15 : 1 IN the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead. In the second year of Pekah the son of his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he waxed exceeding strong. Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them. And he built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle; in the lowland also, and in the plain: and he had husbandmen and vinedressers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields; for he loved husbandry. Moreover Uzziah had an army of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their reckoning made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains. The whole number of the heads of fathers’ houses, even the mighty men of valour, was two thousand and six hundred. And under their hand was a trained army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king

14 against the enemy. And Uzziah prepared for them, even for all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the battlements, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.

16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against the LORD his God; for he went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men: and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God. Then Uzziah was wroth; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy brake forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the altar of incense. And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from thence; yea, himself hastened also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write. So Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

27: 1 Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah had done: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers. He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render unto him, in the second year also, and in the third. So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. Now the rest of the

Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Howbeit the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.

acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the 8 kings of Israel and Judah. He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and 9 reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead.

Fifty-two Years, 27th of Jeroboam II. to 1st of Pekah, of Israel.

8. In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam 9 reign over Israel in Samaria six months. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of 10 Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against 11 him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the 12 kings of Israel. This was the word of the LORD which he spake unto Jehu, saying, Thy sons to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass. 13 Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of 14 Judah; and he reigned the space of a month in Samaria. And Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in 15 Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the 16 kings of Israel. Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the borders thereof, from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up. 17 In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi 18 to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of 19 Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with 20 him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of 21 Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land. Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the 22 chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his stead. 23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to 24 reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith

25 he made Israel to sin. And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the castle of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he slew him, and reigned in his stead. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

JEROBOAM died, and was succeeded by his son Zechariah. This was the fourth generation of the house of Jehu, and it will be seen that he reigned only six months. From this time Israel went rapidly to its ruin. The height of prosperity reached in the reign of Jeroboam was but the last flicker of the light before final extinction. A little over thirty years after Jeroboam’s death—forty at most—the words of the prophets were fulfilled, and the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and its people carried away by the Assyrian. J. O.—In the thirteen or fourteen years between the death of Jeroboam II. and that of Uzziah, the northern kingdom saw no less than four kings, of whom each was removed by violence. In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah, Jeroboam II. was succeeded by his son Zechariah, the fourth and last monarch of the line of Jehu. Holy Scripture here specially marks the fulfilment of Divine prediction (2 K. 10:30), in the continuance of this dynasty “unto the fourth generation.” Of his brief reign, which lasted only six months, we read that it was characterized by continuance in the sins of Jeroboam. A conspiracy by one Shallum, not otherwise known, issued, not in the private assassination but in the public murder of the king. So terribly had all bonds of society been loosened. The regicide occupied the throne for only one month. Menahem, whom Josephus describes as the general of Zechariah, advanced against Shallum from Tirzah, the ancient royal residence, and slew the usurper. The assumption of the crown by Menahem seems to have met some resistance. At any rate, we read of an expedition of Menahem against a place called Tiphsah (“a ford”), which had refused to open its gates to him. The town and its surrounding district were taken, and Menahem took horrible vengeance on the population. The reign of Menahem, which, as regards religion, resembled that of his predecessors, lasted ten years. But it may truly be characterized as the beginning of the end, for with it commenced the acknowledged dependence of the northern kingdom upon Assyria, of which the ultimate outcome was the fall of Samaria and the deportation of Israel into the land of the conqueror. Leaving aside questions of chronology, the Assyrian monuments enable us more clearly to understand the biblical account of the relations between Menahem and his eastern suzerain (verses 19, 20). Thus we learn that after a period of decadence which may account for the independent progress of Jeroboam II., perhaps even for the occupation of Tiphsah by Menahem, a military adventurer of the name of Pul, apparently sprung from the lower orders, seized the crown of Assyria and assumed the title of Tiglath-pileser II. The first monarch of that name, five centuries earlier, had founded the power of Assyria, which was now to be re-established. In the very year of his accession he vanquished and impaled the king of Babylon, and henceforth himself assumed that title. Two years later he turned his armies to the west, and after a siege of three years took the Syrian city Arpad, in the neighborhood of Hamath, and not far from Damascus (cf. Isa. 10:9; 36:19; 2 K. 18:34; Jer. 49:23). Without following his further military expeditions, it may suffice to state that three years later (in the eighth year of his reign), he is described on the monuments as receiving the tribute of Menahem of Israel among those of other vassal kings. The shattering of the power of the Syrian confederacy and the occupation of Hamath fully explain the biblical notice of the advance of Pul or Tiglath-pileser II. into the northern kingdom. His progress was for the time arrested by the submission of Menahem, and his payment of an annual tribute of one thousand talents of silver, or about £375,000, which the king of Israel levied by a tax of fifty shekels, or about £6 5s., on all the wealthier inhabitants of his realm. This would imply that there were sixty thousand contributors to this tax—a large figure—indicating at the same time the wide prosperity of the country and the extent of the burden which the tribute must have laid on the people. On these hard conditions Menahem was “confirmed” in “the kingdom” by the Assyrian conqueror. A. E.

