THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL.
The overthrow of the house of Omri had not raised the power of the
kingdom of Israel. Jehu, it is true, sent tribute to Shalmanesar II.
king of Assyria (842 B.C.). But in spite of this subjection to the great
king on the Tigris, neither Jehu nor his son Jehoahaz was in a position
to repel the attacks of the princes of Damascus, Hazael and Benhadad
III.; the whole region to the East of the Jordan, the land of Gilead,
had to be conceded to Damascus after the most cruel devastation of that
district and of all Israel. It was the distress into which Bin-nirar
III. of Asshur brought Damascus which first afforded respite to Israel
in the last years of Jehoahaz, though tribute for this service also had
to be paid to Assyria (803 B.C.). His successor, king Joash (798-790
B.C.) was now able to wrest from Damascus at least those cities which
his father had lost, and the son of Joash, Jeroboam II. (790-749 B.C.),
the fourth sovereign of the house of Jehu, succeeded in gaining the
upper hand over Damascus, in completely reconquering the land of Gilead,
and inflicting heavy blows on Hamath. The land which he conquered from
Hamath he retained; the Books of Kings mention the brave deeds of
Jeroboam II., how "he set up again the borders of Israel, from the land
of Hamath to the sea of the plain." During his long and powerful
reign--he sat on the throne for 41 years[40]--agriculture was developed,
trade became again active, and, as it seems, very lucrative. In Samaria,
the metropolis, there were splendid houses, the inhabitants of which
lived in magnificence and luxury.[41]
In Judah the reign of Joash, whom the high-priest Jehoiada placed on the
throne in the year 837 B.C., again fully established the worship of
Jehovah in opposition to the favour which his grandmother Athaliah had
shown to the worship of Baal. Amaziah, the son of Joash, maintained his
throne against the murderers of his father; his arms were successful
against the Edomites, but failed against Israel. When he also was slain
by conspirators, the people, in the year 792 B.C., raised his son Uzziah
(Azariah) to the throne. Uzziah was only 16 years of age at the time of
his accession, but young as he was he learned well how to rule, and the
length of his reign allowed him to see the fruit of his labours. The
Chronicles say of him: "He loved husbandry; he had husbandmen and
vinedressers in the mountains, and dug many wells in the desert, for he
had many cattle in the low country and in the plain."[42] Uzziah was
also a brave warrior. Against the Philistines he obtained greater
successes than fell to the lot of any of his predecessors, including
even Saul and David, greater than those won by any of his successors. He
took Gath, the prince of which David had once served; he gained Jabneh
and conquered Ashdod, and destroyed the walls of this city. The loss of
Gath and Ashdod limited the league of the cities of the Philistines to
Ekron, Ascalon, and Gaza; Uzziah built Jewish cities in the conquered
districts,[43] he forced the Ammonites to pay tribute, he completed the
subjugation of the Edomites which his father Amaziah had begun, and his
fame reached even to Egypt.[44] He rebuilt the harbour-city of Elath on
the Red Sea, which the rebellion of the Edomites against Judah had
wrested from king Jehoram about the year 845 B.C. (II. 252), placed Jews
there, and apparently restored the Ophir trade of Solomon.[45] "He was
marvellously helped," say the Chronicles, "till he became strong." Amid
such successes Uzziah did not forget that changes would occur, that
other times would come. In the second half of his reign[46] he
strengthened the walls of Jerusalem with towers at the corner-gate,
_i.e._ at the north-west corner, of the city wall, at the valley gate,
and at the corner, _i.e._ where the wall of the upper city advances to
the west, and caused "engines invented by cunning men to be on the
towers and upon the bulwarks of the walls, to throw arrows and great
stones withal."[47] The levy of the people was put in order; the
fighting men were entered on a register; Uzziah "prepared for the whole
army shields and spears, coats of mail and helmets, bows and slinging
stones."[48] "And Uzziah did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah as
Amaziah his father had done, save that the people still sacrificed and
offered incense on the high places"--so we are told in the Books of
Kings. The Chronicles add that he sought God as long as the prophet
Zachariah lived.[49] Afterwards he had a quarrel with the priests of the
temple because he sacrificed with his own hands in the great space of
the temple, the holy place (before the Holy of Holies), on the altar in
that space intended for incense. David and Solomon had offered incense
there before him; the priesthood intended therefore to make good their
exclusive claim to every kind of sacrifice as against Uzziah.[50] Uzziah
succeeded in raising Judah to the highest point of power and importance,
which it reached after the defection of Israel.
Thus after severe tempests the reigns of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah brought
to Israel and Judah the restoration of order, power and prosperity. The
flourishing condition of agriculture and trade increased the well-being
of the people, and produced profits which led the wealthy classes into a
misuse of their wealth, into extravagance and luxury. This mode of life,
which seldom, in the East especially, fails to accompany gains easily
got, was attacked in both kingdoms by a merciless criticism. In Israel
and in Judah a careless enjoyment of life was connected not unfrequently
with a certain inclination towards the rites of the Syrians. From the
time that the house of Jehu ruled in Israel, and Joash ascended the
throne of Judah, the favourable feeling towards Syrian rites had
ceased, from the throne downwards. With the restoration of more active
relations towards the neighbouring nations their example operated with
renewed force on the wealthier classes of Israel, and among them, and
afterwards no doubt among the people, admission and recognition was thus
gained for the religious observances of the Syrians. As the sensual
elements in the forms of the gods and the cultus of the Syrians became
more marked--as the worship of the deities of procreation and birth
became more licentious and debauched, in connection with the increased
population, and consequent luxury and dissoluteness in the Phenician
cities (II. 276), as the prostitution became more general, the service
of androgynous deities more zealous--as the number of sacred servants,
of companions male and female, of eunuchs and men ready to make
themselves eunuchs, became larger--as this worship of lust and
mutilation grew more disgusting, and the flames on the altar of Moloch
rose more frequently--so much the more vigorous, in the circles of the
neighbouring nations, whose national and religious life was roused, must
have been the aversion and opposition to such licentious practices, to
rites of so different a nature, and so strongly at variance with their
own faith.
Three centuries before this time, Israel by the foundation of a monarchy
had gained rest and security against her nearest neighbours in the East
and West, against Moab and Ammon, and the Philistines. After the
division the powers of Israel and Judah had hardly sufficed at all times
to protect them against their neighbours; and even, at last, against the
Damascenes. Serious dangers threatened from a greater distance. Egypt,
the country from which in Syria there was naturally the most to fear,
had kept within her borders since the settlement of the Israelites in
Canaan, as if to secure space and freedom for the development of Israel.
Only once in the course of five centuries was this rest broken by the
campaign of the Pharaoh Shishak, and then in a very transitory manner.
But half a century after this campaign another opponent arose far to the
East on the banks of the Tigris, who now had secured a firm footing on
the Euphrates, whose armies first trod the north of Syria, and tried
their strength in repeated campaigns against Damascus. Ahab of Israel in
league with Damascus and other princes of the Syrians succeeded in
beating off the first attack; but after him Jehu and Jehoahaz of Israel
paid tribute to the kings of Asshur, and though the successors of
Bin-nirar III. had to fight in Arrapachitis and Gauzanitis, they
repeatedly led their armies against Northern Syria, against Arpad and
Hadrach.
