he was himself slain by Shallum in the sixth | Pekahiah, who, after a short and undistinmonth of his reign. He was the last king guished reign of two years, was slain by of the house of Jehu: and thus was fulfilled Pekah, the commander of the forces, who the prediction that the family of Jehu should placed himself on the throne. only retain the throne to the fourth genera tion. Shallum, whose deed in slaying Zechariah was performed with the sanction and in the presence of the people, ascended the vacant throne in the year 771 B. C. But on receiving intelligence of this event, Menahem, the general of the army, marched against the new king, and having defeated and slain him in battle, after a reign of but thirty days, mounted the throne himself: and through his influence with the army, he was enabled not only to retain his post, but to subdue the disturbances by which the country had of late years been distracted. In doing this he proceeded with a degree of barbarity which would have been scarcely excusable in even a foreign conqueror (Joseph. Antiq. ix. 11, sect. 1). It was in the time of Menahem that the Assyrians under Pul made their first appearance in Syria. Their formidable force precluded even the show of opposition from the king of Israel, who deemed it the wiser course to purchase peace from the Assyrian king at the price of a thousand talents of silver.* This sum he raised by the unpopular measure of a poll tax of fifty shekels each upon sixty thousand of his wealthiest subjects. This is the first instance in either kingdom of money raised by taxation for a public object. In the kingdom of Judah such exigencies were met from the treasury of the temple, or of the crown; and probably there were, in ordinary times, analogous resources in Israel, but which we may readily conclude to have been exhausted in the recent troubles and confusions in that kingdom. Professor Jahn considers that the government of Israel had by this time become wholly military, in which conclusion we are disposed to acquiesce, although from other intimations than those to which he adverts. After a reign of ten years, Menahem died in 760 B. C., and was succeeded by his son The alliance of Pekah with Rezin the king of Syria, against the house of David, has been recorded in the preceding chapter, as well as the consequences which resulted from the resort of Ahaz king of Judah to the protection of Tiglath-pileser, the new king of Assyria, who overran Gilead and Galilee, and removed the inhabitants to Assyria and Media. After a reign of twenty years, Pekah received from Hoshea the same doom which he had himself inflicted upon his predecessor. This was in 738 B. C., being in the third year of the reign of Ahaz in Judah. It appears that although Hoshea is counted as the next king, he was not immediately able to establish himself on the throne, but that an interregnum, or period of anarchy, of ten years' duration, followed the murder of Pekah.† Thus, although the kingdom of Israel was now enclosed within very narrow boundaries, and surrounded on the north and east by the powerful Assyrians, it could not remain quiet, but was continually exhausting its strength in domestic conspiracies and broils. From this struggle the regicide Hoshea emerged as king. He proved a bette: ruler than most of his predecessors. He allowed the king of Judah (Hezekiah) to send messengers through the country inviting the people to a great passover which he intended to celebrate at Jerusalem, nor did he throw any obstacles in the way of the persons disposed to accept the invitation. He had a spirit which might have enabled him to advance the power and interests of the country under ordinary circumstances; but now, doomed of God, the kingdom was too much weakened to make the least effort against the Assyrian power. When therefore Shalmaneser, the new Assyrian king, invaded the country, he bowed his neck to receive the yoke of a tributary. This yoke, however, he found so galling that ere long he took * measures for shaking it off. He made a from the city of Samaria. At first all of treaty with "So," or Sabaco king of them were worshippers of idols; but as wild Egypt, and on the strength of it ventured to beasts increased in their depopulated country, seize and imprison the Assyrian officer ap- they were much disturbed by lions. Accordpointed to collect the tribute. Upon this, ing to the notions respecting national and Shalmaneser laid siege to Samaria, and after local gods which then prevailed in the world, three years gained possession of that city it is not strange that they attributed this and destroyed it. During all this time the calamity to the anger of the god of the country on account of their neglect of his worship. Accordingly, an Israelitish priest was recalled from exile, in order to instruct these idolaters in the worship of Jehovah as a national Deity. He settled at Bethel, where one of the golden calves had formerly stood; and afterward the Samaritans united the worship of Jehovah with the worship of their own gods. Impression of a seal of Sabaco the Ethiopian, 25th dynasty. (From original, in clay.) king of Egypt made no attempt to come to the