who hastened to the Temple, and found the king standing by the entrance amid the princes, the trumpets blowing and the singers praising God. She rent her clothes and cried out "Treason!" But Jehoiada commanded the five captains to carry her out of the Temple, and to cut down any who tried to follow her; and they slew her at the entrance of "the horse-gate" by the royal palace. Jehoiada then renewed the covenant, as in the time of David, of the people and the king with each other and Jehovah. The Temple of Baal was razed, the idols destroyed, and his priest Mattan slain before his own altar. The service of the Temple was arranged according to the order prescribed by David. The king was brought in solemn procession from the Temple through the great gate to the royal palace, and set upon the throne of Solomon. By the death of Athaliah the last member of Ahab's house had perished: "all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet."

FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF AHAB TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES. B.C. 884-721.

§ 1. State of the two kingdoms-ISRAEL: Fourth Dynasty; Tenth king, Jehu-Mentioned on an Assyrian monument-Eleventh king, Jehoahaz. § 2. JUDAH: Eighth king, Joash-The high-priest Jehoiada-Restoration of the Temple-Apostasy-The PROPHETS-Martyrdom of Zechariah-Syrian invasion of Judah. §3. ISRAEL: Twelfth king, JehoashDeath of ELISHA. § 4. JUDAH: Ninth king, Amaziah-Victory over Edom-Jerusalem taken by Jehoash. § 5. ISRAEL: Thirteenth king, Jeroboam II.-Political revival of the kingdom-The prophet JONAHFourteenth king, Zachariah-Supposed Interregnum-The prophet Ho SEA-End of Jehu's dynasty-Fifteenth king, Shallum-Civil War. § C. Fifth Dynasty-Sixteenth and seventeenth kings, Menahem and Pekahiah-First invasion of Israel by Assyria under Pul-Sixth DynastyEighteenth king, Pekah-State of Israel as described by the prophets AMOS and HOSEA. § 7. JUDAH: Tenth king, Uzziah-His good reign and successful wars-Profanes the Temple and dies a leper-Eleventh king, Jotham-His piety and prosperity. § 8. Twelfth king, Ahaz War with Syria and Israel-Elath taken by Syria-Jewish captives restored by Israel-Ahaz calls in Tiglath-pileser-Destruction of the kingdom of Damascus-Captivity of the Trans-jordanic and northern tribes-Ahaz goes to Damascus-His shameless idolatries. § 9. Thirteenth king, Hezekiah-Reform of Religion-His great Passover-He destroys the Brazen Serpent-Defeats the Philistines-Revolts from Assyria. § 10. ISRAEL: Nineteenth and last king, Hoshea; the best of the kings of Israel-Symptoms of a revival-Revolts from Shalmaneser-First Assyrian invasion-Hoshea's secret league with Egypt, and imprisonment-Siege and capture of Samaria-END OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL AND CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES-Geographical extent of the Captivity-Subsequent history of the captives-New colonization of Samaria.

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§1. THE fair promise of a new reign of religion in both kingdoms was soon overcast. The zeal of which Jehu so loudly boasted, and which led him through such seas of blood, was too hot to last, and the character of Joash was yet to be formed. Turning first to Israel, JEHU, the tenth king, reigned twenty-eight years, and founded the fourth dynasty, which consisted of five kings, but lasted a much longer time than Omri's, namely, 111 years. This prolongation of his dynasty was expressly granted as the reward of his zeal against the house of Ahab. Nor was this all. Under the house of Jehu, Israel became almost as great as she had been immediately after the disruption. Jehoash, the grandson of Jehu, entered Jerusalem as a conqueror. He also drove back the Syrians, and his son Jeroboam II. recovered the eastern frontier from Hamath to the Dead Sea. Jehu, however, became heedless of God's law, and declined into the sins and idolatry of Jeroboam. From his reign began the loss of those territories which had been first occupied in the conquest of the land. "Jehovah began to cut Israel short." Hazael overran the whole land of the two and a half tribes, in Gilead and Bashan, east of the Jordan, as far south as the Arnon. Such are the few brief records of Jehu's long reign. He died and was buried at Samaria, and was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz.'

In Jehu's reign we are brought into contact for the first time, at least since the mention of Chedorlaomer and his allies, with the great monarchies of Western Asia. We possess in the British Museum an obelisk of black basalt, brought by Mr. Layard from Nimroud, which was set up by SHALMANESER I., king of Assyria, to commemorate his victories. It appears that, while Benhadad II. and Hazael were warring against Israel, they had to sustain a conflict with Assyria; and among the tributaries to Shalmaneser appears the name of “Jehu (or Yahua), the son of Khumri" (Omri). The erroneous patronymic is accounted for by Omri's being regarded as the founder of the kingdom of Samaria, the name of the city itself appearing on the obelisk in the form "Beth-khumri" (house of Omri.)*