However secure men might feel in Israel and Judah in the possession of
the position recently obtained under Jeroboam and Uzziah, it could not
escape a keener eye that a power had forced its way to the Euphrates,
and every moment threatened a renewed attack on Syria which Israel and
Judah were not in a position to resist, even in the favourable position
in which for a moment they were situated. Even if Israel and Judah
united their forces, which for the moment were excellently arranged, it
was scarcely conceivable that they could make any stand against the
supremacy of Assyria, if this were expressly directed against Syria.
Only in the event of a hearty combination of all the states and tribes
of Syria, the Philistines and the Phenicians, Hamath and Damascus,
Israel and Judah; only by the union of all Syria under one power, could
a sufficient counterpoise be provided to the Assyrian power. But the
feeling and tendencies of these states were different, as also was the
state of civilisation and religious life; and the thought of such an
union never arose among them. Even if it had it could hardly be realised
here, or elsewhere in the East, in any other way than by establishing
one despotic monarch. Such a form of union would at any rate have
required that Israel should give the best she had. Instead of a
political impulse which would have united Israel and Judah with Damascus
and Hamath, the Phenicians and Philistines, the internal circumstances
of Israel and Judah, the opposition to the renewed encroachments of the
Canaanitish worship, combined with the threatening position of Assyria,
gave a new, peculiar, and lofty flight to the religious development of
the Israelites.
In its struggles against the house of Omri the prophetic power was
inwardly ripened and strengthened. With the relaxation of persecution
the intensity and ecstacy of the prophets must have been relaxed. In the
place of the passionate strife came a more peaceful tone, greater
calmness, more earnest introspection. Yet the prophetic power was not
merely purified, it was also deepened. By degrees, elements which had
been developed in other spheres exercised an influence on the prophetic
work, on the reflection on the nature and will of Jehovah, and the
effort to be absorbed in him. The expression and outlet which religious
feeling had found in religious songs, in invocations, and hymns of
thanksgiving, praise and penitence, supplied to the prophetic feeling a
fuller, broader and more variable background. To the oldest account of
the fortunes of Israel, which arose in priestly circles, and of the
covenant which his God had once made with him, to the collection and
establishment of the law which formed the contents of this covenant,
was soon added the second text, which described in a more lively manner
the manifestations of the tribal God, his guidance of the patriarchs and
forefathers of the nation, and, like the older text, it was for a long
time in the hands of the prophets. Even before Joel, at the time when
the high-priest Jehoiada was regent for king Joash in Judah (II. 259),
urged the nation to repentance and introspection, the hand of a prophet
had united those two texts. Penetrated by their contents, he had, as
might be expected from his point of view, laid the main stress on the
promises and prophecies, on the relation of man to God, on the nature of
man, and his duty in life. In this form the books of the fortunes of the
patriarchs, of the covenant of Jehovah and Israel, of the promise of
protection and blessing in return for the observation of this covenant,
must have exercised an especial influence on the circle of the prophets;
they showed them the past in the closest relation to the present; they
strengthened their conviction that the external relation was
insufficient, that the essential point was the internal relation of man
to his God.
As a fact the people of Israel had experienced a peculiar fortune. Of
the same origin as a part of the Arabian and Syrian tribes and closely
allied to them, the Israelites had not followed the same path of
development. Branching off from those nearest, and then from their older
tribesmen, with whom they had previously pastured their flocks, they
grew up into a nation on the borders of Egypt and under Egyptian
supremacy; a nation in which nomadic simplicity met with certain
influences due to Egyptian culture. Forced back upon their feeling of
national independence by the oppression of the Egyptians, the children
of Jacob had emancipated themselves from Egyptian dominion, and had
embraced with renewed vigour the worship of their tribal God, and at
length had won by force of arms an abode among the kindred tribes, to
which they now stood opposed as enemies. The tribes of Syria were far
before them in culture of every kind, in wealth and adornment of life;
the tribes of the desert, the closely related neighbours on the east of
the Jordan, did not cease to attack and plunder the cantons of the
Israelites; their neighbours on the south coast sought with persistence
to subjugate them. Thus the national contrast remained in force, and the
fixity of it was favoured by the nature of the mountain country, the
seclusion of many valleys and heights possessed by the Israelites, while
these same natural conditions rendered impossible such a thorough
entrance into the life of the maritime cities, and the life of Damascus
and Hamath, as could lead to the dissolution of the nationality. The
fact that Israel, at the time of David and Solomon, obtained the
preponderance over their neighbours, tended, together with the national
pride, to strengthen the contrast instead of weakening it, and
maintained the consciousness of nationality as a great memory. Even from
this point of view, starting from the national feeling and
consciousness, the prophets could not but oppose the Syrian tribes and
their rites, and in this opposition they found the more ready acceptance
in Israel, the more thoroughly the consciousness was aroused that the
land had been won and maintained in conflict with the tribes to whom
this worship belonged. But the conception of the nature of the national
deity was far more powerful in the prophets than the sense of
nationality. In contrast to the lascivious worship of the powers of
nature, the God of Israel was originally conceived as a deity who was
alien and opposed to the creative powers of nature. In the sense of this
contrast Jehovah was regarded as an exalted and terrible deity, to look
on whom brought death; in this feeling the simple conception, which
cannot forego the sensuous element, saw Jehovah's manifestation in
flame, in the destroying but purifying glow of fire. The aversion to all
sensuous nature now rises to its fullest power in the mind of the
prophets in opposition to the Syrian rites; their supernatural point of
view, forced onward by the struggle and the contrast, disrobed the idea
of God of every material element which still adhered to it. How could
this supra-terrestrial power, before which all that is earthly is dust
and mire, dwell in a frail image made by human hands? The temple at
Jerusalem had no image, the greater part of the old places of sacrifice
were without any, and among the Hebrews it was well known that the
worship of Jehovah without images was the traditional mode of worship.
Neither the bull-images of Jehovah, which had been set up at the time of
the division of the kingdom in Israel, in contrast to the images of the
Syrian gods, though tolerated by the prophets at the time of Ahab and
Jehoram, nor any other image of the god, ought to be worshipped. If the
divine power is not only supernatural but also purely spiritual, beyond
nature and ruling over it; if it is without manifestation in the world
of sense; there can be no question of the worship or deification of
elementary powers, or the personification of physical processes; the
worship of these is nothing but deception and senseless rites. Moreover,
the power before which all nature quakes can be but one. Thus, to the
prophetic mind, Jehovah from being the tribal God of Israel, beside whom
other gods defended their nations, though not so mighty as he, becomes
the one and only God. And to them this God is no longer merely the power
which rules over nature, no longer merely the jealous and severe God of
his nation from whom the first-born must be purchased, who must be
worshipped with many sacrifices, and pleasant odours--to the inward
emotion, the inward certainty, and conscience of the prophets he is at
the same time the highest ethical power. Whatever they in their
enlightenment and in their hearts felt to be the just, the good, the
highest, is Jehovah's nature. In him were concentrated the moral
elements as conceived by the prophets, and nature is no more than the
footstool under his feet. He is now the one supernatural, spiritual and
moral power, which rules the world, before which earth and mankind
disappear. He is pure, holy and sublime; he hates injustice, violence,
exaction, avarice, deceit, and oppression of kindred, and looks not on
wickedness with favour. His will is just, he will requite every one
according to his actions, and will not forget the evil of the evil-doer.
