KINGDOM OF JUDAH FROM B.C. 929 TO B.C. 725

KINGDOM OF JUDAH FROM B.C. 929 TO B.C. 725
JEHOSHAPHAT A FAITHFUL KING
Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, began to reign over Judah in the year 929 B.C., being the second year of Ahab in Israel. The alliance which he formed with Ahab has brought him forward, in the preceding chapter, sufficiently to intimate to the reader the excellent character which he bore. He indeed takes rank among the most faithful, and therefore most illustrious and wise of the Hebrew kings. Direct idolatry had been put down by his father, and the first acts of his own reign were to root out the remoter incentives thereto and instruments thereof. He destroyed the high places and the groves which his father had spared. Other kings before him had been satisfied with external operations; but to his enlightened mind it appeared that effects more deep and permanent might be secured by acting upon the inner sense of the people, by instructing them fully in the principles and distinguishing privileges of their theocratic system, and by rendering those principles operative, as the standards of public and judicial action, throughout the land. The land had already been purged, as by fire, from the noxious weeds by which it had been overgrown; and now the king made it his business to occupy the cleared soil with corn--the staff of life--and with fruits “pleasant to the eye, and good for food.”
INSTRUCTORS IN THE LAW
To these ends the king sent out a number of “princes,” whose rank and influence secured attention and respect to the priests and Levites who were with them to instruct the people. They had with them copies of the law: and, in their several bands, visited all the towns of the country--thus bearing instruction to the very doors of a people who had become too indolent or too indifferent themselves to seek for it. So earnest was the king in this object, that he went himself throughout the land to see that his orders were duly executed.
IMPRESSIVE ARMY
The attention of this able king was also directed to the reform of abuses in other departments of the state, and to the cultivation of the financial and military resources of his kingdom. The people, rendered happy by his cares, grew prosperous, and increased in numbers; in the same degree the real power of the government was strengthened, and was such as inspired the people with confidence, and their enemies with fear. Edom continued firm in its obedience, Philistia regularly remitted its presents and tribute-silver, and several of the Arabian tribes sought his favor, or acknowledged his power, by large yearly tributes of sheep and goats from their flocks. The men enrolled as fit to bear arms, and liable to be called into action, was not less than 1,160,000, which is not far short of the number in the united kingdom in the time of David. Of these a certain proportion were kept in service. The best of the troops were stationed at Jerusalem, and the remainder distributed into the fortress and walled towns; and a strong force was concentrated on the northern frontier, especially in those lands of Ephraim which Asa had taken from Baasha. New fortresses were constructed in different parts of the country, and were well garrisoned and supplied with all the munitions of war.
JEHU REBUKES JEHOSHAPHAT
The capital error of this monarch, the alliance he contracted with Ahab in the thirteenth year of his reign, has already been noticed in the preceding chapter, as well as the part he took in the battle of Ramoth Gilead, in which Ahab was slain, but his own life was reserved, notwithstanding the very imminent danger into which he had fallen. On his return to Jerusalem after this escape, the Divine dissatisfaction at his conduct was announced to him by the prophet Jehu.
JEHOSHAPHAT'S DISTRICT JUDGES
After this he engaged himself in his former peaceful and honorable undertakings; and gave particular attention to the administration of justice in his dominions. He established a supreme tribunal (of appeal probably) at Jerusalem, and placed judges in all the principal cities of the country. This great improvement relieved the king from the fatigue and great attention which the exercise of the judicial functions of royalty had exacted from the earlier kings, while it secured to the suers more prompt attention than they could by any other means receive. The king was very sensible of the importance of this step; and, in his anxiety that it should work well, gave an admirable charge to the judges; the force of which can only be well appreciated by those who perceive that the counteracting evils which he feared were precisely those by which the administration of justice in the East is at this day corrupted and disgraced. “Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for Jehovah, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now, let the fear of Jehovah be upon you; take heed and act uprightly; for with Jehovah our God there is no injustice, no respect of persons, no taking of bribes.” This was addressed to the judges appointed to the cities. In the address to the judges of the supreme tribunal at Jerusalem, it is not supposed, by any implication, that they could be partial or corrupt; and they are only reminded of the duty of judging according to the Divine law, the causes that came before them. This tribunal was composed of the most distinguished men among the priests, the Levites, and the family chiefs. In matters pertaining to religion, this tribunal was presided over by the high-priest Amariah, but in civil matters, or those in which the crown was interested, by Zebadiah, “the ruler,” or hereditary chief, of the tribe of Judah--an interesting indication that the forms of the patriarchal were not, even yet, entirely lost in those of the regal government.
