank to rank an Egyptian archer drew a bow at a venture, and\nsmote him while he was putting his forces in array. The arrow-point\nbrought conviction too late. Josiah saw his error; he knew that his\nown death involved the rout of his army. He sounded a retreat, and\nsaid to his servants, \"Bear me away to my travelling chariot, for I am\nsore wounded.\"[747] He died at Megiddo, where his ancestor Ahaziah had\ndied before him from the arrow-wounds of Jehu's pursuers. His servants\ncarried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo. The famous plain of\nEsdraelon had already witnessed two great victories--that of Barak\nover Sisera, and that of Gideon over the Midianites; and one\ndeplorable defeat--that of Saul by the Philistines. It was now\ndarkened by a catastrophe even more sad.[748]\n\nWhen that chariot, accompanied by its wailing escort, entered the\ngates of Jerusalem, with the routed army of Judah behind it, the\nfeeling of the people must have resembled that of the Athenians when\nthe news reached them that Lysander had destroyed their whole fleet at\n\u00c6gospotami, and the long wail went thrilling up through that sleepless\nnight from the Peir\u00e6us all along the Makra Teich\u00e8 to the Parthenon and\nthe Acropolis. And there followed such a mourning as the land had\nnever known before. It had begun at Megiddo and Hadadrimmon, leaving\nthe sad memory of its hopeless intensity. It was renewed at Jerusalem\nwhen they buried the king in his own sepulchre. \"The land mourned,\nevery family apart; the family of the House of David apart, and their\nwives apart; the family of the House of Nathan apart, and their wives\napart; the family of the House of Levi apart, and their wives apart;\nthe family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families\nthat remained, every family apart, and their wives apart.\"[749] \"And\nall Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for\nJosiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah\nin their lamentations unto this day, and they were made an institution\nin Israel: and, behold, they are written in the Lamentations.\"[750]\nNot even for heroic David, or royal Solomon, or pious Asa, or\nprosperous Jehoshaphat had there been so loud a dirge.\n\nBut, alas! there was cause for far deeper sorrow than the loss of a\nprince, however able, however beloved. The dead was dead. Natural sorrow\nfor the bereavement of the people would soon be healed by time, but\nbehind the passing affliction lay a great fear and a great reaction.\n\nA great fear,--for now a southern foe was added to the northern.\nJeremiah and other prophets had warned Israel of the peril from the\nNorth. When the Scythian wave \"rolled shoreward, struck and was\ndissipated,\" when the source of Assyrian terror seemed to be drying up,\nworldlings may have felt inclined to laugh at Jeremiah. But now it was\nevident that, sooner or later, the Chald\u00e6ans would be as formidable as\ntheir predecessors, and out of the serpent's egg was breaking forth a\ncockatrice. The uncalled-for attempt of Josiah to bar the path of the\nnew and mighty Pharaoh had also added Egypt to the list of formidable\nenemies. For the present the Pharaoh had passed on to the Euphrates; but\nwhether he returned victorious or defeated, his troops could not but be\na source of danger to the little kingdom, which would henceforth be\nhelpless between the overwhelming forces of its foes.\n\nIf such were the fears of the timid and the pessimistic, still deeper\nwas the disheartenment of the faithful. Josiah had been the most\nobedient, the most religious, of all the kings of Judah from childhood\nupwards. Where, then, were Jehovah's old loving-kindnesses which He\nsware unto David in His truth? Had God forgotten to be gracious? Had\nHe hidden away His mercy in displeasure? Where were the blessings of\nthe newly discovered Book of the Law, if the curse fell on its most\nearnest votary? Where was Huldah's promise that he should be gathered\nto his fathers in peace, if he was carried back dead from the field of\nfruitless battle? There can be little doubt that the apparent blight\nwhich had fallen on unavailing righteousness hastened the reaction of\nthe subsequent reigns. Many might be inclined to cry out with even\nJeremiah in his moments of overwhelming despondency, \"Ah, Lord God!\nsurely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying,\n'Ye shall have peace'; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.\"[751]\n\"O Lord, Thou has deceived me, and I was deceived: Thou art stronger\nthan I, and hast prevailed: I am a derision daily, every one mocketh\nme. Whenever I speak, I must shout, I must cry violence and spoil; for\nthe word of the Lord is made a reproach unto me, and a derision,\ndaily.\"[752]\n\nBut man judges partially and judges amiss. God's ways are not as man's\nways. God sees the whole; He sees the future; He sees things as they\nare. Through defeat, through captivity, through multiform affliction,\nlay the path to the final deliverance of the nation from the grosser\nforms of idolatry. When they wept as they remembered Zion, when they\ntook down their harps from the willows by the water-courses of Babylon\nto sing the Lord's song in a strange land, they turned again--and at\nlast with their whole heart--to God their Saviour, who had done so\ngreat things for them;--until the grey secret lingering in the East\nwas brightened by the Morning Star, and there was revealed to the\nworld a True Israel, and a New Jerusalem, wherein the Lord should be\nKing for evermore.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[728] He was forced to desist by a fearful mortality among the\nlabourers.\n\n[729] _Circ._ B.C. 611-605. Herod., ii. 158, 159, iv. 42. Psamatik,\nthe father of Necho, was perhaps a Lybian. He established his sway\nover all Egypt displacing the Assyrians.\n\n[730] _Antt._, X. v. 1.\n\n[731] Herod., ii. 158. His father Psamatik had left him an adequate\narmy of natives and mercenaries.\n\n[732] Herodotus says of his ships: \u1f09\u03b9 \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c4\u1fc7 \u03b2\u03bf\u03c1\u03b7\u03af\u1fc3 \u03b8\u03b1\u03bb\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u1fc3\n\u1f10\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03ae\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd.\n\n[733] Judg. iv. 23; 1 Sam. xxix. 1-11; 1 Kings xx. 26; 2 Kings xxiii.\n29; 2 Chron. xxxv. 22; Rev. xvi. 16 (Armageddon). Herodotus confuses\nit with Migdol (\u039c\u03ac\u03b3\u03b4\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd).\n\n[734] 1 Macc. xii. 49; Jos., _Antt._, XIII. vi. 2.\n\n[735] 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-22.\n\n[736] According to 1 Esdras i. 25-32, \"for upon Euphrates is my war.\"\n\n[737] Klostermann, in 2 Chron. xxxv. 21, reads _bachal\u00f4m_, \"in a\ndream,\" instead of \"to make haste.\"\n\n[738] Gen. xli. 1; Herod., ii. 188; _Records of the Past_, ix. 52.\n\n[739] 2 Kings xviii. 25.\n\n[740] _Antt._, X. v. 1: \u03a4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c0\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f36\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4' \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd\n\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03c1\u03bc\u03b7\u03c3\u03ac\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2.\n\n[741] Deut. xxviii. 1-8.\n\n[742] Psalm xx. 6, xviii. 29-50.\n\n[743] Lev. xxvi. 36.\n\n[744] 2 Chron. xxxv. 22: \"hearkened not _to the words of Necho from\nthe mouth of God_.\"\n\n[745] \"When he had _seen_ him.\" Comp. 2 Kings xiv. 8.\n\n[746] 1 Esdras i. 25; and LXX., \"firmly resolved,\" \"strengthened\nhimself,\" as in 2 Chron. xxv. 11.\n\n[747] Jos., _Antt._, X. v. 1; and 2 Chron. xxxv. 23; 1 Esdras i. 30.\n\n[748] The fortunes of the Jews again prevailed in this plain in the\ndays of Holofernes (Judith vii. 3); but they were defeated there by\nPlacidus (Jos., _B. J._, IV. i. 8).\n\n[749] Zech. xii. 11-13 (comp. Jer. xxii. 10, 18). No such place as\nHadadrimmon is known, though there is a Rumm\u00e2ne not far from Megiddo.\nJerome (_Comm. in Zach._) identifies it with a place which he calls\nMaximianopolis. Wellhausen (_Skizzen_, 192) thinks that the mourning\nis compared to some wail over the god Hadadrimmon, like the wailing\nfor Tammuz. Jonathan and Jarchi say that Hadadrimmon was the son of\nTabrimmon, who opposed Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead.\n\n[750] 2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25. Jeremiah's elegy has probably perished.\nIt would have been most interesting had it been preserved. Lam. iv. is\ntoo vague to have been this lost poem.\n\n[751] Jer. iv. 10.\n\n[752] Jer. xx. 7, 8.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII\n\n _JEHOAHAZ_\n\n B.C. 608\n\n 2 KINGS xxiii. 31-33\n\n \"I went by, and, lo! he was gone: I sought him, but his place\n could nowhere be found.\"--PSALM xxxvii. 36.\n\nIt was under the disastrous circumstances which attended his father's\ndeath at Megiddo that Jehoahaz began to reign. There is some confusion\nabout the four sons of Josiah, whom the Chronicler calls Johanan,\nJehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Shallum.[753] From Jer. xxii. 11, it appears\nthat Jehoahaz was the royal name taken on his anointing by Shallum, the\nthird son.[754] If so, he cannot be identified with Johanan, the\nfirstborn, as in the margin of our version. Further, it appears from our\nhistorians that Jehoahaz was twenty-three at his succession, and was\ntherefore younger than Jehoiakim who (three months later) succeeded him\nat the age of twenty-five. Jehoahaz was the own brother of Zedekiah,\nJehoiakim being his half-brother by another mother (Zebudah).\n\nWe do not know for what reason he was preferred by \"the people of the\nland\" to his elder brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim. It was probably\nbecause they regarded him as a prince of eminent courage and ability.\nThe high hopes which the nation conceived of him may be seen in the\npathetic elegy of Ezek. xix.:--\n\n \"Moreover take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, and\n say,--\n What was thy mother? A lioness!\n Amidst lions she couched,\n In the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps.\n She brought up one of her whelps: he became a young lion;\n He learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.\n The nations heard of him;\n In their pit was he taken,[755]\n And they brought him with hooks into the land of Egypt.\"[756]\n\nWe see, too, that he was to an eminent degree the darling of the\nnation in the still more plaintive wail of Jeremiah which will be\nquoted later.\n\nThe fact that Shallum solemnly changed his name to Jehoahaz (\"Jehovah\ntaketh hold\"),[757] and that the people of the land not only \"made him\nking in his father's stead,\" but also \"anointed him,\" points to a\ndisputed succession.[758] High hopes were conceived of him; but he\nhardly had a chance of fulfilling them, for he was only permitted to\nreign three months. What were the events of those months we do not\nknow. Jehoahaz must have disappointed any hopes which may have been\nformed of him by the religious party; for dear as he was to them, the\nhistorians record of him that \"he did that which was evil in the sight\nof the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done,\" although\nthey specify no particular offence. The same sad verdict is passed on\nall his four successors; but Josephus says even more emphatically of\nJehoahaz that he was impious and impure.[759]\n\nHe must have shown some activity in other respects, or else Ezekiel\nwould hardly have said that \"the nations heard of him,\" and that \"he\nlearned to catch the prey; he devoured men.\" Over all his deeds,\nwhatever they may have been, \"the iniquity of oblivion has blindly\nscattered her poppy,\" and he fell a victim to the great\nworld-movements of those troublous times.\n\nFor Pharaoh, after his defeat of Josiah at Megiddo, proceeded to make\nhimself master of Syria and Palestine. He took Cadytis, which\nHerodotus calls \"a large city of Syria,\"[760] and which--since it\ncannot here mean Gaza, as in Herod., iii. 5--has been identified by\nsome with Kadesh. Thence he marched to Carchemish, on the right bank\nof the Euphrates,[761] none venturing to check him, till \"once more,\nafter the lapse of nine centuries, Egyptian garrisons looked down on\nthat historic stream.\"[762] On his return he stopped at Riblah, on the\nOrontes,[763] to consolidate his Syrian conquests; and there he learnt\nthat, without consulting him, the people of Jerusalem had made\nJehoahaz their king. Perhaps he heard enough of the warlike prowess of\nJehoahaz to make him resent this act of independence. After his three\nmonths' campaign he sent for Jehoahaz to Riblah, and the unhappy\nprince had no choice but to obey. Possibly the Egyptian party in\nJerusalem, headed by his disappointed elder brother Eliakim, may have\nintrigued against him with Pharaoh Necho. When he reached Riblah, he\nwas unceremoniously deposed; and though we may hope that the\nexpression of Ezekiel, that \"they brought him with _hooks_ into the\nland of Egypt,\" belongs to the metaphor of the captured lion's whelp,\nit is certain that he was taken to the banks of the Nile as a fettered\ncaptive, never to return. How long his miserable life was protracted,\nor how he was treated in Egypt, we do not know. The sun of the young\nprince went down in darkness while it was yet day. No king of Judah\nbefore him had died in prison and in exile, and the calamity smote\nheavily the heart of his people. Egypt was not to escape--shortly\nthereafter--the doom of violence and pride; but whether the young\nJewish king had died meanwhile of a broken heart, or whether he\ndragged on to hoar hairs his maimed life, or whether he was murdered\nin his dungeon, no man knew. One thing only was clear to the sad\nprophet--that he would never return.\n\n\"Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep ye sore for\nhim that is gone away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native\ncountry. For thus saith Jehovah concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah,\nKing of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went\nforth out of this place: 'He shall not return thither any more: but in\nthe place whither they have led him captive there shall he die, and he\nshall see this land no more.'\"[764]\n\nTo show his absolute power over Judah and Jerusalem, Pharaoh Necho not\nonly deposed and fettered their king, but put the whole land under a\nyearly tribute of one hundred talents of silver (about \u00a340,000) and a\ntalent of gold (about \u00a34,000).[765]\n\nEven this comparatively small sum was a heavy burden for so greatly\nafflicted and impoverished a country, and Pharaoh further imposed on\nthem a vassal to see that it was duly extorted. This was Eliakim, the\neldest living son of Josiah. There was nothing left to plunder in the\nTemple or the palace, and therefore the exaction had to be borne by\nthe taxed and suffering people.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[753] Chron. iii. 15.\n\n[754] He is named \"fourth,\" but he was older than his brothers\nJehoiakim and Zedekiah (2 Kings xxiii. 31, xxiv. 18). The genealogy is\nas follows:--\n\n Zebudah = JOSIAH = Hamutal.\n | |\n ----- |-------------------\n | | |\n Nehushta = ELIAKIM ZEDEKIAH JEHOAHAZ\n | or Jehoiakim. or Mattaniah. or Shallum.\n |\n JEHOIACHIN.\n\n\n[755] An allusion to the Syrian mode of hunting the lion by driving it\nwith cries into a concealed pit (Tristram, _Nat. Hist. of the Bible_,\n118; Cheyne, 140).\n\n[756] Ezek. xix. 1-4.\n\n[757] The name Shallum means \"recompense.\" It may have been regarded\nas ill-omened, since the King of Israel who bore this rare name had\nonly reigned a month.\n\n[758] The Talmud says that kings were only anointed in special cases\n(_Keritoth_, f. 5, 2; Gr\u00e4tz, ii. 328).\n\n[759] Jos., _Antt._, X. v. 2: \u1f08\u03c3\u03b5\u03b2\u1f74\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bc\u03b9\u03b1\u03c1\u1f78\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03c4\u03c1\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[760] Herod., ii. 159.\n\n[761] Mr. G. Smith identifies Carchemish with Jerabl\u00fbs.\n\n[762] Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, p. 127.\n\n[763] Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 20, 21. The old Hittite capital of Riblah was\na convenient halting-place on the road between Babylon and Jerusalem.\nIt was on the northernmost boundary of Palestine towards Damascus\n(Amos vi. 14).\n\n[764] Jer. xxii. 10-12.\n\n[765] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3; 1 Esdras i. 36. The smallness of the tribute\nproves the impoverishment of the land. Sennacherib demanded from\nHezekiah three hundred talents of silver, and thirty of gold; and\nMenahem paid one thousand talents of silver to Tiglath-Pileser.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIV\n\n _JEHOIAKIM_\n\n B.C. 608-597\n\n 2 KINGS xxiii. 36-xxiv. 7\n\n \"But those things that are recorded of him, and of his uncleanness\n and impiety, are written in the Chronicles of the Kings.\"--1\n ESDRAS i. 42.\n\n \"When Jehoiakim succeeded to the throne, he said, 'My predecessors\n knew not how to provoke God.'\"--_Sanhedrin_, f. 103, 2.\n\n \"There is no strange handwriting on the wall,\n Through all the midnight hum no threatening call,\n Nor on the marble floor the stealthy fall\n Of fatal footsteps. All is safe.--Thou fool,\n The avenging deities are shod with wool!\"\n W. ALLEN BUTLER.\n\n\nEliakim succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five under very\nunenviable circumstances--as a nominal king, a helpless nominee and\ntributary of the Pharaoh. He seems to have been thoroughly distasteful\nto the people; and if we may judge from the fact that Ezekiel frankly\nignores him and passes from Jehoahaz to Jehoachin, he was regarded as\na tax-gathering usurper nominated by an alien tyrant. For after\nspeaking of Jehoahaz, Ezekiel says,--\n\n \"Now when she [Judah] saw that she had waited [for the restoration of\n Jehoahaz], and her hope was lost,\n Then she took another of her whelps;[766]\n A young lion she made him.\n He went up and down among the lions;\n He became a young lion.\"[767]\n\nThe historian says that Necho turned the name of Eliakim (\"God will\nestablish\") to Jehoiakim (\"Jehovah will establish\"); but by this can\nhardly be meant more than that he sanctioned the change of El into\nJehovah on Eliakim's installation upon the throne.\n\nJehoiakim is condemned in the same terms as all the other sons of\nJosiah. His misdoings are far more definitely recorded in the\nProphets, who furnish us with details which are passed over by the\nhistorians. Some of his sins may have been due to the influence of his\nwife Nehushta, who was a daughter of Elnathan of Achbor, one of the\nprinces of the heathen party. It was this Elnathan whom the king chose\nas a fitting ambassador to demand the extradition of the prophet\nUrijah from Egypt. One of the crimes with which Jehoiakim is charged\nis the building for himself of a sumptuous palace, and thus vainly\ntrying to emulate the splendours of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian\nkings. In itself the act would not have been more wicked than it was\nin Solomon, whose architectural parade is dwelt upon with enthusiasm.