Ismachiah (continued) – Ismachiah (continued)

Ismachiah (continued)

The Philistines, ever jealous of the rising power of Israel, soon attacked David in his new capital, but he gained such a victory over them (2 Samuel 5:18 ff.) that in the future he seems to have been able to seek them out city by city and subdue them at his leisure (2 Samuel 8:1 ff.). Having crushed the Philistines, David turned his attention to the trans-Jordanlc lands. He attacked Moab, and after his victory treated the conquered with the greatest barbarity(8’). He was, however, the child of his age. AU wars were cruel, and the Assyrians could teach even David lessons in cruelty. Edom was also conquered (8:13, 14). Ammon needlessly provoked a war with David, and after a long siege their capital Kabbah, on the distant border of the desert, succumbed (10. 11). The petty Aramaean State of Zobah was drawn into the war, and was compelled to pay tribute (8:3 ff.). Damascus, whose Inhabitants, as kinsfolk of the people of Zobah, tried to aid the latter, was finally made a tributary State also (8:5 ff.). so that within a few years David built up a considerable empire. This territory he did not attempt to organize in a political way, but, according to the universal Oriental custom of his time, he ruled it through tributary native princes. Toi, king of Hamath, and Hiram, king of Tyre, sent embassies to welcome David into the brotherhood of kings. Thus Israel became united, and gained a recognized position among the nations.

This success was possible because at the moment Assyria and Egypt were both weak. In the former country the period of weakness which followed the reign of the great Tiglath-pileser I. was at its height, while in the latter land the 21st dynasty, with its dual fine of rulers at Thebes and Tanis, rendered the country powerless through internal dissensions.

David upon his removal to Jerusalem organized his court upon a more extensive scale than Saul had ever done, and, according to Oriental custom, increased his harem. The early Semite was often predisposed to sexual weakness, and David exhibited the frequent bent of his race. His sin with Bathsheba, and subsequent treachery to her husband Uriah, need not be re-told. David’s fondness for his son Absalom and his lax treatment of him produced more dire political consequences. Absalom led a rebellion which drove the king from Jerusalem and nearly cost him his throne. David on this occasion, like Ish-baal before him, took refuge at Mahanaim, the east Jordanic hinterland. Here David’s conduct towards the rebellious son was such that, but for the fact that the relentless Joab disregarded the express commands of his royal master and put Absalom to death after his army had been defeated, it is doubtful whether Absalom would not have triumphed in the end. A smaller revolt grew out of this, but the reduction of Abel near Dan in the north finally restored David’s authority throughout the land.

During the reign of David, though we do not know in what part of it, two misfortunes befell the coimtry. The first of these was a famine for three successive years (2 Samuel 21). The means taken to win back the favour of ■Tahweh, which it was supposed Israel had forfeited, so that He should give rain again, is an eloquent commentary on the barbarous nature of the age and the primitive character of its religious conceptions. The other event was a plague, which followed an attempt of David to take a census (ch. 24), and which the Israelites accordingly believed Jahweh had sent to punish the king for presumptuously introducing such an innovation.

The last days of David were rendered unquiet by the attempt of his son Adonijah to seize the crown (1 Kings 1). Having, however, fixed the succession upon Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, David is said to have left to him as an inheritance the duty of taking vengeance upon Joab and Shimei (1 Kings 2:1 ff.).

To the reign of David subsequent generations looked as the golden age of Israel. Never again did the boundaries of a united Israelitish empire extend so far. These boundaries, magnified a little by fond imagination, became the ideal limits of the Promised Land. David himself, idealized by later ages, became the prototype of the Messiah. The reign of David is said to have lasted forty years. It probably extended from about B.C. 1017 to 977.

