The Expositor's Bible Part 27

In B.C. 733 he failed, but the next year he entirely subjugated the kingdom, and put an end to the dynasty. Rezin was probably put to death with the horrible barbarities which were normal among the brutal Ninevites; and as the a.s.syrians had no conception of colonisation or the wise government of dependencies, the Syrian population was deported _en ma.s.se_ to Elam and an unknown Kir.[463] For a time Damascus was made "a ruinous heap," and the cities of Aroer were the desolated lairs of pasturing flocks. Israel, as we have seen, was next overwhelmed by the same irremediable catastrophe, none of her people being left except such as might be compared to the mere gleanings of a vintage, and the few berries on the topmost boughs of the olive tree.[464]

Tiglath-Pileser meant to make Ahaz feel his yoke. He summoned him to do homage at Damascus, and there Ahaz once more displayed his cosmopolitan aestheticism at the expense of every pure tradition of the religion of his fathers.

His visit to Damascus was no doubt compulsory. His worldly policy, which looked so expedient, and which--apart from the defiance which it involved to the voice of G.o.d by His prophets--seemed to be so pardonable, had for the time succeeded. Isaiah's promises had been fulfilled to the letter. There was nothing more to fear either from Rezin or from Remaliah's son. Their kingdoms were a desolation. In his own annals Tiglath-Pileser[465] does not exaggerate his achievements.[466] He wrote as follows:--

"Rezin's warriors I captured, and with the sword I destroyed.

Of his charioteers and [his hors.e.m.e.n] the arms I broke: Their bow-bearing warriors, [their footmen] armed with spear and shield, With my hand I captured them, and those that fought in their battle-line.

He to save his life fled away alone; Like a deer [he ran], and entered into the great gate of his city.

His generals, whom I had taken alive, on crosses I hung; His country I subdued; Damascus, his city, I subdued, and like a caged bird I shut him in.

I cut down the unnumbered trees of his forest; I left not one.

Hadara, the palace of the father of Rezin of Syria, [I burnt].

The city of Samaria I besieged, I captured; eight hundred of its people and children I took; Their oxen and their sheep I carried away.

I took five hundred and ninety-one cities; Over sixteen districts of Syria like a flood I swept."

But the more complete destruction of Israel was due to Shalmaneser IV., who says,--

"The city of Samaria I besieged, I took, I carried away twenty-seven thousand two hundred of its inhabitants; I seized fifty of their chariots.

I gave up to plunder the rest of their possessions.

I appointed officers over them; I laid on them the tribute of the former king.

In their place I settled the men of conquered countries."

The immediate service to Judah looked immense. The a.s.syrian might safely claim, and Ahaz might truthfully confess, that the intervention of Tiglath-Pileser had rescued him from the apparent imminence of destruction. But the a.s.syrian kings served no one for nothing. The price which had to be paid for Tiglath-Pileser's intervention was va.s.salage and tribute. Ahaz, or, as the a.s.syrians call him, Jehoahaz,[467] had styled himself Tiglath-Pileser's "servant and his son," and the a.s.syrian chose to have substantial proof of this parental suzerainty. The great king therefore summoned the poor subject-potentate to Damascus, where he was holding his victorious court.

So far Ahaz had no reason to complain of his "dreadful patron"; and if he had returned when he paid his homage, no immediate harm would have happened. But during his visit he saw "the altar" (_Heb._) at the conquered city. Was it the altar of the defeated Syrian G.o.d Rimmon? or did the a.s.syrian persuade his willing va.s.sal to sacrifice at the portable altar of his G.o.d a.s.sur? We may, perhaps, infer the former from 2 Chron. xxviii. 23, where Ahaz says: "Because the G.o.ds of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me." There is room to suspect some error here, because Rezin had fallen, and Damascus was in ruins, and Rimmon had conspicuously failed to help or to avenge his votaries.[468] Ahaz admired the altar, to whatever G.o.d it had been erected; and unmindful, or perhaps unconscious, that the altar of the Temple of Jerusalem was declared in the Pentateuch to have been divinely ordained--a fact to which the historian does not himself refer--he sent to the head priest Urijah a pattern of the altar which had struck his fancy at Damascus.

The subservient priest, without a murmur or a remonstrance, undertook to have a similar altar ready for Ahaz in the Temple by the time of his return--a crime, if crime it were, which the Chronicler conceals.