\nBut the circumstances were now wholly different. Solomon was at that\ntime in all his glory, the possessor of boundless wealth, the ruler of\nan immense and united territory, the head of a powerful and prosperous\npeople, the successor of an unconquered hero who had gone to his grave\nin peace; Jehoiakim, on the other hand, had succeeded a father who had\ndied in defeat on the field of battle, and a brother who was\nhopelessly pining in an Egyptian prison. The Tribes had been carried\ninto captivity by Assyria; the nation was beaten, oppressed, and poor;\nthe king himself possessed but a shadow of royalty. In such a\ncondition of things it would have been his glory to maintain a\nwatchful and strenuous activity, and to devote himself in simplicity\nand self-denial to the good of his people. It showed a perverted and\nsensuous mind to insult the misery of his subjects at such a time by\nfeeble attempts to rival heathen potentates in costly \u00e6stheticism. But\nthis was not all; he carried out his ignoble selfishness at the cost\nof oppression and wrong.[768]\n\nIt is possible that the prophet Habakkuk alludes to him in the words:--\n\n\"Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set\nhis nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil![769]\nThou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many peoples,\nand hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the\nwall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.\"[770]\n\nThe thought of the Jewish king's selfish expensiveness may have crossed\nthe mind of Habakkuk, though the taunt is addressed directly to the\nChald\u00e6ans, and especially to Nebuchadrezzar, who was at that time\nrevelling in the beautifying of Babylon, and especially of his own royal\npalace. On the other hand, the rebuke, or rather the denunciation,\nuttered by Jeremiah against the king for this line of conduct, and for\nthe forced labour which it required, is terribly direct.\n\n \"'Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness,\n And his chambers by wrong;\n That useth his neighbour's service without wages,\n And giveth him not his hire;\n That saith, \"I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers,\"\n And cutteth out windows;\n And it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.\n Shalt thou reign because thou viest with the cedar?[771]\n Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice?\n Then it was well with him!\n Was not this to know Me?' saith the Lord.\n 'But thine heart is not but for thy dishonest gain,\n And for to shed innocent blood,\n And for oppression and for violence to do it.'\"[772]\n\nThen follows the stern message of doom which we shall quote hereafter.\nThe king's bad example stimulated or perhaps emulated similar folly\nand want of patriotism on the part of his nobles. They were shepherds\nwho destroyed and scattered the sheep of Jehovah's pastures. But vain\nwas their imagined security, and their ostentation. The judgment was\nimminent.[773]\n\n\"O inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars,\"\nexclaims the prophet in bitter mockery, \"how greatly wilt thou groan\nwhen pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!\"[774]\n\nBut Jehoiakim's offences were deadlier than this. The Chronicler\nspeaks of \"the abominations which he did\"; and some have therefore\nsupposed that the evil state of things described by Jeremiah (xix.)\nrefers to this reign. If so, he plunged into the idolatry which caused\nJudah to be shivered like a potter's vessel. Certainly he sinned\ngrievously against God in the person of His prophets.\n\nJeremiah was not the only prophet who disdained the easy and\ntraitorous popularity which was to be won by prophesying \"peace,\npeace,\" when there was no peace. He had for his contemporary another\nmessenger of God, no less boldly explicit than himself--Urijah, the\nson of Shemaiah of Kirjath-Jearim. Jeremiah had as yet only prophesied\nin his humble native village of Anathoth; he had not been called upon\nto face \"the swellings\" or \"the pride of Jordan.\"[775] Urijah had been\nin the fuller glare of publicity in the capital, and his bold\ndeclaration that Jerusalem should fall before Nebuchadrezzar and the\nChald\u00e6ans had excited such a fury of indignation that he escaped into\nEgypt for his life. Surely this should have appeased the rulers, even\nif they chose to pay no attention to the Divine menace. For the\nprophets were recognised deliverers of the messages of Jehovah; and\nwith scarcely an exception, even in the most wicked reigns, their\npersons had been regarded as sacrosanct. But Jehoiakim would not let\nUrijah escape. He sent an embassy to Necho, headed by his\nfather-in-law Elnathan, son of Achbor, requesting his extradition.\nUrijah had been dragged back from Egypt, and, to the horror of the\npeople, the king had slain him with the sword, and flung his body into\nthe graves of the common people.[776] What made this conduct more\nmonstrous was the precedent of Micah the Morasthite. He, in the days\nof Hezekiah, had prophesied,--\n\n \"Zion shall be ploughed as a field,\n And Jerusalem shall become heaps,\n And the Mountain of the House as the wooded heights.\"[777]\n\nYet so far from putting him to death, or even stirring a finger\nagainst him, the pious king had only been moved to repentance by the\nDivine threatenings. Thus the blood of the first martyr-prophet, if we\nexcept the case of Zechariah, had been shed by the son of Judah's most\npious king. Jeremiah himself only narrowly escaped martyrdom. The\nprecedent of Micah helped to save him, though it had not saved Urijah.\nHe was far more powerfully protected by the patronage of the princes\nand the people. Standing in the Temple court, he had declared that,\nunless the nation repented, that house should be like Shiloh, and the\ncity a curse to all the nations of the earth. Maddened by such words\nof bold rebuke, the priests and the prophets and the people had\nthreatened him with death. But the princes took his part, and some of\nthe people came over to them. His most powerful protector was Ahikam,\nthe son of Shaphan, a member of a family of the utmost distinction.\n\nMeanwhile, we must follow for a time the outward fortunes of the king\nand of the world.\n\nNecho, after his successful advance, had retired to Egypt, and\nJehoiakim continued to be for three years his obsequious servant. An\nevent of tremendous importance for the world changed the entire\nfortunes of Egypt and of Judah. Nineveh fell with a crash which\nterrified the nations. We might apply to her the language which Isaiah\napplies to her successor, Babylon:--\n\n\"Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it\nstirreth up the shades for thee, even the Rephaim of the earth; it\nhath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All\nthey shall answer and say unto thee, 'Art thou also become weak as we?\nart thou become like unto us?' ... All the kings of the nations, all\nof them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast\nforth away from thy sepulchre like an abominable branch, as the\nraiment of those that are slain, that are thrust through with the\nsword, that go down to the stones of the pit.... They that see thee\nshall narrowly look upon thee ... and say, 'Is this the man that made\nthe earth to tremble? that did shake kingdoms? that made the world as\na wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof? that let not loose his\nprisoners to their home?'\"[778]\n\nYes, Assyria had fallen like some mighty cedar in Libanus, and the\nnations gazed without pity and with exultation on his torn and\nscattered branches.\n\nAnd coincident with the fate of Nineveh had been the rise of the\nChald\u00e6an power.\n\nNabupalussur[779] had been a general of one of the last Assyrian kings,\nand had been sent by him with an army to quell a Babylonian revolt.\nInstead of this, he seized the city and made himself king. When the\nfinal overthrow and obliteration of Nineveh had secured his power, he\nsent his brave and brilliant son Nebuchadrezzar[780] (B.C. 605) to\nsecure the provinces which he had wrested from Assyria, and especially\nto regain possession of Carchemish, which commanded the river.\n\nNecho marched to protect his conquests, and at Carchemish the hostile\nforces encountered each other in a tremendous battle,--immemorial\nEgypt under the representative of its age-long Pharaohs; Babylon, with\nher independence of yesterday, under a prince hitherto unknown, whose\nname was to become one of the most famous in the world. The result is\ndescribed by Jeremiah (xlvi. 1-12). Egypt was hopelessly defeated. Her\nsplendidly arrayed warriors were panic-stricken and routed; her chief\nheroes were dashed to pieces by the heavy maces of the Babylonians, or\nfled without so much as looking back. The scene was one of\n\"Magor-missabib\"--terror on every side.[781] Pharaoh's host came up\nlike the Nile in flood with its Ethiopian hoplites and Asiatic\narchers; but they were driven back. The daughter of Egypt received a\nwound which no balm of Gilead could cure. The nations heard of her\nshame, and the prophet pronounced her further chastisement by the\nhands of Nebuchadrezzar.\n\nThen, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the young Babylonian conqueror\nswept down upon Syria and Palestine like a bounding leopard, like an\navenging eagle (Hab. i. 7, 8). Jehoiakim had no choice but to change\nhis vassalhood to Necho for a vassalage to Nebuchadrezzar.[782] He\nmight have suffered severe consequences, but tidings came to the young\nChald\u00e6an that his father had ended his reign of twenty-one years and\nwas dead. For fear lest disturbances might arise in his capital, he at\nonce dashed home across the desert with some light troops by way of\nTadmor, while he told his general to follow him home through Syria by\nthe longer route. He seems, however, to have carried away with him\nsome captives, among whom were Daniel, Ananias, Azarias, and\nMisael,[783] destined hereafter for such memorable fortunes. Jehoiakim\nhimself was thrown into fetters to be carried into Babylon; but the\nconqueror changed his mind, and probably thought that it would be\nsafer for the present to accept his pledges and assurances, and leave\nhim as his viceroy. \"He took an oath of him,\" says Ezekiel (xvii. 13);\n\"he took also the mighty of the land.\"[784]\n\nFor three years this frivolous egotist who occupied the throne of\nJudah remained faithful to his covenant with the King of Babylon, but\nat the end of that time he rebelled. In this rebellion he was again\ndeluded by the glamour of Egypt, and reliance on the empty promise of\n\"horses and much people.\" Ezekiel openly disapproved of this\npolicy,[785] and reproached the king for his faithlessness to his\noath. Jeremiah went further, and declared in the plainest language\nthat \"Nebuchadrezzar would certainly come up and destroy this land,\nand cause to cease from thence both man and beast.\"[786]\n\nNearer and nearer the danger came. At first the King of Babylon was too\nbusy to do more than send against the Jewish rebel marauding bands of\nChald\u00e6ans, who acted in concert with the hereditary depredators of\nJudah--Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites. But the prophet knew that the\ndanger would not end there, believing that God would yet \"remove Judah\nout of His sight\" for the unforgiven sins of Manasseh and the innocent\nblood with which he had filled Jerusalem.[787] At last Nebuchadrezzar\nhad time to turn closer attention to the affairs of Judah, and this\nbecame necessary because of the revolt of Tyre under its King Ithobalus.\nIn the stress of the peril Jehoiakim proclaimed a fast and a day of\nhumiliation in the Temple. Jeremiah was at this time \"shut up\"--either\nin hiding, or in some sort of custody. As he could not go and preach in\nperson, he dictated his prophecy to Baruch, who wrote it on a scroll,\nand went in the prophet's place to read it in the Lord's House to the\npeople there assembled from Jerusalem and all Judah in the chamber of\nGemariah, the son of Shaphan, in the inner court, by the new gate.[788]\nGemariah was the brother of Ahikam, the protector of the prophet.\n\nNo one was more painfully alarmed by Jeremiah's prophecy than Micaiah,\nthe son of Gemariah, and he thought it his duty to go and tell his\nfather and the other princes what he had heard. They were assembled in\nthe scribe's chamber, and sent a courtier of Ethiopian race--Jehudi,\nthe son of Cushi--bidding him to bring the scroll with him, and to\ncome to them.[789]\n\nBaruch was a person of distinction. He was the brother of Seraiah, who\nis called in our A.V. \"a quiet prince,\" and in the margin \"prince of\nMenucha\" or \"chief chamberlain,\" literally \"master of the\nresting-place\"; and he was the grandson of Maaseiah, \"the governor\" of\nthe city.[790] The office imposed on him by Jeremiah was so perilous\nand painful that it nearly broke his heart. He exclaimed to Jeremiah,\n\"Woe is me now! the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I am weary\nwith my sighing, and I find no rest.\" The answer which the prophet was\ncommissioned to give him was very remarkable. It confirmed the\nterrible doom on his native land, but added, \"'And seekest thou great\nthings for thyself? Seek them not. For, behold, I will bring evil upon\nall flesh,' saith the Lord: 'but thy life will I give unto thee for a\nprey in all places whither thou goest.'\"[791]\n\nBaruch obeyed the summons of the princes, and at their request sat\ndown with them and read the scroll in their ears. When they had heard\nthe portentous prophecy, they turned shuddering to one another, and\nsaid, \"We must tell the king of all these words.\" They asked Baruch\nhow he had written them, and he said he had taken them down at the\nprophet's dictation. Then, knowing the storm which would burst over\nthe bold offenders, they said, \"Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah, and\nlet no man know where ye be.\"\n\nNot daring to imperil the awful document, they laid it up in the\nchamber of Elishama, the scribe, but went to the king and told him its\ncontents. He sent Jehudi to fetch it, and to read it in their hearing.\nJehoiakim and the illustrious company were seated in the\nwinter-chamber; for it was October, and a fire was burning in the\nbrazier, where Jehoiakim sat warming himself in the chilly weather.\n\nAs he listened, he was filled not only with fury, but with contempt.\nSuch a message might well have caused him and his worst counsellors to\nrend their clothes; but instead of this they adopted a tone of defiance.\nBy the time that Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim\nsnatched the scribe's knife which hung at his girdle, and began to cut\nup the scroll, with the intention of burning it. Seeing his purpose,\nGemariah, Elnathan, and Seraiah entreated him not to destroy it. But he\nwould not listen. He flung the fragments into the brazier, and they were\nconsumed. He ordered his son Jerahmeel,[792] with Seraiah and Shelemiah,\nto seize both Baruch and Jeremiah, and bring them before him for\npunishment. Doubtless they would have suffered the fate of Urijah, but\n\"the Lord hid them.\" There were enough persons of power on their side to\nrender their hiding-place secure.\n\nBut the king's impious indifference, so far from making any difference\nin the things that were, only brought down upon his guilt a fearful\ndoom. Truth cannot be cut to pieces, or burnt, or mechanically\nsuppressed.\n\n \"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;\n The eternal years of God are hers:\n But error, vanquished, writhes in pain,\n And dies amid her worshippers.\"\n\nAll the former denunciations, and new ones added to them, were\nrewritten by Jeremiah and his faithful friend in their hiding-place,\nand among them these words[793]:--\n\n\"Thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, 'He shall have none\nto sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out\nin the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.'\"\n\nA frightful drought added to the misery of this reign, but failed to\nbring the wretched king to his senses. Jeremiah describes it[794]:--\n\n\"Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they bow down\nmourning unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And the\nnobles send their menials to the waters: they come to the pits, and\nfind no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed\nand confounded, and cover their heads, because of the ground which is\nchapped, for that no rain hath been in the land.... Yea, the hind also\nin the field calveth, and forsaketh her young, because there is no\ngrass. And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air\nlike jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.\"\n\nEven this affliction, so vividly and pathetically described, failed to\nwaken any repentance. And then the doom fell. Nebuchadrezzar advanced\nin person against Jerusalem.[795] Even the hardy nomad Rechabites had\nto fly before the Chald\u00e6ans, and to take refuge in the cities which\nthey hated. The sacred historian tells us nothing as to the manner of\nthe death of Jehoiakim, only saying that he \"slept with his fathers\":\nhis narrative of this period is exceedingly meagre. Josephus says that\nNebuchadrezzar slew him and the flower of the citizens, and sent three\nthousand captives to Babylon.[796] Some imagine that he was killed by\nthe Babylonians in a raid outside the walls of Jerusalem, or \"murdered\nby his own people, and his body thrown for a time outside the walls.\"\nIf so, the Babylonians did not war with the dead. His remains, after\nthis \"burial of an ass,\"[797] may have been finally suffered to rest\nin a tomb. The Septuagint says (2 Chron. xxxvi. 8) that he was buried\n\"in Ganosan,\" by which may be meant the sepulchre of Manasseh in the\ngarden of Uzza.[798] Not for him was the wailing cry \"_Ho\u00ee, adon! Ho\u00ee,\nhodo!_\" (\"Ah, Lord! Ah, his glory!\").\n\n\"The memory of the wicked shall rot.\" Certainly this was the case with\nJehoiakim. The Chronicler mysteriously alludes to \"his abominations\nwhich he did, _and that which was found in him_.\"[799] The Rabbis,\ninterpreting this after their manner, say that \"the thing found\" was\nthe name of the demon Codonazor, to whom he had sold himself, which\nafter his death was discovered legibly written in Hebrew letters on\nhis skin. \"Rabbi Johanan and Rabbi Eleazar debated what was meant by\n'that which was found on him.' One said that he tattooed the name of\nan idol upon his body (\u05d0\u05de\u05ea\u05d5), and the other said that he had tattooed\nthe name of the god Recreon.\"[800]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[766] Not Jehoiakim, but Jehoiachin, as the sequel shows.\n\n[767] Ezek. xix. 5-9. The allusions to Jehoiakim by Jeremiah are\nnumerous, and all unfavourable (xxii. 13-19, xxvi. 20-23, xxxvi.\n20-31, etc.)\n\n[768] Josephus (_Antt._, X. v. 2) is very severe on this king. He says\nthat \"he was unjust in disposition, an evil-doer, neither pious\ntowards God nor just towards men.