The Expositor's Bible Part 18

[291] Comp. 2 Kings ii. 12.

[292] Lit., "Make thine hand to ride upon thy bow." There is not the slightest taint of belomancy in the story (comp. Ezek. xxi. 21), nor does it allude to shooting an arrow into an enemy's country as a declaration of war (Virg., _aen._, ix. 57).

[293] Aphek, a name of good omen (1 Kings xx. 26-30).

[294] Thrice. Comp. Num. xxii. 28; Exod. xxiii. 17, etc.

[295] LXX., ???p???.

[296] See R.V., margin.

[297] _Antt._, IX. viii. 6.

[298] See Ecclus. xlviii. 13: "When he was dead, he prophesied in the tomb." (But the clause may be spurious.)

[299] Possibly some matrimonial proposal may have lain behind the interchange of messages.

[300] Stade. For similar parables see Judg. ix. 8; Herod., i. 141; Rawlinson, _Anc. Mon._, iii. 226.

[301] Beth-Shemesh, "the house of the sun." It is mentioned in 1 Sam.

vi. 9, 12, and was a priestly city, and one of Solomon's store-cities (1 Kings iv. 9). It ultimately fell into the hands of the Philistines (2 Chron. xxviii. 18). It is not the Beth-Shemesh of Josh. xix. 22.

[302] Josephus says that this was the fault of Amaziah, whom Joash of Israel threatened with death if Jerusalem resisted.

[303] This implies that at least half the northern wall was dismantled--the wall towards Ephraim.

[304] Some have conjectured that Amaziah of Judah became more or less the va.s.sal of Joash of Israel, and that the va.s.salage continued till after the death of Jeroboam II. (1) For Jeroboam II. held Elath till his death, when Uzziah recovered it (2 Kings xiv. 22), and he certainly could not have held this southern Judaean port if Judah was entirely independent; and (2) we read that Uzziah did not become king at all till the _twenty-seventh_ year of Jeroboam II. But if Amaziah only survived Joash of Israel fifteen years (2 Kings xiv. 17), Uzziah must have succeeded in the _fifteenth_ year of Jeroboam. Is the explanation to be found in the fact that up to that time--for twelve years--Jeroboam did not allow the Judaeans to elect a king? or are these among the hopeless confusion of synchronism which cannot be reconciled at all with our present data?

CHAPTER XVII

_THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (continued)--JEROBOAM II_

B.C. 781-740

2 KINGS xiv. 23-29

If we had only the history of the kings to depend upon, we should scarcely form an adequate conception either of the greatness of Jeroboam II. or of the condition of society which prevailed in Israel during his long and most prosperous reign of forty-one years (B.C.

781-740). In the Books of Chronicles he is merely mentioned accidentally in a genealogy. The Second Book of Kings only devotes one verse to him (xiv. 25) beyond the stock formulae of connection so often repeated. That verse, however, gives us at least a glimpse of his great importance, for it tells us that "he restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain." Those two lines sufficiently prove to us that he was by far the greatest and most powerful of all the kings of Israel, as he was also the longest-lived and had the longest reign. His victories flung a broad gleam of sunset over the afflicted kingdom, and, for a time, they might have beguiled the Israelites into lofty hopes for the future; but with the death of Jeroboam the light instantly faded away, and there was no after-glow.

And this sudden brightness, if it deceived others, did not deceive the prophets of the Lord. It happened in accordance with the promise of Jehovah given by Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-Hepher;[305] but Amos and Hosea saw that the glory of the reign was hollow and delusive, and that the outward prosperity did but "skin and film the ulcerous place" below.

In truth, the possibility of this sudden outburst of success was due to the very enemy who, within a few years, was to grind Israel to powder.