"Never any prince was so foully idolatrous," says Bishop Hall, "as that he wanted a priest to second him. A Urijah is fit to humour an Ahaz.[469] Greatness could never command anything which some servile wits were not ready both to applaud and justify." Certainly we should have hoped for more fidelity to ancient tradition from a man who earned the approving word of Isaiah; but it is only fair and just to admit that Urijah, in the universal ignorance which prevailed about the codes which were afterwards collected and published as the total legislation of the wilderness, may have viewed his obedience to the king's commands with very different eyes from those by which it was regarded in the sixth and fifth centuries before Christ. He may have been frankly unaware that he was guilty of an act which would afterwards be denounced as an apostatising enormity.[470]

When Ahaz returned, he was so much pleased with his new plaything that he at once acted as priest at his own new altar. Without the least opposition from the priests--who had so sternly resisted Uzziah--he offered burnt-offerings and meat-offerings and drink-offerings, and sprinkled the blood of peace-offerings on his altar.[471] Not content with this, he did not hesitate to order the removal of the huge brazen altar from the position, in front of the Temple porch, which it had held since the days of Solomon. He did this in order that his own favourite altar might be in the line of vision from the court, and not be overshadowed by the old one, which he shifted from the place of honour to the north side. He proceeded to call his own altar "the great altar," and ordered that the morning burnt-offering, and the evening _minchah_, and all the princ.i.p.al sacrifices should henceforth be offered upon it.[472] He did not wholly supersede the old brazen altar, which, he said, "shall be for me to inquire by," or, as the Hebrew may perhaps mean, "it should await"--_i.e._, "I will hereafter consider what to do with it."

Ahaz is charged with the additional crime of removing the ornamental festoons of bronze pomegranates from the lavers, and the brazen oxen from under the molten sea, which henceforth lay dishonoured, without its proper and splendid supports, on the pavement of the court.[473] He also took away the bal.u.s.trade of the royal "ascent" from the palace to the Temple, and made a new entrance of a less gorgeous character than that which, in the days of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba had admired.[474]

No doubt these proceedings helped to heighten the unpopularity of Ahaz. But what could he do? He could, indeed, if he had had sufficient faith, have "trusted in Jehovah," as Isaiah bade him do. But he was under the terrific pressure of hostile circ.u.mstances, and, being a weak and timid man, felt himself unable to resist the influence of the haughty politicians and worldly priests by whom he was surrounded--men who openly made Isaiah their scoff. When he invited the interposition of Tiglath-Pileser,[475] all the other consequences of humiliation would naturally follow. He probably disliked as much as any one to see the great molten laver taken off the backs of the oxen which showed the skill of the ancient Hiram, and did not admire the despoiled aspect of the shrine of his capital. But if the King of a.s.syria or his emissaries had (as the historian implies) cast greedy eyes on these splendid objects of antiquity, the poor va.s.sal could not refuse them.

Better, he may have thought, that these material ornaments should go to Nineveh than that he should be forced to exact yet heavier burdens from an impoverished people. His expedient is mentioned among his crimes, yet no one blamed the pious Hezekiah when, under similar circ.u.mstances, he acted in precisely the same manner.[476]

The Chronicler gives a darker aspect to his misdoings by saying that he cut to pieces the vessels of the house of G.o.d, and made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem, and _bamoth_ to burn incense unto other G.o.ds in every several city of Judah. He says, further, that he closed the great gates of the Temple; put an end to the kindling of the lamps, the burning of incense, and the daily offerings; and left the whole Temple to fall into ruin and neglect.[477] We know no more of him. He lived through an epoch marked by the final crisis in the existence of the kingdom of Israel. Dark omens of every kind were around him, and he seems to have been too frivolous to see them. If he plumed himself on the removal of the two relentless invaders Rezin and Pekah, he must have lived to feel that the terror of a.s.syria had come appreciably nearer. Tiglath-Pileser had only helped Judah in furtherance of his own designs, and his exactions came like a chronic distress after the acuter crisis. Nor was there any improvement when he died in 727. He was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV., and Shalmaneser IV. by Sargon in 722, the year of the fall of Samaria. We know no more of Ahaz. The historian says that he was buried with his fathers, and the Chronicler adds, as in the case of Uzziah and other kings, that he was not permitted to rest in the sepulchres of the kings.[478] He had sown the wind; his son Hezekiah had to reap the whirlwind.[479]

FOOTNOTES:

[455] See 2 Kings xxiii. 11, which shows that this was not an innovation of Mana.s.seh's. They were common in Persia. See Q. Curtius, iii. 3.

[456] 2 Kings xvii. 31; Ezek. xvi. 21, xxiii. 37, x.x.xiii. 6; Deut.

xii. 31; Jer. xix. 5. See 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; for "his son," ??????, it uses ??????? "his sons," but perhaps generically. Moloch-worship may have been stimulated by accounts of the a.s.syrian fire-G.o.d Adrammelech (Movers, _Phoniz._, ii. 101). On this sacrifice of children to Moloch, which the Phnicians referred back to the G.o.d El or Il, once King of Byblos, who in a crisis of danger sacrificed his eldest son Icond, see Plut., _De Superst._, -- 13; Diod. Sic., xx.

12-14; 2 Kings iii. 27, xvi. 3, xxi. 6; Mic. vi. 7; Dollinger, _Judenthum u. Heidenthum_ (E. T.), i. 427-429.

[457] This worship was to be punished by stoning (Lev. xviii. 21, xx.

2-5; Deut. xviii. 10). On the whole subject see Movers, _Phoniz._, 64; Jarchi _on Jer. vii._ 31; Euseb., _Praep. Ev._, iv. 16.

[458] Josephus says that Ahaz made "a whole burnt-offering" of his son; but his authority is very small (?a? ?d??? ????a?t?se? pa?da).

Comp. Psalm cvi. 37.