\"\n\n[769] Perhaps an allusion to a sort of fortified palace on Ophel.\n\n[770] Hab. ii. 9-11.\n\n[771] The text is perhaps corrupt. Two MSS. of the LXX. read \"because\nthou viest _with Ahab_,\" and the Vatican MSS. has \"_with Ahaz_.\"\nCheyne adopts the former reading.\n\n[772] Jer. xxii. 13-17.\n\n[773] Jer. xxiii. 1.\n\n[774] Jer. xxii. 23.\n\n[775] Jer. xii. 5.\n\n[776] Jer. xxvi. 20-23. So far as I am aware, Bunsen stands alone in\nidentifying Urijah with the \"Zechariah\" who wrote Zech. xii.-xiv.\nOthers refer Zech. xii. 10 to the murder of Urijah.\n\n[777] Jer. xxvi. 18.\n\n[778] Isa. xiv., _passim_.\n\n[779] Nabu-pal-ussur, \"Nebo protect the son.\"\n\n[780] Nabu-kudur-ussur, \"Nebo protect the crown\" (Schrader, ii. 48), or\n\"the youth\" (Oppert). The portrait of Nebuchadrezzar--this is the proper\nspelling, as generally in Jeremiah--is preserved for us on a black cameo\nwhich he presented to the god Merodach. It is now in the Berlin Museum,\nand shows strong but not cruel or ignoble characteristics. It is copied\nin Riehm's _Handw\u00f6rterbuch_, ii. 1067. The Jews, as they were fond of\ndoing to their enemies, made insulting puns on his name. Thus in the\n_Vayyikra Rabba_ (W\u00fcnsche, _Bibl. Rabb._) the Three Children are\nrepresented as saying to him, \"You are Neboo-cad-netser: bark [_nabach_]\nlike a dog; swell like a water-jar [_kad_], and chirp like a cricket\n[_tsertser_],\"--in allusion to his madness.\n\n[781] Jer. xlvi. 5 (vi. 25).\n\n[782] Jos., _Antt._, X. xi.; Berosus, p. 11. The Chronicler and\nJosephus show some confusion, caused by the similarity of the names\nJehoiakim and Jehoiachin.\n\n[783] Dan. i. 6.\n\n[784] We might infer from Ezek. xvii. 12 that Nebuchadrezzar actually\ntook Jehoiakim with him to Babylon.\n\n[785] Ezek. xvii. 15.\n\n[786] Jer. xxxvi. 29, xxv. 9, xxvi. 6.\n\n[787] 2 Kings xxiv. 2-4.\n\n[788] Gr\u00e4tz thinks that Jeremiah's roll was substantially Jer. xxv.\n\n[789] Jos., _Antt._, IX. ix. 1.\n\n[790] Jer. li. 59. Ewald, Hitzig, and others take the title to mean\n\"quartermaster\" (2 Chron. xxxiv. 8).\n\n[791] Jer. xlv. 1-5.\n\n[792] Zeph. i. 8; 1 Kings xxii. 26; Jer. xxxvi. 26, A.V., \"The son of\nHammelech.\" Comp. xxxviii. 6. _Hammelech_ may be a proper name, or a\nprince of the blood-royal may be intended.\n\n[793] \"The 'Book,' now as afterwards, was to be the death-blow of the\nold regal, aristocratic, sacerdotal exclusiveness. The 'Scribe,' now\nfirst rising into importance in the person of Baruch to supply the\ndefects of the living Prophet, was, as the printing-press in later\nages, handing on the words of truth, which else might have\nirretrievably perished\" (Stanley).\n\n[794] Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, p. 149; Jer. xiv. 1-xv. 9.\n\n[795] Nebuchadrezzar occupies a larger space in the Bible than any\nheathen king, being spoken of in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra,\nNehemiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.\n\n[796] For further details of Jehoiakim see 1 Esdras i. 38: \"He bound\nJoakim and the nobles; _but Zaraces_ his brother he apprehended, and\nbrought him out of Egypt.\" The allusion is entirely obscure, and\nprobably arises from some corruption of the text. The literal\nrendering is: \"And _Joakim_ bound the nobles; but Zaraces his brother\nhe apprehended, and brought him out of Egypt.\" Zaraces might be a\ncorruption for Zedekiah, who was Jehoiakim's half-brother. Some think\nthat Zaraces is a corruption for Urijah, and \"his brother\" a clerical\nerror.\n\n[797] Jer. xxxvi. 30, xxii. 19.\n\n[798] LXX., \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bc\u03ae\u03b8\u03b7 \u1f38\u03c9\u03b1\u03ba\u03b5\u1f76\u03bc \u1f10\u03bd \u0393\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03b6\u1f70\u03bd \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03c9\u03bd \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6.\n\n[799] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8.\n\n[800] _Sanhedrin_, f. 104, 2. For another allusion see _id._ 49, 1;\nHershon, _Treasures of the Talmud_, p. 232.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXV\n\n _JEHOIACHIN_\n\n B.C. 597\n\n 2 KINGS xxiv. 8-16\n\n \"There are times when ancient truths become modern falsehoods,\n when the signs of God's dispensations are made so clear by the\n course of natural events as to supersede the revelations of even\n their most sacred past.\"--STANLEY, _Lectures_, ii. 521.\n\n\nJehoiachin--\"Jehovah maketh steadfast\"--who is also called Jeconiah,\nand--perhaps with intentional slight--Coniah, succeeded, at the age of\neighteen, to the miserable and distracted heritage of the throne of\nJudah. The \"eight years old\" of the Chronicler must be a clerical\nerror, for he had a harem. He only reigned for three months; and the\nhistorian pronounces over him, as over all the four kings of the House\nof Josiah, the stereotyped condemnation of evil-doing. Was there\nanything in the manner in which Josiah had trained his family which\ncould account for their unsatisfactoriness? In Jehoiachin's case we do\nnot know what his transgressions were, but perhaps his mother's\ninfluence rendered him as little favourable to the prophetic party as\nhis brother Jehoiakim had been. For the _Geb\u00eerah_ was Nehushta, the\ndaughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Her name means apparently \"Brass,\"\nand nothing can be deduced from it; but her father Elnathan was (as we\nhave seen) the envoy who, by order of Jehoiakim, had dragged back from\nEgypt the martyr-prophet Urijah.[801]\n\nBrief as was his reign of three months and ten days[802]--a hundred\ndays, like that of his unhappy uncle Jehoahaz--he is largely alluded\nto by the contemporary prophets.\n\nIndignant at the sins and apostasies of Judah, and convinced that her\nretribution was nigh at hand, Jeremiah took with him an earthen pot to\nthe Valley of Hinnom, and there shivered it to pieces at Tophet in the\npresence of certain elders of the people and of the priests,\nexplaining that his symbolic action indicated the destruction of\nJerusalem. On hearing the tenor of these prophecies, the priest\nPashur, who was officer of the Temple, smote Jeremiah in the face, and\nput him in the stocks in a prominent place by the Temple gate.[803]\nJeremiah in return prophesied that Pashur and all his family should be\ncarried into captivity, so that his name should be changed from Pashur\nto Magor-Missabib, \"Terror on every side.\"\n\nAgainst the king himself he pronounced the doom: \"'As I live,' saith the\nLord, 'though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, were the\nsignet on My right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence; and I will give\nthee into the hands of them that seek thy life, ... even into the hand\nof Nebuchadrezzar.... And I will hurl thee, and thy mother that bare\nthee, into another country;[804] ... and there shall ye die.' ... Is\nthis man Coniah a despised broken piece of work? is he a vessel wherein\nis no pleasure? wherefore are they hurled, he and his seed, and cast\ninto a land which they know not? O land, land, land! hear the word of\nthe Lord. Thus saith the Lord, 'Write ye this man childless, a man that\nshall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper,\nsitting upon the throne of David, or ruling any more in Judah.'\"\n\nYet there must have been something in Jeconiah which impressed\nfavourably the minds of men. Brief as was his reign, his memory was\nnever forgotten. We learn from the _Mishna_ that one of the gates of\nJerusalem--probably that by which he left the city--for ever bore his\nname.[805] Josephus says that his captivity was annually commemorated.\nJeremiah writes in the Lamentations:--\n\n\"Our pursuers are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they have pursued\nus upon the mountains, they have laid wait for us in the wilderness. The\nbreath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their\npits, of whom we said, 'Under his shadow we shall live among the\nheathen.'\"\n\nEzekiel compares him to a young lion:--\n\n\"He went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and\nlearned to catch the prey. And he knew their palaces, and laid waste\ntheir cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by\nthe noise of his roaring. Then the nations set against him on every\nside from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken\nin their pit. And they put him in ward in hooks, and brought him to\nthe King of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice\nshould no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.\"[806]\n\nA prince of whom a contemporary prophet could thus write was obviously\nno _fain\u00e9ant_. Indeed, the energetic measures which Nebuchadrezzar\nadopted against him may have been due to the fact that he had\nendeavoured to rouse his discouraged people. But what could he do\nagainst such a power as that of the Chald\u00e6ans? Nebuchadrezzar sent his\ngenerals against Jerusalem; and when it was ripe for capture, advanced\nin person to take possession of it. Resistance had become hopeless;\nthere lay no chance in anything but that complete submission which\nmight possibly avert the worst effects of the destruction of the city.\nAccordingly, Jeconiah, accompanied by his mother, his court, his\nprinces, and his officers, went out in procession, and threw\nthemselves on the mercy of the King of Babylon. Nebuchadrezzar was far\nless brutal than the Sargons and Assurbanipals of Assyria; but Judah\nhad twice revolted, and the defection of Tyre showed him that the\naffairs of Palestine could no longer be neglected. He thoroughly\ndespoiled the Temple and the palace, and carried the spoils to\nBabylon, as Isaiah had forewarned Hezekiah should be the case.[807]\nThat he might further weaken and humiliate the city, he stripped it of\nits king, its royal house, its court, its nobles, its soldiers, even\nits craftsmen and smiths, and carried ten thousand eight hundred and\nthirty-two captives to Babylon (Jos., _Antt._, X. vii. 1), among whom\nwas the prophet Ezekiel. He naturally spared Jeremiah, who regarded\nhim as \"the sword of Jehovah\" (Jer. xlvii. 6), and as \"Jehovah's\nservant, to do His pleasure\" (Jer. xxv. 9, xxvii. 6, xliii. 10). On\nthe whole, Nebuchadrezzar is not treated with abhorrence by the Jews.\nThere was something in his character which inspired respect; and the\nJews deal with him leniently, both in their records and generally in\ntheir traditions. \"Nebuchadnezzar,\" we read in the Talmud (_Taanith_\nf. 18, 2), \"was a worthy king, and deserved that a miracle should be\nperformed through him.\"\n\nFrom the allusion of Ezekiel we might infer that Jehoiachin was\nviolent and self-willed; but Josephus speaks of his kindness and\ngentleness.[808] Was he, as Jeremiah had prophesied, literally\n\"childless\"?[809] It is true that in 1 Chron. iii. 17, 18, eight sons\nare ascribed to him, and among them Shealtiel, in whom the royal line\nwas continued. But it is far from certain that these sons were not the\nsons of his brother Neri, of the House of Nathan,[810] and it seems\nthat they were only adopted by the unhappy captive. The Book of Baruch\ndescribes him weeping by the Euphrates.[811] But if we may trust the\nstory of Susannah, his outward fortunes were peaceful, and he was\nallowed to live in his own house and gardens in peace, and in a\ncertain degree of splendour.[812]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[801] Jer. xxvi. 22.\n\n[802] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9.\n\n[803] Jer. xx. 2. There seem to have been special \"stocks\" and \"collars\"\nin the Temple, reserved, by order of the priest Jehoiada, for those whom\nthe priests regarded as unruly prophets (Jer. xxix. 26).\n\n[804] Jer. xxii. 24-30. The captivity of the queen-mother struck men's\nimaginations (Jer. xxix. 2).\n\n[805] _Middoth_, ii. 6, quoted by Cheyne, p. 163; Jos., _B. J._, VI.\nii. 1. Comp. Ezek. i. 2.\n\n[806] Ezek. xix. 6-9. The special allusions are no longer certain.\n\n[807] 2 Kings xx. 17. The expression \"_he cut to pieces_ all the\nvessels of gold which Solomon had made\" is hardly consistent with Ezra\ni. 7-11, unless we understand the word in a loose sense.\n\n[808] He says that he nobly gave himself up to save the city (_Antt._,\nX. vii. 1). His captivity was made an era from which to date Ezek. i.\n2, viii. 1, xxiv. 1, xxvi. 1, etc. Comp. Susannah 1-4.\n\n[809] Jer. xxii. 30, '_ar\u00eer\u00ee_. His \"son\" Assir (1 Chron. iii. 17) may\nhave been made an eunuch (Isa. xxxix. 7).\n\n[810] Luke iii. 27, 31; Matt. i. 12.\n\n[811] Baruch i. 3, 4.\n\n[812] The favourable notice of Nebuchadrezzar in _Taanith_ (quoted\nabove) is not found in _Berachoth_, f. 57, 2, where he is called \"the\nwicked.\" There are many wild legends about him. In _Nedarim_ (f. 65,\n2), R. Yitzchak says: \"May melted gold be poured into the mouth of the\nwicked Nebuchadrezzar! Had not an angel struck him on the mouth, he\nwould have outshone all David's songs and praises.\" With reference to\nIsa. xxii. 1, 2, the Rabbis say that Jeconiah went to the Temple roof,\nand flung up the keys into the air, when Nebuchadrezzar required them:\n\"a hand took them, and they were seen no more\" (_Shekalim_, vi. 5). In\n_Nedarim_ (f. 65, 2) we are told that Zedekiah's rebellion consisted\nin divulging, contrary to his oath, that he had seen Nebuchadrezzar\neating a live hare (Hershon, _Treasures of the Talmud_).\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVI\n\n _ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH_\n\n B.C. 597-586\n\n 2 KINGS xxiv. 18-xxv. 7\n\n \"Quand ce grand Dieu a choisi quelqu'un pour \u00eatre l'instrument de\n ses desseins rien n'arr\u00eate le cours, o\u00f9 il enchaine, o\u00f9 il\n aveugle, o\u00f9 il dompte tout ce qui est capable de r\u00e9sistance.\"\n BOSSUET, _Oraison fun\u00e8bre de Henriette Marie_.\n\n\nWhen Jehoiachin was carried captive to Babylon, never to return, his\nuncle Mattaniah (\"Jehovah's gift\"), the third son of Josiah, was put\nby Nebuchadrezzar in his place. In solemn ratification of the new\nking's authority, the Babylonian conqueror sanctioned the change of\nhis name to Zedekiah (\"Jehovah's righteousness\").[813] He was\ntwenty-one at his accession, and he reigned eleven years.\n\n\"Behold,\" writes Ezekiel, \"the King of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and\ntook the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and brought them to\nhim to Babylon; and he took of the seed royal\" (_i.e._, Zedekiah),\n\"_and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath: and\ntook away the mighty of the land, that the kingdom might be base, that\nit might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it\nmight stand_.\"[814]\n\nPerhaps by this covenant Zechariah meant to emphasise the meaning of\nhis name, and to show that he would reign in righteousness.\n\nThe prophet at the beginning of the chapter describes Nebuchadrezzar\nand Jehoiachin in \"a riddle.\"\n\n\"A great eagle,\" he says, \"with great wings and long pinions, full of\nfeathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the\ntop of the cedar\" (Jehoiachin): \"he cropped off the topmost of the\nyoung twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it\nin a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land\"\n(Zedekiah), \"and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside\ngreat waters, he set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a\nspreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned towards him, and\nthe roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought\nforth branches, and shot forth sprigs.\"[815]\n\nThe words refer to the first three years of Zedekiah's reign, and they\nimply, consistently with the views of the prophets, that, if the weak\nking had been content with the lowly eminence to which God had called\nhim, and if he had kept his oath and covenant with Babylon, all might\nyet have been well with him and his land. At first it seemed likely to\nbe so; for Zedekiah wished to be faithful to Jehovah. He made a\ncovenant with all the people to set free their Hebrew slaves. Alas! it\nwas very shortlived. Self-sacrifice cost something, and the princes\nsoon took back the discarded bondservants.[816] What made this conduct\nthe more shocking was that their covenant to obey the law had been\nmade in the most solemn manner by \"cutting a calf in twain, and\npassing between the severed halves.\"[817] But the weak king was\nperfectly powerless in the hands of his tyrannous aristocracy.[818]\n\nThe exiles in Babylon were now the best and most important section of\nthe nation. Jeremiah compares them to good figs; while the remnant at\nJerusalem were bad and withered. He and Ezekiel raised their voices,\nas in strophe and antistrophe, for the teaching alike of the exiles\nand of the remnant left at Jerusalem, for whom the exiles were bidden\nto entreat God in prayer. Zedekiah himself made at least one journey\nnorthward, either voluntarily or under summons, to renew his oath and\nreassure Nebuchadrezzar of his fidelity.[819] He was accompanied by\nSeraiah, the brother of Baruch, who was privately entrusted by\nJeremiah with a prophecy of the fall of Babylon, which he was to fling\ninto the midst of the Euphrates.[820]\n\nThe last King of Judah seems to have been weak rather than wicked. He\nwas a reed shaken by the wind. He yielded to the influence of the last\nperson who argued with him; and he seems to have dreaded above all\nthings the personal ridicule, danger, and opposition which it was his\nduty to have defied. Yet we cannot withhold from him our deep\nsympathy; for he was born in terrible times--to witness the\ndeath-throes of his country's agony, and to share in them. It was no\nlonger a question of independence, but only of the choice of\nservitudes. Judah was like a silly and trembling sheep between two\nhuge beasts of prey.[821]\n\nOnly thus can we account for the strange apostasies--\"the abominations\nof the heathen\"--with which he permitted the Temple to be polluted;\nand for the ill-treatment which he allowed to be inflicted on Jeremiah\nand other prophets, to whom in his heart he felt inclined to listen.\n\nWhat these abominations were we read with amazement in the eighth\nchapter of Ezekiel. The prophet is carried in vision to Jerusalem, and\nthere he sees the Asherah--\"the image which provoketh to\njealousy\"--which had so often been erected and destroyed and re-erected.\nThen through a secret door he sees creeping things, and abominable\nbeasts, and the idol-blocks of the House of Israel portrayed upon the\nwall, while several elders of Israel stood before them and adored, with\ncensers in their hands--among whom he must specially have grieved to see\nJaazaneiah, the son of Shaphan,[822] flattering himself, as did his\nfollowers, that in that dark chamber Jehovah saw them not. Next at the\nnorthern gate he sees Zion's daughters weeping for Tammuz, or Adonis.\nOnce more, in the inner court of the Temple, between the porch and the\naltar, he sees about twenty-five men with their backs to the altar, and\ntheir faces to the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east;\nand, lo! they put the vine branch to their nose.