The History of Antiquity Volume Ii Part 16

An addition in the first Book of Kings remarks that Asa removed the harlots and the idols out of the land, that he threw down the image of Astarte, which his mother had set up, and burnt it in the valley of the Kidron.[432] This was a healthy reaction against the foreign rites which had crept in in the last years of Solomon's reign. Asa's son Jehoshaphat (873-848 B.C.) went further in this direction. The remainder of the harlots were removed from the land; he entered into peaceful relations with Israel. The supremacy over the Edomites was maintained, and they were governed by viceroys of the king of Judah.[433] We find that the Edomites sent contingents to him; and his sway extended as far as the north-east point of the Red Sea. Here, at Elath, as in Solomon's time, great ships were built for the voyage to Ophir.[434]

The ten tribes who had set Jeroboam at their head were the ma.s.s of the people both in numbers and extent of territory. They might hope to carry on the kingdom, they preserved the name of Israel; while in the south there was little more than one powerful tribe separated from the rest.

Shechem, the ancient metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim, the place at which the crown was transferred to Jeroboam, was the residence of the new king. When Jerusalem was no longer the chief metropolis of the kingdom, the temple there could not any longer be the place of worship for all the tribes. It would be nothing less then recognising the supremacy of Rehoboam if the tribes continued to go up to Jerusalem to the great sacrifices and festivals. The places of worship for the new kingdom must be within its own borders. Jeroboam consecrated afresh the old place of sacrifice, Bethel, on the southern border of the territory of Ephraim, the place where Abraham had offered sacrifice, and Jacob had rested (I. 390, 408); and on the northern boundaries of his kingdom he consecrated the place of sacrifice at Dan, which the Danites had once founded on taking Laish from the Sidonians (p. 94). At both places he set up a golden calf to Jehovah, and inst.i.tuted priests; and, as we are told, the Israelites came like one man to the feasts of Dan, and sacrificed at Bethel, where the sanctuary also contained a treasury. Of other actions of Jeroboam, we only know that he built, _i.e._ fortified, Peniel in the land beyond Jordan; no doubt in order to be able to maintain his supremacy over the Ammonites. The severe blow which had fallen on the kingdom of Judah by the incursion of Shishak secured him from any serious attack on the part of Rehoboam. The petty warfare on the borders of Judah and Israel naturally did not cease during his reign (p. 231).

Nadab, the son of Jeroboam (927-925 B.C.), marched against the Philistines in order to recover from them Gibbethon in the land of the southern Danites. Here in the camp at Gibbethon he was slain by Baasha, one of the captains of his army, and the whole race of Jeroboam was destroyed. Baasha ascended the throne, which Nadab had held for two years only. He took up his abode at Tirzah, a pleasantly-situated place north of Shechem.[435] The division of the kingdom of Israel and its consequent debility could not but appear a desirable event to the kingdom of Damascus, which, though overthrown by David, was restored by Rezon in Solomon's time (p. 179.) Attacks of Judah on Israel could not be supported by Damascus, because they might lead to a reunion, and for the same reason Israel could not be allowed to subjugate Judah. This seems to have been the reason which induced Benhadad of Damascus to accede to the request of Asa, king of Judah, when Baasha had entrenched Ramah against Jerusalem. Benhadad's invasion of the north of Israel, the desolation of the district on the Upper Jordan and the lake of Genesareth,[436] gave relief to the oppressed kingdom of Judah (p. 235).

Baasha's son Elah was slain at a banquet at Tirzah, after a short reign (901-899 B.C.), by Zimri, one of the captains of his army, who seized the crown. But the army of Israel, which was again encamped at Gibbethon, on hearing of what had taken place at Tirzah, elected Omri, their leader, king. Omri broke up the siege of Gibbethon, marched to Tirzah, and took the city. Zimri despaired of maintaining himself in the royal castle, and burnt himself in it. Yet Omri was not master of Israel. Half of the people joined Tibni, the son of Ginath. Omri gradually gained the upper hand, till Tibni's death decided the matter in his favour.

With the elevation of Omri (899-875 B.C.) a third dynasty ascended the throne of Israel, while in Judah the crown continued peacefully in the family of David. Like Baasha, Omri founded a new residence; he removed his seat from Tirzah to Mount Shomron, and here built the new city of that name (Samaria). Nothing is said of the wars of Omri against Judah.

