Uzziah. supposing that this would not have been done | such fear of his life, that he ma ae his enemy to to them but out of contempt, they fell upon his be received into the city. So Joash overthrew a kingdom, and proceeded to spoil the country part of the wall, of the length of four hundred as far as Bethhoron, and took much cattle, and cubits, and drove his chariot through the breact slew three thousand men. into Jerusalem, end led Amaziah captive along 2. Now, upon the victory which Amaziah with him: by which means he became master had gotten, and the great acts he had done, he of Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of was puffed up, and began to overlook God, God, and carried off all the gold and silver that who had given him the victory, and proceeded was in the king's palace, and then freed the to worship the gods he had brought out of the king from captivity, and returned to Samaria. country of the Amalekites. So a prophet Now these things happened to the people of came to him and said, that "he wondered how Jerusalem in the fourteenth year of the reign he could esteem these to be gods, who had of Amaziah, who after this had a conspiracy been of no advantage to their own people, who made against him by his friends, and fled to the paid them honors; nor had delivered them from city of Lachish, and was there slain by the his hand, but had overlooked the destruction conspirators, who sent men thither to kill him. of many of them, and had suffered themselves So they took up his dead body, and carried it to be carried captive; for that they had been to Jerusalem, and made a royal funeral for carried to Jerusalem, in the same manner as him. This was the end of the life of Amaany one might have taken some of the enemy ziah, because of his innovations in religion, and alive, and led them thither." This reproof his contempt of God, when he had lived fiftyprovoked the king to anger, and he command-four years, and had reigned twenty-nine. He ed the prophet to hold his peace, and threaten- was succeeded by his son, whose name was ed to punish him if he meddled with his conduct. So he replied, “That he should indeed hold his peace; but foretold withall, that God would not overlook his attempts for innovation." But Amaziah was not able to contain himself under that prosperity which God had given nim, although he had affronted God thereupon; out in a vein of insolence he wrote to Joash, the king of Israel, and "commanded that he and all his people should be obedient to him, § 1. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaas they had formerly been obedient to his pro-ziah, Jeroboam the son of Joash reigned over genitors, David and Solomon; and he let him Israel and Samaria forty years. The king was know, that if he would not be so wise as to do guilty of contumely against God,* and became what he commanded him, he must fight for his very wicked in worshipping of idols, and in dominion." To which message Joash return- many undertakings that were absurd and foed this answer in writing: "King Joash to king reign. He was also the cause of ten thousand Amaziah. There was a vastly tall cypress- misfortunes to the people of Israel. Now one tree in mount Lebanon, as also a thistle: this Jonah, a prophet, foretold to him, that he thistle sent to the cypress-tree, to give the cy- should make war with the Syrians, and conpress tree's daughter in marriage to the thistle's quer their army, and enlarge the bounds of son, but as the thistle was saying this, there his kingdom on the northern parts, to the city came a wild beast, and trod down the thistle: Hamath, and on the southern, to the lake Asand this may be a lesson to thee not to be so am-phaltitis, for the bounds of the Caananites bitious, and to have a care, lest, upon thy good success in the fight against the Amalekites, thou growest so proud as to bring dangers upon thyself and upon thy kingdom." CHAPTER X. Concerning Jeroboam, king of Israel, and Jonah the prophet; and how, after the death of Jeroboam, his son Zachariah took the government. How Uzziah, king of Jerusalem, subdued the nations that were round about him; and what befell him when he attempted to offer incense to God. originally were these, as Joshua their general had determined them. So Jeroboam made an expedition against the Syrians, and overran all their country, as Jonah had foretold. 2. Now I cannot but think it necessary for me, who have promised to give an accurate account of our affairs, to describe the actions of this prophet, so far as I have found them written down in the Hebrew books. Jonah had been commanded by God to go to the kingdom of Nineveh; and when he was there, to publish in that city, how it should lose the 3. When Amaziah had read this letter, he was more eager upon this expedition, which, I suppose, was by the impulse of God, that he might be punished for his offence against him. But as soon as he led out his army against Joash, and they were going to join battle with him, there came such a fear and consternation upon the army of Amaziah, as God, when he is displeased, sends upon men, and discomfitted them, even before they came to a close fight.me to have been true also concerning his son Jeroboam II.viz. Now it happened, that as they were scattered about by the terror that was upon them, Amaziah was left alone, and was taken prisoner by the enemy; whereupon, Joash threatened to kill him, unless he would persuade the people of Jerusalem to open their gates to him, and receive him and his army into the city. cordingly, Amaziah was so distressed, and in * What I have above noted concerning Jehoash, seems to that although he began wickedly, as Josephus agrees with our other copies, and as he adds, "was the cause of a vast number of misfortunes to the Israelites," in those his first years, (the particulars of which are unhappily wanting both in Jo sephus and in all our copies,) so does it seem to me that he was encouraged by the prophet Jonah, and had great sue was afterward reclaimed, and became a good king, and so cesses afterward, when "God saved the Israelites by the hand Ac-of Jeroboam, the son of Joash," 2 Kings xiv. 27; which encouragement by Jonah, and great successes, are equally ob servable in Josephus and in the other copies. * ing any thing that the others did: but as the waves grew greater, and the sea became more violent by the