[823] Were not these\ncrimes sufficient to evoke the wrath of Jehovah, and to alienate His ear\nfrom prayers offered by such polluted worshippers? Egypt, Assyria,\nSyria, Chald\u00e6a, all contributed their idolatrous elements to the\ndetestable syncretism; and the king and the priests ignored, permitted,\nor connived at it.[824] This must surely be answered for. How could it\nhave been otherwise? The king and the priests were the official\nguardians of the Temple, and these aberrations could not have gone on\nwithout their cognisance. There was another party of sheer formalists,\nheaded by men like the priest Pashur, who thought to make talismans of\nrites and shibboleths, but had no sincerity of heart-religion.[825] To\nthese, too, Jeremiah was utterly opposed. In his opinion Josiah's\nreformation had failed. Neither Ark, nor Temple, nor sacrifice were\nanything in the world to him in comparison with true religion. All the\nprophets with scarcely one exception are anti-ritualists; but none more\ndecidedly so than the prophet-priest. His name is associated in\ntradition with the hiding of the Ark, and a belief in its ultimate\nrestoration; yet to Jeremiah, apart from the moral and spiritual truths\nof which it was the material symbol, the Ark was no better than a wooden\nchest. His message from Jehovah is, \"I will give you pastors according\nto My heart, ... and they shall say no more, 'The Ark of the Covenant of\nthe Lord': neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember\nit; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.\"[826]\n\nDoom followed the guilt and folly of king, priests, and people. If\npolitical wisdom were insufficient to show Zedekiah that the necessities\nof the case were an indication of God's will, he had the warnings of the\nprophets constantly ringing in his ears, and the assurance that he must\nremain faithful to Nebuchadrezzar. But he was in fear of his own princes\nand courtiers. A combined embassy reached him from the kings of Edom,\nAmmon, Moab, Tyre and Sidon, urging him to join in a league against\nBabylon.[827] This embassy was supported by a powerful party in\nJerusalem. Their solicitations were rendered more plausible by the\nrecent accession (B.C. 590) of the young and vigorous Pharaoh\nHophrah--the Apries of Herodotus[828]--to the throne of Egypt, and by\nthe recrudescence of that incurable disease of Hebrew politics, a\nconfidence in the idle promises of Egypt to supply the confederacy with\nmen and horses.[829] In vain did Jeremiah and Ezekiel uplift their\nwarning voices. The blind confidence of the king and of the nobles was\nsustained by the flattering visions and promises of false prophets,\nprominent among whom was a certain Hananiah, the son of Azur, of Gibeon,\n\"the prophet.\"[830] To indicate the futility of the contemplated\nrebellion, Jeremiah had made \"throngs and poles\" with yokes, and had\nsent them to the kings, whose embassy had reached Jerusalem, with a\nmessage of the most emphatic distinctness, that Nebuchadrezzar was God's\nappointed servant, and that they must serve him till God's own appointed\ntime. If they obeyed this intimation, they would be left undisturbed in\ntheir own lands; if they disobeyed it, they would be scourged into\nabsolute submission by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence.\nJeremiah delivered the same oracle to his own king.[831]\n\nThe warning was rendered unavailing by the conduct of Hananiah. He\nprophesied that within two full years God would break the yoke of the\nKing of Babylon; and that the captive Jeconiah, and the nobles, and\nthe vessels of the House of the Lord would be brought back. Jeremiah,\nby way of an acted parable, had worn round his neck one of his own\nyokes. Hananiah, in the Temple, snatched it off, broke it to pieces,\nand said, \"So will I break the yoke of Nebuchadrezzar from the neck of\nall nations within the space of two full years.\"[832]\n\nWe can imagine the delight, the applause, the enthusiasm with which\nthe assembled people listened to these bold predictions. Hananiah\nargued with them, to speak, in shorthand, for he appealed to their\ndesires and to their prejudices. It is always the tendency of nations\nto say to their prophets, \"Say not unto us hard things: speak smooth\nthings; prophesy deceits.\"\n\nAgainst Hananiah personally there seems to have been no charge, except\nthat in listening to the lying spirit of his own desires he could not\nhear the true message of God. But he did not stand alone.[833] Among\nthe children of the captivity, his promises were echoed by two\ndownright false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who\nprophesied lies in God's name. They were men of evil life, and a\nfearful fate overtook them. Their words against Babylon came to the\nears of Nebuchadrezzar, and they were \"roasted in the fire,\" so that\nthe horror of their end passed into a proverb and a curse.[834] Truly\nGod fed these false prophets with wormwood, and gave them poisonous\nwater to drink.[835]\n\nAfter the action of Hananiah, Jeremiah went home stricken and ashamed:\napparently he never again uttered a public discourse in the Temple. It\ntook him by surprise; and he was for the moment, perhaps, daunted by\nthe plausive echo of the multitude to the lying prophet. But when he\ngot home the answer of Jehovah came: \"Go and tell Hananiah, Thou hast\nbroken the yokes of wood; but thou hast made for them yokes of iron. I\nhave put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, that they\nmay serve Nebuchadrezzar. Hear now, Hananiah, The Lord hath not sent\nthee: thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Behold, this year\nthou shalt die, because thou hast spoken revolt against the Lord. What\nhath the chaff to do with the wheat? saith the Lord.\"[836]\n\nTwo months after Hananiah lay dead, and men's minds were filled with\nfear. They saw that God's word was indeed as a fire to burn, and as a\nhammer to dash in pieces.[837] But meanwhile Zedekiah had been\nover-persuaded to take the course which the true prophets had\nforbidden. Misled by the false prophets and mincing prophetesses whom\nEzekiel denounced,[838] who daubed men's walls with whitened plaster,\nhe had sent an embassy to Pharaoh Hophrah, asking for an army of\ninfantry and cavalry to support his rebellion from Assyria.[839] In\nthe eyes of Jeremiah and Ezekiel the crime did not only consist in\ndefying the exhortations of those whom Zedekiah knew to be Jehovah's\naccredited messengers. In mitigation of this offence he might have\npleaded the extreme difficulty of discriminating the truth amid the\nceaseless babble of false pretenders.[840] But, on the other hand, he\nhad broken the solemn oath which he had taken to Nebuchadrezzar in the\nname of God, and the sacred covenant which he seems to have twice\nratified with him.[841] This it was which raised the indignation of\nthe faithful, and led Ezekiel to prophesy:--\n\n \"Shall he prosper?\n Shall he escape that doeth such things?\n Or shall he break the covenant and be believed?\n 'As I live,' saith the Lord God, 'surely in the place where the king\n dwelleth that made him king,\n Whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke,\n Even with him in the midst of Babylon, shall he die.'\"[842]\n\nSad close for a dynasty which had now lasted for nearly five centuries!\n\nAs for Pharaoh, he too was an eagle, as Nebuchadrezzar was--a great\neagle with great wings and many feathers, but not so great. The\ntrailing vine of Judah bent her roots towards him, but it should\nwither in the furrows when the east wind touched it.[843]\n\nThe result of Zedekiah's alliance with Egypt was the intermission of\nhis yearly tribute to Assyria; and at last, in the ninth year of\nZedekiah, Nebuchadrezzar was aroused to put down this Palestinian\nrevolt, supported as it was by the vague magnificence of Egypt.\nJeremiah had said, \"Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, is but a noise [or\ndesolation]: he hath passed the time appointed.\"[844]\n\nThis was about the year 589. In 598 Nebuchadrezzar had carried\nJehoachin into captivity, and ever since then some of his forces had\nbeen engaged in the vain effort to capture Tyre, which still, after a\nten years' siege, drew its supplies from the sea, and remained\nimpregnable on her island rock. He did not choose to raise this\nlong-continued siege by diverting the troops to beleaguer so strong a\nfortress as Jerusalem, and therefore he came in person from Babylon.\n\nIn Ezek. xxi. 20-24 we have a singular and vivid glimpse of his march.\nOn his way he came to a spot where two roads branched off before him.\nOne led to Rabbath, the capital of Ammon, on the east of Jordan; the\nother to Jerusalem, on the west. Which road should he take? Personally,\nit was a matter of indifference; so he threw the burden of\nresponsibility upon his gods by leaving the decision to the result of\nbelomancy.[845] Taking in his hand a sheaf of brightened arrows, he held\nthem upright, and decided to take the route indicated by the fall of the\ngreater number of arrows. He confirmed his uncertainty by consulting\nteraphim, and by hepatoscopy--_i.e._, by examining the liver of slain\nvictims. Rabbath and the Ammonites were not to be spared, but it was\nupon the covenant-breaking king and city that the first vengeance was to\nfall.[846] And this is what the prophet has to say to Zedekiah:--\n\n\"And thou, O deadly-wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose\nday is come in the time of the iniquity of the end; thus saith the\nLord God, 'Remove the mitre, and take off the crown. This shall be not\nthus. Exalt the low, and abase that which is high. An overthrow,\noverthrow, overthrow, will I make it: this also shall be no more,\nuntil He come whose right it is: and I will give it Him.\"[847]\n\nSo (B.C. 587) Jerusalem was delivered over to siege, even as Ezekiel\nhad sketched upon a tile.[848] It was to be assailed in the old\nAssyrian manner--as we see it represented in the British Museum\nbas-relief, where Sennacherib is portrayed in the act of besieging\nLachish--with forts, mounds, and battering-rams; and Ezekiel had also\nbeen bidden to put up an iron plate between him and his pictured city,\nto represent the mantelet from behind which the archers shot.\n\nIn this dread crisis Zedekiah sent Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the\npriest, and Jehucal, to Jeremiah, entreating his prayers for the\ncity,[849] for he had not yet been put in prison. Doubtless he prayed,\nand at first it looked as if deliverance would come. Pharaoh Hophrah\nput in motion the Egyptian army with its Carian mercenaries and\nSoudanese negroes, and Nebuchadrezzar was sufficiently alarmed to\nraise the siege and go to meet the Egyptians. The hopes of the people\nprobably rose high, though multitudes seized the opportunity to fly to\nthe mountains.[850] The circumstances closely resembled those under\nwhich Sennacherib had raised the siege of Jerusalem to go to meet\nTirhakah the Ethiopian; and perhaps there were some, and the king\namong them, who looked that such a wonder might be vouchsafed to him\nthrough the prayers of Jeremiah as had been vouchsafed to Hezekiah\nthrough the prayers of Isaiah. Not for a moment did Jeremiah encourage\nthese vain hopes. To Zephaniah, as to an earlier deputation from the\nking, when he sent Pashur with him to inquire of the prophet, Jeremiah\nreturned a remorseless answer. It is too late. Pharaoh shall be\ndefeated; even if the Chald\u00e6an army were smitten, its wounded soldiers\nwould suffice to besiege and burn Jerusalem, and take into captivity\nthe miserable inhabitants after they had suffered the worst horrors of\na besieged city.[851]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[813] Comp. Jer. xxiii. 6: Jehovah-Tsidkenu.\n\n[814] Ezek. xvii. 12-14.\n\n[815] Ezek. xvii. 1-6.\n\n[816] Jer. xxxiv. 8-11.\n\n[817] Jer. xxxiv. 19. Comp. Gen. xv. 17.\n\n[818] This is strikingly shown by his piteous remark to them in Jer.\nxxxviii. 5.\n\n[819] He first sent two of Jeremiah's friends, Elasah and Gemariah,\nthe son of Shaphan.\n\n[820] Some critics have doubted the authenticity of Jer. li., lii.\n\n[821] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14-21; Stanley, ii. 528; Milman, i. 394.\n\n[822] Shaphan's other sons, Gemariah, Ahikam, Elasah, and his grandson\nGedaliah, were friends of Jeremiah.\n\n[823] Ezek. viii. 17. The allusion seems to be to a custom like that\nof the Parsees, who hold a branch of tamarisk or pomegranate twigs\n(called _barsom_) before their mouths when they adore the sacred fire.\nStrabo, xv. 732; Spiegel, _Zendavesta_, ii., p. lxviii; _Eran.\nAlterthumsk._, iii. 571 (Orelli, _ad loc._). Lightfoot explains it,\n\"add fuel to their wrath.\"\n\n[824] Ezek. xvi. 15-34.\n\n[825] Jer. vii. 4, 21-28, viii. 8, xxiii. 31-33, xxxi. 33, 34.\n\n[826] Jer. iii. 15, 16.\n\n[827] Jer. xxvii. 3.\n\n[828] Herod., ii. 161.\n\n[829] Psammis, the son of Necho, only reigned six years; Hophrah (B.C.\n594) was his son.\n\n[830] The LXX. calls him \"the false prophet.\"\n\n[831] Jer. xxvii. 1-8, 12-18. On vv. 16-22 see the LXX.\n\n[832] Here (Jer. xxviii. 11, and in xxxiv. 1, xxxix. 5) the name is\nwritten \"Nebuchadnezzar\"; everywhere else in Jeremiah it is\n\"Nebuchadrezzar.\"\n\n[833] Part of his dispute with Jeremiah turned on the recovery or\nnon-recovery of the Temple vessels. Zedekiah is said to have given a\nset of silver vessels to replace the old ones (Baruch i. 8).\n\n[834] Jer. xxix. 21-23.\n\n[835] Jer. xxiii. 9-32.\n\n[836] Jer. xxviii. 13-16, xxiii. 28.\n\n[837] Jer. xxiii. 29.\n\n[838] Ezek. xiii. 1-23.\n\n[839] Ezek. xvii. 25.\n\n[840] Josephus rightly attributes the unfortunate career of Zedekiah\nto the weakness with which he listened to evil counsellors, and to the\ninsolent multitude.\n\n[841] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 13; Jer. lii. 3.\n\n[842] Ezek. xvii. 15, 16, 18, 19.\n\n[843] Ezek. xvii. 7-10.\n\n[844] Jer. xlvi. 17.\n\n[845] Another form of belomancy is still commonly practised among the\nArabs. Three arrows are placed in a vessel: on one of them is written,\n\"My God permits me\"; on another, \"My God forbids me\"; the third is\nblank. They are then shaken, and the decision is guided by the one\nwhich falls out first. Comp. Homer, _Iliad_, iii. 316; _Speaker's\nCommentary_, _ad loc._\n\n[846] Ezek. xxi. 28-32.\n\n[847] An allusion to the restoration of Jeconiah or his descendants,\nand to the far-off Messiah, meek and lowly.\n\n[848] Ezek. iv. 1-3.\n\n[849] Jer. xxxvii. 3.\n\n[850] Ezek. vii. 16.\n\n[851] Jer. xxi. 1-10, xxxvii. 1-17. Josephus says that Pharaoh was\ndefeated (_Antt._, X. vii. 3). Jeremiah merely says that he and his\narmy returned to their own land.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVII\n\n _JEREMIAH AND HIS PROPHECIES_\n\n JER. i. 1-v. 31\n\n \"Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes--they were souls that\n stood alone,\n While the men they agonised for hurled the contumelious\n stone;\n Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline\n To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith\n divine,\n By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme\n design.\"\n LOWELL.\n\n\nTruly Jeremiah was a prophet of evil. The king might have addressed\nhim in the words with which Agamemnon reproaches Kalchas.[852]\n\n \"Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still:\n Prophet of plagues, for ever boding ill!\n Still must that tongue some wounding message bring,\n And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king.\"\n\nNever was there a sadder man.[853] Like Phocion, he believed in the\nenemies of his country more than he believed in his own people. He saw\n\"Too late\" written upon everything. He saw himself all but universally\nexecrated as a coward, as a traitor, as one who weakened the nerves\nand damped the courage of those who were fighting against fearful odds\nfor their wives and children, the ashes of their fathers, their\naltars, and their hearths. It had become his fixed conviction that any\nprophets--and there were a multitude of them--who prophesied peace\nwere false prophets, and _ipso facto_ proved themselves conspirators\nagainst the true well-being of the land.[854] In point of fact,\nJeremiah lived to witness the death-struggle of the idea of religion\nin its predominantly national character (vii. 8-16, vi. 8). \"The\ncontinuity of the national faith refused to be bound up with the\ncontinuance of the nation. When the nation is dissolved into\nindividual elements, the continuity and ultimate victory of the true\nfaith depends on the relations of Jehovah to individual souls out of\nwhich the nation shall be bound up.\"[855]\n\nAnd now a sad misfortune happened to Jeremiah. His home was not at\nJerusalem, but at Anathoth, though he had long been driven from his\nnative village by the murderous plots of his own kindred, and of those\nwho had been infuriated by his incessant prophecies of doom. When the\nChald\u00e6ans retired from Jerusalem to encounter Pharaoh, he left the\ndistressed city for the land of Benjamin, \"to receive his portion from\nthence in the midst of the people\"--apparently, for the sense is\ndoubtful, to claim his dues of maintenance as a priest. But at the\ncity gate he was arrested by Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the captain\nof the watch, who charged him with the intention of deserting to the\nChald\u00e6ans. Jeremiah pronounced the charge to be a lie; but Irijah took\nhim before the princes, who hated him, and consigned him to dreary and\ndangerous imprisonment in the house of Jonathan the scribe. In the\nvaults of this \"house of the pit\" he continued many days.[856] The\nking sympathised with him: he would gladly have delivered him, if he\ncould, from the rage of the princes; but he did not dare.[857]\n\nMeanwhile, the siege went on, and the people never forgot the anguish\nof despair with which they waited the reinvestiture of the city. Ever\nsince that day it has been kept as a fast--the fast of Tebeth.\nZedekiah, yearning for some advice, or comfort--if comfort were to be\nhad--from the only man whom he really trusted, sent for Jeremiah to\nthe palace, and asked him in despicable secrecy, \"Is there any word\nfrom the Lord?\" The answer was the old one: \"Yes! Thou shalt be\ndelivered into the hands of the King of Babylon.\" Jeremiah gave it\nwithout quailing, but seized the opportunity to ask on what plea he\nwas imprisoned. Was he not a prophet? Had he not prophesied the return\nof the Chald\u00e6an host? Where now were all the prophets who had\nprophesied peace? Would not the king at least save him from the\ndetestable prison in which he was dying by inches?\n\nThe king heard his petition, and he was removed to a better prison in\nthe court of the watch, where he received his daily piece of bread out\nof the bakers' street until all the bread in the city was spent.\n\nFor now utter famine came upon the wretched Jews, to add to the\nhorrors and accidents of the siege. If we would know what that famine\nwas in its appalling intensity, we must turn to the Book of\nLamentations. Those elegies, so unutterably plaintive, may not be by\nthe prophet himself, but only by his school; but they show us what was\nthe frightful condition of the people of Jerusalem before and during\nthe last six months of the siege. \"The sword of the wilderness\"--the\nroving and plundering Bedouin--made it impossible to get out of the\ncity in any direction. Things were as dreadfully hopeless as they had\nbeen in Samaria when it was besieged by Benhadad.