JUDAH FROM 975 TO 884 B. C. balus, his grandaughter Dido built Carthage, and XXXVII. JUDAH FROM 975 TO 884 B. C. Asa, the son of Abijam, reigned forty-one years, to 61 of the Revolt, 914 B.C. He ascended the throne two years before the death of Jeroboam, and, as he was then very young, the affairs of the kingdom were administered by his mother, an Israelite of the race of Absalom, but a very superstitious woman, who encouraged idolatry by all the means in her power. But as soon as the out this disorder from the whole country, and army and defeated the numerous host of Zerah, In the time of Asa, the celebrated poet Hesiod 944 B. C., according to the Parian Marbles. flourished among the Greeks, about the year Jehoshaphat, who ascended the throne in the twenty-five years, to the 84th of the Revolt, and He fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel, and reigned 891 B. C., was still more faithful to Jehovah, his sovereign, than his father Asa had been. These not only suppressed idolatry in the most careful manner, but he sent out priests and Levites into every town, to instruct the people. teachers he raised to the rank of royal counsellors, in order to increase their authority. He travelled himself through the country to see whether his orders were executed. He improved the administration of justice by the establishment of a to a prosperous condition. The effect of his supreme tribunal, and brought his military affairs of his people, who so increased that he was able judicious government was visible in the number to bring into the field a well disciplined and well furnished army of one million one hundred and Among these, however, are probably to be included the Edomites, the sixty thousand men. Philistines, and many Arabians, who acknowledged his authority. But, although thus powerful, he was disposed to peace, and he was the author of the first treaty between Judah and Israel. He visited king Ahab at Samaria, and This step was disapproved of by the prophet joined him in an expedition against the Syrians. Jehu, the son of Hanani; and, indeed, as the D enterprise proved unfortunate, Jehoshaphat sunk greatly in the estimation of the neighbouring people, on account of the concern he had in it. He had before been feared by all the surrounding nations, but now the Ammonites and Moabites pressed into Judea by the way of Edom. Though they were defeated by Jehoshaphat, in connexion with Jehoram, king of Israel, and the Edomites, yet the victory was altogether the work of Divine Providence, and an evident reward of Jehoshaphat's fidelity to Jehovah. His attempt to revive the navigation of the Red Sea was unsuccessful. He seems, however, never to have relinquished the enterprise, though he refused to enter into a commercial alliance with the king of Israel. If he had never formed any connexion with the idolatrous house of Ahab, or, at least, if he had not married Jehoram, his son and the heir of his crown, to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, much commotion and bloodshed would have been avoided in Judea. (1 Kings xxii. 1-50. 2 Chron. xvii.-xx.) During this reign Homer flourished among the Greeks. The Parian Marbles place him in the year 907 B. C. Jehoram was admitted to a participation in his father's throne, in the 84th year of the Revolt, 891 B. C., and he reigned eight years. The unhappy consequences of the union with Athaliah, the Israelitish princess, now began to be visible. All the brothers of the king were murdered, undoubtedly through the influence of Athaliah; and idolatry was introduced by royal authority. Upon this the Edomites revolted, and although they were once defeated by Jehoram, who still had his father's army under his command, they nevertheless made themselves independent, according to the prophecy of Isaac. (Gen. xxvii. 40.) The Philistines also rebelled, and the Arabians who bordered on the Cushites. They made an incursion into Judea, plundered the whole country, and even Jerusalem and the royal palace. They led away into slavery all the women of the king's harem, and all the royal princes, with the exception of Jehoahaz, or, as he is also called, Ahaziah. Even Libnah, the city of the priests, renounced allegiance to Jehoram, because he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers. He died a miserable death, and was denied the honours of a royal burial. (2 Kings viii. 16-24. 2 Chron. xxi.) His son Ahaziah, or Jehoahaz, succeeded him, and reigned only one year. He was no better than his father, and suffered himself to be governed in every thing by the wicked counsels of his idolatrous mother, Athaliah. He joined Jehoram, king of Israel, in an expedition against Hazael, king of Damascus or Syria, for the conquest of Ramoth-gilead; and he afterwards visited king Jehoram while he lay wounded in his summer palace at Jezreel. Here Jehu slew both kings on the same day, in the year 91 of the Revolt, 884 B. C. (2 Kings viii. 25-29; ix. 27-30. 2 Chron. xxii. 1—9.) During the eighty-five first years of this period the kingdom of Judah made rapid advances, but afterwards it continually degenerated, and finally lost all its power. NOTE.