G.o.d pitied the deplorable overthrow of His chosen people: He saw that there was neither slave nor freeman--"neither any shut up, nor any left at large, nor any helper for Israel"; and in Jeroboam He gave them the saviour who had been granted to the penitence of Jehoahaz.[306] It was, so to speak, a last pledge to them of the love and mercy of Jehovah, which gave them a respite, and would fain have saved them altogether, if they had turned with their whole heart to Him. And, personally, Jeroboam II. seems to have been one of the better kings. Not a single crime is laid to his charge; for under the circ.u.mstances of its deep-rooted continuance through the reigns of all his predecessors, it cannot be deemed a heinous crime that he did not put down the symbolic cult of Jehovah by the cherubic emblems at Dan and Bethel. The fact that he had been named after the founder of the kingdom of Israel shows that the kingdom was proud of the valiant and Heaven-commissioned rebel who had thrown off the yoke of the house of Solomon. The house of Jehu admired his policy and his inst.i.tutions. The son of Nebat did not by any means appear in the eyes of his people as only worthy of the monotonous epitaph, "who made Israel to sin." It is true that now the voice of prophecy in Israel itself began to denounce the concomitants of the "calf-worship"; but the voices of the Jewish herdsman of Tekoa and of the Israelite Hosea probably raised but faint murmurs in the ears of the warrior-king, with whom they do not seem to have come into personal contact. In no case would he rank them as equal in importance with the fiery Elijah or the king-making Elisha, who had been for four generations the counsellor of his race. Neither of those great prophets had insisted on the Deuteronomic law of a centralised worship, nor had they denounced the revered local sanctuaries with which Israel had been so long familiar. Jonah, indeed--who, if legend be correct, had been the boy of Zarephath, and the personal attendant of Elijah--had predicted the king's unbroken success, and had neither made it conditional on a religious revolution, nor, so far as we know, had in any way censured the existing inst.i.tutions.

What rendered Jeroboam's glory possible was the immediate paralysis and imminent ruin of the power of Syria. The Israelitish king was probably on good terms with a.s.syria, and, during this epoch, three a.s.syrian monarchs had struck blow after blow against the house of Hazael. Damascus and its dependencies had received shattering defeats at the hands of Rammanirari III., Shalmaneser III. (782-772), and a.s.surdan III. (772-754). Rammanirari had made expeditions against Damascus (773) and Hazael (772), and a.s.surdan had invaded the Syrian domains in 767, 755, and 754. Syria had more than enough to do to hold her own in a struggle for life and death against her atrocious neighbour. With Uzziah in Judah, Jeroboam II. seems to have been on the friendliest terms; and probably Uzziah acted as a half-independent va.s.sal, united with him by common interests. The day for a.s.syria to threaten Israel had not yet come. Syria lay in the path; and a.s.surdan III. had been succeeded by a.s.surnirari, who gave the world the unusual spectacle of a peaceful a.s.syrian king.

Jeroboam II., therefore, was free to enlarge his domains; and unless there be a little patriotic exaggeration in the extent and reality of his prowess, he exercised at least a nominal suzerainty over a realm nearly as extensive as that of David. He first advanced against Damascus, and so far "recovered" it as to make it acknowledge his rule.[307] His father Joash had won back all the Israelite cities which Benhadad III. had taken from Jehoahaz; and Jeroboam, if he did not absolutely reconquer the district east of Jordan, yet kept it in check and repressed the predatory incursions of the Emirs of Moab and Ammon.[308] He thus extended the border of Israel to the sea of the Arabah and "the brook of willows" which divides Edom from Moab.[309]

But this was not all. He pushed his conquests two hundred miles northwards of Samaria, and became lord of Hamath the Great. Ascending the gorge of the Litany between the chains of Liba.n.u.s and Antiliba.n.u.s, which formed the northern limit of Israel, and following the river to its source near Baalbek, he then descended the Valley of the Orontes, which const.i.tutes the "pa.s.s" or "entering in" of Hamath. Hamath was a town of the Hitt.i.tes, the most powerful race of ancient Canaan. They were not of Semitic origin, but spoke a separate language. They were the last great branch of the once famous and dominant Khetas, whose former importance has only recently been revealed by their deciphered inscriptions. A century and a half earlier the Hamathites had thrown off the yoke of Solomon, and they governed nearly a hundred dependent cities. In alliance with the Phnicians and Syrians, they had been valuable members of a league, which, though defeated, had long formed a barrier against the southward movement of the a.s.syrians. How striking was the conquest of this city by Jeroboam is shown by the t.i.tle of "Hamath the Great," bestowed upon it by the contemporary prophets,[310] with whom literary prophecy begins.

The result of these conquests was unwonted peace. Agriculture once more became possible, when the farmers of Israel were secure that their crops would not be reaped by plundering Bedouin. Intercourse with neighbouring nations was revived, as in the golden days of Solomon, though it was regarded with suspicion.[311] Civilisation softened something of the old brutality. Prophecy a.s.sumed a different type, and literature began to dawn.

But to this state of things there was, as we learn from the contemporary prophets Amos and Hosea, a darker side. Of Jonah we know nothing more; for it is impossible to see in the Book of Jonah much more than a beautiful and edifying story, which may or may not rest on some surviving legends. It differs from every other prophetic book by beginning with the word "And," and its late origin and legendary character cannot any longer be reasonably disputed.[312] We may hope, therefore, that the Northern prophet, whose home was not far from Nazareth, was not quite the morose and ruthless grumbler so strikingly portrayed in the book which bears his name. Of any historical intervention of his in the affairs of Jeroboam we know nothing further than the recorded promise of the king's prosperity.