8-12. Reign of Zechariah over Israel. Fulfilment of the Promise made to Jehu. The writer has nothing to record of Zechariah but his murder by Shallum after a reign of six months. Verses 8, 9 and 11 contain the usual formula. Verse 10 gives the only event that needed record. Verse 12 recalls to the reader’s attention a previous passage in which a prophecy had been mentioned, whereof Zechariah’s reign was the fulfilment. Hammond.

10. Before the people.** Rather “before people.” Openly and publicly, that is, as Jehu, the founder of the dynasty, had slain his own predecessor Joram (2 K. 9 : 24). The slaughter of Zechariah fulfilled the prophecy of Amos, that “God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword” (Amos 7 : 9), and also that of Hosea, that Jehovah would “avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu” (Hos. 1 : 4).

12. This was the word of the Lord.** This loss of the kingdom in the person of his fourth descendant was in exact accordance with the prediction of a prophet, probably Elisha, to Jehu, that his children should keep the throne until the fourth generation. B. C.

—And so it came to pass. The house of Jehu ceased to reign in the fourth generation of the descendants of its founder. In breaking off from the divinely chosen house of David, and choosing to themselves a king, the Israelites had sown the seeds of instability in their state and put themselves at the mercy of any ambitious pretender. Five dynasties had already borne rule in the two hundred years that the kingdom had lasted; four more were about to hold the throne in the remaining fifty years of its existence. “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel,” though said of Reuben only, fairly expressed the character of the entire kingdom, with which Reuben cast in its lot at the time of the separation.

13-15. Short and Unimportant Reign of Shallum.** Three verses suffice for the reign of Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who held the throne for only thirty days. Hearing of his conspiracy, Menahem, the son of Gadi—“the general,” as Josephus calls him—marched from Tirzah to Samaria, got Shallum into his power, and put him to death (verse 14). The writer concludes with the usual formula. Hammond.

17-22. Reign of Menahem, Ten Years.**

19. Pul, the king of Assyria.** This is the first distinct mention which we find in Scripture of Assyria as an aggressive power. From the native monuments we learn that she had been now for above a century pushing her conquests beyond the Euphrates, and seeking to reduce under her dominion the entire tract between that river and Egypt. One great monarch had conquered Northern Syria, and forced Phœnicia to pay him tribute; another, his son