winds, they suspected, as is usual in such cases, that some one of the persons that sailed with them was the occasion of this storm, and agreed to discover by lot which of them it was. When they had cast lots, the lot fell upon the prophet; and when they asked him, whence he came? and what he had done? he replied that he was a Hebrew by nation, and a prophet of Almighty God; and he persuaded them to cast him into the sea, if they would escape the danger they were in, for that he was the occasion of the storm which was upon them. Now at the first they durst not do so, as esteeming it a wicked thing to cast a man who was a stranger, and who had committed his life to them, into such manifest perdition; but at last, when their misfortunes overbore them, and the ship was just going to be drowned, and when they were animated to do it by the prophet himself, and by the fear conterning their own safety, they cast him into the sea; upon which the sea became calm. It is also related, that Jonah was swallowed down by a whale, and that when he had been there three days, and as many nights, he was vomited out upon the Euxine Sea, and this alive, and without any hurt upon his body; and there, on his prayer to God, he obtained pardon for his sins, and went to the city Nineveh, where he stood so as to be heard, and preached that "in a very little time they should lose the dominion of Asia." And when he had published this, he returned. Now, I have given the account about him, as I found it written [in our books.] dominion it had over the nations. But he life in great happiness, and had ruled forty years went not, out of fear; nay, he ran away from he died, and was buried in Samaria, and his son God to the city of Joppa, and finding a ship Zechariah took the kingdom. After the same there, he went into it, and sailed to Tarsus, in manner did Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, begin Cilicia, and upon the rise of a most terrible to reign over the two tribes in Jerusalem, in the storm, which was so great that the ship was in fourteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam. He danger of sinking, the mariners, the master, was born of Jecoliah, his mother, who was a and the pilot himself, made prayers and vows citizen of Jerusalem. He was a good man, and in case they escaped the sea: but Jonah lay by nature righteous and magnanimous, and lastill and covered [in the ship] without imitat-borious in taking care of the affairs of his kingdom. He made an expedition also against the Philistines, and overcome them in battle, and took the cities of Gath and Jabneh, and broke down their walls: after which expedition, he assaulted those Arabs that adjoined to Egypt. He also built a city upon the Red Sea, and put a garrison into it. He after this overthrew the Ammonites, and appointed that they should pay tribute. He also overcome all the countries as far as the bounds of Egypt, and then began to take care of Jerusalem itself for the rest of his life, for he rebuilt and repaired all those parts of the wall which had either fallen down by length of time, or by the carelessness of the kings his predecessors, as well as all that part which had been thrown down by the king of Israel, when he took his father Amaziah prisoner, and entered with him into the city. Moreover he built a great many towers, of one hundred and fifty cubits high, and built walled towns in desert places, and put garrisons into them, and dug many channels for conveyance of water. He had also many beasts for labor and an immense number of cattle: for his country was fit for pasturage. He was also given to husbandry, and took care to cultivate the ground, and planted it with all sorts of plants, and sowed it with all sorts of seeds. He had also about him an army composed of chosen men, in number three hundred and seventy thousand, who were governed by general officers and captains of thousands, who were men of valor and of unconquerable strength, in number two thousand. He also divided his whole army into bands, and armed them, giving every one a sword, with brazen bucklers and breastplates, with bows and slings; and besides these, he made for them many engines of war, for besieging of cities, such as cast stones and darts, with grapplers, and other instruments of that sort. 3. When Jeroboam the king had passed his * When Jonah is said in our Bibles to have gone to Tarshish, Jonah i. 3, Josephus understood it that he went to Tarsus in Cilicia, or to the Mediterranean Sea, upon which Tarsus lay; so that he does not appear to have read the text, 1 Kings xxii. 48, as our copies do, that ships of Tarshish could lie at Ezion Geber, upon the Red Sea. But as to Josephus's assertion, that Jonah's fish was carried by the strength of the current, upon a storm, as far as the Euxine Sea, it is noway impossible; and since the storm might have driven the ship, while Jonah was in it, near to that Euxine Sea, and since in three more days, while he was in the fish's belly, that current raight bring him to the Assyrian coast, and since withall that coast could bring him nearer to Nineveh than could any Roast of the Mediterranean, it is by no means an improbable determination in Josephus. This ancient piece of religion, of supposing there was great sin where there was great misery, and of casting lots to discover great sinners, not only among the Israelites, but among these heathen mariners, seems a remarkable remains of the ancient tradition which prevailed of old over all mankind, that Providence used to interpose visibly in all human affairs, and never to bring, or at least not long to continue, sotorious judgments but for notorious sins, which the most ancient book of Job shows to have been the state of mantind for about the former 3000 years of the world, till the days of Job and Moses 4. While Uzziah was in this state, and making preparation [for futurity,] he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and became insolent, and this on account of that abundance which he had of things that will soon perish, and despised that power which is of eternal duration, (which consisted in piety towards God, and in the observation of his laws,) so he fell by occasion of the good success of his affairs, and was carried headlong into those sins of his fathers which the splendor of that prosperity he enjoyed, and the glorious actions he had