About the same time the king made another tour through his dominions, from Beersheba in the south, to Mount Ephraim in the north, seeking to bring back the people more entirely “to Jehovah the God of their fathers.” In the northern districts which had been recovered or taken from Israel, the high places of the Ephraimites were not taken away, because they had not as yet “prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers,” as had the Judahites, whose high places had been taken away at the beginning of this reign.
FASTING AND PRAYER THEN VICTORY
The unfortunate expedition with Ahab against Ramoth Gilead being unsuccessful, tended much to lower Jehoshaphat in the estimation of the neighboring nations; and thus the alliance with the king of Israel brought its own punishment. The Ammonites and Moabites, who had been brought into a state of subjection by David, now began to conceive hopes of deliverance from the yoke under which they lay. It was their policy, however, not in the first instance to revolt from the kingdom to which they were immediately subject--that of Israel, but first to try their strength against the lesser kingdom of Judah. They therefore invaded that country from the south, by the way of Edom, supported by some Arabian hordes, which they had engaged in their cause, and who indeed are seldom loath to engage in any cause by which good prospects of spoil are offered. The expedition assumed the character of an Arabian invasion, and, as such, was so expeditious that the invaders had rounded the southern extremity of the Dead sea, and came to a halt in the famous valley of Engedi, before Jehoshaphat had the least intimation of their design Taken thus by surprise, he was much alarmed in the first instance; but by throwing himself unreservedly upon the protection and help of the Divine King, he ensured the safety of his kingdom, and tools the most becoming step which it was possible that a king of the chosen nation could take. He proclaimed a general fast throughout Judah, and the people gathered together from all quarters to Jerusalem, and stood there in and around the temple, to cry to God for help. And he heard them: for the spirit of prophecy fell upon one of the Levites, named Jahaziel, and in the name of Jehovah he directed that they should march to meet the enemy, whose station be indicated, not to fight, but to witness their extirpation and to seize the spoil. As they went forth early in the morning toward the wilderness of Tekoah, Jehoshaphat exerted himself to keep up the confidence of the people in the sufficiency of the Divine protection; and as they proceeded, he directed that the Levitical singers should march in front, and “in the beauty of holiness” (or in the same habits, and after the same manner as in the temple-service), should sing the praises of God, saying, “Praise Jehovah! for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” Surely never, from the beginning of the world, was there such a march as this against an army of hostile invaders. The event was such as the prophet had foreshown. It seems that the children of Lot had quarreled and fought with their Arabian allies; and when they had succeeded in destroying them, they turned their arms against each other, and fought with inextinguishable fury until none remained alive on the battle-field. So that when the Hebrews arrived at the place which the prophet had indicated, many a beating heart among them was relieved, and all were inconceivably astonished, to see the wilderness covered with the bodies of the slain--not one had escaped. The Judahites were three days in collecting an immense spoil of precious metals and stones, and valuable arms and raiment; and in the end it was found that more was collected than could betaken away. On the fourth day they returned home to Jerusalem, before entering which they held a solemn thanksgiving to the valley of Shaveh, or the King's dale, hence called the valley of Berachah (blessing), and also the valley of Jehoshaphat. After this they entered the city in triumphal procession, with music and with singing. The neighboring nations rightly ascribed this signal deliverance to the God of the Hebrews; and were for some time inspired with a salutary fear of molesting a people so highly favored.
FAILED NAVY VENTURE
The next undertaking of Jehoshaphat was an attempt to revive the ancient traffic of Solomon, by the Red sea, to the region of gold. For this purpose he built a navy at his port of Ezion-geber, at the head of the Elanitic gulf. But, in an evil day, he consented to allow Ahaziah, the king of Israel, to take part in the enterprise, in consequence of which, as a prophet forewarned him, his ships were wrecked soon after they left the port. Another expedition was proposed by the king of Israel: but Jehoshaphat declined, and appears to have relinquished all further designs of this nature. Josephus informs us that the ships which had been built were too large and unwieldy; and we may infer that Jehoshaphat discovered that he could not accomplish an enterprise of this nature in the want of such skilful shipwrights and able mariners as those with which the Phoenicians had constructed and manned the ships of Solomon.