[459] Ignorant Romanists have often cherished the same notions about the saints. For centuries in Spain the people bought the old gowns and cowls of the monks, and buried their dead in them, to deceive St.

Peter into the notion that they were Dominicans or Franciscans!

[460] See Ovid, _Fasti_, v. 659: "Scripea pro domino Tiberi jactatur imago." They were also called _Argei_, _id._ 621; Varro, _L. L._, vi. 3.

[461] Varro, _L. L._, v. 3.

[462] Herod., ii. 137. Egypt., _Sebek_; Heb., _So_ (2 Kings xvii. 4), or perhaps _Seve_; Arab., _Shab'i_. Rawlinson, _Hist. of Anct. Egypt_, ii. 433-450.

[463] Kir (see Amos ix. 7) is omitted in the LXX. Elam is added in Isa.

xxii. 6. Tiglath-Pileser calls the king Rasunnu Sarimirisu--_i.e._, of Aram. See Smith, _a.s.syr. Discoveries_, p. 274; _Eponym Canon_, 68; Schrader, _K. A. T._, 152 ff.

[464] Isa. xvii. 1-11.

[465] The name seems to be Tuklat-abal-isarra,--according to Oppert worshipper of the son of the Zodiac--_i.e._, of Nin or Hercules.

According to Polyhistor, he was a usurper who had been a vine-dresser in the royal gardens. He never mentions his ancestry. But see Schrader, _K. A. T._, 217 ff., 240 ff., and in Riehm.

[466] _Eponym Canon_, p. 121, lines 1-15. On this fall of Damascus and Samaria, see Isa. xvii.

[467] Jahuhazi (Schrader, _Keilinschr._, p. 263). He probably bore both names; but, as in the case of Jeconiah, who is called Coniah, the omission of the element "Jehovah" from his name may have been intended as a mark of reprobation.

[468] The remark may refer to some earlier period in the reign of Ahaz, before the capture of Damascus. It is more probable that the altar was used for some a.s.syrian deity, and the adoption of it may have flattered Tiglath-Pileser.

[469] 2 Kings xvi. 11, which records the zealous subservience of Urijah, is wanting in some MSS. of the LXX. But that the altar was made, and without his opposition, is clear from the narrative. Asa (2 Chron. xv.

8) had repaired Solomon's great altar; Hezekiah subsequently cleansed it (_id._ xxix. 18); Mana.s.seh rebuilt it (_Q'ri_). The bra.s.s of it ultimately went to Babylon (Jer. lii. 17-20).

[470] Bahr says: "It seems that Urijah, like his companion, was only anxious for his revenues. At any rate, his conduct is a sign of the character and standing of the priests of that time. They were 'dumb dogs who could not bark.' They all followed their own ways, every one for his own gain" (Isa. lvi. 10, 11). "We have in this high priest,"

says the _Wurtemberg Summary_, "a specimen of those hypocrites and belly-servants who say, 'Whose bread I eat, his song I sing'; who veer about with the wind, and seek to be pleasant to all men; who wish to hurt no one's feelings, but teach just what any one wants to hear."

[471] 1 Kings viii. 64; 2 Chron. iv. 1. In this and similar instances commentators, bia.s.sed by _a priori_ considerations, have imagined that Ahaz did not in person offer sacrifices. But this is what the text says, and it was the custom of kings to regard themselves as invested with Divine attributes. Ahaz may have had this lesson impressed on his mind by his visit to Tiglath-Pileser. See Gratz, _Gesch. der Juden._, ii.

150. Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, 472 ff., gives us pictures of a.s.syrian kings ministering at their altars, which are of various shapes.

[472] 2 Kings xvi. 15. Vulg., _paratum erit ad voluntatem meam_. The LXX. followed another reading: ?sta? ?? e?? t? p???. Gratz (ii. 150), for ????, "to inquire," reads ???? "to draw near to."

[473] 1 Kings vii. 23-39.

[474] 2 Kings xvi. 18. The allusions are obscure. R.V., "the covered way"; A.V., "the covert for the Sabbath." See 2 Chron. ix. 4. Here the Hebr. _Q'ri_ has _Msak_, and the Vulg. _Musach Sabbati_. The LXX.

evidently did not understand it (?a? t?? ?e????? t?? ?a??d?a?

???d??se?). For "covert for the Sabbath," Geiger suggests "molten images for the Shame" (Bosheth-Baal, by transposition of _Shabbath_).

Comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 2.

[475] 2 Chron. xxviii. 20: "Tiglath-Pileser came unto him, and distressed him, but helped him not."

[476] 2 Kings xviii. 15, 16.

[477] In justice to Ahaz, we should observe that (1) in every instance the later account multiplies and magnifies and gives a darker colouring to his offences; (2) that neither Isaiah, Micah, nor any other prophet has a word of reproach for such enormities in Ahaz.

[478] It is a Jewish tradition that Hezekiah would not bury his father Ahaz in a sarcophagus, but on a bier (_Pesachin_, f. 56, 1; _Sanhedrin_, f. 47, 1; Gratz, _Gesch. d. Juden._, ii, 224).