[858] Hunger and\nthirst reduce human nature to its most animal conditions. They\nobliterate the merest elements of morality. They make men like beasts,\nand reveal the ferocity which is never quite dead in any but the\npurest and loftiest souls. They arouse the least human instincts of\nthe aboriginal animal. The day came when there was no more bread left\nin Jerusalem.[859] The fair and ruddy Nazarites, who had been purer\nthan snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than corals, lovely as\nsapphires, became like withered boughs,[860] and even their friends\ndid not recognise them in those ghastly and emaciated figures which\ncrept about the streets. The daughters of Zion, more cruel in their\nhunger than the very jackals, lost the instincts of pity and\nmotherhood. Mothers and fathers devoured their own little unweaned\nchildren.[861] There was parricide as well as infanticide in the\nhorrible houses. They seemed to plead that none could blame them,\nsince the lives of many had become an intolerable anguish, and no man\nhad bread for his little ones, and their tongues cleaved to the roof\nof their mouth. All that happened six centuries later, during the\nsiege of Jerusalem by Titus, happened now. Then Martha the daughter of\nNicodemus ben-Gorion, once a lady of enormous wealth, was seen picking\nthe grains of corn from the offal of the streets; now the women who\nhad fed delicately and been brought up in scarlet were seen sitting\ndesolate on heaps of dung.[862] And Jehovah did not raise His hand to\nsave His guilty and dying people. It was too late!\n\nAnd as is always the case in such extremities, there were men who stood\ndefiant and selfish amid the universal misery. Murder, oppression, and\nluxury continued to prevail. The godless nobles did not intermit the\nbuilding of their luxurious houses, asserting to themselves and others\nthat, after all, the final catastrophe was not near at hand. The sudden\ndeath of one of them--Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah--while Ezekiel was\nprophesying, terrified the prophet so much that he flung himself on his\nface and cried with a loud voice, \"Ah, Lord God! wilt Thou make a full\nend of the remnant of Israel?\" But on the others this death by the\nvisitation of God seems to have produced no effect; and the glory of God\nleft the city, borne away upon its cherubim-chariot.[863]\n\nEven under the stress of these dreadful circumstances the Jews held\nout with that desperate tenacity which has often been shown by nations\nfighting behind strong walls for their very existence, but by no\nnation more decidedly than by the Jews. And if the rebel-party, and\nthe lying prophets who had brought the city to this pass, still\nentertained any hopes either of a diversion caused by Pharaoh Hophrah,\nor of some miraculous deliverance such as that which had saved the\ncity from Sennacherib years earlier, it is not unnatural that they\nshould have regarded Jeremiah with positive fury. For he still\ncontinued to prophesy the captivity. What specially angered them was\nhis message to the people that all who remained in Jerusalem should\ndie by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, but that those who\ndeserted to the Chald\u00e6ans should live. It was on the ground of his\nhaving said this that they had imprisoned him as a deserter; and when\nPashur and his son Gedaliah heard that he was still saying this, they\nand the other princes entreated Zedekiah to put him to death as a\npernicious traitor, who weakened the hands of the patriot soldiers.\nJeremiah was not guilty of the lack of patriotism with which they\ncharged him. The day of independence had passed for ever, and Babylon,\nnot Egypt, was the appointed suzerain. The counselling of\nsubmission--as many a victorious chieftain has been forced at last to\ncounsel it, from the days of Hannibal to those of Thiers--is often the\ntrue and the only possible patriotism in doomed and decadent nations.\nZedekiah timidly abandoned the prophet to the rage of his enemies; but\nbeing afraid to murder him openly as Urijah had been murdered, they\nflung him into a well in the dungeon of Malchiah, the king's son. Into\nthe mire of this pit he sank up to the arms, and there they purposely\nleft him to starve and rot.[864] But if no Israelite pitied him, his\ncondition moved the compassion of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian, one of\nthe king's eunuch-chamberlains. He hurried to the king in a storm of\npity and indignation. He found him sitting, as a king should do, at\nthe post of danger in the gate of Benjamin; for Zedekiah was not a\nphysical, though he was a moral, coward. Ebed-Melech told the king\nthat Jeremiah was dying of starvation, and Zedekiah bade him take\nthree[865] men with him and rescue the dying man. The faithful\nEthiopian hurried to a cellar under the treasury, took with him some\nold, worn fragments of robes, and, letting them down by cords, called\nto Jeremiah to put them under his arm-pits. He did so, and they drew\nhim up into the light of day, though he still remained in prison.\n\nIt seems to have been at this time that, in spite of his grim\nvaticination of immediate retribution, Jeremiah showed his serene\nconfidence in the ultimate future by accepting the proposal of his\ncousin Hanameel to buy some of the paternal fields at Anathoth, though\nat that very moment they were in the hands of the Chald\u00e6ans. Such an\nact publicly performed must have caused some consolation to the\nbesieged, just as did the courage of the Roman senator who gave a good\nprice for the estate outside the walls of Rome on which Hannibal was\nactually encamped.\n\nThen Zedekiah once more secretly sent for him, and implored him to tell\nthe unvarnished truth. \"If I do,\" said the prophet, \"will you not kill\nme? and will you in any case hearken to me?\" Zedekiah swore not to\nbetray him to his enemies; and Jeremiah told him that, even at that\neleventh hour, if he would go out and make submission to the\nBabylonians, the city should not be burnt, and he should save the lives\nof himself and of his family. Zedekiah believed him, but pleaded that he\nwas afraid of the mockery of the deserters to whom he might be\ndelivered. Jeremiah assured him that he should not be so delivered, and\nthat, if he refused to obey, nothing remained for the city, and for him\nand his wives and children, but final ruin. The king was too weak to\nfollow what he must now have felt to be the last chance which God had\nopened out for him. He could only \"attain to half-believe.\" He entrusted\nthe result to chance, with miserable vacillation of purpose; and the\ndoor of hope was closed upon him. His one desire was to conceal the\ninterview; and if it came to the ears of the princes--of whom he was\nshamefully afraid--he begged Jeremiah to say that he had only entreated\nthe king not to send him back to die in Jonathan's prison.\n\nAs he had suspected, it became known that Jeremiah had been summoned\nto an interview with the king. They questioned the prophet in prison.\nHe told them the story which the king had suggested to him, and the\ntruth remained undiscovered. For this deflection from exact truth it\nis tolerably certain that, in the state of men's consciences upon the\nsubject of veracity in those days, the prophet's moral sense did not\nfor a moment reproach him. He remained in his prison, guarded probably\nby the faithful Ebed-Melech, until Jerusalem was taken.\n\nLet us pity the dreadful plight of Zedekiah, aggravated as it was by\nhis weak temperament. \"He stands at the head of a people determined to\ndefend itself, but is himself without either hope or courage.\"[866]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[852] Homer, _Iliad_, i. 106-109.\n\n[853] But it must not be forgotten that Jer. xxxi. 1-34 is so hopeful\nthat it has been called \"the Gospel before Christ.\"\n\n[854] Jer. vi. 14, viii. 11; Ezek. xiii. 10.\n\n[855] W. R. Smith, \"Prophets\" (_Enc. Brit._).\n\n[856] Jer. xxxvii, 11-15.\n\n[857] Jer xxxviii. 5. The Jewish aristocracy consisted, says Gr\u00e4tz, of\nthree classes: the _ben\u00ee hammelech_, or \"king's sons\"--_i.e._, princes\nof the blood-royal; the _rosh\u00ee aboth_, \"heads of the fathers,\" or\n_zeken\u00eem_, \"elders\"; and the _abhod\u00ee hammelech_, \"king's servants,\" or\n\"courtiers\" (ii. 446).\n\n[858] Lam. v. 4.\n\n[859] Jer. xxxvii. 21, xxxviii. 9, lii. 6.\n\n[860] Lam. iv. 7, 8.\n\n[861] Lam. iv. 10, ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Baruch ii. 3.\n\n[862] Lam. iv. 5. See Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 470.\n\n[863] Ezek. xi. 22.\n\n[864] This may possibly be alluded to in Psalm lxix. 2.\n\n[865] Jer. xxxviii. 10, A.V., \"thirty.\"\n\n[866] Van Oort, iv. 52.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVIII\n\n _THE FALL OF JERUSALEM_\n\n B.C. 586\n\n 2 KINGS xxv. 1-21\n\n \"In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all\n nations.\"--ZECH. xii. 3.\n\n \"An end is come, the end is come; it awaketh against thee: behold\n the end is come.\"--EZEK. vii. 6.\n\n \"Behold yon sterile spot\n Where now the wandering Arab's tent\n Flaps in the desert blast;\n There once old Salem's haughty fane\n Reared high to heaven its thousand golden domes,\n And in the blushing face of day\n Exposed its shameful glory.\"\n SHELLEY.\n\n\nAfter the siege had lasted for a year and a half, all but one day, at\nmidnight the besiegers made a breach in the northern city wall.[867]\nIt was a day of terrible remembrance, and throughout the exile it was\nobserved as a solemn fast.[868]\n\nNebuchadrezzar was no longer in person before the walls. He had other\nwar-like operations and other sieges on hand--the sieges of Tyre,\nAsekah, and Lachish--as well as Jerusalem. He had therefore\nestablished his headquarters at Lachish, and did not superintend the\nfinal operations against the city.[869] But now that all had become\npractically hopeless, and the capture of the rest of Jerusalem was\nonly a matter of a few days more, Zedekiah and his few best surviving\nprinces and soldiers fled by night through the opposite quarter of the\ncity. There was a little unwatched postern between two walls near the\nking's garden, and through this he and his escort fled, hoping to\nreach the Arabah, and make good his escape, perhaps to the\nWady-el-Arish, which he could reach in five hours, through the wilds\nbeyond the Jordan.[870] The heads of the king and his followers were\nmuffled, and they carried on their shoulders their choicest\npossessions.[871] But he was betrayed by some of the mean\ndeserters,[872] and pursued by the Chald\u00e6ans. His movements were\ndoubtless impeded by the presence of his harem and his children. His\nlittle band of warriors could offer no resistance, and fled in all\ndirections. Zedekiah, his family, and attendants were taken prisoners,\nand carried to Riblah to appear before the mighty conqueror.[873]\nNebuchadrezzar showed no pity towards one whom he had elevated to the\nthrone, and who had violated his most solemn assurances by intriguing\nwith his enemies. He brought him to trial, and doomed him to witness\nwith his own eyes the massacre of his two sons and of his attendants.\nAfter he had endured this anguish, worse than death, his eyes were put\nout, and, bound in double fetters,[874] he was sent to Babylon, where\nhe ended his miserable days. To blind a king deprived him of all hope\nof recovering the throne, and was therefore in ancient days a common\npunishment.[875] The LXX. adds that he was sent by the Babylonians to\ngrind a mill--\u03b5\u1f30\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f30\u03ba\u03af\u03bf\u03bd \u03bc\u03c5\u03bb\u1ff6\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2. This is probably a reminiscence of\nthe blinded Samson. But thus were fulfilled with startling literalness\ntwo prophecies which might well have seemed to be contradictory.[876]\nFor Jeremiah had said (xxxiv. 3),--\n\n\"Thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the King of Babylon, and he shall\nspeak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.\"\n\nWhereas Ezekiel had said (xii. 13),--\n\n\"I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chald\u00e6ans; yet shall he\nnot see it, though he shall die there.\"\n\nHenceforth Zedekiah was forgotten, and his place knew him no more. We\ncan only hope that in his blindness and solitude he was happier than\nhe had been on the throne of Judah, and that before death came to end\nhis miseries he found peace with God.\n\nThe conqueror did not come to spoil the city. He left that task to three\ngreat officers,--Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, or chief\nexecutioner;[877] Nebushasban, the Rabsaris, or chief of the eunuchs;\nand Nergalshareser, the Rabmag, or chief of the magicians. They took\ntheir station by the Middle Gate, and first gave up the city to pillage\nand massacre. No horror was spared.[878] The sepulchres were rifled for\ntreasure; the young Levites were slain in the house of their Sanctuary;\nwomen were violated; maidens and hoary-headed men were slain. \"Princes\nwere hanged up by the hand, and the faces of elders were dishonoured;\npriest and prophet were slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord,\"[879] till\nthe blood flowed like red wine from the winepress over the desecrated\nfloor.[880] The guilty city drank at the hand of God the dregs of the\ncup of His fury.[881] It was the final vengeance. \"The punishment of\nthine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion. He will no more\ncarry thee away into captivity.\"[882] And, meanwhile, the little Bedouin\nprincipalities were full of savage exultation at the fate of their\nhereditary foe.[883] This was felt by the Jews as a culmination of their\nmisery, that they became a derision to their enemies. The callous\ninsults hurled at them by the neighbouring tribes in their hour of shame\nawoke that implacable wrath against Gebal and Ammon and Amalek which\nfinds its echo in the Prophets and in the Psalms.[884]\n\nAfter this the devoted capital was given up to destruction. The Temple\nwas plundered. All that remained of its often-rifled splendours was\ncarried away, such as the ancient pillars Jachin and Boaz, the\nmasterpieces of Hiram's art, the caldron, the brazen sea, and all the\nvessels of gold, of silver, and of brass. Then the walls of the city\nwere dismantled and broken down. The Temple, and the palace, and all the\nhouses of the princes were committed to the flames. As for the principal\nremaining inhabitants, Seraiah the chief priest, perhaps the grandson of\nHilkiah and the grandfather of Ezra, Zephaniah the second priest, the\nthree Levitic doorkeepers, the secretary of war, five of the greatest\nnobles who \"saw the king's face,\"[885] and sixty of the common people\nwho had been marked out for special punishment, were taken to Riblah,\nand there massacred by order of Nebuchadrezzar.[886] With these\nNebuchadrezzar took away as his prisoners a multitude of the wealthier\ninhabitants, leaving behind him but the humblest artisans. As the\ncraftsmen and smiths had been deported,[887] these poor people busied\nthemselves in agriculture, as vine-dressers and husbandmen. The existing\nestates were divided among them; and being few in number, they found the\namplest sustenance in treasures of wheat and barley, and oil and honey,\nand summer fruits, which they kept concealed for safety, as the\nfellaheen of Palestine do to this day.[888]\n\nAccording to the historic chapters added to the prophecies of\nJeremiah, the whole number of captives carried away from Jerusalem by\nNebuchadrezzar in the seventh, the eighteenth, and the twenty-third\nyears of his reign were 4,600.[889] The completeness of the desolation\nmight well have caused the heart-rending outcry of Psalm lxxix.: \"O\nGod, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; Thy holy Temple have\nthey defiled; they have made Jerusalem a heap of stones. The dead\nbodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of\nheaven, and the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the land. Their\nblood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was\nno man to bury them.\"\n\nAmong the remnant of the people was Jeremiah. Nebuzaradan had received\nfrom his king the strictest injunctions to treat him honourably; for he\nhad heard from the deserters that he had always opposed the rebellion,\nand had prophesied the issue of the siege. He was indeed sent in\nmanacles to Ramah;[890] but there Nebuchadrezzar gave him free choice to\ndo exactly as he liked--either to accompany him to Babylon, where he\nshould be well treated and cared for, or to return to Jerusalem, and\nlive where he liked. This was his desire. Nebuchadrezzar therefore\ndismissed him with food and a present;[891] and he returned. The LXX.\nand Vulgate represent him as sitting weeping over the ruins of\nJerusalem, and tradition says that he sought for his lamentations a cave\nstill existing near the Damascus Gate. Of this Scripture knows nothing.\nBut the melancholy prophet was only reserved for further tragedies. He\nhad lived one of the most afflicted of human lives. A man of tender\nheart and shrinking disposition, he had been called to set his face like\na flint against kings, and nobles, and mobs. Worse than this, being\nhimself a prophet and priest, naturally led to sympathise with both, he\nwas the doomed antagonist of both--victim of \"one of the strongest of\nhuman passions, the hatred of priests against a priest who attacks his\nown order, the hatred of prophets against a prophet who ventures to have\na voice and a will of his own.\" Even his own family had plotted against\nhis life at humble Anathoth;[892] and when he retreated to Jerusalem, he\nfound himself at the centre of the storm. Now perhaps he hoped for a\ngleam of sunset peace. But his hopes were disappointed. He had to tread\nthe path of anguish and hatred to the bitter end, as he had trodden it\nfor nearly fifty years of the troubled life which had followed his call\nin early boyhood.\n\n\"But, in the case of Jerusalem,\" says Dean Stanley, \"both its first\nand second destruction have the peculiar interest of involving the\ndissolution of a religious dispensation, combined with the agony of an\nexpiring nation, such as no other people has survived, and, by\nsurviving, carried on the living recollection, first of one, and then\nof the other, for centuries after the first shock was over.\"[893]\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[867] Jos., _Antt._, X. viii. 2; 2 Chron. xxxii. 5, xxxiii. 14. First\nand last, the siege seems to have lasted one year, five months, and\ntwenty-seven days.\n\n[868] Zech. viii. 19.\n\n[869] The inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar which have been as yet\ndeciphered speak of his sumptuous buildings and of his worship of the\ngods rather than of his conquests. See _Records of the Past_, vii.