One of the last public acts of Jehoshaphat's reign was that of taking part with Jehoram, king of Israel, in an expedition against the Moabites, who had revolted after the death of Ahab. Jehoshaphat was probably the more induced to lend his assistance by the consideration of the recent invasion of his own dominions by the same people. The circumstances and result of this expedition have been related in the preceding chapter. The success which was granted to it is entirely ascribed to the Divine favor toward the king of Judah.
JEHOSHAPHAT DIES
Soon after this Jehoshaphat “slept with his fathers,” after he had lived sixty years, and reigned twenty-five.
JEHORAM REIGNS
His eldest son, Jehoram, ascended the throne of Judah in the year 904 B.C., in the thirty-second year of his own age, and in the third year of the reign of his namesake and relative, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, in Israel. This, it will be remembered, was the prince who was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. The evil effects of this connection began now very manifestly to appear, and preponderated over the good example which the reign of Jehoshaphat had offered. In fact, Athaliah proved her descent by rivaling her mother, Jezebel, in idolatry, in pride, and in the part she took in public affairs after the death of Jehoshaphat. And, to complete the resemblance, she appears to have rendered her husband, as the mere instrument of her will and purposes, quite as effectual as Jezebel rendered Ahab.
JEHORAM SLAYS HIS BROTHERS
It was undoubtedly through her influence that the first act of Jehoram's reign was to destroy his six brothers, whom Jehoshaphat had amply provided for, and stationed (as governors, probably) in as many fenced cities of Judah. With them perished several of the first persons in the state, who had enjoyed the confidence of the late king, and had been active in promoting his laudable designs. This evidence of her power redoubled the audacity of the proud queen; and soon after, idolatry, which had been banished from Judah during the two preceding reigns, was restored, by public authority, to honor; and the sedulous endeavors made in the two former reins to reform the religion and morals of the people gave place to the efforts of new men to corrupt and ruin all. High places, similar to those in Israel, again appeared upon the hills of Judah; and the people were seduced and urged into idolatry and its concomitant abominations.
For these things heavy calamities were denounced against Jehoram, early in his reign, by the prophet Elisha[336] in a letter: and thus did that great prophet take cognizance of the affairs of Judah also. The evils that he threatened followed soon.
[336] The Masorete text here reads Elijah (2 Chronicles 21:12) instead of Elisha: for Elijah had been translated in the time of Jehoshaphat. 2 Kings 3:11.
JEHORAM DIES
The king of Edom, who assisted the king of Judah and Israel in the war against Moab, had, according to Josephus, been slain by his revolted subjects, and the new sovereign desired to signalize his accession, and to propitiate his subjects, by freeing them from the tribute to which his father had submitted. This essay was not at first successful; but although once defeated by Jehoram, who still had his father's army under his command, the Edomites succeeded in throwing the yoke of Judah from off their necks, according to the prophecy of Isaac to the founder of that nation.[337] Emboldened by this, the Philistines also rebelled, and, assisted by the Arabs who bordered on the Cushites, they invaded Judah, plundered and ravaged the whole country, and even Jerusalem and the royal palace. They led away into slavery all the women of the king's harem, except Athaliah, who was spared in anger, and made captive all the royal princes, except Ahaziah, otherwise called Jehoahaz, the youngest of them all. To consummate all, the king himself was smitten with an incurable disease in the bowels, from which he suffered for two years the most horrible torments, and at last, after a reign of eight years, died without being regretted. The voice of the people denied to his remains the honors of a royal burial, and a place in the sepulcher of the kings.
[337] To Esau Isaac said--”Thou shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” Genesis 27:40.
AHAZIAH REIGNS AND DIES
Ahaziah, his youngest son, was twenty-two years old when he succeeded his father. He reigned only one year; for following the evil counsels of his mother and the house of Ahab, he foolishly joined Jehoram of Israel in the war against Hazael king of Syria, the result of which, with his death, inflicted by Jehu, has been recorded in the preceding chapter.