(Shalmaneser II.), had invaded Southern Syria, reduced Hamath, ravaged the territory of Damascus, and received tribute from Jehu; a third, the grandson of this last, had taken Damascus itself, and claimed authority, not only over Phœnicia and Samaria, but over Philistia and Edom. It is even doubtful whether Judea had not acknowledged Assyrian suzerainty, and consented that her monarchs should receive their investiture from the hands of the Ninevite king. But hitherto there had been no hostile invasion of Jewish or Israelite soil by an Assyrian army; and so the sacred historian, to whom we may ascribe the natural feelings of a patriot, had allowed himself to maintain silence with respect to the encroachments of this hated and dreaded power. At length, however, an actual invasion took place—Pul “came against the land”—and it would have been no longer honest to maintain silence. The Assyrians are therefore now at last formally introduced into the history. B. C.—The monarch who inaugurated the most brilliant period of Assyria’s history bore the two names of Tiglath-pileser and Pul. Properly, Tiglath-pileser (Tiglathi-palzira) was the throne-name which he bore in Assyria, as monarch of that country, and Pul (Pulu) was the throne-name which he bore in Babylonia, as king of Babylon. The double nomenclature was not readily understood by foreigners. We are indebted for the identification to a cuneiform document. G. R.

23-26. Short Reign of Pekahiah.** The short reign of Pekahiah was wholly undistinguished. He held the throne for two years only, or perhaps for parts of two years, and performed no action that any historian has thought worthy of record. Our author has nothing to relate of him but the circumstances of his death (verse 25), wherewith he combines the usual formulae (verses 23, 24, 26). Hammond.

Of Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, nothing is recorded except that he maintained the calf worship, like his predecessors, doing “that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, by not departing from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin” (verse 24), and that he was barbarously murdered by one of his captains—Pekah, the son of Remaliah. The scene of his slaughter was the royal palace in Samaria, where he was attacked by Pekah at the head of a band of fifty Gileadite desperadoes, who slew him in his harem, with the two attendants who alone were faithful to him, Argob and Arieh. G. R.

15 : 27 In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD : he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali ; and he carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

17 : 1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria ; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea ; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year : therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

The brief text above, from 2 Kings, must be supplemented from 2 Chron. 28 : 5-15 and Isa. 7 : 1-9 ; 8 : 1-8 ; and the Assyrian inscriptions. B.

51st of Uzziah to 20th of Jotham.

THE short reign—two years—of Pekahiah, son and successor of Menahem, ended with conspiracy and his violent death ; one Pekah, son of Remaliah, a captain of his, being the successful usurper. During his reign of twenty years—religiously like his predecessors, doing only evil—Tiglath-pileser came up against him, dismembering his kingdom by wresting from it the region of Naphtali, including several important cities (mentioned in verse 29). This Pekah became prominent, associated with Rezin, king of Syria, in wars with Ahaz, king of Judah, with various success ; besieging Jerusalem unsuccessfully (2 K. 16 : 5), but smiting the army of Ahaz with immense slaughter (according to 2 Chron. 28 : 5-8). To these events we refer more in detail in tracing the history of Judah. H. C.

The coming ruin was hastened by Pekah, who, after slaying Pekahiah the son of Menahem, ascended the throne B.C. 759. He allied himself with the Damascene kingdom, the hereditary enemy of Israel, against Judah, probably with the hope of strengthening himself by the overthrow of Judah and the dethronement of the house of David, against the encroaching power of Assyria. The ancient hatred of Ephraim toward Judah, which had so frequently during the last two centuries led to sanguinary conflicts, was now once more to burst forth with fury, and to hasten the destruction of Ephraim. The Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser, whose assistance had been invoked by Ahaz, having first executed against Damascus the judgment predicted by Amos (chap. 1 : 3 sqq.), took the provinces east of the Jordan and the northern portions of those west of this river (Galilee), and carried away the tribes inhabiting these regions into the interior of Asia, about 740 B.C. This was the second stage of the judgment. Isaiah (9 : 9) describes the people of Samaria, however, as receiving all such Divine corrections with arrogance and presumption, and comforting themselves with wicked hopes of better times. O.