What can the holy and just Lord in heaven care for offerings of food,
frankincense, and drink? The lips and the heart must be elevated to his
greatness, his commands must be kept, and men must make themselves holy
as he is holy. The only service of the holy God is a holy and righteous
life. Sacrifice is not required, but recognition of God, simplicity,
chastity, and moderation.
If from this point of view, to which their own conception had
laboriously risen--they had learned to know the ancient God of Israel in
his true nature--and following the lead of the sacred Scriptures, the
prophets cast a glance on the fortunes and achievements of their
nation,--had not Jehovah already announced himself to their forefathers?
Had he not by Moses commanded and established the true worship? Had he
not done great things for his people? Had he not led them out of Egypt
and given them this beautiful land for a possession? But had Israel been
grateful for this?--had he made any return?--had he kept the covenant
which Jehovah had made with him, and his law? At the best sacrifices
were offered at Jerusalem, prayer was made to bull-images at Dan and
Bethel. But how many were there who worshipped Baal, Astarte, and
Ashera! How regardless of their duties were the rich, and the judges,
how luxurious and dissolute in their lives! Was this the way to fulfil
the commands of the just and holy God?
From this arose a peculiar class of ideas. Jehovah had chosen Israel for
his people before other nations. He desires to protect him and grant him
his favour. But how can he, the pure and holy God, grant protection and
defence, if his people live an impure and unholy life? To protect
sinners would be against his own nature. Jehovah was a severe and
jealous God; was he not to punish the defection from his service, the
faithlessness and ingratitude of the nation, with grievous punishment?
Must he not visit these wrong-doers with a heavy penalty? The Assyrians
were on the Euphrates. From these suppositions, and the conclusion that
Jehovah, according to his pure and holy being as well as his severe
nature, must punish the error of the people; that he could not allow the
breach of the ancient covenant, the defection, the worship of idols, the
injustice, and the luxury to remain unvisited, grew up the idea of a
great sentence about to be executed on Israel and Judah. Among the
prophets this became a settled conviction. But according to their
conception, Jehovah is raised far above the weakness and the anger of
men. If his people return to him, amend their conversation, and serve
him with their lips and their heart, he will in his mercy pardon them,
or the punishment which he sends upon them will be merely a
purification; the stiff-necked obstinacy of the hard heart he will
break; many will fall, but he will spare those who are true to him; and
when he has corrected his people by a severe judgment, he will exalt
them anew, and take up his abode on Zion.
Filled with these conceptions the prophets came forward soon after the
beginning of the eighth century. They are no longer sooth-sayers and
seers; they do not predict any more; they do not announce definite
facts; they only know what will and must be the consequences of the
sinful life of the people: they proclaim a great judgment; they declare
what must be done in order to turn aside the wrath of Jehovah. Impelled
by inward certainty to ascertain and reveal the nature and will of
Jehovah, filled with religious inspiration, and in a tone of deepest
earnestness, the prophets give to their utterances an expression of
force and fire, which forms a proper sequel to the beautiful beginnings
of lyric poetry, as we have learned to know them in the songs of
victory, in the strains of thanksgiving and lamentation of the
Israelites, in the psalms--a sequel which corresponds to the power and
importance of the spiritual movement from which the exhortations of the
prophets arise. With unwearied zeal they exhort the people to return to
their ancient God and trust in him alone. Then, as Israel's power began
to decline after the death of Jeroboam and Uzziah, the view and
conception of the prophets becomes higher and higher; the more
threatening and dangerous the position of affairs, the greater their
influence; and at the time when the political existence of the
Israelites was broken down, their religious life is perfected and
purified, into a thorough recognition of ethical monotheism.
A man of the kingdom of Judah, Amos of Tekoa, a place not far from
Jerusalem, prophesied in Israel in the first decades of the reign of
Jeroboam, between 790 and 760 B.C. He calls himself "neither a prophet,
nor the son of a prophet;" he assures us that he was not a disciple of
the prophets, and did not wear the usual garb of a prophet, _i.e._ a
poor coarse clothing. He adds that he was a herdsman and a planter of
sycamores: "Jehovah took me from following the flock, and said to me; Go
and prophesy to my people in Israel."[51] From these prophecies, which
he afterwards wrote down, it is plain that the Holy Scriptures, in the
form in which the two texts had been united and revised by the hand of a
prophet, were familiar to him and present before him; that the
prophecies of Joel were known to him.[52] It was in Bethel, the chief
place of sacrifice in Israel, that he came forward. There, at the place
of the bull-image, he proclaimed the wickedness of this worship, and
branded in still stronger terms the moral corruption of the land. In
vain had Jehovah uttered warnings by his prophets; the law was not
regarded; justice was crooked; the weak were oppressed. No doubt Amos
exaggerated his reproaches, but we cannot doubt that the faults he
attacked were in existence. The careless he threatened with the
destruction which would soon burst upon them if they remained without
repentance or improvement. Then would the high places of Isaac be laid
waste, and the shrines of Israel destroyed, and Jehovah would rise up
with the sword against the house of Jeroboam. The priests of Israel
could not endure to hear such utterances. The high priest at Bethel,
Amaziah, said to Amos: "Seer, go flee thee away into the land of Judah,
and there eat bread and prophesy. Prophesy not again any more at Bethel:
for it is the king's chapel, and the king's court." Amos answered: "Thou
sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the
house of Isaac. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thy wife shall be an
harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the
sword, and thy land shall be divided by a line; and thou shalt die in
polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his
land." Then Amaziah the priest sent to king Jeroboam: "Amos hath
conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is
not able to bear all his words; for he saith, By the sword shall
Jeroboam die, and Israel shall be led captive out of his land."
The proclamations of Amos were not directed against Israel alone. He
threatens the Damascenes and the Ammonites with vengeance for the
devastations they had caused in Gilead (II. 258); the Philistines
because they had carried away captives from Judah and sold them (II.
303); the city of Tyre because she put the captives of Judah in the
hands of the Edomites; the Edomites because they pursued their brothers
(the Judæans) with the sword (II. 252). Nor does he even spare the
kingdom of Judah; even there the law of Jehovah is despised, and his
ordinances are not kept. But the judgment of Jehovah will descend only
on the guilty, and when the day of judgment is over Jehovah will again
purify Israel and set up Zion.