14. Reign of Solomon. — Probably upon the accession of Solomon, certainly during his reign, two of the tributary States, Edom and Damascus, gained their independence(1 K l l»-25). The remainder of the empire of David was held by Solomon until his death. Up to the time of Solomon the Israelites had been a simple rural people untouched by the splendour or the culture of the world outside. Simple shepherds and vinedressers, they knew nothing of the splendours of Tyre or Babylon or Egypt, and had never possessed wealth enough to enjoy such splendours had they known them. David had risen from the people, and to his death remained a simple man of his race. Solomon, born in the purple, determined to bring his kingdom into line with the great powers of the world. He accordingly consummated a marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh, probably one of the Pharaohs of the Tanite branch of the 21st dynasty. This marriage brought him into touch with the old civilization of Egypt. In order to equip his capital with public buildings suitable to the estate of such an empire, Solomon hired Phoenician architects, and constructed a palace for himself, one tor the daughter of Pharaoh, and a Temple of such magnificence as the rustic Israelites had never seen. Later generations have overlaid the accounts of these, especially of the Temple, with many glosses, increasing the impression of their grandeur (ct. Temple), but there is no doubt that in the way of luxury they far surpassed anything previously known in Israel. The whole pile was approached through a hypostyle hall built on Egyptian models, called the ‘house of the forest of Lebanon,’ while into the Temple brazen work and brazen instruments were introduced, in fiagrant violation of Israelitish traditions. Even a brazen altar of burnt-offering was substituted for the traditional altar of stone. Ornaments of palm trees and cherubim such as adorned the temple of Melkart at Tyre decorated not only the interior of the Temple, but the brazen instruments as well. These religious innovations were looked upon with disfavour by many of Solomon’s contemporaries (cf. 1 Kings 12). and the buildings, although the boast of a later age, were regarded with mingled feelings by those who were compelled to pay the taxes by which they were erected.

Not only in buildings but also in his whole establishment did Solomon depart from the simple ways of his father. He not only married the daughters of many of the petty Palestinian kings who were his tributaries, but filled his harem with numerous other beauties besides. Probably the statement that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3) is the exaggeration of a later writer, but, allowing for this, his harem must have been very numerous. His method of living was of course in accord with the magnificent buildings which he had erected. To support this splendour the old system of taxation was inadequate, and a new method had to be devised. The whole country was divided into twelve districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a tax-gatherer, and compelled to furnish for the king’s house the provision for one month in each year (1 K 4:7–18). It is noteworthy that in this division economic conditions rather than tribal territories were followed. Not only were the tribes unequal in numbers, but the territory of certain sections was much more productive than that of others. Solomon’s tax-collectors were placed in the most fertile sections of the land. Solomon is also said to have departed from the simple ways of his father by introducing horses and chariots for his use. The ass is the animal of the simple Palestinian. The ancient Hebrew always looked askance at a horse. It was an emblem of pride and luxury. In his eyes it was the instrument of war, not of peace. The introduction of this luxury further estranged many of Solomon’s non-Judsean subjects. His wealth was increased by his commerce with South Arabia. He established a fleet of trading vessels on the Red Sea, manned with Phoenician sailors (1 Kings 9:26 ff.).

Early in his reign Solomon obtained a reputation for wisdom. ‘Wisdom’ to the early Hebrew did not mean philosophy, but practical insight into human nature and skill in the management of people (cf. 1 Kings 3:16–28). It was this skill that enabled him to hold his kingdom intact in spite of his many innovations. It was this skill that in the later traditions made Solomon, for the Israelite, the typical wise man. Although we cannot longer ascribe to him either the Book of Proverbs or the Book of Ecclesiastes, his reputation for wisdom was no doubt deserved.

Solomon’s reign is said to have continued forty years (1 Kings 11:42). If this be so. b.c. 977-937 is probably the period covered. Towards the close of Solomon’s reign the tribe of Ephraim. which in the time of the Judges could hardly bear to allow another tribe to take precedence of it. became restless. Its leader was Jeroboam, a young Ephraimlte officer to whom Solomon had entrusted the administration of the affairs of the Joseph tribes (1 Kings 11:28). His plans for rebelling involved the fortification of his native city Zeredah, which called Solomon’s attention to his plot, and he fled accordingly to Egypt, where he found refuge. In the latter country the 21st dynasty, with which Solomonhad intermarried, had passed away, and the Libyan Shishak (Sheshonk), the founder of the 22nd dynasty, had ascended the throne in B.C. 945. He ruled a united Egypt, and entertained ambitions to renew Egypt’s Asiatic empire. Shishak accordingly welcomed Jeroboam and offered him asylum, but was not prepared while Solomon lived to give him an army with which to attack his master.