done, led hiin into, while he was not able to govern himself weil about them. Accordingly when a remarkable day was come, and a general festival was to be celebrated, he put on the holy gar ment, and went into the temple to offer in rense to God upon the golden altar, which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest, who had fourscore priests with him, and who told him that it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, and that "none besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted so to do." And when they cried out, that he must go out of the temple, and not transgress against God, he was wroth at them, and threatened to kill them, unless they would hold their peace. In the mean time, a great earthquake shook the ground, and a rent was made in the temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the king's face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately. And before the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction. Now, as soon as the priests saw that the king's face was infected with the leprosy, they told him of the calamity he was under, and commanded that he should go out of the city as a polluted person. Hereupon, he was so confounded at the sad distemper, and sensible that he was not at liberty to contradict, that he did as he was commanded, and underwent this miserable and terrible punishment for an intention beyond what befitted a man to have, and for that impiety against God which was implied therein. So he abode out of the city for some time, and lived a private life, while his son Jotham took the government; after which he died with grief and anxiety at what had happened to him, when he had lived sixty-eight years, and reigned of them fiftytwo; and was buried by himself in his own gardens. CHAPTER XI. in it shut their gates, and barred them against the king, and would not admit him; but in order to be avenged on them, he burnt the country round about it, and took the city by force, upon a siege; and being very much displeased at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah had done, he slew them all, and spared not se much as the infants, without omitting the utmost instances of cruelty and barbarity; for he used such severity upon his own countrymen, as would not be pardonable with regard to strangers who had been conquered by him. And after this manner it was that this Menahem continued to reign with cruelty and barbarity for ten years: but when Pul, king of Assyria, had made an expedition against him, he did not think meet to fight or engage in battle with the Assyrians, but he persuaded him to accept of a thousand talents of silver, and to go away, and so put an end to the wa This sum the multitude collected for Menahem, by exacting fifty drachmæ as poll-money for every head:* after which he died, and was bu ried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah his successor in the kingdom, who followed the barbarity of his father, and so ruled but two years only, after which he was slain with his friends at a feast, by the treachery of one Pekah, the general of his horse, and the son of Remaliah, who laid snares for him. Now this Pekah held the government twenty years, and proved a wicked man, and a transgressor. But the king of Assyria, whose name was TiglathPileser, when he had made an expedition against the Israelites, and had overrun all the land of Gilead, and the region beyond Jordan and the adjoining country, which is called Galilee, and Kadesh and Hazor, he made the inhabitants prisoners, and transplanted them into his own kingdom. And so much shall suffice to have related here concerning the How Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, the city, (for what parts soever wanted to be repaired or adorned, he magnificently repaired and adorned them.) He also took care of the foundations of the cloisters in the temple, and repaired the walls that were fallen down, and built very great towers, and such as were almost impregnable; and if any thing else in his kingdom had been neglected, he took great care of it. He also made an expedition against the Ammonites, and overcame them in battle, 2. Now Jotham, the son of Uzziah, reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem, being a citizen thereof by his mother, whose name was Jerusha. This king was not defective in any virtue, but was religious towards God, and right§ 1. Now when Zechariah, the son of Jero-eous towards men, and careful of the good of boam, had reigned six months over Israel, he was slain by the treachery of a certain friend of his, whose name was Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who took the kingdom afterward, but kept it no longer than thirty days; for Menahem, the general of his army, who was at that time in the city of Tirzah, and heard of what had befallen Zechariah, removed thereupon with all his forces to Samaria, and joining battle with Shallum, slew him; and when he had made himself king, he went thence, and came to the city Tiphsah, but the citizens that were *This account of an earthquake at Jerusalem, at the very same time when Uzziah usurped the priest's office, and went into the sanctuary to burn incense, and of the consequence of that earthquake, is entirely wanting in our other copies, though it be exceeding like to the prophecy of Jeremiah now in Zech. xiv. 4, 5, in which prophecy mention is made of "fleeing from that earthquake, as they fled from this earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah;" so that there seems to have been some considerable resemblance between these historical and prophetical earthquakes. * Dr. Wall, in his critical notes on 2 Kings xv. 20, observes, "that when this Menahem is said to have exacted the money of Israel, of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give Pul, the king of Assyria, one thousand talents, this is the first public money raised by any [Is raelite] king by a tax on the people that they used be fore to raise it out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, or of their own house; that it was a poll-money on the rich men [and them only] to raise £353,000, or as others count a talent £400,000, at the rate of £6 or £7 per head; and that God commanded by Ezekiel, ch. xlv. 8, and xlvi. 18, that no such thing should be done [at the Jew's restoration,] but the king should have land of his own." |