"Did I not bring you up from Egypt?" so Amos represents Jehovah as
saying; "Did I not lead you forty years in the wilderness, to possess
the land of the Amorites? Did I not destroy the Amorites before you, who
were tall as cedars, and strong as oaks? Did I not raise up prophets
from your sons, and Nazarites from your young men?[53] Hear this word,
ye who oppress the weak and trample underfoot the poor;[54] ye who
stretch yourselves beside the altar on garments taken in pledge, and
drink the wine of the condemned in the house of your gods; ye who
overpower the just, and make the poor bow down at the gate;[55] who
purchase the thirsty for silver, and the helpless for a pair of
shoes;[56] who, father and son together, go to one mistress, and say:
When is the new moon over that we may sell grain, and the day of rest
that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel
great, and falsifying the balance for deception. Do men hunt the horse
on the rocks, and plough the stone with oxen, that ye may turn justice
into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock?[57] Because ye
trample down the weak, and oppress them with burdens, ye have planted
pleasant vineyards, and built houses of hewn stone.[58] O ye that are at
ease in Zion, ye careless ones in the mount of Samaria, who imagine that
the day of destruction is far off, and draw near the seat of violence;
who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch yourselves on couches; who eat up
the lambs of the flock and the calves of the stall; who chant to the
sound of the harp, in order to invent instruments of music like
David;[59] who empty your wine cups, and anoint yourselves with the
chief oil, and trouble not yourselves for the affliction of Joseph; ye
shall not dwell in your houses, and drink the wine out of your pleasant
gardens: ye shall go forth into misery, with the first that go
captive.[60] Go to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply
transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes on
the third day; burn thank-offerings, and publish the free will
offerings.[61] Seek me not at Bethel, and go not to Gilgal and
Beersheba. I hate your festivals, and will not taste your offerings, or
look on the thank-offering of your stalled calves. Take from me the
noise of your songs, and let me not hear the sound of the harp.[62] Let
judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Seek
good, and not evil, that ye may live: establish judgment in the gate; it
may be that Jehovah will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. Hate the
evil, and love the good, so will Jehovah, the God of hosts, be with
you."[63]
"But they multiply injustice and robbery in their palaces. The end of my
people Israel draws near; I will not overlook it longer in him. I will
change your festivals into lamentation, and all your songs into
mourning, and will bring sackcloth about your loins. The enemy comes
round the land, and tears down the power of Israel, and his palaces are
plundered.[64] Go to Calneh, and see, and from thence pass to Hamath the
great (II. 317, _supr._ p. 15), and go down to Gath (p. 18); are ye
better than these kingdoms, or is your land greater? I raise against you
a nation which will force you from Hamath unto the river of the
plain.[65] At the time when I avenge the evil of Israel upon him, and
the altars of Bethel, the horns of the altar will fall to the ground. I
will smite the winter house and the summer house; the houses of ivory
shall fall to the ground.[66] The flight shall perish from the swift;
the bowman shall not stand, the horseman shall not deliver himself, and
the most courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked on that
day.[67] All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say:
The evil shall not overtake us.[68] But I will not utterly destroy the
house of Jacob. I will shake them as a man shaketh a sieve, and not a
grain shall fall to the ground. The days come when the ploughman shall
overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and
the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and I will bring again the
captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities,
and inhabit them, and I will plant them fast in the land, which I have
given to them, that they be no more pulled out."
Amos had not deceived himself as to the want of inward cohesion in the
circumstances of Israel. The days of Jeroboam II. were coming to an end.
The power which he had gained for his kingdom, the order he had given to
it, were not so firmly fixed that they outlived the founders. His son
Zachariah, who ascended the throne in 749 B.C., remained on it for half
a year only. He was murdered "before the people" by a man of the name of
Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who placed himself at the head of a
conspiracy, and with him the house of Jehu came to an end in the fourth
generation. Shallum seized the throne, but maintained it only a month.
Menahem, the son of Gadi, rebelled against him in Tirzah, defeated and
slew him, and took his place on the throne (748 B.C.).[69] He met with
resistance in the land; internal strife distracted Israel, and loosed
all the bonds of order. "The idols have spoken vanity," so we find it in
the older Zachariah; "and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told
false dreams; they comfort in vain; therefore they went their way as a
flock; they were troubled, because they had no shepherd. Mine anger was
kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goats.[70] I will
no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah; but lo! I will
deliver the men, every man into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand
of his king, and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will
not deliver them. Three shepherds also I cut off in one month;[71] and
my soul loathed them; and I said, I will not feed you: that which dieth,
let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off, and let
the rest eat every one the flesh of another. For lo! I will raise up a
shepherd in the land which shall not visit those that be cut off, nor
seek the strayed one, nor heal that which is wounded; but he shall eat
the flesh of the fat. Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the
flock! the sword shall be upon his right arm, and upon his right eye.
His arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye darkened.[72] Open
thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars! Howl,
cypress, for the cedar is fallen; for the heights are made desolate:
howl, O oaks of Bashan; for the steep forest sinketh! Listen to the
howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: listen to the
roaring of lions, for the pride of Jordan is desolate.[73] The burden
descends on Hadrach, and on Damascus; on Hamath that shall border
thereby; on Tyre and Sidon, though it be very wise. Tyre built herself a
stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire
of the streets. Behold, the Lord will take her, and cast her walls into
the sea, and she shall be consumed by fire. Ascalon shall see it, and
fear; Gaza, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron, for her expectation shall
be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon is
uninhabited. A strange race shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will destroy
the pride of the Philistines.[74] And I will cut off the chariot from
Ephraim, and horses from Jerusalem. But Jehovah shall save them in that
day as the flock of his people; they are the stones of a crown lifted up
upon his land."[75]
Even earlier, in the last years of the reign of Jeroboam, or the
beginning of the reign of his son Zachariah, Hosea, the son of Beeri,
had received the word. "Yet a little time," such is the word of Jehovah
in his lips, "and I will avenge the bloodguiltiness of Jezreel on the
house of Jehu (the murder of Jehoram and Jezebel by Jehu, II. 254), and
put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel; and at the same time I
will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."[76] When
Zachariah fell before Shallum, and Jehu's house was destroyed, we find
in Hosea, "They chose kings without me (Jehovah), captains of whom I
knew nothing." "I will give thee a king in my anger, and take him away
in wrath. All your kings shall fall, for none of them call upon me.
Israel is a heifer that cannot be tied."[77] The prophet demands with
the greatest vehemence that the worship of images shall be given up, and
the bull-images at Dan and Bethel (II. 237) removed: that robbery and
murder come to an end, that Israel turn to Jehovah; the judgment
threatens, and there is no helper but Jehovah.[78] "Hear this, ye
priests; receive it, house of Israel; and thou, house of the king, take
heed thereof," cries Hosea.[79] "When Israel was a child I loved him,
saith Jehovah; I called my son from Egypt. In the desert, in the land of
great drought, I did know thee.[80] I taught Ephraim to go, taking them
by the arm; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I took off
the yoke from their backs, and laid meat unto them.[81] Israel was an
empty vine, but the more that his fruit increased, the more altars did
he build; the better his land, the more beautiful pillars did he set
up.[82] They made images of their silver according to their knowledge,
idols, the work of craftsmen, and said: Let them that sacrifice kiss the
calves.[83] They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn
incense on the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the
shadow thereof is good.[84] I will go after my lovers, saith Israel, the
faithless wife, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax,
my oil and my drink; and she knows not that Jehovah increased her corn
and sweet wine, and oil, and silver.[85] There is no faithfulness, no
love, no knowledge of God in the land. Ye have ploughed wickedness and
reaped iniquity, and have eaten the fruit of lies.[86] They practise
swearing and lying, and stealing, and adultery, and violence; the
priests commit murder on the way to Shechem; they practise all iniquity
in Gilgal, and bloodguiltiness is joined to bloodguiltiness.[87] They
slay flesh for sacrifice, and eat it.[88] I desire not sacrifice but
mercy; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.[89] Therefore
in my own time I will take back my corn; I will tear away my wool and my
flax from the harlot Israel; and make an end to her festivals, her new
moons, her sabbaths, and avenge on her the days of Baal, when she
offered incense to them which placed their nose-ring and ornaments upon
her, and went after her lovers, and loved the hire of the harlot at
every thrashing floor, but forgat me."[90]
"Israel hath forgotten his creator, and built palaces, and Judah hath
multiplied his fortified cities,"[91] says the prophet in regard to the
fortresses built by Uzziah (p. 19). "They trusted to the number of thy
warriors, but Israel's king passes away like a morning cloud. Ephraim is
as a silly dove; they call on Egypt; they go to Assyria to bring
whoredom. Ephraim goes after Asshur, and sends to the king for help.