16. Division of the kingdom. — Upon the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam seems to have been proclaimed king in Judah without opposition, but as some doubt concerning the loyalty of the other tribes, of which Ephraim was leader, seems to have existed, Rehoboam went to Shechem to be anointed as king at their ancient shrine (1 Kings 12:1 ff.). Jeroboam, having been informed in his Egyptian retreat of the progress of affairs, returned to Shechem and prompted the elders of the tribes assembled there to exact from Rehoboam a promise that in case they accepted him as monarch he would relieve them of the heavy taxation which his father had imposed upon them. After considering the matter three days, Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older and wiser counsellors, and gave such an answer as one bred to the doctrine of the Divine right of kings would naturally give. The substance of his reply was: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.’ As the result of this answer all the tribes except Judah and a portion of Benjamin refused to acknowledge the descendant of David, and made Jeroboam their king. Judah remained faithful to the heir of her old hero, and, because Jerusalem was on the border of Benjamin, the Judeean kings were able to retain a strip of the land of that tribe varying from time to time in width from four to eight miles. All else was lost to the Davidic dynasty.

The chief forces which produced this disruption were economic, but they were not the only forces. Religious conservatism also did its share. Solomon had in many ways contravened the religious customs of his nation. His brazen altar and brazen utensils for the Temple were not orthodox. Although he made no attempt to centralize the worship at his Temple (which was in reality his royal chapel), his disregard of sacred ritual had its effect, and Jeroboam made an appeal to religious conservatism when he said, ‘Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’ Since we know the history only through the work of a propagandist of a later type of religion, the attitude of Jeroboam has long been misunderstood. He was not a religious innovator, but a religious conservative.

When the kingdom was divided, the tributary States of course gained their independence, and Israel’s empire was at an end. The days of her political glory had been less than a century, and her empire passed away never to return. The nation, divided and its parts often warring with one another, could not easily become again a power of importance.

16. From Jeroboam to Ahab (937-875). — After the division of the kingdom, the southern portion, consisting chiefly of the tribe of Judah, was known as the kingdom of Judah, while the northern division was known as the kingdom of Israel. Judah remained loyal to the Davidic dynasty as long as she maintained her independence, but in Israel frequent changes of dynasty occurred. Only one family furnished more than four monarchs, some only two, while several failed to transmit the throne at all. The kings during the first period were:

IbrA-el. Judah.

Jeroboami. 937-915. Rehoboam . 937-920.

Nadab . . 915-913. Abijam . . 920-917.

Baasha . . 913-889. Asa . . . 917-876.

Elah . . 889-887. Jehoshaphat 876-

Zimri . . days.

Omri . . 887-875. Few of the details of the reign of Jeroboam have come down to us. He fortified Shechem (1 Kings 12:25), but Tirzah (which Klostermann regards as the same as Zeredah) was also a residence (1 Kings 14:17). Jeroboam extended his royal patronage to two sanctuaries, Dan and Bethel, the one at the northern and the other at the southern extremity of his territory. Naturally there were hostile relations between him and Judah as long as Jeroboam lived. No details of this hostility have come down to us. If we had only the Biblical records before us, we should suppose that Jeroboam was aided in this war by Shishak of Egypt, for we are told how he invaded Judah (1 Kings 14:25) and compelled Rehoboam to pay a tribute which stripped the Temple of much of its golden treasure and ornamentation. It appears from the Egyptian inscriptions, however, that Shishak’s campaign was directed against both the Hebrew kingdoms alike. His army marched northward to the latitude of the Sea of Galilee, captured the towns of Megiddo, Taanach, and Shunem in the plain of Jezreel, the town of Bethsheau at the junction of Jezreel with the Jordan valley, and Invaded the East-Jordanic country as far as Mahanaim. Many towns in Judah were captured also. (Cf. Breasted’s Hist, of Egypt, 530.) How deep the enmity between Israel and Judah had become may be inferred from the fact that this attack of the Egyptian monarch did not drive them to peace.