ATHALIAH SLAYS HER GRANDCHILDREN
Not Jehu in Israel thirsted more after the blood of Ahab's house, than did Athaliah, in Judah, for the blood of her own children. She had long been the virtual possessor of the supreme power in Judah; but now she disdained an authority so precarious and indirect, and would reign alone. As even the most wicked persons seldom shed blood from absolute wantonness of cruelty, it may be considered that her spirit may have been rendered unusually savage at this time by the sanguinary proceedings of Jehu in Israel against the house to which she herself belonged, and in which she had lost, at one fell swoop, a mother, a brother, and a son, with many other of her near relatives. It must also have appeared to her that the sort of authority she had hitherto exercised, first as queen-consort and then as queen-mother, was now in very great danger; as it might be expected that whichever of her grandsons succeeded to the throne, he would prefer the counsels and guidance of his mother to her own. Here then were two powerful motives--dread of losing her power, and jealousy of being superseded by another woman--bringing her to the atrocious resolution of destroying all the children of her own son Ahaziah. She little considered that by this she was fulfilling a part of the mission against the house of Ahab which Jehu himself could not execute; for through herself the taint of Ahab's blood had been given to the house of David. Her fell purpose was promptly executed. All her grandsons were slain in one day, with the exception of Joash, an infant, who was stolen away by his aunt Jehosheba, the wife of the high-priest Jehoiada and daughter of the late king Ahaziah, and hidden with his nurse in one of the chambers of the temple. Thus, in the providence of God, the royal line of the house of David was preserved from utter extinction. No retreat could have been more secure than that which was chosen for the infant prince; for not only were the apartments of the temple under the sole direction of the priests, and to the innermost of which no others had access; but Athaliah had put herself out of the way of obtaining information of the fact by her entire neglect of the temple and the institutions connected with it. And although she did not, indeed could not, actually put down the temple-worship, her preference and favor was given to the temple of Baal, and his high-priest, Mattan, was upheld by her as of equal rank and importance with the high-priest of Jehovah.
ATHALIAH DESPISED
Now although the Judahites were but too prone to fall into idolatry, the good effects of the reforms of Asa and Jehoshaphat, and of the principles which the latter has been so careful to inculcate, did not so soon evaporate as to dispose the people generally to approve or concur in the rapid and decisive measures which Athaliah had taken in establishing the worship of Baal; and when to this was added their natural abhorrence of the barbarous massacre which rooted her throne in blood, and their dislike, in common with all orientals, at the public rule of a woman, we have a sufficient explanation of the fact that the public feeling was not with queen Athaliah, and that, indeed, her rule was regarded with such disgust as disposed the people to hail with joy the advent of their hidden king.
JOASH CROWNED
Joash remained six years concealed in the secret chambers of the temple, his existence even, much more his presence there, being unknown and unsuspected by Athaliah and others, as it was supposed he had perished in the slaughter of his father's sons. In the seventh year the high-priest Jehoiada judged that the fit time had arrived for the disclosure. He therefore made known the secret to some of the chiefs and military commanders on whom he could depend, and received from them the promise to concur in the bold act of proclaiming and crowning the rightful king. Joash was now only seven years of age; but good reason was seen to prefer the regency of such a man as Jehoiada to the reign of such a woman as Athaliah. The persons whom Jehoiada had admitted to his confidence went about the country gaining over the paternal chiefs, and inducing them, as well as the Levites not on duty, to repair to Jerusalem. When all the adherents thus acquired had come to the metropolis, the high-priest concerted with them the plan of operations. According to this it was determined that the partisans of the young prince should be divided into three bodies, one of which was to guard the prince in the temple, the second to keep all the avenues, and the third was placed at the gate leading to the royal palace. The people were to be admitted as usual to the outer courts. Then the armories of the temple were opened, and the spears, bucklers, and shields of King David were distributed to these parties, as well as to the Levites, who were to form an impenetrable barrier around the king during the ceremony. When all was disposed in this order, the high-priest appeared, leading by the hand the last scion of the royal house of David. He placed him by the pillar where the kings were usually stationed, and having anointed him with the sacred oil, he placed the crown upon his head, arrayed him in royal robes, and gave into his hands the book of the law, on which the usual oaths were administered to him. He was then seated on a throne which had been provided, in doing which he was hailed and recognized by the acclamations of “Long live the king.”