-Shishak, who invaded Judea during the reign of Rehoboam, according to Marsham, Canon. Chron. xiv. p. 376, is Sesostris, the third king of the twelfth Diospolitic dynasty; according to Silberschlag, Chronologie der Welt, s. 143, Sesenchosis, the first of the twenty-second Bubastic dynasty; according to Gatterer, Weltgeschichte im ganzen Umfang, s. 224, Susenes or Phusenes, the second of the twenty-first Tanitic dynasty; according to Syncellus, Semendes, the first of the twenty-first Tanitic dynasty; and, according to others, he is the Asyches of Herodotus. (See the Table of the Egyptian dynasties at the end of the volume.) Such a controversy cannot be easily decided. See Perizonius, Origg. Egypt. cap. 13, p. 222, seq. From 1 Chron. xii. 3, we know only that Shishak had in his army Troglodytes, Lybians, and Ethiopians, and consequently, that his authority must have been very widely extended. XXXVIII. ISRAEL FROM 884 TO 759 B.C. Jehu, who had extirpated the family of Ahab, ascended the throne of Israel in the 91st year of the Revolt, 884 B. C., and reigned twentyeight years. He entirely abolished idolatry, condemned to death at a festival the idolatrous priests and prophets of Baal, as traitors to King Jehovah, and turned the temple of Baal into a draughthouse. He, however, suffered the golden calves to remain. For his services he received a divine promise that his descendants should possess the throne for four generations. But the idolatry of Ahab and Jezebel was not annihilated by this coercive reformation. Many still practised it, but it was no longer upheld by the regal authority. On account of this idolatry the whole territory east of the Jordan fell into the hands of the Syrians. (2 Kings x. 18-36.) Jehu's son, Jehoahaz, reigned seventeen years, to 135 of the Revolt, 840 B. C. He was pressed so closely by the Syrians that at last he was able to retain only one thousand men of infantry, fifty of cavalry, and ten chariots; but, as he acknowledged the authority of Jehovah over Israel, he was finally released from these haughty foes, and obtained peace. Joash, his son, reigned seventeen years. As the idolatrous generation had now become extinct, he was able to hold the Syrians in check, and in the end to gain the preponderance over them. He conquered several cities, and the prophet Elisha, while on his death-bed, predicted that he should gain three victories. He Jeroboam II., a son of Joash, reigned fortyone years, to 191 of the Revolt, 784 B. C. was as much the enemy of idolatry as his father, and consequently, his arms were also victorious. He recovered from the Syrians all the conquests they had made during the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz, and restored to the empire its ancient boundaries, as Jonah, the son of Amittai, had predicted. (2 Kings xiii. xiv.) As soon as Israel was quiet from the Syrians it was disturbed by domestic broils, and hastened rapidly towards destruction. Upon the death of Jeroboam II. (in the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah or Azariah, king of Israel,) his son Zachariah ascended the throne. For twelve years great internal commotions prevailed. Kings were suddenly raised to the throne, and as suddenly removed, agreeably to the representation which Hosea, who prophesied at this time, gives of the state of the kingdom. This shows a gross degeneracy in respect to religion and morals, as appears also by the prophecy of Hosea. The people were dissatisfied with Zachariah, and he was murdered by Shallum in the sixth month of his reign, 202 of the Revolt, 773 B. C. Thus the prediction was accomplished, that the family of Jehu should retain the throne only to the fourth generation. (2 Kings xv. 8—12.) The regicide Shallum placed himself on the throne, and, notwithstanding the civil disturbances of the kingdom, he collected force sufficient to conquer Thapsacus, (Tiphsah,) on which occasion he treated the inhabitants with great cruelty. Soon after, he was slain by his general Menahem, having reigned only one month. took his dominion. He was an active man, and had the good-will of the Syrians and of the people of Damascus to a great degree, by whom both Benhadad himself, and Hazael, who ruled after him, are honoured to this day as gods, by reason of their benefactions, and their building them temples, by which they adorned the city of the Damascenes. They also every day do with great pomp pay their worship to these kings, and value themselves upon their antiquity; nor do they know that those kings are much later than they imagine, and that they are not yet eleven hundred years old." (Whiston's Translation.) XXXIX. JUDAH FROM 884 To 759 B. C. As soon as Athaliah heard at Jerusalem, that her son, king Ahaziah, had been slain by Jehu, she took possession of the vacant throne, and murdered all the males of the royal family, with the exception of Joash, the youngest son of Ahaziah. He, being then an infant, was rescued by Jehosheba, a sister of Ahaziah, and he was Menahem retained the sceptre ten years, and died a natural death. His reign was very unfortunate. Pul, king of Assyria, (which empire now emerges from its obscurity, and in the course of forty or fifty years acquires universal domi-privately brought up by a nurse in an apartment nion,) made war against him, perhaps on account of the conquest of Thapsacus by Shallum. Menahem could not resist this powerful conqueror. He purchased peace by one thousand talents, that is, three million shekels of silver, and became tributary to Assyria. As the king raised this sum by a tax of fifty shekels a head on his military men, it appears that his army amounted to sixty thousand strong, and that the whole system of government during the preceding disquiets had become military. Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, succeeded him, but after a reign of two years he was murdered by Pekah, the commander of his army, in the year of Uzziah's death, 216 of the Revolt, 759 B. C. (2 Kings xv. 17—26.) During the first fifty years of this period, the kingdom of Israel sunk deeper and deeper in degeneracy and misery, in the next half century it regained its ancient power and greatness, but during the succeeding twenty-five years it again rapidly degenerated. of the temple. The idolatrous Athaliah reigned more than six years, to the 98th of the Revolt, 877 B. C. During this year, by the management of the high priest Jehoiada, the young prince was publicly anointed king in the temple, under the protection of a strong escort of well-armed Levites. Athaliah at the same time suffered the punishment of death, which she had merited by her idolatry, treason, and violent usurpation. On this occasion the covenant with Jehovah was renewed, and the people bound themselves by an oath to observe it,- -a precaution which had been rendered very necessary by the long continuance of an idolatrous government. (2 Kings xi. 2 Chron. xxii. 9-12; xxiii. 1–21.) Joash, or Jehoash, reigned forty years, to the 137th of the Revolt, 838 B. C. During the life of his guardian, the high priest Jehoiada, his government was entirely conformed to the principles of the theocracy. The idolatry introduced by Athaliah was abolished, and about the year 120 of the Revolt the temple was repaired, and the people voluntarily contributed to defray the necessary expenses. But after the death of Jehoiada it appeared that idolatry had taken deep root during the fourteen years of its predominance under Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah. The rulers themselves came before the throne and requested toleration for the worship of idols. Joash was weak enough to grant their request; and when the prophet Zechariah predicted national calamities on this account, the king was so ungrateful as to suffer him to be stoned in the court of the temple, though he was the son of his guardian Jehoiada, to whom he was indebted for his life, his education and his throne, and to whom the nation had awarded the honours of a royal burial. But this ingratitude and cruelty did not prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy. The king of Syria, who then possessed all Gilead, came to Jerusalem with a small body of troops, put to death the rulers who had demanded the toleration of idolatry, and returned, laden with butes the conquest of Tiphsah to Menahem. But he might spoil to Damascus. Joash, who had been wounded, was slain soon after by his own servants, and NOTE.-Benhadad, the king of Syria, who resided at Damascus, gave much trouble to Ahab, Ahaziah, and Jehoram, the kings of Israel. Hazael, one of his principal officers, suffocated him as he lay sick, by wetting and applying to his face the veil which is used to keep off the gnats during sleep. Hazael succeeded to the throne, and, during the reigns of Jehu and Jehoaz, took possession of all the Israelitish territory east of the Jordan. As late as the time when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, these two Syrian kings received divine honours from the inhabitants of Damascus, but were placed by them at a more remote period in antiquity. See Josephus. Antiquities, ix. 4, 6. His words are:-"When Hazael was come to Benhadad he told him good news concerning his distemper, but the next day he spread a wet cloth, in the nature of a net, over him, and strangled him and 2 Kings xv. 13-16. [The passage referred to attri have taken the city while he commanded the army of Shallum. Tn.] denied the honours of a royal burial. (2 Kings xii. 2 Chron. xxiv.) But throne a tributary king of another race. They probably engaged in this design in order to Amaziah, his son, reigned twenty-nine years, strengthen themselves against Assyria, who was to 164 of the Revolt, 811 B. C. Like his father, becoming more and more formidable, and threathe begun well and then degenerated. In the ened to overpower all her neighbours. condemnation of his father's murderers, he ob- when the allied sovereigns had gained a few served the law which forbids children to be in- advantages over Judah, Tiglath-pileser, king of volved in the punishment due to their parents. Assyria, came and subdued Syria, Galilee, and (Deut. xxiv. 16.) At the admonition of a pro- all the territory east of the Jordan, in the year phet, he dismissed one hundred thousand men, 235 of the Revolt, 740 B. c. He sent the principal whom he had hired from the kingdom of Israel, inhabitants of Syria to the river Kir, (Cyrus,) to assist him in carrying on a war against the which at the present day is called Kur by the Edomites. He, however, gave them the one hun- Russians, and Kier by the Persians. It mingles dred talents of silver, which had been stipulated its waters with the Aras or Araxes, and empties for their wages; and he then gained a decisive itself into the Caspian sea under the thirty-ninth victory over his enemies in the valley of Salt, degree of north latitude. A people of a foreign as the prophet had foretold. But when he after- aspect, called Usbecks, dwell there at this time, wards worshipped the gods which he had taken who may be the descendants of these captives.