During the lifetime of Menahem Israel remained tributary to Assyria, and the Assyrian king did not again turn his arms against the west. After the death of Menahem and the murder of his son Pekahiah, however, important changes took place. The usurper, Pekah, in alliance with Rezin of Damascus, attacked

Judah with the intention of overthrowing the dynasty of David and placing on the throne of Jerusalem a vassal king whose father’s name, Tabeel, shows that he must have been a Syrian. Jotham, the Jewish king, died shortly after the war began, and the youth and weakness of his son and successor Ahaz laid Judah open to its antagonists, who were further aided by a disaffected party within the capital itself (Isa. 8:6). In his extremity, therefore, Ahaz appealed to the Assyrian monarch, who was already seeking an excuse for crushing Damascus, and reducing the Jewish kingdom, with its important fortress of Jerusalem, to a condition of vassalage. In B.C. 734, accordingly, Tiglath-pileser marched into Syria. Rezin was defeated in a pitched battle, his chariots broken in pieces, his captains captured and impaled, while he himself escaped to Damascus, where he was closely besieged by the enemy. The territory of Damascus was now devastated with fire and sword, its sixteen districts were “overwhelmed as with a flood,” and the beautiful gardens by which the capital was surrounded were destroyed, every tree being cut down for use in the siege. The city itself, however, proved too strong to be taken by assault; so, leaving a sufficient force before it to reduce it by famine, Tiglath-pileser proceeded against the late allies of the Syrian king. Israel was the first to be attacked. The north of the country was overrun, and the tribes beyond the Jordan carried into captivity. Gilead and Abel-beth-maachah are mentioned by name as among the towns that were taken and sacked. The Assyrians then fell upon Ammon and Moab, which had aided Israel and Syria in the attack on Judah, and next made their way along the sea-coast into the country of the Philistines, who had seized the opportunity of the late war to shake off the yoke of the Jewish king. Their leader, Khanun or Hanno of Gaza, fled into Egypt; but Gaza itself was captured and laid under tribute, its gods carried away, and an image of the Assyrian king set up in the temple of Dagon. Ekron and Ashdod were also punished, and Metinti of Ashkelon committed suicide in order to escape the vengeance of the conqueror. Now that all fear of danger in the south had been removed, Tiglath-pileser marched back into the northern kingdom and took Samaria. Sayce.

Now, for the first time since the separation of the brother-nations, the northern kingdom had entered into a formal league against Judah with a heathen nation, and that its hereditary foe, Syria. And the significance of this fact deepens as we remember that the final object was not merely to conquer Judah, but to dethrone the house of David, and substitute for it a Syrian, presumably a heathen ruler. So forgetful had Israel become of its great hope, and of the very meaning of its national existence. For the first time also, at least in the biblical record, does the Assyrian power now appear on the scene of Palestine, first to be bought off by Menahem (2 K. 15:19, 20); then to be invoked by Ahaz, with the result of rendering Judah tributary, and finally of overthrowing Israel. The continuance of the northern kingdom was now only a question of time, and the exile of Israel had actually begun. Judah had become dependent on Assyria, and henceforth was only able fitfully and for brief periods to shake off its yoke, till it finally shared the fate of its sister-kingdom. Lastly, Syria ceased to exist as an independent power, and became a province of Assyria.

But in the history of the kingdom of God every movement is also a step toward the great goal, and all judgment becomes larger mercy. So was it on this occasion also. Henceforth the whole historical scene was changed. The prophetic horizon had enlarged. The falling away of Israel had become already initially the life of the world. The fullest predictions of the person and work of the Messiah and of His universal kingdom date from this period. Even the new relations of Israel formed the basis for wider conceptions and spiritual progression. Those petty wars with Syria, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia, which had filled the previous history, now ceased to be factors in it, and Israel found itself face to face with the great world-power. This contact gave new form and shape to the idea of a universal kingdom of God, wide as the world, which had hitherto only been presented in dim outline, and of which only the germ had existed in the religious consciousness of the people. Thus in every respect this was the beginning of a new era—an era of judgment indeed, but also of larger mercy; an era of new development in the history of the kingdom of God; a type also of the final hardening of Israel in the rejection of their Messiah, and of the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers. A. E.

13th of Ahaz to 6th of Hezekiah.