Ephraim will hunt after the wind, and strain after the East wind, that
they may make a covenant with Assyria, and carry oil to Egypt.[92] The
Deliverer king will not heal you. The East will come; a wind of Jehovah
will rise out of the desert, which will plunder the treasure of costly
furniture, and Samaria will repent. The calf of Bethaven (= house of
Evil,--thus the prophet alters the name of Bethel = house of God, the
chief place of worship in the kingdom of Israel) will be carried to
Assyria, as a gift to the king, the Deliverer; Asshur shall be their
king, for they will not amend. The days of punishment, of vengeance will
come; as to the people, so shall it happen to the priests. Israel's
pride shall be bowed down, and Judah shall fall with him. They shall not
remain in the land of Jehovah; Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and eat
unclean things in Assyria. They are gone because of destruction; Egypt
shall gather them up, and Memphis shall bury them.[93] The high places
of Bethaven shall be destroyed; thorns and thistles shall come up on
their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the
hills, Fall on us."[94]
"What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? how shall I deal with thee? Shall I
destroy thee? saith Jehovah. But my heart is turned, my repentings are
kindled; I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath; I am God and not
man; as the Holy One I will not come into anger.[95] I will punish them
till they repent, and in their affliction they will seek me early.[96] I
will allure them into the wilderness; I will speak to their hearts, that
Israel may sing again as in the days of his youth, and on the day when
he came out of Egypt; and the name of Baal I will remove out of his
mouth.[97] Return, O Israel, to Jehovah thy God. Speak ye to him; Take
away iniquity, and receive us, that we offer the sacrifice of our lips.
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; the work of our
hands shall be called our gods no more.[98] Then, saith Jehovah: I will
hear Ephraim, and look with favour upon him. I will heal their
backsliding, and come and love them freely; my anger is turned away, and
I will let them dwell in their houses. I will be as dew upon Israel;
Israel shall grow as a lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon: and I
will betroth thee unto me for ever; I will betroth thee in righteousness
and in judgment, in loving-kindness, gentleness, and mercies."[99]
The words of Hosea leave no doubt that Menahem, king of Israel, sought
aid from Assyria in order to maintain himself on the throne. With this
the Books of Kings agree. They tell us: Menahem gave to the king of
Assyria 1000 kikkar of silver (according to the Babylonian standard
about £300,000), "that the king might join him in establishing the
kingdom in his hand." The payment of the money was imposed by Menahem on
all the men of substance in Israel; fifty shekels of silver on every
man. According to this the king of Israel was himself without means, but
the land must have been in a position to pay such a considerable
tribute, so large a sum. There must, according to this statement, have
been at this time 60,000 families in Israel who were in a position to
pay a mina each (about £5). The monuments of Assyria inform us that in
the year 742 B.C. Tiglath Pilesar marched against northern Syria and
Arpad (Tel Erfad p. 2); that he conquered Arpad after a siege of three
years, or after three campaigns against the city.[100] In the city of
Arpad--so we are told in a fragment of his annals--he received the
tribute of Rezin of Damascus; 18 kikkar of gold, 3000 kikkar of silver,
200 kikkar of copper; and the tribute of Kustaspi of Kummukh, of Hiram
of Tyre, of Pisiris of Karchemish.[101] This must, therefore, have taken
place in the year 740 or 739 B.C. He received the tribute of Menahem
immediately before the ninth year of his reign (737 B.C.), _i.e._ in
the year 738 B.C. He tells us that at that time he received tribute from
Kustaspi of Kummukh, Rezin of Damascus, Menahem of Samaria, Hiram of
Tyre, Sibittibal of Gebal (Byblus), Urikki of Kui (Cilicia), Pisiris of
Karchemish, Eniel of Hamath, Tarchular of Gamguma, Sulumal of Milid,
Vassurmi of Tubal, and Zabibieh, the queen of the Arabs. Menahem,
therefore, sought to purchase the help of Tiglath Pilesar by offering
tribute soon after the fall of Arpad. Hence in these years the king of
Assyria held a position which included northern and central Syria, and
governed those countries immediately from the crossing of the Euphrates
at Karchemish, and from Arpad. Passing beyond Hamath and Damascus,
beyond Byblus and Tyre, he was now ruler over the kingdom of Samaria
also. From the South-east a princess of the Arabs, from the North-west
the prince of the Cilicians, sent tribute. Menahem of Israel must have
died soon after the payment of tribute; the subjection to Assyria
appears to have established his power so far that his son Pekahiah could
succeed him on the throne (738 B.C.). But in the second year of his
reign Pekahiah was murdered in the palace at Samaria by Pekah, the son
of Remaliah, who now ascended the throne of Israel (736 B.C.). Pekah
combined with Rezin, king of Damascus, for a united attack on the
kingdom of Judah.
Judah did not remain untouched by the establishment and extensive
advances of the Assyrian power in Syria. We saw in what successful
struggles Uzziah-Azariah had extended the territory of Judah in his long
reign; how agriculture and trade developed under him. The advance of
Tiglath Pilesar in the last years of the reign of Uzziah called these
successes in question once more. It did not find Uzziah wholly
unprepared. He had fortified Jerusalem more strongly; he had provided
for the arming of his forces, and arranged the levy of the men of
military age. A very mutilated fragment of the annals of Tiglath Pilesar
mentions twice the land of Judah, and three times the second half of the
name of Azariah, _i.e._ the name by which Uzziah is named in the Books
of Kings.[102] Another fragment, which deals with the events in Syria
which took place before the payment of tribute to Menahem, again
mentions Azariah (Uzziah); it informs us that Mount Lebanon, the land of
Baalzephon,[103] the land of Ammana (the region of the Amanus?) the city
of Hadrach had been subjugated; that the king "added to the land of
Assyria nineteen districts of Hamath, situated on the sea of the setting
sun, together with the cities in their land, which had revolted to
Azariah in faithless rebellion, and had placed his officers and viceroys
over them."[104] The districts of Hamath here mentioned must be sought
between the Orontes and the sea, immediately north of Aradus. The
occurrence no doubt took place in the time when Tiglath Pilesar fought
against or besieged Arpad, _i.e._ in the years from 742 B.C. to 740.
From this we must conclude that Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah (neither he
nor the kingdom of Judah is mentioned among the tributary states in
these fragments) assumed a hostile position towards Tiglath Pilesar;
that during the struggle for Arpad he attempted to unite some of the
states and tribes of Syria against the advance of Assyria. This
opposition of Judah may have formed another motive for Menahem to place
himself under the supremacy, and at the same time under the protection,
of Tiglath Pilesar. As vassals of Tiglath Pilesar, Rezin of Damascus
and Pekah of Israel may have felt themselves more justified in attacking
the southern neighbour-state, the kingdom of Judah, which would not
submit to the dominion of Assyria.