assistance of Israel, as Isaiah had from the beginning predicted, in language of strong reprehension against this alliance (Isaiah xxx. 1–7). The fall of Samaria consummated the conquest of the country by the Assyrians. Hoshea was himself among the captives, and was sent in chains to Nineveh; but what afterward became of him is not known. Considerable numbers of the principal Israelites, during the war, and at its disastrous conclusion, fled the country, some to Egypt, but more into Judæa, where they settled down as subjects of Hezekiah, whose kingdom must have been considerably strengthened by this means. According to a piece of Oriental policy of which modern examples have been offered, Shalmaneser removed from the land the principal inhabitants, the soldiers, and the artisans to Halab, to the River Habor (Chebar in Ezekiel), to Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes. On the other hand, colonists were brought from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and seated in Samaria. It appears also that other colonists were afterward sent into the country by Esarhaddon. These people mingled with the Israelites, who still abode in the land, and were all comprehended under the general name of SAMARITANS, which was derived We will follow the expatriated Israelites into the places of their captivity; but, first, it is necessary that our attention should be turned to the affairs of Judah, which the mercy and long-suffering of God still continue to spare. JUDAH, FROM B. C. 725, TO B. C. 586. Hezekiah was twenty-five years of age when he succeeded his father, Ahaz, in the kingdom of Judah. He was a most pious prince, and thoroughly imbued with the principles of the theocracy. He testified the most lively zeal for the service and honor of Jehovah; while, as a king, he was disposed to manifest the most unreserved reliance on him, and subservience to him, as Sovereign Lord of the Hebrew people. He therefore won the high eulogium that "there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor any that were before him."† He began his reign by the restoration. of the true religion and the abolishment of idolatry throughout his dominions. In the very first month he opened the doors of the temple, which his father had closed, and restored the worship and service of God in proper order and beauty. In extirpating idolatry he was not content with the abolition of its grosser forms, but sought out the more native and intimate superstitions which were incentives thereto. The altars illegally erected to Jehovah, which * This So or Sabaco of profane authors, - his monuments by his successors may be considSabakoph on the monuments, was an Ethio-ered to imply that his reign was not a wrongful pian who ruled in Egypt, and whose right to the usurpation. crown of which may have been (in part, at least) derived from marriage, although Herodotus represents him solely as an intrusive conqueror. His name occurs at Abydus; and the respect paid to † 2 Kings xviii. 1-5. Such, however, must be understood as popular forms of describing superior character; for the same is said, in the same terms, of his own great grandson, Josiah. former kings had spared, were by him over- | public singing of the Psalms in the temple, thrown. The brazen serpent, which Moses and by a new collection of the moral maxims had made in the wilderness, and which was of Solomon. preserved in the temple, came in time to For his righteous doings the Lord was be regarded as a holy relic, to which with Hezekiah, and prospered him in all at last a sort of superstitious worship was his reasonable undertakings. He extended paid, and incense burned before it. This the fortifications and magazines throughout was not unnatural, considering the history of this relic, combined with the fact that ophiolatry was then, and before and after, a very common superstition in Egypt and other countries. It nobly illustrates the vigor of Hezekiah's character, and of an entire freedom from superstition, of which The possession of the kingdom of Damit is difficult now to appreciate the full ascene-Syria, and the entire conquest of merit, that he spared not even this certainly Israel, rendered the kings of Assyria allinteresting relic, but broke it in pieces, powerful in those countries. Phoenicia was and instead of nahash, a serpent," called the next to experience the force of their it contemptuously nehushtan," a brazen bauble." Much attention was also paid by Hezekiah to the dignified and orderly celebration of the festivals, which formed so conspicuous a feature in the ritual system of the Hebrews. The passover in particular, which had fallen into neglect, was revived with great splendor, and, as noticed in the last chapter, Hezekiah sent couriers through the kingdom of Israel to invite the attendance of the Israelites. His object was so obviously religious only, without any political motives, that the last king of Israel offered no opposition: and indeed a kingdom so nearly on the point of being absorbed into the great Assyrian empire, had small occasion to concern itself respecting any possible designs of Hezekiah. The Israelites were therefore left to act