ATHALIAH SLAIN
By this time Athaliah had observed some indications of an extraordinary movement in the temple; and when these rejoicing clamors broke upon her ear, she hastened thither, and penetrated even to the court of the priests, where the sight met her view of the enthroned boy, crowned, and royally arrayed, while the hereditary chiefs, the military commanders and the Levites, stood at their several stations as in attendance on their king,-the latter, as was their wont in the temple, blowing their trumpets, and playing on their various instruments of music. No sooner did Athaliah behold this, than she rent her clothes, crying, “Treason! treason!” Jehoiada fearing that the guards would kill her on the spot, and thus pollute the holy place with human blood, which was most abhorrent to God, directed them to take her outside the temple courts, and there she was put to death. The king was then conducted with great pomp to the palace, escorted by all his guard, and there took possession of the throne of his fathers.
BAAL WORSHIP STOPPED
Jehoiada, without any formal appointment, appears to have been recognized, with one consent, as the guardian of the king and regent of the kingdom. He availed himself of the favorable dispositions which now existed, to induce the people to renew their ancient covenant with Jehovah. This precaution had become necessary from the long continuance of an idolatrous government. Actuated by the impulse thus received and the enthusiasm thus excited, and led by the priests and Levites of Jehovah, the people proceeded once more to extirpate the idolatries of Baal. They hastened to his temple, where they slew the high-priest Mattan before the altars, and then pulled the whole fabric to the ground. And not only at Jerusalem, but everywhere throughout the land, the temples, altars, and monuments of Baal were utterly destroyed.
JEHOIADA'S INFLUENCE
Jehoiada, being now at the head of affairs, both religious and civil, applied himself with great diligence in bringing into an orderly and efficient condition the administrations of both the court and temple, Those who hid signalized their zeal in the restoration of the king, or were otherwise distinguished for their abilities, were appointed to high posts in the state, while the services of the temple were brought back to the models of David and Solomon. The glory of restoring the fabric of the temple he reserved for the king, who accordingly, in the twenty-third year of his reign, thoroughly repaired that famous structure, after it had been built nearly one hundred and sixty years; and made numerous vessels of gold and silver for the sacred services, and presented burnt-offerings continually during the lifetime of Jehoiada, who died at the great age of one hundred and thirty-seven years. He was honored with a sepulcher among the kings of the family of David, “because he had done good in Israel.”
ZECHARIAH'S DEATH
We may estimate the merits of Jehoiada's administration from the evil consequences that followed his death. It then appeared that the good qualities which the king had seemed to manifest were the effects rather of the right counsels under which he had acted, than of any solid principles of good. As we have before seen stronger and older men than Joash yielding to the witcheries of idolatry, which seem so strange to us, we are the less surprised at the fall of this king. It now appeared what deep root idolatry had taken in the land during the years of its predominance under Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah: and the men of station who had imbibed or had been brought up in its principles, now reared themselves on high, as soon as the repressive power of God's high-priest was withdrawn. They repaired to the royal court, and by their attentions and flatteries so won upon the king that he was at length induced to give first his tolerance, and then his sanction, to the rank idolatries by which the two kingdoms had often been brought very low. Against this, Zechariah, the son of the late high-priest and a near relation to the king, raised his voice, and predicted the national calamities which would too surely follow; on which the people rose upon him, and, having received a consenting intimation from the king, stoned him to death in the very court of the temple. Thus did Joash repay the deep obligations, for his life and throne, which he owed to the house of Jehoiada. “The Lord look upon it and require it!”[338] was the prayer of the dying martyr. And He did require it. That very year, Hazael of Syria, who was then in possession of Gilead, advanced against Jerusalem, and, although his force was but small, defeated a large army which opposed him, and entered the, city, from which he returned with abundant plunder to his own country. The chiefs who had seduced Joash were slain in the battle; and the king himself, who had been grievously wounded, was soon after murdered by his own servants, and the public voice refused the honors of a royal burial to his remains. He reigned forty years.
[338] May not one of the essential differences of the Jewish and Christian dispensations be illustrated by the last words of two men respectively eminent in each, and dying under very similar circumstances? “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!” was the last cry of the dying Stephen.
AMAZIAH'S REIGN
Joash was succeeded on the throne by his son Amaziah, then twenty-five years of age. The first act of his reign was to punish the murderers of his father: but it is mentioned that he respected the law of Moses by not including their children in their doom; and this seems to show that a contrary practice had previously prevailed.