\n69-78.\n\n[870] Robinson, _Bibl. Res._, ii. 536. Some suppose that \"the king's\ngarden\" was near the mouth of the Tyrop\u0153on Valley.\n\n[871] Ezek. xii. 12. Perhaps the gate alluded to is the fountain gate\nof Neh. iii. 15. Ezekiel seems to speak of \"digging through the wall.\"\nRobinson says that a trace of the outermost wall still exists in the\nrude pathway which crosses the mouth of the Tyrop\u0153on on a mound hard\nby the old mulberry tree which marks the traditional site of Isaiah's\nmartyrdom.\n\n[872] Jos., _Antt._, X. viii. 2.\n\n[873] Traces of his presence are found in inscriptions in the Wady of\nthe Dog near Beyrout, and in Wady Brissa. See Sayce, _Proceedings of\nthe Bibl. Arch. Soc._, November 1881.\n\n[874] 2 Kings xxv. 7. See Layard, _Nineveh_, ii. 376.\n\n[875] The blinding was sometimes done by passing a red-hot rod of\nsilver or brass over the open eyes; sometimes by plucking out the eyes\n(Jer. lii. 11, Vulg. _oculos eruit_; 2 Kings xxv. 7, _effodit_). See a\nhideous illustration of a yet more brutal process in Botta (_Monum. de\nNin\u00e8ve_, Pl. cxviii.), where Sargon with his own hand is thrusting a\nlance into the eyes of a captive prince, whose head is kept steady by\na bridle fastened to a hook through his lips. See also Judg. xvi. 21;\nXen., _Anab._, i. 9, \u00a7 13; Procopius, _Bel. Pers._, i. 1; Ammianus,\nxxvii. 12; Rawlinson, _Ancient Monarchies_, i. 307.\n\n[876] Jos., _Antt._, X. viii. 2, 3.\n\n[877] Nebur-zir-iddina, \"Nebo bestowed seed.\" Jer. xxxix. 9, 13, is in\nsome way corrupt. Ezekiel (ix. 2), however, and Josephus (_Antt._, X.\nviii. 2) mention _six_ officers. Nebuzaradan was \"chief of the\nexecutioners\" (Gen. xxxvii. 36; 1 Kings ii. 25, 35, 46).\n\n[878] Psalm lxxix. 2, 3.\n\n[879] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17; Lam. ii. 21, v. 11, 12.\n\n[880] To the reminiscences of these scenes are partly due the Talmudic\nlegend about the blood of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, bubbling up\nto demand vengeance. Nebudchadrezzar slew a holocaust of human victims\nto appease the shade of the wrathful prophet, until the king himself\nwas terrified, and asked if he wished his whole people to be\nslaughtered. Then the blood ceased to bubble.\n\n[881] See Rawlinson, _Kings of Israel and Judah_, p. 236.\n\n[882] Lam. iv. 22.\n\n[883] Psalm lxxix, 1.\n\n[884] Obad. 14-16; Psalm cxxxvii. 7; 1 Esdras iv. 45.\n\n[885] Comp. Esther i. 14.\n\n[886] On these personages see 1 Chron. vi. 13, 14; 2 Kings xxii. 4;\nEzra vii. 1; Jer. xxi. 1, xxxvii. 3, etc.\n\n[887] Nebuchadrezzar had no doubt needed them for his great buildings\nat Babylon, and their deportation would render more difficult any\nattempt to refortify Jerusalem.\n\n[888] Jer. xli. 8, xl. 12.\n\n[889] Jer. lii. 28-30. In his seventh year, 3,023; in his eighteenth,\n832 in his thirty-third, 745 = 4,600.\n\n[890] Ramah was but five miles from Jerusalem, and at first Jeremiah\nmay not have been identified (Jer. xl. 1-6).\n\n[891] The present, if accepted, could only be regarded, under the\ncircumstances, as part of the necessity of life. It does not fall\nunder the head of the presents often offered to prophets (1 Sam. ix.\n7; 2 Kings iv. 42; Mic. iii. 5, 11; Amos vii. 12).\n\n[892] Jer. xi. 19-21, xii. 6.\n\n[893] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 515.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIX\n\n _GEDALIAH_\n\n B.C. 586\n\n 2 KINGS xxv. 22-30\n\n \"Vedi che son un che piango.\"--DANTE, _Inferno_.\n\n \"No, rather steel thy melting heart\n To act the martyr's sternest part,\n To watch with firm, unshrinking eye\n Thy darling visions as they die,\n Till all bright hopes and hues of day\n Have faded into twilight grey.\"\n KEBLE.\n\n\nIn deciding that he would not accompany Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon,\nJeremiah made the choice of duty. In Chald\u00e6a he would have lived at\nease, in plenty, in security, amid universal respect. He might have\nhelped his younger contemporary Ezekiel in his struggle to keep the\nexiles in Babylon faithful to their duty and their God. He regarded the\nexiles as representing all that was best and noblest in the nation; and\nhe would have been safe and honoured in the midst of them, under the\nimmediate protection of the great Babylonian king. On the other hand, to\nreturn to Jud\u00e6a was to return to a defenceless and a distracted people,\nthe mere dregs of the true nation, the mere phantom of what they once\nhad been. Surely his life had earned the blessing of repose? But no! The\nhopes of the Chosen People, the seed of Abraham, God's servant, could\nnot be dissevered from the Holy Land. Rest was not for him on this side\nof the grave. His only prayer must be, like that which Senancour had\ninscribed over his grave, \"\u00c9ternit\u00e9, deviens mon asile!\" The decision\ncost him a terrible struggle; but duty called him, and he obeyed. It has\nbeen supposed by some critics[894] that the wild cry of Jer. xv. 10-21\nexpresses his anguish at the necessity of casting in his lot with the\nremnant; the sense that they needed his protecting influence and\nprophetic guidance; and the promise of God that his sacrifice should not\nbe ineffectual for good to the miserable fragment of his nation, even\nthough they should continue to struggle against him.\n\nSo with breaking heart he saw Nebuzaradan at Ramah marshalling the\nthrong of captives for their long journey to the waters of Babylon.\nBefore them, and before the little band which returned with him to the\nburnt Temple, the dismantled city, the desolate house, there lay an\nunknown future; but in spite of the exiles' doom it looked brighter\nfor them than for him, as with tears and sobs they parted from each\nother. Then it was that--\n\n\"A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel\nweeping for her children refuseth to be comforted, because they are\nnot. Thus saith the Lord, 'Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine\neyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded,' saith the Lord; 'and\nthey shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope\nfor thy time to come,' saith the Lord, 'that thy children shall come\nagain to their own border.'\"[895]\n\nDisappointed in the fidelity of the royal house of Judah, Nebuchadrezzar\nhad not attempted to place another of them on the throne. He appointed\nGedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, his satrap (_pak\u00eed_)\nover the poor remnant who were left in the land. In this appointment we\nprobably trace the influence of Jeremiah. There is no one whom\nNebuchadrezzar would have been so likely to consult. Gedaliah was the\nson of the prophet's old protector,[896] and his grandfather Shaphan had\nbeen a trusted minister of Josiah. He thoroughly justified the\nconfidence reposed in him, and under his wise and prosperous rule there\nseemed to be every prospect that there would be at least some pale gleam\nof returning prosperity. The Jews, who during the period of the siege\nhad fled into all the neighbouring countries, no sooner heard of his\nviceroyalty than they came flocking back from Moab, and Ammon, and Edom.\nThey found themselves, perhaps for the first time in their lives, in\npossession of large estates, from which the exiles of Babylon had been\ndispossessed; and favoured by an abundant harvest, \"they gathered wine\nand summer fruits very much.\"[897]\n\nJerusalem--dismantled, defenceless, burnt--was no longer habitable. It\nwas all but deserted, so that jackals and hy\u00e6nas prowled even over the\nmountain of the Lord's House. All attempt to refortify it would have\nbeen regarded as rebellion, and such a mere \"lodge in a garden of\ncucumbers\" would have been useless to repress the marauding incursions\nof the envious Moabites and Edomites, who had looked on with shouts at\nthe destruction of the city, and exulted when her carved work was\nbroken down with axes and hammers. Gedaliah therefore fixed his\nheadquarters at Mizpah, about six miles north of Jerusalem, of which\nthe lofty eminence could be easily secured.[898] It was the watchtower\nfrom which Titus caught his first glimpses of the Holy City, as many a\ntraveller does to this day, and the point at which Richard I. averted\nhis eyes with tears, saying that he was unworthy to look upon the city\nwhich he was unable to save. Here, then, Gedaliah lived, urging upon\nhis subjects the policy which his friend and adviser Jeremiah had\nalways supported, and promising them quietness and peace if they would\nbut accept the logic of circumstances--if they would bow to the\ninevitable, and frankly acknowledge the suzerainty of Nebuchadrezzar.\nIt was perhaps as a pledge of more independence in better days to come\nthat Nebuzaradan had left Gedaliah in charge of the young daughters of\nKing Zedekiah, who had with them some of their eunuch-attendants. As\nthat unfortunate monarch was only thirty-two years old when he was\nblinded and carried away, the princesses were probably young girls;\nand it has been conjectured that it was part of the Chald\u00e6an king's\nplan for the future that in time Gedaliah should be permitted to marry\none of them, and re-establish at least a collateral branch of the old\nroyal house of David.\n\nHow long this respite continued we do not know. The language of\nJeremiah xxxix 2, xli. 1, compared with 2 Kings xxv. 8, might seem to\nimply that it only lasted two months. But since Jeremiah does not\nmention the year in xli. 1, and as there seems to have been yet\nanother deportation of Jews by Nebuchadrezzar five years latter (Jer.\nlii. 30), which may have been in revenge for the murder of his satrap,\nsome have supposed that Gedaliah's rule lasted four years. All is\nuncertain, and the latter passage is of doubtful authenticity; but it\nis at least possible that the vengeful atrocity committed by Ishmael\nfollowed almost immediately after the Chald\u00e6an forces were well out of\nsight. Respecting these last days of Jewish independence, \"History,\nleaning semisomnous on her pyramid, muttereth something, but we know\nnot what it is.\"\n\nHowever this may be, there seem to have been guerilla bands wandering\nthrough the country, partly to get what they could, and partly to\nwatch against Bedouin marauders. Johanan, the son of Kareah, who was\none of the chief captains among them,[899] came with others to\nGedaliah, and warned him that Baalis, King of Ammon, was intriguing\nagainst him, and trying to induce a certain Ishmael, the son of\nNethaniah, the son of Elishama--who, in some way unknown to us,\nrepresented, perhaps on the female side, the seed royal[900]--to come\nand murder him. Gedaliah was of a fine, unsuspicious temperament, and\nwith rash generosity he refused to believe in the existence of a plot\nso ruinous and so useless. Astonished at his noble incredulity,\nJohanan then had a secret interview with him, and offered to murder\nIshmael so secretly that no one should know of it. \"Why,\" he asked,\n\"should this man be suffered to ruin everything, and cause the final\nscattering of even the struggling handful of colonists at Mizpah and\nin Judah?\" Gedaliah forbad his intervention. \"Thou shalt not do this,\"\nhe said: \"thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.\"\n\nBut Johanan's story was only too true. Shortly afterwards, Ishmael,\nwith ten confederates,[901] came to visit Gedaliah at Mizpah, perhaps\non the pretext of seeing his kinswomen, the daughters of Zedekiah.\nGedaliah welcomed this ambitious villain and his murderous accomplices\nwith open-handed hospitality. He invited them all to a banquet in the\nfort of Mizpah; and after eating salt with him, Ishmael and his\nbravoes first murdered him, and then put promiscuously to the sword\nhis soldiers, and the Chald\u00e6ans who had been left to look after\nhim.[902] The gates of the fort were closed, and the bodies were flung\ninto a deep well or tank,[903] which had been constructed by Asa in\nthe middle of the courtyard, when he was fortifying Mizpah against the\nattacks of Baasha, King of Israel.\n\nFor two days there was an unbroken silence, and the peasants at Mizpah\nremained unaware of the dreadful tragedy. On the third day a sad\nprocession was seen wending its way up the heights. There were scattered\nJews in Shiloh and Samaria who still remembered Zion; and eighty\npilgrims, weeping as they went, came with shaven beards and rent\ngarments to bring a _minchah_ and incense to the ruined shrine at\nJerusalem. In the depth of their woe they had even violated a law (Lev.\nxix. 28, xxi. 5), of which they were perhaps unaware, by cutting\nthemselves in sign of their misery. Mizpah would be their last\nhalting-place on the way to Jerusalem; and the hypocrite Ishmael came\nout to them with an invitation to share the hospitality of the murdered\nsatrap. No sooner had the gate of the charnel-house closed upon\nthem,[904] than Ishmael and his ten ruffians began to murder this\nunoffending company. Crimes more aimless and more brutal than those\ncommitted by this infinitely degenerate scion of the royal house it is\nimpossible to conceive. The place swam with blood. The story \"reads\nalmost like a page from the annals of the Indian Mutiny.\" Seventy of the\nwretched pilgrims had been butchered and flung into the tank, which must\nhave been choked with corpses, like the fatal well at Cawnpore,[905]\nwhen the ten survivors pleaded for their lives by telling Ishmael that\nthey had large treasures of country produce stored in hidden places,\nwhich should be at his disposal if he would spare them.[906]\n\nAs it was useless to make any further attempt to conceal his\natrocities, Ishmael now took the young princesses and the inhabitants\nof Mizpah with him, and tried to make good his escape to his patron\nthe King of Ammon. But the watchful eye of Johanan, the son of Kareah,\nhad been upon him, and assembling his band he went in swift pursuit.\nIshmael had got no farther than the Pool of Gibeon, when Johanan\novertook him, to the intense joy of the prisoners. A scuffle ensued;\nbut Ishmael and eight of his blood-stained desperadoes unhappily\nmanaged to make good their escape to the Ammonites. The wretch\nvanishes into the darkness, and we hear of him no more.\n\nEven now the circumstances were desperate. Nebuchadrezzar could not in\nhonour overlook the frustration of all his plans, and the murder, not\nonly of his viceroy, but even of his Chald\u00e6an commissioners. He would\nnot be likely to accept any excuses. No course seemed open but that of\nflight. There was no temptation to return to Mizpah with its frightful\nmemories and its corpse-choked tank. From Gibeon the survivors made\ntheir way to Bethlehem, which lay on the road to Egypt, and where they\ncould be sheltered in the caravanserai of Chimham. Many Jews had\nalready taken refuge in Egypt. Colonies of them were living in\nPathros, and at Migdol and Noph, under the kindly protection of\nPharaoh Hophrah. Would it not be well to join them?\n\nIn utter perplexity Johanan and the other captains and all the people\ncame to Jeremiah. How he had escaped the massacre at Mizpah we do not\nknow; but now he seemed to be the only man left in whose prophetic\nguidance they could confide. They entreated him with pathetic\nearnestness to show them the will of Jehovah; and he promised to pray\nfor insight, while they pledged themselves to obey implicitly his\ndirections.\n\nThe anguish and vacillation of the prophet's mind is shown by the fact\nthat for ten whole days no light came to him. It seemed as if Judah\nwas under an irrevocable curse. Whither could they return? What\ntemptation was there to return? Did not return mean fresh intolerable\nmiseries? Would they not be torn to pieces by the robber bands from\nacross the Jordan? And what could be the end of it but another\ndeportation to Babylon, with perhaps further massacre and starvation?\n\nAll the arguments seemed against this course; and he could see very\nclearly that it would be against all the wishes of the down-trodden\nfugitives who longed for Egypt, \"where we shall see no war, nor hear\nthe sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread.\"\n\nYet Jeremiah could only give them the message which he believed to\nrepresent the will of God. He bade them return. He assured them that\nthey need have no fear of the King of Babylon, and that God would\nbless them; whereas if they went to Egypt, they would die by the\nsword, the famine, and the pestilence. At the same time--doomed always\nto thwart the hopes of the multitude--he reproved the hypocrisy which\nhad sent them to ask God's will when they never intended to do\nanything but follow their own.\n\nThen their anger broke out against him. He was, as always, the prophet\nof evil, and they held him more than half responsible for being the\n_cause_ of the ruin which he invariably predicted. Johanan and \"all\nthe proud men\" (_z\u0113dim_) gave him the lie. They told him that the\nsource of his prophesy was not Jehovah, but the meddling and\npernicious Baruch. Perhaps some of them may have remembered the words\nof Isaiah, that a day should come when five cities, of which one\nshould be called Kir-Cheres (\"the City of Destruction\")--a play on the\nname Kir-Heres, \"the City of the Sun,\" On or Heliopolis should--speak\nthe language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts, and there\nshould be an altar in the land of Egypt and a _matstsebah_ at its\nborder in witness to Jehovah, and that though Egypt should be smitten\nshe should also be healed.[907]\n\nSo they settled to go to Egypt; and taking with them Jeremiah, and\nBaruch, and the king's daughters, and all the remnant, they made their\nway to Tahpanhes or Daphne,[908] an advanced post to guard the road to\nSyria. Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1886 discovered the site of the city at\nTel Defenneh, and the ruins of the very palace which Pharaoh Hophrah\nplaced at the disposal of the daughters of his ally Zedekiah. It is\nstill known by the name of \"The Castle of the Jew's Daughters\"--_El\nKasr el Bint el Jehudi_.[909]\n\nIn front of this palace was an elevated platform (_mastaba_) of brick,\nwhich still remains. In this brickwork Jeremiah was bidden by the word\nof Jehovah to place great stones, and to declare that on that very\nplatform, over those very stones, Nebuchadrezzar should pitch his\nroyal tent, when he came to wrap himself in the land of Egypt, as a\nshepherd wraps himself in his garment, and to burn the pillars of\nHeliopolis with fire.[910]\n\nJeremiah still had to face stormy times. At some great festival\nassembly at Tahpanhes he bitterly reproached the exiled Jews for their\nidolatries. He was extremely indignant with the women who burned\nincense to the Queen of Heaven. The multitude, and especially the\nwomen, openly defied him. \"We will not hearken to thee,\" they said.\n\"We will continue to burn incense, and offer offerings to the Queen of\nHeaven, _as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our\nprinces, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem_; for\nthen had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. It is\nonly since we have left off making cakes for her and honouring her\nthat we have suffered hunger and desolation; and our husbands were\nalways well aware of our proceedings.