Shishak’s campaign seems to have been a mere plundering raid. It established no permanent Asiatic empire for Egypt. After this attack, Rehoboam, according to the Chronicler, strengthened the fortifications of his kingdom (2 Chronicles 11:5–11). According to this passage, his territory extended to Mareshah (Tell Sandehannah) and Gath (.Tell es-Safl?) in the Shephglah, and southward as far as Hebron. No mention is made of any town north of Jerusalem or in the Jordan valley.

The hostile relations between the two kingdoms were perpetuated after the death of Rehoboam, during the short reign of Abijam. In the early part of the reign of Asa, while Nadab was on the throne of Israel, active hostilities ceased sufficiently to allow the king of Israel to besiege the Philistine city of Gibbethon, a town in the northern part of the Maritime Plain opposite the middle portion of the Israelitish territory. The Israelitish monarch felt strong enough to endeavour to extend his dominions by compelling these ancient enemies of his race to submit once more. During the siege of this town, Baasha, an ambitious man of the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab, accomplished his assassination, and had himself proclaimed king in his stead (1 Kings 15:27–29). Thus the dynasty of Jeroboam came to an end in the second generation.

Baasha upon his accession determined to push more vigorously the war with Judah. Entering into an alliance with Benhadad i. of Damascus, he proceeded to fortify Ramah, five miles north of Jerusalem, as a base of operations against Judah. Asa in this crisis collected all the treasure that he could, sent it to Benhadad, and bought him off, persuading him to break his alliance with Israel and to enter into one with Judah. Benhadad thereupon attacked some of the towns in north-eastern Galilee, and Baasha was compelled to desist from his Judaean campaign and defend his own borders. Asa tools this opportunity to fortify Geba, about eight miles north-east of Jerusalem, and Mizpeh, five miles to the north-west of it (1 Kings 15:16–22). The only other important event of Asa’s reign known to us consisted of the erection by Asa’s mother’of an asKirah made in a disgustingly realistic form, which so shocked the sense of the time that Asa was compelled to remove it (15:13). Of., for fuller discussion, below, II. § 1 (3).

During the reign of Elah an attempt was made once more to capture Gibbethon. The siege was being prosecuted by an able general named Omri, while the weak king was enjoying himself at Tirzah, which had been the royal residence since the days of Jeroboam. While the king was in a drunken brawl he was killed by Zimri, the commander of his chariots, who was then himself proclaimed king. Omri, however, upon hearing of this, hastened from Gibbethon to Tirzah, overthrew and slew Zimri, and himself became king. Thus once more did the dynasty change. Omri proved one of the ablest rulers the Northern Kingdom ever had. The Bible tells us little of him, but the information we derive from outside sources enables us to place him in proper perspective. His fame spread to Assyria, where, even after his dynasty had been overthrown, he was thought to be the ancestor of Israelitish kings (cf. KIB i. 151). Omri, perceiving the splendid military possibilities of the hill of Samaria, chose that for his capital, fortified it, and made it one of his residences, thus introducing to history a name destined in succeeding generations to play an important part. Hebrews 99 to have made a peaceful alliance with Damascus, so that war between the two kingdoms ceased. He also formed an alliance with the king of Tyre, taking Jezebel, the daughter of the Tynan king Ethbaal, as a wife for his son Ahab. We also learn from the Moabite Stone that Omri conquered Moab, compelling the Moabites to pay tribute. According to the Bible, this tribute was paid in wool (2 Kings 3:4). Scanty as our information is, it furnishes evidence that both in military and in civil aflairs Omri must be counted as the ablest ruler of the Northern Kingdom. Of the nature of the relations between Israel and Judah during his reign we have no hint. Probably, however, peace prevailed, since we find the next two kings of these kingdoms in alliance. 17. From Ahab to Jeroboam 11. (875-781). — The monarchs of this period were as follows: — Israel. Jddah.

Ahab . . 875-853. Jehoshaphat . 876-851.

Ahaziah . 853-851. Jehoram . . 851-843.

Joram . . 851-842. Ahaziah . . 843-842.

Jehu . . 842-814. Athaliah . . 842-836.