* from the Edomites, and set them up at Jerusalem, The principal inhabitants of Galilee were transand refused to listen to the warnings of a pro-ferred to Assyria, Pekah was put to death by phet, the success of his arms ceased. He engaged Hosea. (2 Kings xv. 27—31; xvi. 1–10. Isa. in a war with Jehoahaz, king of Israel, on account vii.) of the depredations committed by the mercenary Though the kingdom of Israel was now enIsraelitish troops, who, enraged at their dismis- closed within such narrow boundaries, and sursion, had on their return murdered three thou-rounded on two sides by the powerful Assyrians, sand Jews and plundered in every place through it did not remain quiet, but was continually which they passed. Amaziah was defeated and exhausting its strength by intestine broils and taken prisoner, at the battle of Beth-shemesh. conspiracies. For Pekah was murdered in the Jehoahaz replaced the captive monarch on his third or fourth year of Ahaz; and Hoshea did not throne; but he plundered Jerusalem and the ascend the throne till the twelfth year of the same temple, demolished four hundred cubits of the reign. Consequently this state of anarchy concity wall, and took hostages with him to Samaria. tinued for nine years, that is, from 235 to 244 of Amaziah was finally assassinated by conspirators the Revolt, and from 740 to 731 B. c.† at Lachish, whither he had fled for protection. (2 Kings xiv. 1-22. 2 Chron. xxv.) Hosea, or Hoshea, was a better ruler than most of his predecessors; but his kingdom was too Uzziah, also called Azariah, was raised to the much weakened to withstand the Assyrian power. throne by the people, after the death of his father Therefore, when Shalmaneser invaded him he Amaziah. He was then sixteen years old, and was obliged to become tributary. This was unhe reigned fifty-two years, to the 216th of the avoidable, but Hoshea very imprudently attemptRevolt, 759 B. C. He had an army of three hun-ed to shake off the yoke; he formed an alliance dred and seven thousand five hundred men, he built new fortifications and repaired the old, provided them with suitable arms, and carried on wars successfully. He conquered Elath, Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod; he defeated the Arabs of Gur-baal, the Mehunims and the Ammonites. Though so much engaged in military operations, he found time to cultivate the arts of peace. He advanced the interests of agriculture, and made great improvements in the pasturage and breed of cattle. He was for the most part obedient to the law, though he did not demolish the unlawful altars, and on one occasion he attempted to usurp the privileges of the priesthood. For this act of impiety he was punished with leprosy, and for the rest of his life he dwelt in a separate house. Meanwhile the affairs of government were administered by his son Jotham. (2 Kings xv. 1-7. 2 Chron. xxvi.) The famous era of the Olympiads commenced in the thirty-fifth year of Uzziah, 199 of the Revolt, 776 B. C. XL. ISRAEL FROM 759 to 722 B. C. Pekah, the murderer of Pekahiah, ascended the throne of Israel in the last year of Uzziah. He formed an alliance with Rezin, king of Syria, for the purpose of making war upon Judah, expelling the family of David, and placing on the with So, king of Egypt, and imprisoned the Assyrian officer who was appointed to collect the tribute. Upon this, Shalmaneser laid siege to Samaria, and after three years he gained possession of the city and destroyed it. During all this time the king of Egypt made no attempt to come to the assistance of Israel, as Isaiah had declared from the first, and in language of strong reprehension against this alliance. (Isa. xxx. I 7.) Shalmaneser carried the principal inhabitants, soldiers, and armourers, to Halah, (Chalachene,) to the river Habor, (Chaboras, and in Ezekiel, Chebar,) and to Gozan, on the east side of the Tigris, and to the cities of the Medes. On the other hand, colonists were brought to Samaria from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. It appears also that Esar-haddon afterwards sent other colonists into this country. (Ezra iv. 2, comp. 9, 10.) These people mingled with the Israelites who still dwelt in the land, and they were all comprehended under the general name of Samaritans, which was derived from the city Samaria. They were at first all idolaters, but as wild beasts increased in their depopulated territory, they began to be disturbed by lions, and this calamity they supposed to be sent on Buschings Magazin, th. x. s. 402. + The reading, 2 Kings xv. 30, in the twentieth year of Jotham," is manifestly incorrect. Compare xv. 33. JUDAH FROM 759 TO 619 B. C. them by the god of the country, as a punishment for their neglect of his worship. Accordingly, an Israelitish priest was recalled from exile, in order to instruct these idolaters in the worship of Jehovah, as a national deity; he settled at Bethel, where one of the golden calves had forImerly stood, and afterwards the Samaritans united the worship of Jehovah with the worship of their own gods. (2 Kings xvii.) NOTE 1.