as their own dispositions might determine. The couriers went on from city to city proclaiming the message, and delivering the letters with which they were charged. In these the king of Judah manifested great anxiety to induce the Israelites "the remnant who had escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria " to return to Jehovah, and by that return avert that utter destruction which seemed to impend over them. The great body of the Israelites received the invitation with laughter and derision; but in Zebulun and Asher some were found "who humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." the country; he supplied Jerusalem more plentifully with water by means of a new aqueduct; and the Philistines, who had penetrated into the southern parts of Judæa in the reign of his father, were conquered by his arms. arms. The Tyrians only (according to the citation which Josephus adduces from their own historian Menander) refused to receive the Assyrian yoke. They fought and dispersed the fleet which the subjugated Phoenicians had furnished for the ulterior objects and remoter enterprises of Shalmaneser. To avenge this act, the Assyrian king left his troops for five years in the Tyrian territory, where they grievously distressed the citizens of Tyre, by cutting off all access to the river and aqueduct from which the town obtained its water. It was the death of Shalmaneser, apparently, which induced the Assyrians to abandon the siege. It was probably the same occasion, together with an undue reliance upon his fortifications, and too much confidence derived from the success which had attended the small wars in which he had been engaged, which led Hezekiah into the same temerity which had been the ruin of Hoshea. He discontinued the tribute to the Assyrians which had been imposed upon his father, and by that act threw off the yoke which Ahaz had voluntarily taken on himself. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, the new king of Assyria, named Sennacherib, came with a large army to reduce the kingdom of Judah to obedience, as well as to invade Egypt, on account of the encouragement which "So," the king of that country, had given to Hoshea to revolt, by promises of assistance, which he proved unable to render. Such promises appear to have been Like David, his great model, Hezekiah renewed to Hezekiah, to induce him to give made provision for the instruction and trouble and employment to a power of moral improvement of the people, by the which the Egyptians had good cause to be jealous. But the new king Sethos (Se-pthah, priest of Pthah), who had been a priest, considering the services of the soldiers unnecessary to the security of a kingdom intrusted to the protection of the gods, treated the military caste with much indignity, and much abridged their privileges, but after he had taken Ashdod, one of the keys of Egypt, he began to think it would be unsafe in his invasion of that country to leave the kingdom of Judah unsubdued in his rear. He therefore determined to complete the subjugation of Judah in the first place, the rather as his recent observations, and the humble submission of Hezekiah, left him little reason to expect much delay or difficulty in this enterprise. He soon reduced all the cities to his power except Libnah and Lachish, to which he laid siege, and Jerusalem, to which he sent his general Rabshakeh with a very haughty Sennacherib. (From Nineveh marbles.) in consequence of which they refused, when required, to march against the Assyrians. Hezekiah, disappointed of the assistance which he had expected from Egypt,* and observing the overwhelming nature of the force put in action, delayed not to make his submissions to Sennacherib, humbly acknowledging his offence, and offering to submit to any tribute which the king might impose upon him. The desire of the Assyrian not to delay his more important operations against Egypt seems to have inclined him to listen favorably to this overture. He demanded three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold; and this was paid by Hezekiah, although to raise it he was compelled to exhaust the royal and sacred treasures, and even to strip off the gold with which the doors and pillars of the temple were overlaid. Sennacherib received the silver and gold; * That he had expectations from that quarter, and that such expectations were known to the Syrians, appears from Rabshakeh's advice to him, Assyrian seal or cylinder of Sennacherib. summons to surrender. Many blasphemous and disparaging expressions were applied to Jehovah by the heathen general. By this he was, as it were, bound to vindicate his own honor and power; and, accordingly, the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to promise the king deliverance, and to foretell the destruction of the Assyrian host: "Lo! I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." 