Jehoahaz . 814-797. Joash . . . 836-796. Jehoash . 797-781. Amaziah . . 796-782. Azanah

(Uzziah) 782- . With the reign of Ahab we come upon a new period in Israel’s history. Economic and religious forces which had been slowly developing for centuries now matured for action and made the period one of remarkable activity. Movements began which were destined in their far-off consummation to differentiate the religion of Israel from the other religions of the world.

The new queen Jezebel was a Tyrian princess. According to the custom of the time, she was permitted to raise shrines for her native deities, Melkart and Ashtart of Tyre. These gods were kindred to Jahweh and the Canaanite Baals in that all had sprung from the same antique Semitic conceptions of divinity; but they differed in that Tyre had become through commerce one of the wealthiest cities of the world, and its wealth had made its cult more ornate than the simpler cults of rural Canaan, and much more ornate than the Jahweh cult of the desert. The idleness which wealth creates, too, had tended to heighten in a disgusting way the sexual aspects of the Semitic cult as practised at Tyre. These aspects were in primitive times comparatively innocent, and in the Jahweh cult were still so (cf . Barton, Semitic Origins, 300). Jezebel seems to have persuaded her husband also to disregard what the Israelites, in whom the spirit of Individual and tribal feeling still survived, considered to be their rights. There was a royal residence in the city of Jezreel. Near this a certain Naboth owned a vineyard, which the royal pair desired. As he refused to part with it on any terms, the only way for them to obtain it was to have him put to death on the false charge of having cursed God and the king. This Jezebel did, and then Ahab seized his property. Hebrew polity made no provision for the forcible taking of property by the Government even if the equivalent in money were paid, and this highhanded procedure brought from the wilds of Gilead a champion of Jahweh and of popular rights against the king and the foreign gods — ^in the person of Elijah the Tishbite. It was not that Naboth had been put to death on false testimony, but that his property had been taken, that was in the eyes of Elijah the greater sin. This infringement of old Hebrew privilege he connected with the worship of the foreign deity, and in his long contest with Ahab and Jezebel he began that prophetic movement which centuries after for economic, religious, and, later.forethical reasonsproduced Judaism. On the political side we know that Ahab made an alliance with Jehoshaphat of Judah, which secured peace between the two kingdoms for a considerable time. Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 22:44. 2 Kings 8:26). Ahab rebuilt and fortified Jericho (1 Kings 16:34). The first part of his reign seems to have been prosperous, but about the middle of it the Moabites, according to the Moabite Stone, gained their independence. In B.C. 854 Ahab was one of a confederacy of twelve kings, who were headed by Benhadad 11. of Damascus, and who fought Shalmaneser 11. at Karkar on the Orontes (KIB i. 173 fl.). Although Shalmaneser claims a victory, it is clear that the allies practically defeated him. He may have taken some spoil as he claims, but he made no further progress into Palestine at that time. In the next year we find that Benhadad had invaded the trans- Jordanic territory and had seized Ramoth-gilead. Ahab, in endeavouring to regain it, had the assi.stance of the Judaean king, but was wounded in battle and lost his life. When Ahab died, therefore, the Moabites and Aramseans had divided his East-Jordanic lands between them. Of the brief reign of his son Ahaziah we know nothing.

Meantime, in Judah, Jehoshaphat had had a prosperous reign, although the Biblical writers tell us little of it. He had made Edom tributary to him (1 Kings 22:47). and had re-established a Hebrew fleet upon the Bed Sea (22:48). Jehoram (or Joram), who succeeded to the throne of Israel In Jehoshaphat’s last year, leaving the Aramjeans in possession of Ramoth-gilead for a time, endeavoured, with the aid of Jehoshaphat and his tributary king of Edom, to re-subjugate Moab (2 Kings 3). They made the attack from the south, marching to it around the Dead Sea. The armies were accompanied by the prophet Elisha, who had succeeded to the work of Elijah, although he was not a man of Elijah’s sturdy mould. After a march on which they nearly died of thirst, they overran Moab, besieged and nearly captured its capital. In his distress the king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son to Chemosh, the Moabite god. The sacrifice was performed^n the city wall in sight of both armies, and produced such opposite effects on the superstitious minds of the besieged and the besiegers that the siege was raised and the conquest of Moab abandoned. The chief event of the reign of Jehoram of Judah, Jehoshaphat’s successor, was the loss of Edom, which regained its independence (2 Kings 8). His son Ahaziah, the son of Athaliah, and a nephew of Jehoram, the reigning king of Israel, went to aid his uncle in the siege