-So, the ally of Hoshea, seems to be Sevechus, the second king of the twenty-fifth Ethiopic dynasty; especially as the Hebrew consonants, D, may be pronounced Seve, and thus the name bears a near resemblance to Sevechus. Some suppose So to be Sabacon, the first king of the Ethiopic dynasty; but according to the account of Herodotus, ii. 137-139, he was a hero to whom the description of So, in Isaiah xxx. 3 -5, cannot well be applied. Others suppose him to be Anysis the Blind, who is said to have hid himself fifty years, during the Ethiopic dynasty, and then to have reascended the throne. Others again suppose him to be Sethos, the successor of Anysis. (See the table at the end of the volume.) NOTE 2.-The ancient Assyrian empire should be carefully distinguished from the modern, with which the Hebrew history of these times is so intimately connected. The accounts of the ancient empire are very scanty and uncertain. Though it has been represented by the Greeks as very great and powerful, we have already remarked that this representation does not agree with oriental history. It ended with Sardanapalus, and was destroyed by Arbaces the Mede, about the seventh year of Uzziah's reign, 171 of the Revolt, 804 B. C. After the death of Arbaces, there was an interregnum in Media of seventynine years, and during this period the Assyrians made themselves independent of the Medes. This we call the modern Assyrian empire, the sovereigns of which are exhibited in the following table: Years of their Reign. Year of the Names. Revoll. B.C. Tiglath-pileser 222 Shalmaneser 14 Sennacherib 255 720 Esar-haddon 262 Sardochaeus 297 678 20 Chyniladan 317 658 22 Saracus 339 End The golden age of this empire continued from Pul to Esar-haddon, when its boundaries extended towards the west as far as to the Mediterranean Sea Esar-haddon brought the Babylonian empire under his dominion, though he still suffered it to be governed by princes or viceroys; but his successor Sardochaeus united it with Assyria. The Sargon (Isaiah xx. 1) who conquered Ashdod by his general Tartan, appears to be Esarhaddon, or rather perhaps Sennacherib, as he, according to Jerome,* had several names. • Comment. in Jes. xx. 1. XLI. JUDAH FROM 759 to 699 B. C. B. C. He re Ahaz, the son and successor of Jotham, was the most corrupt monarch that had hitherto apyears, till 247 of the Revolt, 728 B. C. peared in Judah. His reign continued sixteen spected neither Jehovah, the law, nor the prolaw imposed on the Hebrew kings, and regarded phets; he broke over all the restraints which the nothing but his own depraved inclinations. He introduced the religion of the Syrians into Jerusalem, erected altars to the Syrian gods, altered the temple in many respects according to the Syrian dice was equal to his superstition. After he had model, and finally shut it up entirely. His cowarsuffered a few repulses from Pekah and Rezin, his allied foes; when the Edomites had revolted from into his country; notwithstanding a sure promise him, and the Philistines were making incursions Assyria, to his aid. To this monarch he became of divine deliverance, he called Pul, the king of tributary, on condition that he would force Syria ing Judah; and thus he gave to Tiglath-pileser, and Israel to relinquish their design of destroythe successor of Pul, an opportunity to conquer Syria, Galilee, and Gilead. But the Assyrian On the king afforded Ahaz no real assistance. contrary, he drove him to such difficulties, that the Jewish king could scarcely purchase a release from his troublesome protector by all the riches of the temple, of the nobility of his kingdom, and of the royal treasury. (2 Kings xvi. 2 Chron. xxviii.) Hezekiah succeeded, and reigned twenty-nine He years, to the 276th of the Revolt, 699 B. C. did not follow the bad example of his father, but walked in the steps of his ancestor David. Immediately on his accession to the throne, he opened the temple, restored the worship of God, abolished idolatry, destroyed the brazen serpent of Moses, which had become an object of idolatrous worship, overthrew the altars illegally erected to Jehovah, and caused the festivals to be regularly celebrated. invited the Hebrews who still remained in the kingdom of Israel, which had been conquered in the sixth year of his reign. Like David, he provided for the instruction and moral improvement of his people, by the public singing of psalms in the temple, and by a new collection of the moral To these feasts he |