Afflicted with leprosy, Uzziah was unfit to reign as king, and Jotham
administered the affairs of Judah for twenty-five years before the
death of his father. (37) Jotham possessed so much piety that his
virtues added to those of two other very pious men suffice to atone for
all the sins of the whole of mankind committed from the hour of
creation until the end of all time. (38)
Ahaz, the son of Jotham; was very unlike him. "From first to last he
was a sinner." (39) He abolished the true worship of God, forbade the
study of the Torah, set up an idol in the upper room of the Temple, and
disregarded the Jewish laws of marriage. (40) His transgressions are
the less pardonable, because he sinned against God knowing His grandeur
and power, as appears from his reply to the prophet. Isaiah said to
him: "Ask a sign of God, as, for instance, that the dead should arise,
Korah come up from Sheol, or Elijah descend from heaven." The king's
answer was: "I know thou hast the power to do any of these, but I do
not wish the Name of God to be glorified through me." (41)
The only good quality possessed by Ahaz was respect for Isaiah. (42) To
avoid his reproaches, Ahaz would disguise himself when he went abroad,
so that the prophet might not recognize him. (43) Only to this
circumstance, joined to the fact he was the father of a pious son and
the son of an equally pious father, is it to be ascribed that, in spite
of his wickedness, Ahaz is not one of those who have forfeited their
portion in the world to come. But he did not escape punishment; on the
contrary, his chastisement was severe, not only as king but also as
man. In the ill-starred war against Pekah, the king of the northern
kingdom, he lost his first-born son, a great hero. (44)
Pekah, however, was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his victory,
for the king of Assyria invaded his empire, captured the golden calf at
Dan, and led the tribes on the east side of Jordan away into exile. The
dismemberment of the Israelitish kingdom went on apace for some years.
Then the Assyrians, in the reign of Hoshea, carried off the second
golden calf together with the tribes of Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, and
Naphtali, leaving but one-eighth of the Israelites in their own land.
The larger portion of the exiles was taken to Damascus. After that
Israel's doom overtook it with giant strides, and the last ruler of
Israel actually hastened the end of his kingdom by a pious deed. After
the golden calves were removed by the Assyrians, Hoshea, the king of
the north, abolished the institution of stationing the guards on the
frontier between Judah and Israel to prevent pilgrimages to Jerusalem.
But the people made no use of the liberty granted them. They persisted
in their idolatrous cult, and this quickened their punishment. So long
as their kings had put obstacles in their path, they could excuse
themselves before God for not worshipping Him in the true way. The
action taken by their king Hoshea left them no defense. When the
Assyrians made their third incursion into Israel, the kingdom of the
north was destroyed forever, and the people, one and all, were carried
away into exile. (45)
The heathen nations settled in Samaria by the Assyrians instead of the
deported Ten Tribes were forced by God to accept the true religion of
the Jews. Nevertheless they continued to worship their olden idols: the
Babylonians paid devotion to a hen, the people of Cuthah to a cock,
those of Hamath to a ram, the dog and the ass were the gods of the
Avvites, and the mule and the horse the gods of the Sepharvites. (46)