n. East of GreenvTich of Ramoth-gilead, which was still in possession of the king of Damascus. Joram was wounded in battle, and the two monarchs returned to the royal residence at Jezreel while the wound was healing. Meantime the prophetic circles, in which the traditions of the simple worship of Jahweh were cherished, determined to overthrow the hated house of Ahab. Ellsha encouraged Jehu, a military officer employed in the siege of Ramoth-gilead, to return to Jezreel and slay the king. This he did, killing not only the king of Israel, but also the king of Judah, and exterminating Jezebel and all her offspring. This done, Jehu started for Samaria. On the way he was joined by Jonadab, son of Rechab, who had founded a kind of order of zealots for the preservation of the simpler forms of Jahweh worship. Accompanied by Jonadab, he went to Samaria, called a solemn feast in honour of Baal, and,wheu the worshippers were assembled, massacred them all. Thus barbarous and unethical were the Jahweh reformers of this period (cf. 2 Kings 9. 10). In the very year that Jehu thus gained the throne, Shalmaneser ii. again marched into the West. This time apparently no powerful alliance was formed against him. Damascus and Israel were at war; resistance to the Assyrian seemed hopeless, and Jehu hastened to render submission and pay a tribute. In consequence of this Jehu is pictured on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser in the British Museum in the undignified attitude of kissing the Assyrian monarch’s foot. Beyond this not too glorious revolution and this inglorious submission, the reign of Jehu, though long, accomplished nothing.

In Judah, when Ahaziah was put to death, Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, saw that her opportunity waa slipping away. A queen-mother counted for something; she had held that position but for a year, and now it was gone. Athaliah inherited the spirit and the ruthlessness of Jezebel. Accordingly she seized the reins of government and put to death, as she thought, all the royal seed that could In any way dispute her sway. Thus it happened that a daughter of Jezebel sat on the throne of David. Here no doubt she exercised her preferences for the richer and more repulsive cult of Melkart, but in Judah there had developed as yet no strong opposition to such innovations. In this early period the religious interest is in the Northern Kingdom. What there was no prophet to do, priests, however, accomplished. One little prince, Joash, had been rescued when the slaughter of the princes occurred, and after he had been concealed six years, under the guidance of Jehoiada, the priest, he was proclaimed king, and Athaliah was assassinated (2 Kings 11). Joash enjoyed a long reign of forty years, during the early part of which he was under the guidance of the priests. During his reign money for the repair of the Temple was raised in a very natural way, but in a way not sanctioned by the later Levitical Code (cf. 2 Kings 12:4–16).

Meantime, in Israel, Jehu had passed away, and his son Jehoahaz had succeeded him. At the beginning of his reign Jehoahaz, like his predecessors, was unsuccessful in his efforts against Damascus, but Hazael, who now occupied the Aramsan throne, was a less able man than his predecessors, and Jehoahaz ultimately defeated him (2 Kings 13:2–5). This was the beginning of an era of prosperity for Israel which was continued over into the next period.

Hazael, as he was losing strength in the East, sought to increase his prestige in the West. After a successful campaign in the Maritime Plain, he moved against Jerusalem. Joash was no warrior, and hastened to buy off the Aramasan with a heavy tribute (2 Kings 12:17 ff.). Whether it was this that disaffected the subjects of Joash we do not know, but he was assassinated by a conspiracy (2 Kings 12:20). which placed his son Amaziah on the throne.

Meantime Jehoahaz of Israel had been succeeded by his son Jehoash, who followed up his father’s victory over the Araraasans, defeating them three separate times, and regaining all Israel’s East-Jordanic territory (2 Kings 13:25). Amaziah, the Judsean king, when once established in power, executed the assassins of his father, and then set out to build up his kingdom. Edom seemed the natural direction in which Judah could expand; he accordingly attacked, defeated, and occupied a part at least of that country. He then sent a challenge to Jehoash of Israel, which that king at first treated with contempt. The challenge, however, produced war, Israel seems to have been the invader after all, for the battle was fought at Beth-shemesh. Judah was defeated so completely that Jehoash went up and took Jerusalem without serious opposition, and broke down four hundred cubits of its wall, from the corner gate to the gate of Ephraim. Later, Amaziah, learning that a conspiracy had formed against him, fled to Lachish. which seems to have belonged to Judah. The conspirators pursued him thither, slew him, and made his young son Azariah, or Uzziah, king.