About the twelfth year of his reign, Amaziah took measures for reducing to their former subjection the Edomites, who had revolted in the time of Jehoram. Not satisfied with the strength he could raise in his own kingdom, the king of Judah hired a hundred thousand auxiliaries out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. But these were tainted with idolatry: on which account a prophet was commissioned to exhort Amaziah to forego their assistance, and dismiss them. By a memorable act of faith, the king at once yielded to this hard demand, and sent home the Israelites, for whose services he had already paid. He then gained a decisive victory over the Edomites in the Salt valley, at the southern extremity of the Dead sea. Ten thousand of the Edomites fell; and ten thousand more were cast down from the cliffs of their native mountains, and dashed in pieces.[339]
[339] This was probably at or in the neighborhood of Petra, of Mount Seir.
This victory was the ruin of Amaziah, whose conduct had been hitherto praiseworthy. The idols of Edom, which he brought home among the spoil, proved a snare to him; and, in the end, he fell to the worship of “the gods who could not deliver their own people:” for which he was, without effect, upbraided by a prophet, and threatened with destructions from God.
VICTORY OVER EDOMITES
The Israelites whom the king of Judah had dismissed from his army were filled with resentment at the indignity cast upon them, and probably disappointed in their hope of a share in the spoils of Edom. To testify their resentment, and to obtain compensation, they smote and plundered several of the towns of Judah, on their homeward march, and destroyed many of the inhabitants. It was probably on this account that Amaziah, elated by his victory over the Edomites, determined to make war upon Israel. It is singular that, instead of commencing, as usual, by some aggressive movement or overt act of warfare, Amaziah sent a formal challenge to the king of Israel, inviting a pitched battle, in the phrase, “Come, and let us look one another in the face.” The truly oriental answer of Joash seemed designed to dissuade him from this undertaking, but was conceived in terms not well calculated to accomplish the object: “A thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar of Lebanon, saying, 'Give thy daughter to my son to wife:' and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trod down the thistle. Thou sayest, 'Lo! I have smitten the Edomites,' and thy heart is lifted up. Abide now at home: why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, so that thou shouldest fall, and Judah with thee?”
But Amaziah was not to be thus deterred. The two kings met in battle. Amaziah was defeated and taken prisoner, and his army routed at Beth-shemesh. Joash then pursued his triumphant march to Jerusalem, which he plundered, and spared not to lay his hands upon the sacred things of the temple. He also broke down four hundred cubits of the city wall. He however restored Amaziah to his throne, but took hostages with him on his return to Samaria.
AMAZIAH DIES
The life of Amaziah ended in a conspiracy, which may have been induced by the disgrace which he had brought upon the nation. This conspiracy was discovered by him, and he hastened to the fortified town of Lachish. But he was pursued and slain by the conspirators, who brought back his body “upon horses to Jerusalem,” where a place in the sepulchers of his fathers was not denied him. He reigned twenty-nine years--B.C. 809.
UZZIAH'S SELF INTERESTS
Uzziah, otherwise called Azariah, was only five years old when his father was slain. The Judahites were in no haste to tender their allegiance to an infant. They waited until he was sixteen years of age, and he was then formally called to the throne.[340] “Much favorable influence upon the character of Uzziah is attributed to the early instruction and subsequent influence of the wise and holy Zechariah.[341] His adhesion to the principles of the theocracy secured him prosperity and honor. He paid equal attention to the arts of peace and of war; and he throve in all the under-takings, whether of war or peace, to which he put his hand. In the arts which belong to both, he encouraged and promoted various improvements; and it may be pardoned in an oriental king, if; in his improvements and undertakings, his own interest and glory was the inciting motive. It is rare, and in fact difficult, for an oriental monarch (considering the institutions by which he is surrounded, and the ideas which press upon him) to contemplate the interests of his people otherwise than as a contingent effect of undertakings in which his own interests and glory are the primary motives. So Uzziah performed the good deed of building towers and digging wells in the desert; but the reason immediately follows: “For he had many cattle both in the valleys and in the plains.” He also “loved husbandry,” and planted vineyards; and, accordingly, “he had ground-tillers and vine-dressers[342] in the mountains and in Carmel.” These were laudable things; for the people could not but be benefited by them, even though their benefit were less the immediate intention than the indirect effect.