To Benhadad of Damascus he seems to have lost some towns in the land of Gilead.[437] That he ruled with address, vigour, and a strong hand is clear from the inscription on a monument which Mesha, king of Moab, caused to be erected in his city of Dibon (east of the Dead Sea). This tells us that Omri and his son after him held Moab in subjection for 40 years; that not only was the city of Nebo garrisoned by the Israelites, but Omri even took Medabah, _i.e._ the region south of Nebo towards Dibon, and occupied it, and "oppressed Moab for a long time," because "Camos, the G.o.d of the Moabites, was angry at his land."[438] As Mesha regained his independence after the death of Ahab, the son of Omri, the more severe subjection of the Moabites by Omri must have begun in the year 893 B.C. Omri seems to have entered into friendly relations with Ethbaal, king of Tyre (917-885 B.C.), or his successor Balezor (885-877 B.C.).[439] Omri's authority and reputation must have been considerable, since even after the overthrow of his house, in the second half of the ninth century B.C., the kings of a.s.syria speak of the king of Israel as "the son of Omri," and the kingdom of Israel as the "house of Omri."

Ahab, Omri's son (875-853 B.C.), maintained the power which his father had won. The Books of Kings tell us that Mesha, king of Moab, sent him yearly the wool of 100,000 sheep and lambs,[440] and Mesha himself tells us that Omri was followed by his son, who also said, "I will oppress Moab;" and Israel "dwelt at Medabah for 40 years in the days of Omri and Ahab." That the Ammonites also were subject to Ahab seems a just conclusion from the inscriptions of Shalmanesar, king of a.s.syria.[441]

With Tyre Ahab was in close connection. His wife Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, the aunt of Mutton, the contemporary king of Tyre (p. 268). He was on friendly terms with Judah, which began to rise again (as we saw) under the rule of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.[442] On the vine-clad hills of Jezreel Ahab built himself a palace adorned with ivory, after the pattern of the Phenician princes.[443]

The rites of the neighbouring tribes, the worship of Astarte, Camos, and Milcom, which found their way into the Hebrew tribes, and even to Jerusalem in the last years of Solomon's reign, were again removed in Judah, as we have seen (p. 235), under the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat. For Israel the dedication of the places of worship at Bethel and Dan to Jehovah, which Jeroboam inst.i.tuted, in spite of the erection of the image of Jehovah, marked a reaction against the rites of the Canaanites. But the connection into which Ahab entered with Tyre brought it about that the G.o.ds of the Phenicians were again looked on with reverence in Israel. Induced by Jezebel, his Tyrian wife, so we are told, Ahab caused a temple to be erected in Samaria, which his father had built, to Baal of Tyre, at which 450 priests maintained the worship; and a temple was also dedicated to Astarte, which gave occupation to 400 priests.[444]

It was an ancient custom among the Hebrews, as we have already found more than once, to inquire of Jehovah what should be done. In Israel the custom of thus making inquiry was more widely spread than in other nations. Before any undertaking inquiry was made of his will. Jehovah's voice decided the sentence in the judgment court. It was usual in all cases and times to appeal to the decision of Jehovah. Question and answer were made, as has been remarked, by the priests casting lots before the sacred ark, the altars, and the images of Jehovah. If a criminal had to be discovered, the tribes and races came forward, and he was marked out by the lot cast before Jehovah. We saw that Saul inquired of Jehovah on his campaign (p. 124). David undertook nothing without inquiring of the image of Jehovah which he carried about with him (p.

139). If any one wished to mark out the wisdom of any advice, it was said, "It is as if Jehovah had answered." But beside the priests who cast the lots, there were men who saw into what was hidden, and knew the future. To these soothsayers men went as well as to the lot before Jehovah; they desired to know whether there would be rain or drought, where a lost beast was to be found; they inquired for remedies for disease. The soothsayers even p.r.o.nounced sentences at law, and their sentence was then as the sentence of Jehovah. It was Jehovah who illuminated such men, and imparted to them a keener vision, a higher knowledge. They believed, as the people believed of them--and the belief was stronger as the religious feeling was more intense--that they stood in a nearer and closer relation to Jehovah. If they also foretold events for reward, yet they lived in the belief that they knew the will and the counsels of Jehovah, and in this conviction they gave advice and judgment; they were not only soothsayers, but seers. In such a conviction mere prediction pa.s.sed into prophecy, _i.e._ into the revelation of the will of Jehovah by the mental certainty of the seer.