Uzziah was no more when Pekah obtained the throne of Israel. He had died
four years previously (740 B.C.), and was buried in the sepulchres of
the kings at Jerusalem. His son Jotham, who had already shared in the
rule during the last years of his father's reign, sat on the throne of
Judah. He withstood the attack of the combined Israelites and
Damascenes.[105] But his son Ahaz, who succeeded him in the year 734
B.C., was reduced by this war to the greatest distress. The Philistines
whom Uzziah had repelled and punished severely, the Edomites whom he had
subjugated, rebelled. Pekah's warriors laid Judah waste, and carried
rich booty and numerous prisoners to Samaria; Rezin pressed forward to
the south to aid the Edomites, expelled the Judæans from Elath, and
there established himself on the Red Sea. The hostile armies marched on
Jerusalem. Ahaz "made his son to go through the fire" to avert the
threatened ruin. At last he found no other means of rescue than to pay
homage to Assyria, and entreat the protection of Tiglath Pilesar.
In the last years of Uzziah, and in the reign of Jotham, Isaiah, the son
of Amoz, had received the word at Jerusalem. Like Amos and Hosea, Isaiah
contended against the luxury and dissoluteness of the rich, the
injustice of the elders, the corruption of the judges, the idolatry in
the land. He attacked the false security in which men reposed in the
possession of horses and chariots of war; he announced the coming
vengeance with even more vehement emphasis than his predecessors. If for
them the gods of the other nations have already disappeared beside the
One Jehovah, Isaiah represents the approaching destruction as breaking
out not only over Israel and Judah, but over all nations, because they
go after false gods. Their evil deeds will also be punished; no power on
the earth can stand before Jehovah. But behind this judgment, the horror
of which will turn all men to Jehovah, Isaiah also exhibits the
restoration of Israel and Judah, the restoration of the whole renewed
world, in the most glowing colours. That was Jehovah's purpose "since
the days of old."
"The land is full of horses," so Isaiah spake, "and there is no end of
its chariots." As we have seen, Uzziah had amassed munitions of war, and
arranged excellently the military power (p. 19),--"but the land is also
full of idols, and they worship the work of their own hands. Every man
oppresses his neighbour; the young man behaves proudly against the old,
and the base against the honourable. Thy chiefs, O Jerusalem, are
faithless men, the companions of thieves![106] Every one loves bribery,
and seeks after gain. They do no justice to the orphan, and regard not
the cause of the widow. Woe to them that decree unrighteous decrees, and
to the scribes who write iniquity, to turn aside the needy from
judgment, and to take away the right from the poor![107] Woe to them who
justify the wicked for reward, and take away the right of the just![108]
Woe to them that join house to house, and field to field, till they
alone are possessors of the land![109] What mean ye to beat my people in
pieces, saith Jehovah, and grind the faces of the poor?[110] Woe to them
that rise up early in the morning, and follow strong drink, who heated
with wine sit till the night; and the harp, and the viol, the tabret,
and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts![111] Woe to them that are
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink! Woe to
them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter;
that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe to
them who draw upon them punishment with cords of vanity, and reward of
sin with a cart-rope!"[112]
Isaiah carried the Jews from the service of sacrifice to the improvement
of the heart, to righteous conversation and good works. "To what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?" so Isaiah represents Jehovah
as saying. "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of
stalled calves; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, lambs, and
he-goats. Who hath required of you to tread my courts? Your new moons
and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are trouble to me, I am
weary to bear them. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination to me: when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes
from you; and when ye pray, I will not hear you.[113] With your mouth ye
draw near to me, and with your lips ye honour me; but your heart ye keep
far from me, and your fear of me is taught by the precept of men.[114]
Relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead the cause of the
widow. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from
before mine eyes; cease to do evil."[115]
"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done to
it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought
it forth wild grapes? Ye have turned my vineyard into a pasture; the
spoil of the poor is in your houses. Now I will take away the hedge, and
pull down the walls, that it may be trodden down.[116] I will come to
judgment with your elders and chiefs, and I will deal marvellously with
this people; the wisdom of their wise men, and the understanding of the
prudent shall be hid."[117] After Isaiah had depicted the terrors of the
day of judgment, the quaking of the earth, the creeping away and the
death of sinners, in lively colours, he represents the people as crying
out: "Who of us shall dwell with the devouring fire, and the everlasting
flame?" and then answers: "He that walketh righteously, and speaketh
uprightly; who despiseth the gain of oppressions; that turneth his hands
from holding of bribes, and stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and
shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; who taketh justice for his measuring
line and righteousness for his balance: he shall dwell on high; his
place of defence shall be the munitions of the rock, and his waters
shall not be dried up. Though your sins be red like scarlet, they shall
be white as snow, if ye obey Jehovah."[118]
With the death of Jotham the distress increased. Isaiah warns his people
not to seek aid from Assyria. "Wickedness," he cries, "burneth as fire;
no man shall spare his fellow. He shall snatch on the right hand and be
hungry; and eat on the left hand and be unsatisfied. Manasseh shall eat
Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and both together shall fall upon
Judah."[119] "Fear not," he says to king Ahaz, "neither be
faint-hearted, for the two tails of these smoking firebrands; for the
fierce anger of Rezin and the son of Remaliah; they shall not break open
Jerusalem, and the land, before whose kings thou art afraid, shall soon
be made desolate.[120] But with the razor that is hired beyond the river
(Euphrates) the Lord will shear off thy head, and the hair of thy feet,
and thy beard."[121] And when Ahaz refused to be restrained, Isaiah
proclaimed: "Because Israel rejoices in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river strong and many.
The stream shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his
banks; the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken
away before the king of Assyria. But the stream shall pass through
Judah; it shall overflow and go over till it reaches even to the
neck."[122]
"Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pilesar, king of Assyria," so the Books
of Kings tell us, "saying, I am thy servant and thy son; come up and
save me out of the hands of the king of Aram (of Damascus) and the king
of Israel. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house
of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent a present
to the king of Assyria. Then the king of Assyria gave ear to him. He
marched out against Damascus and took it, and carried away the
inhabitants to Kir, and slew Rezin. And in Israel Tiglath Pilesar took
Ijon and Abel-beth-Maachah, and Janoha, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and
Gilead, the whole land of Naphtali, and led them away to Assyria. And
Hoseas, the son of Elah, set on foot a conspiracy against Pekah, and
defeated him, and slew him, and was king in his place. But Ahaz went to
Damascus to meet king Tiglath Pilesar."[123]
The Assyrian list of rulers mentions for the year 734 B.C. a campaign of
Tiglath Pilesar against the land of the Philistines, and for the years
733 and 732 B.C. campaigns of the king against Damascus. A fragment of
the annals informs us that the army of Damascus was defeated; that their
king Rezin (Rasunnu) fled to the great gate of his city; that his
captive generals were crucified; that the city was besieged; that
Hadara, the house of the father of Rezin, was taken; that 591 places in
16 districts of the kingdom of Damascus (Imirisu) were laid waste.[124]
A further fragment informs us that Tiglath Pilesar made himself master
of the cities of Hadrach, Zemar, and Arka (the two ancient cities of the
Phenicians on the coast, already known to us); that he reached the
borders of the land of Omri (Israel); that Hanno, king of Gaza, fled to
Egypt before the face of the warrior Tiglath Pilesar. Afterwards the
fragment mentions the land of Omri, speaks of a sending or carrying away
to Assyria, and continues: "Pekah (Pakaha) their king they had slain.