2 Kings xix. 7. The rumor by which Sennacherib was alarmed and interrupted was no other than the report which was spread abroad that Tirhakah the Ethiopian, king of Upper Egypt, was marching with an immense army to cut off his retreat. He then determined to withdraw; but first sent a boasting letter to Hezekiah, defying the God of Israel, and threatening what destructions he would execute upon the nation on his return. But that very night an immense proportion of the Assyrian host, even one hundred and eighty thousand men, were struck dead by "the BLAST which the prophet had predicted, and which has, with great probability, been ascribed to the agency of the simoom, "Not to trust upon the staff of that bruised reed, Egypt (upon which if a man lean it will break and pierce his hand)." 2 Kings xviii. 17–35. or hot pestilential south wind, which we may | est to a scientific people like the Babyloni have another occasion to notice. ans. Hezekiah appears to have been highly Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, and in flattered by this embassy from so distant a the exasperation of defeat he behaved with quarter. The ambassadors were treated with great severity to the captive Israelites. But much attention and respect, and the king his career was soon closed. Fifty-two days himself took pleasure in showing them the after his return he was slain, while worship- curiosities and treasures of his kingdom. ping in the temple of the god Nisroc, by his That he had treasures to show seems to sigtwo eldest sons. Thus the prophecy of nify that he had recovered his wealth from Isaiah was in every point accomplished. the Assyrians, or had enriched himself by The parricides fled into Armenia, leaving their spoil. the steps of the throne clear for the ascent The sacred historian attributes Hezekiah's of the third son, whose name was Esarhad- conduct on this occasion to " his pride of don. This great blow so weakened the heart," involving an appropriation to himself Assyrian monarchy as not only to free the of that glory which belonged only to Jehovah. king of Judah from his apprehensions, but Although, therefore, his conduct did not enabled the Medes and Babylonians to assert occasion the doom, it gave the prophet their independence. Isaiah occasion to make known to him that The same year Hezekiah fell sick ap- the treasures of his kingdom were the desparently of the plague, and he was warned tined spoil, and his posterity the destined by the prophet Isaiah to prepare for death. captives of the very nation whose presThe king was afflicted at these tidings; and ent embassage had produced in him so turning his face to the wall (as he lay in much unseemly pride. This was in every his bed), to be unnoticed by his attendants, way a most remarkable prediction; for he besought the Lord, with tears, to remem- Babylon was then an inconsiderable kingber him with favor. His prayer was heard; dom, and the people almost unknown by and the prophet, who had not yet left the palace, was charged to return and acquaint Hezekiah that, on the third following day, he should resume his customary attendance at the temple; and not only that, but that fifteen years should be added to his life. The remainder of Hezekiah's reign, In confirmation of this extraordinary com- through the years of prolonged life which munication, the king desired some miraculous had been granted to him, appears to have sign; and accordingly the shadow of the style been prosperous and happy. To no other upon the dial of Ahaz went backward ten man was it ever granted to view the approach degrees. The event corresponded to these of death with certain knowledge, through intimations. The prolongation of life was the long, but constantly shortening, vista of the more important and desirable to Heze- years that lay before him. At the time long kiah, as at that time there was no direct heir before appointed, Hezekiah died, after a to the crown. These circumstances, together reign of twenty-nine years, B. C. 725. with the signal deliverance from Sennacherib, MANASSEII was but twelve years of age not only cured the people of the idolatry when he lost his father, and began to reign. which Ahaz had introduced, and retained The temptations which surrounded him, and them for some time in their fidelity to Jeho- the evil counsels which were pressed upon vah, but excited the curiosity and admira- him, were too strong for his youth. He tion of the neighboring nations. Merodach- was corrupted; and it seemed the special Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent an object of his reign to overthrow all the good embassy to congratulate the king on his his father had wrought in Judah. The deliverance from the Assyrians (through crimes of all former kings seem light in which Merodach himself had been enabled comparison with those which disgraced his to establish his independence in Babylon), and upon his recovery from his illness, as well as to make particular inquiries respecting the miracle by which it was accompanied, and which must have been of peculiar inter whom the prediction was to be fulfilled. Hezekiah received this announcement with true Oriental submission satisfied, he said, if there were but peace and truth in his own days. reign. He upheld idolatry with all the influence of the regal power, and that with such inconceivable boldness, that the pure and holy ceremonies of the temple service were superseded by obscene rites of an idol |