18. From Jeroboam n. to the fall of Samr ria{781 722). — The chronology of this period is as fol’ iws: — Israel, Jo . h.

Jeroboam ii. 781-740. Aaariah

Zechariah . 6 months. (Uzziah) . 782-737.

Shallum . 740-737. Jotham . 737-735.

Menahem . 737-735. Ahaz . . 735-725.

Fekahiah . 2 months. HezeMah . 725-696.

Pekah . . 735-733.

Hoshea . 733-722. Towards the end of the period treated in the preceding paragraph, Israel’s enemies on every side had grown weaker. An Assyrian king, Adadnirari in., had made an expedition into the West in 797, on which he claims to have received tribute not only from Tyre and Sidon, but also from the ‘land of Omri’ as the Assyrians still called the kingdom of Israel, but after this for more than half a century Assyria was too weak to distmb the Hebrews. The Arameeans under Hazael had also lost their power to disturb the Israelites. Egypt under the 22nd dynasty became unable, after the one expedition of Shishak, to interfere in Asiatic affairs. Accordingly the kingdoms of Israel and Judah under the two able kings, Jeroboam and Uzziah, entered upon an era of unprecedented prosperity. Between them these monarchs restored the territory over which they ruled, almost to the limits of the Davidic boundaries. Jeroboam in his long reign extended the boundaries of Israel northward to Hamath and Damascus, perhaps including in his empire Damascus itself (2 Kings 14:28), while Uzziah, if the Chronicler is to be followed (2 Chronicles 26), extended his boundaries southward to the Red Sea, and reduced the Philistine cities once more to the position of tributaries. With outposts in all these directions, and the Red Sea open to commerce, a vigorous and profitable trade sprang up in this long era of peace. Freed from the necessity of continual warfare, the spirit of the nation gave itself with tremendous enthusiasm to the acquisition of material advantages. Neither earthquake nor tempest could dampen their ardour by misfortune. Wealth increased greatly, and palaces which to the simple Israelites seemed vast were reared on every hand. Every document of the time speaks of the erection of buildings or palaces. Wealth and leisure created a literary epoch, as a result of which, about 750, the E document was composed. Wealth, however, was not evenly distributed. The palaces were for a comparatively small minority. The poor, while they saw prosperity increasing around them, were daily becoming poorer. The economic conditions of the reign of Ahab, which had called forth the denunciations of Elijah, not only existed now in an exaggerated form, but were daily becoming worse. A moneyed class, distinct from the old shepherd and agricultural class, had been evolved. Capitalists then, as now, desired interest for their money. Lending it to the poor husbandman, they naturally felt justified in

2 C seizing iiis land if he was unable to repay. This social condition appeared to the conservative worshippers of Jahweh as in the highest degree obnoxious. Jahweh had never been the God of a commercial people. For one of His worshippers to exact usury from another was regarded as an offence against Him; to take from one of His faithful ones land given him by Jahweh in payment for debt, however just the debt, was in Jahweh’s eyes unpardonable oppression of the poor.

These social conditions, thus viewed, called forth a new set of prophets, — men of a higher moral and spiritual order than any known before in Semitic history. Two of these, Amos and Hosea, belong altogether to this period, while Isaiah began his prophetic work when two-thirds of it had passed. Amos (wh. see), the earliest of them, came forward about 755 to denounce the social injustices of the Northern Kingdom and to pronounce Jahweh’s doom on the whole circle (J{- sinful nations which surrounded .Israel. • bne-sided "as his economifc poipt of view was, his ethical standard was the loftiest and purest, and his conception of Jahweh as the God who ruled all natioils carried men’s thoughts into a clearer atmosphere. Amos simply denounced, but Hosea (wh . see) , who came a little later, and put forward a view of Jahweh no less ethical, proclaimed Jahweh as a God of redeeming love. It is clear from the work of these prophets that the cults of Jahweh and Baal had in the lapse of time become mingled. Jahweh had long been conceived as a Baal. Hosea proclaims again the nomadic Jahweh, austere, simple, and moral, as compared with the deteriorated cults now practised by His followers.