\"\n\nNever was there a more defiantly ostentatious revolt against God and\nagainst His prophet! Remonstrance seemed hopeless. What could Jeremiah\ndo but menace them with the wrath of Heaven, and tell them that in\nsign of the truth of his words the fate of Pharaoh Hophrah should be\nthe same as the fate of Zedekiah, King of Judah, and should be\ninflicted by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar.[911]\n\nSo on the colony of fugitives the curtain of revelation rushes down in\nstorm. The prophet went on the troubled path which, if tradition be\ntrue, led him at last to martyrdom. He is said to have been stoned by\nhis infuriated fellow-exiles. But his name lived in the memory of his\npeople. It was he (they believed) who had hidden from the Chald\u00e6ans\nthe Ark and the sacred fire, and some day he should return to reveal\nthe place of their concealment.[912] When Christ asked His disciples\nsix hundred years later, \"Whom say the people that I am?\" one of the\nanswers was, \"Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\" He became, so\nto speak, the guardian saint of the land in which he had suffered such\ncruel persecutions.\n\nBut the historian of the Kings does not like to leave the close of his\nstory in unbroken gloom. He wrote during the Exile. He has narrated\nwith tears the sad fate of Jehoiachin; and though he does not care to\ndwell on the Exile itself, he is glad to narrate one touch of kindness\non the part of the King of Babylon, which he doubtless regarded as a\npledge of mercies yet to come. Twenty-six years had elapsed since the\ncapture of Jerusalem, and thirty-seven since the captivity of the\nexiled king, when Evil-Merodach, the son and successor of\nNebuchadrezzar, took pity on the imprisoned heir of the House of\nDavid.[913] He took Jehoiachin from his dungeon, changed his garments,\nspoke words of encouragement to him, gave him a place at his own\ntable,[914] assigned to him a regular allowance from his own\nbanquet,[915] and set his throne above the throne of all the other\ncaptive kings who were with him in Babylon. It might seem a trivial\nact of mercy, yet the Jews remembered in their records the very day of\nthe month on which it had taken place, because they regarded it as a\nbreak in the clouds which overshadowed them--as \"the first gleam of\nheaven's amber in the Eastern grey.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[894] So Gr\u00e4tz and Cheyne.\n\n[895] Jer. xxxi. 15-17.\n\n[896] Jer. xxvi. 24.\n\n[897] Jer. xl. 12.\n\n[898] Some identify it with _Shaphat_, a mile from Jerusalem.\n\n[899] They are called _sar\u00ee_ (\"princes\").\n\n[900] There is no Elishama in the royal genealogy, except a son of\nDavid. Ishmael may have been the son or grandson of some Ammonite\nprincess. An Elishama was scribe of Jehoiakim (Jer. xxxvi. 12).\n\n[901] The Hebrew text calls these ten ruffians _rabb\u00ee hammelech_,\n\"chief officers of the king\" of Ammon.\n\n[902] Josephus records or conjectures that the governor was\noverpowered by wine, and had sunk into slumber (_Antt._, X. ix. 2).\n\n[903] In Jer. xli. 9, for \"because of Gedaliah,\" the better reading is\n\"was a great pit\" (LXX., \u03c6\u03c1\u03ad\u03b1\u03c1 \u03bc\u03ad\u03b3\u03b1).\n\n[904] Ishmael--a marvel of craft and villainy--put into practice the\nsame stratagem which on a larger scale was employed by Mohammed Ali in\nhis massacre of the Mamelukes at Cairo in 1806 (Grove, _s.v._ _Bibl.\nDict._). For \"the midst of the city\" (Jer. xli. 7), we ought to read\n\"courtyard,\" as in Josephus.\n\n[905] Comp. Jehu's treatment of the family of Ahaziah (2 Kings x. 14).\n\n[906] The dark deed is still commemorated by a Jewish fast, as in the\ndays of Zechariah (Zech. vii. 3-5, viii. 19).\n\n[907] Isa. xix. 18-22.\n\n[908] Jer. ii. 16, xliv. 1; Ezek. xxx. 18; Jer. xliii. 7, xlvi. 14;\nHerod., ii. 30.\n\n[909] Fl. Petrie, _Memoir on Tanis_ (Egypt. Explor. Fund, 4th memoir),\n1888.\n\n[910] Jer. xliii. 13, Beth-shemesh. Only one pillar of the Temple of\nthe Sun is now standing. It is said to be four thousand years old. It\nis certain that Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and defeated Amasis, the\nson of Hophrah, B.C. 565, reducing Egypt to \"the basest of kingdoms\"\n(Ezek. xxix. 14, 15). Three of Nebuchadrezzar's terra-cotta cylinders\nhave been found at Tahpanhes.\n\n[911] How far the prophecy was fulfilled we do not know. Assyrian and\nEgyptian fragments of record show that in the thirty-seventh year of\nhis reign Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt and advanced to Syene (Ezek.\nxxix. 10).\n\n[912] 2 Macc. ii. 1-8; comp. xv. 13-16. The tradition is singular when\nwe recall the small store which Jeremiah set by the Ark (Jer. iii. 16).\n\n[913] Evil-Merodach (Avil-Marduk, \"Man of Merodach\") only reigned two\nyears, and was then murdered by his brother-in-law Neriglissar\n(Berosus _ap._ Jos.: comp. _Ap._, i. 20). The Rabbis have a\nstory--perhaps founded on that of Gaius and Agrippa I.--that\nEvil-Merodach had been imprisoned by his father for wishing his death,\nand in prison formed a friendship for Jehoiachin.\n\n[914] \"Lifted up his head.\" Comp. Gen. xl. 13, 20.\n\n[915] To be thus \u1f41\u03bc\u03bf\u03c4\u03c1\u03ac\u03c0\u03b5\u03b6\u03bf\u03c2, or \u03c3\u03cd\u03c3\u03c3\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2, of the king was a high honour\n(Herod., iii. 13, v. 24. Comp. Judg. i. 7; 2 Sam. ix. 13, etc.).\n\n\n\n\n EPILOGUE\n\n \"On Jordan's banks the Arab's camels stray,\n On Zion's hills the False One's votaries pray,\n The Baal-adorer bows on Sinai's steep;\n Yet there--e'en there--O God, Thy thunders sleep.\"\n BYRON.\n\n \"God, Thou art Love: I build my faith on that.\"\n BROWNING.\n\n\nBefore concluding I should like to add a few words (1) on what some may\nregard as the too favourable attitude towards what is called the \"Higher\nCriticism\" adopted in this book; and (2) on the deep, essential, eternal\nlessons which we have found in chapter after chapter of it.\n\n1. As regards the first, I need only say that the one thing I seek,\nthe sole thing I care for, is Truth,--truth, not tradition. Even St.\nCyprian, devoted as he was to custom and tradition, warns us that\n\"Custom without Truth is only antiquated error,\" and that what we\nbelieve must be established by reason, not prescribed by tradition.\n\nAnd it cannot be laid down too clearly that the old view of\nInspiration--which defined it as consisting in verbal dictation, which\nmade the sacred writers \"not only the penmen but the pens of the Holy\nSpirit,\" and which spoke of every sentence, word, syllable, and every\nletter of Scripture as Divine and infallible--was a dangerous and\nabsolute falsity, and that any attempt in these days to enforce it as\nbinding on the intellect and conscience of mankind could only lead to\nthe utter shipwreck of all sincere and reasonable religion. \"Not\nneedlessly,\" says the learned author of _Italy and her\nInvaders_--himself an able opponent of many modern conclusions on the\nsubject--\"should I wish to shake even that faith which practically\nbelieves that the whole Bible, exactly in its present shape, yes, almost\nthe English Bible just as we have it, came straight down from heaven.\nBut we do want to get away from all mere theories as to the way in which\nGod _might_ have revealed Himself, and to learn as much as we can of the\nway in which He _has_ revealed Himself in actual fact, and in real human\nlives.\"[916]\n\nTo do this has been one of my objects in this volume, and in the\npreceding volume on the First Book of Kings.\n\n2. We have now only to cast one last glance on this book, and on the\nlessons which it is meant to teach.\n\nConsider, first, its deep and varied interest. It has the combined\nvalue of History and of Biography; and, in dealing with both, its aim\nis to pass over all minor and earthly details, and to show the method\nof God's dealings both with nations and with the individual soul.\n\nIf we look at the book only as a History, it shows us in the briefest\npossible compass a series of national events of the greatest\nimportance in the annals of mankind. We become witnesses of the fierce\noccasional struggles between Israel and Judah, and of the constant\nwarfare of both with those wild surrounding nations--the people of\nMoab, and of Edom, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines also,\nand them that dwell at Tyre. We watch the indomitable resistance of\nTyre to Assyria and Babylon. We see the Northern Kingdom of Israel\nrise into wealth, power, and luxury, only to sink into deep moral\ncorruption, until, at last, the patience of God is exhausted, and He\nobliterates its very existence in an apparently final and irremediable\noverthrow. We witness the rise, culmination, and fall of Syria; the\nculmination and the crashing overthrow of Nineveh; the rise and the\nsplendour of Babylon. We see the surging tide of the nomad Scythians\nand Cimmerians rise into flood and ebb away with spent and shallow\nwaves. We see the petty fortress of Zion triumph in its defiance of\nthe mighty hosts of Sennacherib because it is strong in reliance upon\nGod, and we see it grow faithless to God until it succumbs to the\ncaptains of Nebuchadrezzar. Again and again we observe that the\nAlmighty stills the raging of the sea, the noise of his waves, and the\nmadness of the people.\n\nThe conviction is borne upon our soul with overwhelming power, as we\nread the pages of Amos, of Isaiah, and of Jeremiah, that, in spite of\nall their rage and tumult, and apparently irresistible dominance, God\nstill sitteth above the water-floods, and God remaineth a King for ever.\n\nSide by side with this spectacle of the dealing of God with nations, in\nwhich we see written in large letters, in characters of blood and of\nfire, His dealing with guilty nations, we have abundantly in these\nchapters the narrower yet more intense interest which arises from the\ncontemplation of human nature--one and the same in its general elements,\nbut infinitely varied in its conditions--in the lives of individual men.\nIt is revealed to us as in a picture--it is brought home to us, not by\ndidactic inferences, but with the silent conviction which springs from\nthe evidence of facts--that wealth is nothing, and rank nothing, and\npower nothing, but that the only thing of essential importance in human\nlives is whether a man does that which is good or that which is evil in\nthe sight of the Lord. Good and bad kings pass before us; and though the\nbest kings, like Hezekiah and Josiah, were no more free from earthly\nmisfortune than are any of the saints of God--though Hezekiah had to\nsuffer anguish and humiliation, and Josiah died in defeat on the\nbattle-field,--yet we are irresistibly led to the belief: \"Say ye of the\nrighteous that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit\nof their doings. Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him; for the\nwork of his hands shall be done to him.\"\n\nWe all have a guide in life. \"We are not left to steer our course even\nby the stars, which the clouds of earth may dim. The ship has something\non board which points towards the spiritual pole of the universe. I will\nnot venture to call it an _infallible_ guide. It wavers with tremulous\nsensitiveness; it may be deflected by disturbing influences; but still\nin the main it points with mysterious fidelity towards the pole of our\nspirits, even God. And what is this compass which we have for our\nguidance? Some would call it Conscience; but we call it by a holier\nname, and say that even as the needle is acted on by the magnetic\ncurrent, so our spiritual compass is the spirit of man acted on by the\nSpirit of the living and infinite God.\" The lesson of this book--of\nevery book of biography or of history--is that men are noble and useful\nin proportion as they are true to that law of an enlightened conscience\nwhich represents to them the will and the voice of God.\n\nAhaziah and Jehoram of Judah, tainted with the blood of Jezebel, and\nperverted by the example of Ahab, live wretchedly, reign contemptibly,\nand perish miserably; while good Jehoshaphat and pious Josiah are\nrichly blessed. In the vaunting elation of Amaziah, in the\nblood-stained ferocity of Jehu, in the ruthless examples of usurpation\nand murder set by king after king in Israel, and in the consequences\nwhich befell them, we see that \"fruit is seed.\" Shallum, Menahem,\nPekah, Athaliah, have to pay a terrible price for brief spells of\ntroubled royalty; and the slow corruption and disintegration of the\npeople reflects the vile example of their rulers. Like king, like\npeople; like people, like priest. We look on at a succession of\nthrilling scenes--the horrors of beleaguered cities, the raptures of\nunexpected deliverance, the insulting vanities of triumph; we hear the\nwail that rises from long lines of fettered captives as they turn\ntheir backs weeping upon their native land. And we are told \"strange\nstories of the deaths of kings.\" We see the King of Moab sacrificing\nhis eldest son to Chemosh upon the wall of Kir-Haraseth in the sight\nof three invading hosts. We shudder to think of Ahaz and Manasseh\npassing their children through the fire before the grim bull-headed\nmonster in the valley of the children of Hinnom. We see the two\nghastly piles of the heads of young princes on either side the gates\nof Jezreel. We see Jehu driving his fierce chariot over the body of\nthe painted Tyrian Queen. We catch a glimpse of the sackcloth under\nthe purple of the King of Israel as he rends his clothes at the\nhorrible cry of mothers who have devoured their babes. We see the\nchild Joash standing with the high priest in the Temple amid the blast\nof trumpets, while the alien murderess is pushed out and hewn to the\nground. We see Manasseh dragged with hooks to Babylon. We watch the\nhaggard face of the miserable Zedekiah as his sons are slaughtered\nbefore the eyes which thenceforth are blinded for evermore. We burn\nwith indignation to see the villain Ishmael close with corpses the\nwell of Mizpah. But even when the phantasmagoria seems most appalling\nand most bloody, we watch the Day-star from on high begin to shed its\nglory over the grey east. In due time that Day-star was to rise in\nmen's hearts and on the world, with healing in His wings; and we feel\nthat somehow, beyond the smoke and stir of earth's anguish,\n\n \"God's in His heaven,\n All's right with the world.\"\n\nAnd like a Greek chorus amid the agonies of destiny stand the\nprophets, those clearest and greatest of moral teachers. They, in\nspite of their holiness and faithfulness, are not exempt from the\ncalamities of life. Amos was insulted and expelled by the high priest\nof Bethel; Urijah was martyred; Hosea's prophecy is one long and\nalmost unbroken wail; Isaiah was mocked and slandered by the priests\nof Jerusalem, and, if the tradition be true, sawn asunder; Micah,\nthough spared, prophesied under imminent peril; Jeremiah, saddest of\nmankind, type of the suffering servant of Jehovah, was smitten in the\nface by the priest Pashur, thrust into the stocks for the general\nderision, flung into a deathful prison, let down into a miry well,\nhurried into exile, defied, denounced, insulted, at last in all\nprobability martyred. Prophets in general were hated and disbelieved.\nThey were the eternal antagonists of priests and mobs. With priests\nthey had so little affinity, that when a prophet was born a priest,\nlike Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he might count on the undying hatred and\nantagonism of his order. Priests, with scarcely an exception, under\nevery erring or apostatising king, from Rehoboam to Ahaz, from Ahaz to\nZedekiah, with a monotony of meanness, did nothing but acquiesce,\ncareful mainly for their own rights and revenues; prophets did little\nbut raise, against them and their party, an unavailing protest. When,\nin the days of the priest-regent Jehoiada, the priests had power, he\nhad made a special ordinance that there should be overseers in the\nTemple whose function it should be to put in the stocks and the collar\n\"every man that is mad, and that maketh himself a prophet\";[917] and\nShemaiah was quite indignant that there should be any delay in putting\nthis convenient ordinance into force. Priests were chiefly absorbed in\nfunctions and futilities in the exact spirit of their guilty\nsuccessors in the days of Christ. There could be little sympathy\nbetween them and the inspired messengers who spoke of such reliance on\nobservances with almost passionate scorn, and to whom religion meant\nrighteousness towards men and faith in the Living God.\n\nThis high lesson of Prophecy came into greater prominence with each\nsucceeding generation. It had been taught by Amos, the first of the\nliterary prophets, with emphatic distinctness. It was summarised by\nHosea in words which our Saviour loved to quote: \"Go ye and learn what\nthat meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.\" It had been\nuttered by Micah in an outburst of splendid poetry which summed up all\nthat God requires. It was reiterated in many forms by Isaiah and by\nJeremiah in words of richer moral value than all that came from the\nteaching of the priestly functionaries from the days when Aaron\nseduced Israel with his golden calf till the days when Caiaphas and\nAnnas goaded the multitude to prefer Barabbas to Jesus, and to shout\nof their Messiah, \"Let Him be crucified.\"\n\nIt was the richest fruit which sprang from the long Divine discipline of\nthe nation,--the knowledge that outward things are of no avail to save\nany man; that God requires righteousness, that God looketh at the heart.\n\nAnd the prophets themselves had to learn by the irony of events that\nno suppression of local sanctuaries under Hezekiah, no multiplication\nof ceremonies and acceptance of Deuteronomic Codes under Josiah, were\ndeep enough to change men's hearts. Isaiah, like Amos, dwells with\nanger on the reliance upon vain ritual, which is so cheap a substitute\nfor genuine holiness; and Jeremiah, despairing utterly of that\nreformation under Josiah of which he had once felt hopeful, had to\ndenounce the new reliance on the Temple and its sacrifices. He\nultimately felt no confidence in anything except in a new covenant in\nwhich God Himself would write His law upon men's hearts, and all\nshould know Him from the least even to the greatest.\n\nBut the History of Prophecy also in this epoch is marked by events of\nworld-wide importance. In the days of Isaiah we see the change of\nIsrael from a nation into a church of the faithful, for which alone he\nhas any permanent hope. In him, too, we hear the first distinct\nutterances of the final form in which should be fulfilled the\nMessianic hope. Under Jeremiah there was still further advance. He\npoints, as Joel does, to the epoch of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and\nshows that God does not only deal with men as nations, or as churches,\nor even as families, but as beings with individual souls.