[340] This naturally accounts for the length of the interregnum (2 Kings 15:1-2; 2 Chronicles 26:1). Amaziah was slain fifteen years current after the death of Jehoash, king of Israel (2 Kings 14:17), or fourteen years complete from the accession of Jeroboam II, his son: and Azariah, or Uzziah, did not begin to reign till the twenty-fifth of Jeroboam (according to the foregoing correction, instead of the twenty-seventh year, 2 Kings 15:1), which gives the length of the interregnum eleven years complete”--Hales.
[341] No one will, of course, confound this person with the prophet of the same name, who lived long after. It is not, in fact, known who he was. Some conjecture that he was the son of the Zechariah who was slain in the time of Joash. But we know of no other foundation for this but the name. The distance of time does not favor the conjecture which identifies him with the Zechariah of Isaiah 8:2.
[342] See p373.
The same may even less doubtfully be said of this king's military organizations and improvements. New fortifications were built and the old repaired. At Jerusalem not only were the injuries which the walls had sustained repaired, but the gates and angles were strengthened with towers; and on these were mounted engines invented by skilful men, and made under the king's encouragement and direction, for the purpose of discharging arrows and great stones. It may be doubtful whether these engines were invented by Hebrew engineers, or successfully copied by them from foreigners. We have certainly no opinion that the Hebrews had much genius for mechanical invention; but we are bound to say the antiquities of Egypt, in the numerous warlike scenes which they represent, do not, as far as we know, contain any examples of projectile engines: and it must be admitted that in the art of war many ingenious devices originate with nations not otherwise distinguished for their inventive faculties.
UZZIAH'S MILITARY ENGAGEMENTS
Uzziah provided ample stores of weapons and armor--spears, shields, helmets, breastplates, bows, and stone-slings--for the numerous body which he enrolled as ready to be called into action, and which consisted of not less than 307,500 men under 2,600 paternal chiefs. This formed a sort of militia, divided into bands, liable to be called into actual service by rotation, according to the number required.
Egyptian Vintage and Vine-dressers With this force, and under these arrangements, Uzziah was enabled to establish and extend his power. He recovered possession of the port of Elath on the Red sea; he got possession of the principal Philistine towns, Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. The Arab hordes on the borders were subdued; and the Ammonites were reduced to tribute.
UZZIAH BECOMES LEPER
Elated by all this prosperity, the king of Judah saw not why he should be precluded from a distinction which other monarchs enjoyed, and which his neighbor of Israel probably exercised--that of officiating on particular occasions at the incense-altar, as high-priest. He made the attempt. He went into the holy place, which none but the priests might lawfully enter, to offer incense on the altar there; but was followed by the high-priest, Azariah, and by eighty other priests, who opposed his design, and warned him of his trespass. The king, made wrathful by this opposition, seized the censer to offer incense; but in that moment he was smitten with leprosy, the marks of which appeared visibly on his forehead. On perceiving this, the priests thrust him forth as a pollution; nay, confounded and conscience-smitten, he hastened to leave the place.[343] From that day he was obliged to live apart as a leper, and his son Jotham administered the affairs of the government in his father's name. The year in which this happened is not well determined; but the whole duration of his reign was fifty-two years. This is the Iongest reign of any king of Judah, with the sole exception of Manasseh. Isaiah received his appointment to the prophetic office in the year that King Uzziah died (B.C. 757); and Amos, Hoshea, and probably Joel, began to prophecy in his reign.
[343] To this prodigy Josephus adds an earthquake, which, he says, shook the earth with such violence that the roof of the temple was rent; and one half of a mountain on the west of Jerusalem fell, or rather slipped, into the valley below, covering the royal gardens.
JOTHAM'S REIGN
The death of Uzziah left the kingdom under the same actual ruler, but exchanged his regency for the sovereignty. Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. He was a good and prosperous prince, and during the sixteen years of his separate reign continued the improvements and plans of his father. He built several fortresses, and confirmed the subjection of the Ammonites to his scepter. It was in this reign[344] that the city of Rome was founded, with the destinies of which the Hebrews were in the end to be so intimately connected. Jotham died in the year B.C. 741.
[344] B.C. 748, or according to others, 750 or 752, all which dates fell in this reign.