Hoseas (Husi) I made king over them."[125] The inscription, which
comprises the deeds of Tiglath Pilesar down to the last year of his
reign, mentions towards the end the princes of Assyria, who brought him
tribute: Sibittibal of Byblus, Eniel of Hamath, Mattanbal of Arvad,
Sanib of Ammon (Bit Ammanai), Salman of Moab, Mitinti of Ascalon, Ahaz
of Judah (Jauhazi, Jahudai), Kosmalak of Edom, Hanno (Hanun) of
Gaza.[126]
The attempt of Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel to break the rise
of the Philistines and Edomites, and the power of the kingdom of Judah,
fortified as it was and strengthened by Uzziah, led to important
consequences, to the subjugation of Syria to Assyria throughout its
whole extent. When Ahaz called for help, Tiglath Pilesar turned against
the enemies of Judah. The kingdom of Damascus, which for 120 years had
so powerfully withstood the Assyrians, succumbed after a struggle of two
years. Tyre and Byblus had long paid tribute to Tiglath Pilesar, and now
Aradus was compelled to recognise the supremacy of Assyria; Israel was
overrun: the inhabitants of the northern towns--Ijon, Abel-beth-maacha,
Hazor and Kedesh, and the dwellers in the land of Naphtali on the lakes
of Merom and Genezareth, and of the land of Gilead--were carried away to
Assyria. The eastern neighbours of Israel and of the land of Gilead, the
Ammonites and Moabites, were driven to submit like the Edomites; the
cities of the Philistines were conquered. With the subjugation of
Ascalon and Gaza the Assyrian kingdom became the neighbour of Egypt.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] 2 Kings xiv. 23; Amos vi. 2, 14.
[41] Amos iii. 11; vi. 4-8; Hosea xii. 9. That the commencement of Jehu
and Athaliah must be placed at the year 843 B.C., has been shown Vol.
II. p. 234. The Books of Kings give 165 years from the accession of
Athaliah to the fall of Samaria, and 143 years from the accession of
Jehu to the same time. Hence the synchronism which they observe for
corresponding reigns in Israel and Judah cannot be correct at any rate
for the last half-century of this time, and varying statements with
reference to these reigns show that this fact was known to those who
made these observations. Moreover, the canon of the Assyrians puts the
fall of Samaria in the year 722 B.C., from which it follows
(843-722=121), that 44 years in excess for Judah, and 22 for Israel,
have been added. Thus we are driven to hypotheses for the period from
843 to 722 B.C., as well as for the period 953-843. In the traditional
numbers at least in one reign there has been abbreviation, not
extension, as in the previous period. Samaria was taken in the ninth
year of Hoshea, the seventh of Hezekiah (2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 10).
Hoshea therefore ascended the throne in 730, Hezekiah in 728 B.C. But
the facts narrated in a fragment of the annals of Tiglath Pilesar, that
he reached the borders of Bit Omri, that he conquered Gaza and made
Hoshea king (frag. 11, in G. Smith, "Disc." p. 284), fall, according to
the list of rulers, in the year 734 B.C. Hoshea's accession must,
therefore, be placed in the year 734 B.C. Hoshea's predecessor, Pekah,
is said to have reigned 20 years. If Hoshea ascended the throne in 734
B.C., Pekah, according to this statement, must have ascended it in 754
B.C., and Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, who only reigned two years, in
756. But the fragment of the annals of Tiglath Pilesar, which mentions
the payment of tribute by Menahem, puts this payment immediately before
the ninth year of Tiglath Pilesar, _i.e._ before the year 737 B.C.,;
frag. 8, in G. Smith, _loc. cit._ In 738, therefore, Menahem was still
on the throne; and his death cannot have taken place before this year.
Thus the interval between Menahem's death and Hoshea's accession, which
the Books of Kings reckon at 22 years, is reduced to four years; Pekah
cannot have reigned 20, but only two or three years. Menahem's death in
738 B.C., fixes the beginning of his reign, which lasted 10 years, at
748 B.C. Before him, Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, and Shallum,
reigned seven months. Jeroboam's reign must, therefore, have ended in
749 B.C. It lasted 41 years, and must, therefore, have begun in 790 B.C.
Thus of the 82 years and seven months, which the Books of Kings reckon
for Israel from the accession of Jeroboam to the capture of Samaria, 68
only remain. We must place Jeroboam from 790 to 749, Zachariah and
Shallum in 749, Menahem's accession in 748, his death in 738; Pekahiah
from 738 to 736, Pekah from 736 to 734, in which year he is succeeded by
Hoshea.
In the list of the kings of Judah, 90 years are enumerated from Uzziah's
(Azariah's) accession to the fall of Samaria. Before Hezekiah, whose
accession as already observed is to be put in 728 B.C., comes Ahaz with
16 years; before Ahaz, Jotham also with 16 years. Hence Jotham's
predecessor, Uzziah-Azariah, died in 760, and Ahaz began to reign in
744. But the eighth fragment of the annals of Tiglath Pilesar, already
mentioned, puts the defection of the 19 districts of the land of Hamath
to Azariah not long before the year 738 B.C.,; other fragments mention
contacts with Azariah, which, according to the list of rulers, belong to
the years 742 or 740 B.C. Hence Azariah was alive at any rate as late as
740 B.C.; the interval given by the Books of Kings between
Uzziah-Azariah and the accession of Hezekiah is reduced from 32 to 12
years. The reigns of Jotham and Ahaz must therefore be reduced from 16
years each to six years each; and the 90 years from Uzziah's accession
to the fall of Samaria to 70 years. The parallelism with the reigns in
Israel remains undisturbed. Jotham reigned from 740 to 734, Ahaz from
734 to 728. In the year 734 Ahaz is attacked by Pekah, who, as we have
seen, reigned from 736 to 734, and before the accession of Ahaz had
attacked his predecessor Jotham (2 Kings xv. 37). The campaign of
Tiglath Pilesar against Pekah took place, according to the list of the
rulers, in the year 734 B.C. The same list puts the war of Tiglath
Pilesar against Damascus in the years 733 and 732 B.C. The great
inscription of Tiglath Pilesar which narrates his deeds down to the
seventeenth year of his reign, _i.e._ down to 729 B.C., mentions shortly
before the close the tribute of Jauhazi of Judah (in G. Smith, _loc.
cit._ p. 263), and the Books of Kings (II. xvi. 10, 18), mention the
journey of Ahaz to Damascus to pay homage there to Tiglath Pilesar. This
must, therefore, have taken place in 732 B.C.. The synchronism of
Jeroboam and Uzziah, which is also always marked at the commencement of
the prophetic writings referring to them, is not altered by our
assumptions. Uzziah, who ascended the throne at 16 years of age, reigned
from 792 to 740; Jeroboam from 790 to 749. From Uzziah's accession up to
the accession of Athaliah, the Books of Kings give 75 years; the
interval between 843 and 792 gives us 51 years; so that there must have
been an abbreviation. This can be assumed most conveniently in the reign
of Amaziah, which lasted for 29 years, and includes the years from 797
to 792. In the reign of his father Joash we know that there was a long
minority, and the twenty-third year of this reign is mentioned. Of
Amaziah's acts, the subjugation of Edom, which he did not complete,
comes after the year 803 B.C. Edom's tribute is mentioned under
Bin-nirar of Assyria (II. 326). Just as little is the parallelism of
Amaziah with Joash of Israel altered by our assumption. As 61 years,
i.e. eight years too many, were given for Israel from the accession of
Jeroboam (790) up to Jehu's accession, eight years must be taken from
the reign of Joash, and for his reign, therefore, eight years are left
instead of 16, i.e. the eight years from 798 to 790. Violent as these
assumptions seem as compared with the traditional numbers of the Books
of Kings, they are merely given as a forced hypothesis, and at any rate
leave the traditional facts undisturbed, while the coincidence, which
may be obtained by assuming joint regencies, a first and second reign of
Jeroboam II., a first and second Menahem, a first and second reign of
Pekah, for the lists of Judah and Israel, alters the tradition without
bringing the agreement into harmony with the list of eponyms.