It is clear, therefore, that the same forces were at work that appeared in the time of Ahab and Elijah, only now the foreign religious element was not so clearly foreign in the eyes of the people at large, and the economic conditions were more aggravated.

Amos and Hosea were country prophets, whose sympathies were naturally with the poorer classes of the people, but Isaiah, the city prophet, is no less strenuous than they in his denunciations of man’s inhumanity to man. Towards the end of this long period of outward prosperity and social and religious ferment, a change occurred in Assyria. Pul, or Tiglath-pileser in., as he now called himself, seized the throne (B.C. 745), subsequently proving himself, both as a general and as a statesman, one of the world’s great men. This monarch was, however, occupied until the year 742 in reducing the East to his sceptre. When he turned Ills attention to the West, the siege of Arpad occupied him for two years, so that before he interfered in Palestinian affairs Jeroboam ii. had passed away.

The chronolo^ of the Northern Kingdom after the death of Jeroboam ii. is very confused. Many of the statements of the present Biblical text are manifestly incorrect. The statement of it given above is a conjectural reconstruction resting partly on the Assyrian evidence.

After Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, had reigned but six months, a conspiracy removed him and placed Shallum on the throne. With Zechariah the house of Jehu disappeared.

Uzziah, who in his old age had become a leper, and had associated his son Jotham with him on the throne, appears to have taken a leading part in the organization of a coalition of nineteen States, including Carchemish, Hamath, and Damascus, to oppose the westward progress of ‘Tiglath-pileser. Before the Assyrian monarch made his appearance again in the West, another revolution in Samaria had removed Shallum and placed Menahem on Israel’s throne. The Assyrian, who apparently came in 737 (Esarhaddon mutilated the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser so that our data are incomplete), seems to have marched southward along the Maritime Plain as though to attack Uzziah himself. Upon his approach Menahem deserted the confederacy and hastened to pay his tribute to Assyria. Whether it was this defection or whether it was a battle that

compelled Uzziah to pay tribute we do not know, but Tiglath-pileser records him among his tribute payers iKIB ii. 20). Uzziah died in that year. The short, independent reign of Jotham seems to have been uneventful. Menahem died about 735; his son Pekahiah was soon removed by a revolution, and Pekah became king in Samaria (2 Kings 15:22–27). In Judah, Jotham was succeeded in the same year by his youthful son Ahaz. Pekah and Rezin, who now sat on the throne of Damascus, desired to form a new confederacy to throw off Assyria’s yoke. Into this they attempted to draw Ahaz, and when he declined to engage in the hopeless enterprise they threatened to make war jointly on Judah, depose Ahaz, and place a certain Tabeel on the throne of Judah. Upon the receipt of this news, consternation reigned in Jerusalem, but both king and people were reassured by the prophet Isaiffi (Isaiah 7). Isaiah’s [fcpes^were well fcranded, for in tlte next year ‘(t34) Tigiatlf-pilfeer returned to the West, took Damascus after a considerable siege (a town which his predecessors had at various times for more than a hundred years tried in vain to capture), made it an Assyrian colony, put Pekah the king of Israel to death (KIB ii. 33), carried captive to Assyria the principal inhabitants of the territory north of the Plain of Jezreel (2 Kings 15:29 ff.). made Hoshea king of a reduced territory, and imposed upon him a heavy tribute. Ahaz, upon the approach of Tiglath-pileser, had renewed his allegiance; and after the capture of Damascus he went thither to do obeisance in person to the Assyrian monarch. Thus the whole of Israel passed irrevocably into Assyria’s power. At Damascus, Ahaz saw an altar the form of which pleased him. He accordingly had a pattern of it brought to Jerusalem, and one like it constructed there. The brazen altar which Solomon had erected before the Temple was removed to one side and reserved for the king’s own use. The new altar, established in its place, became the altar of ordinary priestly services.