AHAZ' REIGN
Ahaz succeeded Jotham when he was twenty years of age. He proved the most corrupt monarch that the house of David had as yet produced. He respected neither Jehovah, the law, nor the prophets; he broke through all the salutary restraints which law and usage imposed upon the Hebrew kings, and regarded nothing but his own depraved inclinations. He introduced the Syrian idolatry into Jerusalem, erected altars to the Syrian gods, altered the temple in many respects, according to the Syrian model, and finally caused it to be entirely shut up. For these things, adversities and punishments came soon upon him.
JUDAH ATTACKED
Pekah king of Israel, and Rezin king of Syria, had formed an alliance against Judah in the last year of Jotham, which began to take effect as soon as Ahaz had evinced the unworthiness of his character. The object of this alliance appears to have been no. less than to dethrone the house of David, and to make “the son of Tabeal” king in the room of Ahaz.[345]
[345] Isaiah 7:5-6. Of this “son of Tabeal” nothing is known, although much has been conjectured. Some make it to be Pekah himself, but the interpretation on which it is founded is not very sound, although the thing itself might not be unlikely.
In this war Elath was taken from Judah by the king of Syria, who restored it to the Edomites. He also defeated Ahaz in battle and carried away large numbers of his subjects as captives to Damascus. Pekah on his part was equally successful. He slew in one day 120,000 men of Judah, and carried away captives not fewer than 200,000 women and children, together with much spoil, to Samaria. But on his arrival there he was met by the prophet Obed, and by some of the chiefs of Ephraim. The former awakened the king's apprehensions for the consequences of the Divine anger on account of the evil already committed against the house of Judah, and exhorted him not to add to this evil and to their danger, by reducing the women and children of that kindred state to bondage. The prophet was vigorously seconded by the chiefs, who positively declared to the troops, “Ye shall not bring in hither these captives to increase our guilt before Jehovah. Intend ye to add to our sin and to our trespass? for our trespass is great, and fierce is the wrath of Jehovah against Israel.” On hearing this the warriors abandoned their captives, and left them in the hands of the chiefs, who, with the concurrence and help of the people, “took the captives, and from the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed and shod them, and gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brethren.” This beautiful incident comes over our sense as might some strain of soft and happy music amid the bray of trumpets and the alarms of war. It also proves that, even in the worst of times, a righteous few were found, even in Israel, who honored the God of their fathers and stood in dread of his judgments.
ISAIAH'S ACCOUNT
The narrative in Isaiah records an unsuccessful attempt of the confederates against Jerusalem, the proper place of which in the history is not easily found, but which may appear to have been posterior to the occurrences which have been related. At the same time, the Edomites and Philistines invaded the south of Judah, and took possession of several cities of the low country, with their villages, and occupied them. Thus harassed on every hand, the besotted king rejected a token of deliverance which Isaiah was commissioned to offer him from God, under the pretext that he “would not tempt Jehovah,” but in reality, because he had already chosen another alternative. This was to induce Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria, to make a diversion in his favor by invading the kingdoms of Syria and Israel.
ASSYRIA'S ATTACK ON ISRAEL AND SYRIA
Pul, the father of this king, was the first Assyrian monarch who took part in the affairs of the West. By invading Israel, he had made known the power of that monarchy to Syria and Palestine. Tiglath-Pileser, for his own objects, lent a willing ear to the suit of Ahaz, who professed himself his vassal, and sent him a subsidy of all the sacred and royal treasures. He marched an army westward, defeated and slew Rezin the king of Syria, took Damascus, and sent the inhabitants away into Assyria--thus putting an end to that monarchy of Damascene-Syria, which has so often come under our notice. At the same time he carried away the tribes beyond Jordan--Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh--captives to Media, where they were planted in Halah, Habor, and on the River Gozan; and to them he added the other half of the tribe of Manasseh which was seated in Galilee.
Syria, with the countries of Gilead and Bashan, were thus annexed to the dominions of the Assyrian king, who remained some time at Damascus, settling his conquests. Ahaz had small cause to rejoice in this alteration, for although he was delivered from his immediate fears, the formidable Assyrian had now become his near neighbor, and was not likely to treat him with much consideration; and in fact the result was that “he distressed Ahaz, and strengthened him not.” The king of Judah, however, found it prudent to visit Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus, to congratulate him on his victories, and to tender his homage. This visit only taught him new fashions of idolatry and sin; which on his return home he continued to practise apparently until his death, which took place in B.C. 725, after a disgraceful reign of sixteen years. He was allowed a grave in Jerusalem; but no place in the sepulcher of the kings was granted to him.