[42] 2 Chron. xxvi. 10.
[43] 2 Chron. xxvi. 6; Zech. ix. 6. As Amos mentions the capture of Gath
(vi. 2), and Judah is still to conquer the remnant of Edom (Amos ix.
12), the war against the Philistines must be regarded as one of Uzziah's
deeds in arms.
[44] 2 Chron. xxvi. 7; Isa. ii. 7.
[45] 2 Kings xiv. 22. The re-conquest of the Judæan settlement and
harbour city, which had been destroyed by the Edomites in their revolt
from Judah under Jehoram (II. 252), can have had no other object than to
restore the trade connections on the Red Sea. Besides, it is expressly
stated (2 Kings xvi. 6): "At the same time (734 B.C.), Rezin again
gained Elath for Syria, and drove the Jews out of Elath, and the Syrians
came to Elath, and dwelt there to this day."
[46] This follows from the fact that Amos speaks of the ruined
tabernacle of David, and the breaches in its wall (ix. 11).
[47] 2 Chron. xxvi. 15.
[48] 2 Chron. xxvi. 11-14.
[49] An older prophet of this name, distinct from the son of Jehoiadah,
and perhaps also distinct from the son of Berechiah (Isa. viii. 2), but
identical with this Zachariah, if the words of the Chronicles may be
explained to mean: "So long as he (Uzziah) listened to Zachariah."
[50] 2 Kings xv. 3; 2 Chron. xxvi 6-21; 1 Kings ix. 25.
[51] Amos i. 2; iv. 9.
[52] The date of Amos is fixed not only by the superscription, but by
the mention of the house of Jeroboam in his prophecies. Moreover, the
desolation caused by the Damascenes in Israel, the campaigns of the
Philistines against Judah (II. 252), appear to be in recent remembrance.
If the "fallen tabernacle of David, the breaches in its wall," are also
mentioned (ix. 11, 12), it is clear that Uzziah, who came to the throne
in the year 792 B.C. at an age of 16 years, had not completely restored
Judah, that he had not recovered Elath. On the other hand, it is clear
that Gath was already taken. Hence Amos cannot have come forward before
the tenth or twelfth year of Uzziah, _i.e._ before 782 or 780, according
to our computation (p. 18, _note_). The canon of the Assyrians agrees
with this in putting the campaign of Bin-nirar to the coast in the year
803 B.C.; and afterwards records the last campaign of the Assyrians to
Damascus before the time of Tiglath Pilesar II. in the year 773 B.C.;
after which time only contests against Hadrach (772-765) and against
Arpad are mentioned (p. 2), which Tiglath Pilesar then resumes in the
year 743 B.C. In Amos the Assyrians are still in the back-ground.
[53] Amos ii. 9-12.
[54] Amos viii. 4; v. 12.
[55] Amos ii. 6, 7.
[56] Amos viii. 6.
[57] Amos vi. 12.
[58] Amos v. 11.
[59] Amos vi. 1-7.
[60] Amos v. 11.
[61] Amos iv. 4, 5.
[62] Amos v. 21-23.
[63] Amos v. 14, 15, 24.
[64] Amos iii. 10, 11; vi. 2.
[65] Amos vi. 14.
[66] Amos iii. 14, 15.
[67] Amos ii. 14-16.
[68] Amos ix. 10.
[69] 2 Kings xv. 8-15.
[70] Zech. x. 2, 3.
[71] King Zachariah, and then Shallum: the third is the opponent of
Menahem who sought to maintain himself in Tipsach (Taanach?).
[72] Zech. xi. 6, 8, 9, 16, 17.
[73] Zech. xi. 1-3.
[74] Zech. ix. 1-6.
[75] Zech. ix. 10, 16.
[76] Hosea i. 4, 5.
[77] Hosea viii. 4; iv. 16; vii. 7; xiii. 11.
[78] Hosea xiii. 4.
[79] Hosea v. 1.
[80] Hosea xiii. 5.
[81] Hosea xi. 1-4.
[82] Hosea x. 1.
[83] Hosea xiii. 2.
[84] Hosea iv. 13.
[85] Hosea ii. 5-8.
[86] Hosea x. 13.
[87] Hosea iv. 2.
[88] Hosea viii. 13.
[89] Hosea vi. 6.
[90] Hosea ii. 9-13; ix. 1.
[91] Hosea viii. 14.
[92] Hosea xii. 2.
[93] Hosea ix. 1-6; v. 13; vii. 11; viii. 9; x. 6; xi. 5; xiii. 15; xiv.
1.
[94] Hosea x. 8.
[95] Hosea xi. 9.
[96] Hosea v. 15.
[97] Hosea ii. 14-17.
[98] Hosea xiv. 2-4.
[99] Hosea xiv. 5-9; ii. 19.
[100] Lists of rulers, 742-740, "during three years he conquered Arpad."
[101] Frag. 6, in G. Smith, p. 274.
[102] Eberhard Schrader, "Jahrb. protest. Theolog." 1876, s. 374.
[103] A different Baalzephon from that on the Red Sea; Exod. xiv. 2, 9.
[104] Schrader, _loc. cit._ s. 375; Rodwell, "Records of the Past," 5,
46; G. Smith, "Disc." p. 277.
[105] 2 Kings xv. 5, 7, 37.
[106] Isa. ii. 7. The moral precepts of Isaiah are collected in the text
without regard to the chronology.
[107] Isa. x. 1, 2.
[108] Isa. v. 23.
[109] Isa. v. 8.
[110] Isa. iii. 14, 15.
[111] Isa. v. 11, 12.
[112] Isa. v. 18-22.
[113] Isa. i. 10-15.
[114] Isa. xxix. 13.
[115] Isa. i. 16, 17.
[116] Isa. v. 4, 5, 3, 14.
[117] Isa. xxix. 14.
[118] Isa. xxxiii. 14-16; i. 18, 19.
[119] Isa. ix. 17-20.
[120] Isa. vii. 4, 6, 16.
[121] Isa. vii. 20.
[122] Isa. viii. 4-8.
[123] 2 Kings xv. 29, 30; xvi. 5-10.
[124] Frag. 10, in G. Smith, "Disc." p. 282; E. Schrader, "K. A. T." s.
151.
[125] Frag. 12, in G. Smith, p. 224, 225; Rodwell, "Records of the
Past," 5, 52; E. Schrader, "K. A. T." s. 145.
[126] Ll. 57-62, in G. Smith, "Disc." p. 262, 263; E. Schrader, _loc.
cit._ s. 147.