FOOTNOTES:

[305] 2 Kings xiv. 25-27. There are other allusions to the historic events in 2 Kings x. 32, 33, xiii. 3-7, 22-25. Hitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are "a burden of Moab" quoted from Jonah.

[306] 2 Kings xiii. 5, "The Lord gave Israel a saviour"; xiv. 27, "And He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash." Some suppose the saviour to be the a.s.syrian King.

[307] It had owned the feudal supremacy of David (2 Sam. viii. 6), and Ahab had extorted the privilege of having bazaars there (1 Kings xx.

34). Considering how immense had been the resources of Damascus (2 Kings vi. 14), which had once been able to send to battle twelve thousand war-chariots (_Eponym Canon_, p. 108) under Benhadad, we see how fearfully the Syrian capital must have been weakened.

[308] If Isa. xv. 1, 2, refers to this invasion of Jeroboam II., as. .h.i.tzig first conjectured, we infer that he had taken both Ar of Moab (Rabbath) and Kir of Moab, a strong fortress on a hill, by night a.s.saults; and that he had also captured Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba, and inflicted on them summary chastis.e.m.e.nt. It appears that the Moabites had advanced northwards from the Arnon, while Hazael occupied Ramoth-Gilead, and had seized part of the tribe of Reuben. Jeroboam II. first expelled them, and then invaded their own proper country.

Hitzig conjectures that Isa. xv., xvi., are really an old prophecy--perhaps by Jonah, son of Amittai--which Isaiah quotes, and to which he adds two verses (Isa. xvi. 12, 13). In such overthrow Moab must have learnt to be ashamed of Chemosh (Jer. xlviii. 13).

[309] Isa. xv. 7; Amos vi. 14.

[310] Amos vi. 2.

[311] Merchandise had hitherto been considered discreditable for a pure Jew, so that a trader is called a Canaanite (Hos. xii. 7, 8).

[312] See the writer's _Minor Prophets_ ("Men of the Bible" Series), pp. 231-243.

CHAPTER XVIII

_AMOS, HOSEA, AND THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL_

2 KINGS xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-12

"In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt What makes a nation happy and keeps it so, What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat."

MILTON, _Paradise Regained_.

"We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great, Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of Fate: But the soul is still oracular: amid the market's din List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within, 'They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin.'"

LOWELL.

Amos and Hosea are the two earliest prophets whose "burdens" have come down to us. From them we gain a near insight into the internal condition of Israel in this day of her prosperity.

We see, first, that the prosperity was not unbroken. Though peace reigned, the people were not left to lapse unwarned into sloth and G.o.dlessness. The land had suffered from the horrible scourge of locusts, until every _carmel_--every garden of G.o.d on hill and plain--withered before them.[313] There had been widespread conflagrations;[314] there had been a visitation of pestilence; and, finally, there had been an earthquake so violent that it const.i.tuted an epoch from which dates were reckoned.[315] There were also two eclipses of the sun, which darkened with fear the minds of the superst.i.tious.[316]

Nor was this the worst. Civilisation and commerce had brought luxury in their train, and all the bonds of morality had been relaxed. The country began to be comparatively depleted, and the innocent regularity of agricultural pursuits palled upon the young, who were seduced by the glittering excitement of the growing towns. All zeal for religion was looked on as archaic, and the splendour of formal services was regarded as a sufficient recognition of such G.o.ds as there were. As a natural consequence, the n.o.bles and the wealthy cla.s.ses were more and more infected with a gross materialism, which displayed itself in ostentatious furniture, and sumptuous palaces of precious marbles inlaid with ivory. The desire for such vanities increased the thirst for gold, and avarice replenished its exhausted coffers by grinding the faces of the poor, by defrauding the hireling of his wages, by selling the righteous for silver, the needy for handfuls of barley, and the poor for a pair of shoes. The degrading vice of intoxication acquired fresh vogue, and the gorgeous gluttonies of the rich were further disgraced by the shameful spectacle of drunkards, who lolled for hours over the revelries which were inflamed by voluptuous music. Worst of all, the purity of family life was invaded and broken down. Throwing aside the old veiled seclusion of women in Oriental life, the ladies of Israel showed themselves in the streets in all "the bravery of their tinkling ornaments of gold," and sank into the adulterous courses stimulated by their pampered effrontery.