5

JEHOAHAZ, the eleventh king of Israel, and the second of the house of Jehu, succeeded his father in the twenty-third

זין

year of Joash, king of Judah, and reigned seventeen years in Samaria. He followed the sins of Jeroboam, and suffered from constant and unsuccessful wars with the kings of Syria, Hazael and his son Benhadad III. So low was Israel reduced that Jehoahaz was only suffered to maintain a force of fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 foot. "The King of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing." Still God did not withdraw all his compassion from them, for the sake of his covenant with Abraham; and in answer to the prayers of Jehoahaz, He raised up deliverers for them in this king's son and grandson, Jehoash and Jeroboam II. Jehoash seems to have reigned two years in conjunction with his father." The death of Jehoahaz was simultaneous with that of Joash, king of Judah, and very little before that of Hazael, king of Damascus.

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§ 2. JOASH (abbreviated from JEHOASH), the eighth king of Judah, was the youngest son of Ahaziah, the sixth king, and of Zibiah, of Beersheba. In the year B.C. 884 he was left apparently the sole survivor of the stem of David, lopped as it had been by repeated massacres. Jehoshaphat's sons were all slain by their eldest brother Jehoram. All Jehoram's sons were killed by the invading Philistines and Arabians except Ahaziah. Ahaziah's collateral kindred were put to death by Jehu, and his sons were all massacred by their grandmother Athaliah except Joash, whose escape and elevation to the kingdom we have already related. He was proclaimed in the seventh year of Jehu, being himself seven years old, and he reigned forty years at Jerusalem." For the first twenty-three years and more he kept his piety, and enjoyed high prosperity, under the guidance of his early guardian, the high-priest Jehoiada. His reign began, as we have seen, with the destruction of the idols, and the renewal of the covenant of Jehovah, but the people still worshiped in the high places." In conjunction with Jehoiada, Joash undertook the reparation of the Temple, which had not only been plundered of its vessels for the service of Baal, but injured in its fabric, during the reign of Athaliah. The king's zeal was not satisfied with the progress made by Jehoiada and the priests in using the free contributions of the people,

6 B. C. 856-839.

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i. 3.

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2 K. xiii. 1-7, 22; comp. Amos

The abbreviated form is used in Chronicles; and we keep it as a convenient distinction from Jehoash, king of Israel. "Chap. xxiii. § 15. B.C. 878-839; 2 K. xii. 1; 2 'Fire, or sacrifice, of Jehovah." Chron. xxiv, 1. 2 K. xii. 2, 3.

2 K. xiii. 5, 22-24, xiv. 25, 27. B. C. 841-839.

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and there seems even to be a charge of peculation against the Levites. So the king constructed the first " moneybox" in the well-known form of a chest with a hole in the lid, which was placed at the gate of the Temple for offerings, and each day its contents were counted by the king's officers and handed over at once to the artificers. This was done in the twenty-third year of Joash: the repairs of the Temple were soon finished, and there was enough money left to provide vessels for the service of the sanctuary. The money brought for trespass and sin offerings belonged to the priests.'

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The order of the Temple-service was maintained during the life of Jehoiada, the high-priest, who died at the age of 130, and was buried among the kings, for his services to the house of God.15 A most unhappy change ensued. The princes of Judah, who had doubtless been jealous of the highpriest's unbounded influence, seem to have persuaded the king that it was time to be his own master; and the first use that he and they made of this new liberty was to neglect the house of Jehovah, and to serve groves and idols." But not without warning and remonstrance. At this point of the history occurs that remarkable passage which introduces the line of prophets whose writings remain to us, and who began to appear about this time, Elisha being still alive:-"Yet He sent prophets unto them, to bring them again unto Jehovah; and they_testified against them: but they would not give ear. Nay more, by adding to their sins the blood of the martyr whom Christ names with righteous Abel "—both victims to the passion that knows the truth and hates it— they made themselves a type of the generation that slew the

9917

142 K. xii. 4-16; 2 Chron. xxiv. 4-14.

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16. 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, 18.

17 2 Chron. xxiv. 19. JONAH was probably the earliest of the extant prophets; but there is great uncertainty as to the King of Nineveh to whom he was sent. Some suppose it was Adrammelech II. (about B.C. 840), others Pul, as late as B.C. 750.

15 2 Chron. xxiv. 15, 16. The common chronology places his death at B.C. 850, and, as the subsequent events show, it must have been some time before 841 or 840, when Hazael died. This would make him about ninetyfive at the time of the insurrection But he certainly prophesied under or against Athaliah. Those who con- before Jeroboam II., B.C. 825-784 (1 sider this incredible have suggested Kings xiv. 25). JOEL, who propheemendations which reduce the num- sied in Judah, has been placed as ber to 103 or even eighty-three (Lord early as the reign of Joash; but the Arthur Hervey, Genealogies of our majority of critics place him under Lord, p, 304; and Dict. of Bible, art. Uzziah. Jehoiada).