\n\nThis and much besides we have seen in the foregoing pages, in which we\nhave endeavoured to point the lessons of the Books of Kings. The one\nmain lesson which the narrative is meant to teach is absolute faith\nand trust in God, as an anchor which holds amid the wildest storms of\nruin, and of apparently final failure. Not until we have realised that\ntruth can we hear the words of God, or see the vision of the Almighty.\nWhen we have learnt it, we shall not fear, though the hills be moved\nand carried into the midst of the sea. It is the lesson which gets\nbehind the meaning of failure, and raises us to a height from which we\ncan look down on prosperity as a thing which--except in fatally\ndelusive semblance--cannot exist apart from righteousness and faith.\nThis is the lesson of life, the lesson of lessons. If it does not\nsolve all problems on their intellectual side, it scatters all\nperplexities in the spiritual sphere. It shows us that duty is the\nreward of duty, and that there can be no happiness save for those who\nhave learnt that duty and blessedness are one. And thus even by this\nbook of annals--annals of wild deeds and troubled times--we may be\ntaught the truths which find their perfect illustration and proof in\nthe life and teaching of the Son of God. When those truths are our\nreal possession, the work of life is done. Then\n\n \"Vigour may fail the towering fantasy,\n But yet the Will rolls onward, like a wheel\n In even motion by the love impelled\n That moves the sun in heaven and all the stars.\"\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[916] T. Hodgkin, _Friends' Quarterly_, September 1893, p. 401.\n\n[917] Jer. xxix. 25-27.\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX I\n\n _THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA, AND SOME OF THEIR\n INSCRIPTIONS._\n\n\nDates from the _Eponym Canon_ and the Assyrian Monuments; Schrader,\n_Cuneiform Inscriptions, and the Old Testament_, E. Tr., 1888, pp.\n167-187.\n\n B.C.\n\n 860.--Shalmaneser II.\n\n 854.--Battle of Karkar. War with _Ahab_ and _Benhadad_.\n\n 842.--War with Hazael. Tribute of _Jehu_.\n\n 825.--Samsi-Ramman.[918]\n\n 812.--Ramman-Nirari.\n\n 783.--Shalmaneser III.\n\n 773.--Assur-dan III.\n\n 763.--June 15th. Eclipse of the sun.\n\n 755.--Assur-Nirari.\n\n 745.--Tiglath-Pileser II.\n\n 742.--Azariah (Uzziah) heads a league of nineteen Hamathite\n districts against Assyria (?).\n\n 740.--Death of Uzziah (?).\n\n 738.--Tribute of Menahem, Rezin, and Hiram.\n\n 734.--Expedition to Palestine against Pekah. Tribute of Ahaz.\n\n 732.--Capture of Damascus. Death of Rezin. First actual\n collision between Israel and Assyria.\n\n 728.--Hoshea refuses tribute.\n\n 727.--Shalmaneser IV.\n\n 724.--Siege of Samaria begun.\n\n 722.--Sargon. Fall of Samaria.\n\n 721.--Defeat of Merodach-Baladan.\n\n 720.--Battle of Raphia. Defeat of Sabaco, King of Egypt.\n\n 715.--Subjugated people deported to Samaria. Accession of\n Hezekiah.\n\n 711.--Capture of Ashdod.\n\n 707.--Building of great palace of Dur-Sarrukin.\n\n 709.--Sargon expels Merodach-Baladan, and becomes King of\n Babylon.\n\n 705.--Assassination (?) of Sargon.\n\n 705.--Sennacherib.\n\n 704.--Embassy of Merodach-Baladan to Hezekiah.\n\n 703.--Belibus made King of Babylon.\n\n 702.--Construction of the Bellino Cylinder.\n\n 721.--Siege of Ekron. Defeat of Egypt at Altaqu. Siege of\n Jerusalem. Campaign against Hezekiah and Tirhakah\n disastrously concluded at Pelusium and Jerusalem.\n\n 681.--Murder of Sennacherib.\n\n 681.--Esar-haddon.\n\n 676.--Manasseh pays tribute.\n\n 668.--Assur-bani-pal (Sardanapalus).\n\n 608.--Death of Josiah in the battle of Megiddo against Pharaoh\n Necho.\n\nThe dates and names of Assyrian kings as given in _Records of the\nPast_ (ii. 207, 208) do not exactly accord with these in all cases.\n\n B.C.\n\n Tiglath-Pileser II. 950\n Assur-dan II. 930\n Rimmon-Nirari II. 911\n Tiglath-Uras II. 889\n Assur-natzu-pal 883\n Shalmaneser II. 858\n Assur-dain-pal (a rebel) 825\n Samsi-Rimmon II. 823\n Rimmon-Nirari III. 810\n Shalmaneser III. 781\n Assur-dan III. 771\n Assur-Nirari 753\n Tiglath-Pileser III. (Pul) 745\n Shalmaneser IV. (an usurper) 727\n Sargon (Jareb?) (usurper) 722\n Sennacherib 705\n Esar-haddon I. 681\n Assur-bani-pal 668\n * * * * * *\n Destruction of Nineveh under Esar-haddon\n II., or Sarakos 606\n\n\n INSCRIPTION OF SHALMANESER II. ON THE BLACK OBELISK\n IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM[919]\n\nIt begins with an invocation to the gods Rimmon, Adar, Merodach,\nNergal, Beltis, Istar, and proceeds:--\n\n\"I am Shalmaneser, the strong king, king of all the four Zones of the\nSun, the marcher over the whole world, ... who has laid his yoke upon\nall lands hostile to him, and has swept them like a whirlwind.\"\n\nIt tells of his campaigns against the Hittites etc., etc.\n\nThe allusion to Jehu runs as follows:--\n\n\"The tribute of Yahua, son of Khumri, silver, gold, bowls of gold,\nvessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, sceptres for\nthe king's hand, staves, I received.\"\n\nThis inscription is supplemented by another on a monolith found at\nKarkh, twenty miles from Diarbekr (_Records_, iii 81-100), which\nmentions the battle of Karkar, with its slaughter of fourteen thousand\nof the enemy, among whom was Sirlai--_i.e._, Ahab of Israel.\n\n\n II\n\n TIGLATH-PILESER II. (CIRC. B.C. 739)\n\nIn his Records he mentions no less than five Hebrew kings--Azariah,\nJehoahaz (Ahaz), Menahem, Pekah, Hoshea--as well as Rezin of Damascus,\nHiram of Tyre, etc. His name perhaps means \"He who puts his trust in\nAdar.\" See _Records of the_ _Past_, v. 45-52; Schrader, _Keilinschr._,\npp. 149-151; G. Smith, _Assyrian Discoveries_, pp. 254-287.\n\nUnfortunately the inscriptions are very mutilated and fragmentary.\n\n\n III\n\nOur chief knowledge of SARGON is from the great inscription in the\nPalace of Khorsabad. It is translated by Prof. Dr. Jules Oppert,\n_Records of the Past_, ix. 1-21. The king's inscription at Bavian,\nnorth-east of Mosul, is in the same volume, pp. 21-28, translated by\nDr. T. G. Pinches. See, too, _id._, vii. 21-56, xi. 15-40.\n\nThe Khorsabad inscription has these passages:--\n\n\"The great gods have made me happy by the constancy of their affection;\nthey have granted me the exercise of my sovereignty over all kings.\"\n\nHe says:--\n\n\"I besieged and occupied the town of Samaria; I took twenty-seven\nthousand two hundred and eighty of its inhabitants captive. I took\nfrom them fifty chariots, but left them the rest of their belongings.\nI placed my lieutenants over them; I renewed the obligations imposed\nupon them _by one of the kings who preceded me_.\" [Tiglath-Pileser,\nwhom Sargon does not choose to name.]\n\n\"Hanun, King of Gaza, and Sabaco, Sultan of Egypt, allied themselves\nat _Raphia_ to oppose me. I put them to flight. Sabaco fled, and no\none has seen any trace of him since. I imposed a tribute on Pharaoh,\nKing of Egypt.\"\n\nHe tells us that he defeated the usurper Ilubid of Hamath, who had\nbeen a smith; burnt Karkar; and flayed Ilubid alive.\n\nHe defeated Azuri and Jaman of Ashdod, and his most persistent enemy,\nMerodach-Baladan, son of Jakin, King of Chald\u00e6a.\n\nHe ends with a prayer that Assur may bless him.\n\n\n IV\n\nBellino's Cylinder comprises the first two years of SENNACHERIB. It is\ntranslated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 22-32. It\nwas published by Layard in the first volume of _British Museum\nInscriptions_, pl. 63. The facsimile of it was made by Bellino.\n\nIt begins:--\n\n\"SENNACHERIB, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Assyria,\nthe king unrivalled, the pious monarch, the worshipper of the great\ngods, ... the noble warrior, the valiant hero, the first of all kings,\nthe great punisher of unbelievers who are breakers of the holy\nfestivals.\n\n\"Assur, my lord, has given me an unrivalled monarchy. Over all princes\nhe has raised triumphantly my arms.\n\n\"In the beginning of my reign I defeated Marduk-Baladan, King of\nBabylon, and his allies the Elamites, in the plains near the city of\nKish. He fled alone; he got into the marshes full of reeds and rushes,\nand so saved his life.\"\n\n(He proceeds to narrate the spoiling of Marduk's camp, and his palace\nin Babylon, and how he carried off his wife, his harem, his nobles.)\n\nWe see here an illustration of the vaunting tones of this king which\nare so faithfully reproduced in 2 Kings xviii.\n\nHis Bull Inscription, chiefly relating to his defeats of\nMerodach-Baladan, is translated by Rev. J. M. Rodwell (_Records of the\nPast_, vii. 57-64).\n\n\n V\n\nThe Taylor Cylinder, so called from its former possessor, is a hexagonal\nclay prism found at Nineveh in 1830, and now in the British Museum\n(translated by Mr. H. F. Talbot, _Records of the Past_, i. 33-53).\n\nThe first two campaigns of Sennacherib are related as on the Bellino\nCylinder. The Taylor Cylinder narrates campaigns of his first eight\nyears.\n\nThe story of the third campaign narrates the defeat of Elul\u00e6us, King\nof Sidon; the tribute of Menahem, King of Samaria; the defeat of\nZidka, King of Askelon; the revolt of Ekron, which deposed the\nAssyrian vassal Padi, and sent him in iron chains to Hezekiah; the\nbattle of Egypt and Ethiopia at Altaqu (Eltekon, Josh. xv. 59), and\nthe capture of Timnath. Of Hezekiah the king says:--\n\n\"And Hezekiah, King of Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet,\nforty-six of his strong cities, castles, and smaller towns, with\nwarlike engines, I captured; 200,500 people, small and great, male and\nfemale, horses, sheep, etc., without number, I carried off. Himself I\nshut up like a bird in a cage inside Jerusalem. Siege-towers against\nhim I constructed. I gave his plundered cities to the kings of Ashdod,\nEkron, and Gaza. I diminished his kingdom; I augmented his tribute.\nThe fearful splendour of my majesty had overwhelmed him. The horsemen,\nsoldiers, etc., which he had collected for the fortification of\nJerusalem his royal city, now carried tribute, thirty talents of gold,\neight hundred of silver, scarlet, embroidered woven cloth, large\nprecious stones, ivory couches and thrones, skins, precious woods; his\ndaughters, his harem, his male and female slaves, unto Nineveh, my\nroyal city, after me he sent; and to pay tribute he sent his envoy.\"\n\nHe then narrates his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh campaigns\nagainst Elam, etc. His eighth was against \"the children of Babylon,\nwicked devils,\" etc. He ends by describing the splendour of the palace\nwhich he built.\n\n\n VI\n\nAn inscription of ESAR-HADDON, found at Kouyunjik, now in the British\nMuseum, mentions his receipt of the intelligence of his father's\nmurder by his unnatural brothers, while he was commanding his fathers\narmy on the northern confines.\n\n\"From my heart I made a vow. My liver was inflamed with rage.\nImmediately I wrote letters, saying I assumed the sovereignty of my\nFather's House.\" He prayed to the gods and goddesses; they encouraged\nhim, and in spite of a great snowstorm he reached Nineveh, and defeated\nhis brother, because Istar stood by his side and said to their army, \"An\nunsparing deity am I\" (_Records of the Past_, iii, 100-108).\n\n\n VII\n\nA terra-cotta cylinder of ASSUR-BANI-PAL (the Sardanapalus of the\nGreeks) is now in the British Museum. It is translated by Mr. G.\nSmith, _Records of the Past_, i. 55-106, ix. 37-64; Oppert, _M\u00e9moire\nsur les Rapports de l'Egypte et l'Assyrie_; and G. Smith, _Annals of\nAssur-bani-pal_.\n\nIts most interesting parts relate to the campaign of his father\nEsar-haddon against Egypt, and how Tirhakah, King of Egypt and\nEthiopia, reoccupied Memphis. He defeated the army of Tirhakah, who,\nto save his life, fled from Memphis to Thebes. The Assyrians then took\nThebes, and restored Necho's father, Psamatik I., to Memphis and Sais,\nand other Egyptian kings, friends of Assyria, who had fled before\nTirhakah. The kings, however, proved ungrateful, and made a league\nagainst him. He therefore threw them into fetters, and had them\nbrought to Nineveh, but subsequently released Necho with splendid\npresents. Tirhakah fled to Ethiopia, where he \"went to his place of\nnight\"--_i.e._, died.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[918] Up to the time of Tiglath-Pileser II., the Eponym Year (which is\nnot here given) marks the second complete year of each king's reign.\n\n[919] This Shalmaneser died about B.C. 825, after a reign of\nthirty-five years (Sayce in _Records of the Past_, v. 27-42; Oppert,\n_Hist. des Empires de Chald\u00e9e et d'Assyrie_; M\u00e9nant, _Annales des Rois\nd'Assyrie_, 1874).\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX II\n\n _INSCRIPTION IN THE TUNNEL OF SILOAM_\n\n\nThe inscription of Siloam is the oldest known Hebrew inscription. \"It is\nengraved on the rocky wall of the subterranean channel which conveys the\nwater of the Virgin's Spring at Jerusalem into the Pool of Siloam. In\nthe summer of 1880 one of the native pupils of Dr. Schick, a German\narchitect, was playing with other lads in the Pool, and while wading up\nthe subterranean channel slipped and fell into the water. On rising to\nthe surface he noticed, in spite of the darkness, what looked like\nletters on the rock which formed the southern wall of the channel. Dr.\nSchick visited the spot, and found that an ancient inscription,\nconcealed for the most part by the water, actually existed there.\" The\nlevel of the water was lowered, but the inscription had been partly\nfilled up with a deposit of lime, and the first intelligible copy was\nmade by Professor Sayce in February 1881, and six weeks later by Dr.\nGuthe. Professor Sayce had to sit for hours in the mud and water,\nworking under masonry or earth. There can be little doubt that this work\nis alluded to in 2 Kings xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; Isa. viii. 6 (\"the\nwaters of Shiloah [\"the tunnel\"?] which flow softly\").\n\nThe alphabet is that used by the prophets before the exile, somewhat\nlike that on the Moabite Stone, and on early Israelitish and Jewish\nseals. The language is pure Hebrew, with only one unknown\nword--_zadah_, in line three: perhaps \"excess\" or \"obstacle.\"\n\nProfessor Sayce thinks that it proves that \"the City of David\" (Zion)\nmust have been on the southern hill, the so-called Ophel. If so, the\nValley of the Sons of Hinnom must be the rubbish-choked Tyrop\u0153on,\nunder which must be the tombs of the kings, and the relics of the\nTemple and Palace destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar.\n\nThe inscription is:--\n\n\"The excavation! Now this is the history of the excavation. While the\nexcavators were lifting up the pick each towards his neighbour, and\nwhile there were yet three cubits [to excavate], there was heard the\nvoice of one man calling to his neighbour, for there was an excess in\nthe rock on the right hand [and on the left?]. And after that on the\nday of excavating, the excavators had struck pick against pick, one\nagainst another, the water flowed from the spring [_m\u00f4ts\u00e2_, \"exit,\" 2\nChron. xxxii. 30] to the Pool\" (that of Siloam, which therefore was\nthe only one which then existed) \"for twelve hundred cubits. And\n[part] of a cubit was the height of the rock over the head of the\nexcavators\" (Sayce, _Records of the Past_, i. 169-175).\n\nThe letters are on an artificial tablet cut in the wall of rock,\nnineteen feet from where the subterranean conduit opens on the Pool of\nSiloam, and on the right-hand side. The conduit is at first sixteen\nfeet high, but lessens in one place to no more than two feet. It is,\naccording to Captain Conder, seventeen hundred and eight yards long,\nbut not in a straight line, as there are two _culs-de-sac_, caused by\nfaulty engineering. The engineers, beginning, as at Mount Cenis, from\nopposite ends, intended to meet in the middle, but failed. The floor\nhas been rounded to allow the water to flow more easily. It is a\nsplendid piece of engineering for that age.\n\nThe Pool of Siloam is at the south-east end of a hill which lies to\nthe south of the Temple hill: the Virgin's Fountain is on the opposite\nside of the hill, more to the north, and is the only natural spring or\n\"Gihon\" near Jerusalem, so that its water was of supreme importance.\nBeing outside the city wall, a conduit was necessary. Hezekiah\n\"stopped all the fountains\" (2 Chron. xxxii. 4)--_i.e._, concealed\nthem. By providing a subterranean channel for them, he saved them from\nthe enemy and secured the water-supply of the besieged city.\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX III\n\n _WAS THERE A GOLDEN CALF AT DAN?_\n\n\nThe question might seem absurd, but for its solution I must refer to\nmy paper on the subject in the _Expositor_ for October 1893.\n\nThe _sole_ authorities for a calf at Dan are 1 Kings xii. 28-30; 2\nKings x. 29. If in the former passage we alter _one letter_, and read\n\u05d4\u05d0\u05e4\u05d3 (the \"ephod\") for \u05d4\u05d0\u05d7\u05d3 (the \"one\")--as Klostermann suggests--we\nthrow light on an obscure and perhaps corrupt passage. The allusion\nthen would be to Micah's old idolatrous image (which _may_ have been a\ncalf) at Dan. The two words \"and in Dan\" in 2 Kings x. 29 may easily\nhave been (as Klostermann thinks) an exegetical gloss added from the\nerror of one letter in 1 Kings xii. 30.\n\nDan was a most unlikely place to select: for (1) It was a remote\nfrontier town; and (2) there was no room, and no necessity there, for\na new cultus beside the ancient one established some centuries\nearlier, and still served by priests who were direct lineal\ndescendants of Moses (Judg. xviii. 30, 31).\n\nThis would further account for the absolute silence of prophets and\nhistorians about any golden calf at Dan; and it adds to the inherent\nprobability, also supported by some evidence, that there were _two_\ncherubic calves at Bethel.\n\nFor further arguments I must refer to my paper.\n\n\n\n\n APPENDIX IV\n\n _DATES OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AS\n GIVEN BY KITTEL AND OTHER MODERN CRITICS[920]_\n\n\n ISRAEL\n\n B.C.\n\n Ahaziah 855-854\n Jehoram 854-842\n Jehu 842-814\n Jehoahaz 814-797\n Joash 797-781\n Jeroboam II. 781-740\n Zachariah 740\n Shallum 740\n Menahem 740-737\n Pekahiah 737-735\n Pekah 735-734\n Hoshea 734-725\n\n JUDAH\n\n B.C.\n\n Jehoram ben-Jehoshaphat 851-843\n Ahaziah ben-Jehoram 843-842\n Athaliah 842-836\n Joash ben-Ahaziah 836-796\n Amaziah 796-783\n Amaziah-Uzziah 783-737\n Jotham 737-735\n Ahaz 735-715\n Hezekiah 715-686\n\n Manasseh 686-641\n Amon 641-639\n Josiah 639-608\n Jehoahaz 608\n Jehoiakim 608-597\n Jehoiachin 597\n Zedekiah 597-586\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[920] Many of these dates can only be regarded as uncertain and\napproximate. Kamphausen dates the commencement of all the latter kings\na year later (_Die Chronologie der hebr\u00e4ischen K\u00f6nige_, Bonn, 1883).\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nObvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout.\n\nInconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text.\n\nMissing footnote anchors have been placed, when possible to determine\nplacement.\n\nFootnote 198: Greek has been corrected to add accents.\n\nFootnote 215: Greek has been corrected.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Kings","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":146108}