In this position we found Samuel, who, from being a priest, had attained to a knowledge of the will of Jehovah; he was at once priest, soothsayer for hire, and prophet; _i.e._ he not only announced external matters still in the future, but also announced the just decision, the resolve pleasing to G.o.d. He gathered disciples round him, who praised Jehovah with harp and lute, and waited to see his face, and became changed into other men (p. 117). Gad and Nathan, with whom David and Solomon took counsel, were men of this style and tone. With the loftier impulses which the religious life received both on the ritual and legal side, as well as on the side of religious feeling under David and Solomon, with the survey of the fortunes which Jehovah had prepared for his people, with the expression of intense devotion in that poetry to which David opened the way, the elevation of mind in the prophets must have been increased and extended; their views must have become deeper. In the kingdom of Israel, so far as our knowledge goes, the seers and prophets had made no protest against the worship of Jehovah under an image. But they came forward with decisive opposition to the worship of Baal and Astarte, the strange G.o.ds which Ahab and Jezebel had introduced into Samaria and Israel. Ahab decreed persecution against them, which strengthened instead of breaking the intensity of their faith, their adhesion and devotion to the G.o.d of the ancestors. They were driven to live in solitudes, deserts, ravines, and caves. On their privations, fasts, and lonely contemplations in the silence of the desert followed dreams and ecstatic visions. By these the close and favoured relation of the persecuted to the G.o.d of Israel became an established certainty. The power of prediction pa.s.sed into the background as compared with this awakening by Jehovah, and the duty to strive, contend, and suffer for the worship of the G.o.d of the nation against strange G.o.ds. If a prophet who had lifted up his voice against the sacrifice to Baal was compelled to fly before the king into the desert, he was followed thither by eager a.s.sociates, who had at heart the worship and service of Jehovah. These listened to his words and promptings; these were his disciples. The numbers of the awakened and illuminated increased; amid danger and in privation their religious life became more earnest; their zeal for Jehovah and their hatred of the strange G.o.ds and their worshippers became deeper as the persecution fell heavier upon them. They became men of word and action.

Strengthened in this conflict for zealous struggles in behalf of the ancient Lord, oppressed and persecuted for their faithfulness to the G.o.d of Israel, their relation to him took the shape of an inward conviction of great force and intensity. Filled with their belief and the revelations which Jehovah had imparted to them, they came forward in the boldest manner to oppose the apostate kings; their zeal for Jehovah rose to the wildest fanaticism, which shrunk from no means of destroying the servants of the strange G.o.ds. To bring into light the force of their opposition to the wicked kings, and the power which Jehovah gives to his faithful servants, tradition has adorned with many miracles the lives of Elijah and Elisha, the men who in Ahab's time transformed the prognostications of the seers into a prophetic censure. Elijah is said to have ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, and even the corpse of Elisha worked miracles.

At the urgent request of Jezebel, so we are told, Ahab gave orders that the prophets of Jehovah, who roused the people against him, should be driven out of the land or put to death.[445] Elijah retired from Thisbe in Gilead, first to the region of Jordan, and then to Zarephath (Sarepta) in the land of the Sidonians;[446] and finally he found a place of refuge in the ravines of Carmel, on the sea-sh.o.r.e. A girdle of skins surrounded his loins, and a mantle of hair covered his shoulders; ravens were said to have brought bread and flesh to the hungry prophet in the desert.[447] It came to pa.s.s that there was a long drought in Israel. In this time of distress Elijah came forth from his hiding-place to point out the anger of Jehovah on the king and the people for their worship of Baal, and to proclaim relief if they returned to the G.o.d of Israel. He requested Ahab to gather the people and all the priests of Baal and Astarte to Carmel, and there Jehovah would send rain. To this request Ahab agreed. "How long will ye halt on both knees, and go after Jehovah as well as Baal," cried Elijah to the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude. "I alone am left of the prophets of Jehovah, and the prophets of Baal are 450 men. Give us then two bulls: one to me, and one to the priests of Baal. We will cut them in pieces and lay them on the wood, and the G.o.d who answers with fire shall be our G.o.d." The priests of Baal slew their bull, laid him on the wood, and called on Baal from morning to mid-day, and said, O Baal, hear us! But in vain. Meanwhile Elijah, so the narrative continues, built an altar of 12 stones, for the 12 tribes, and made a trench round it; cut the bull in pieces, and laid him on the wood of the altar, and thrice poured water over all. When he called on Jehovah--to make it known on that day that he was G.o.d in Israel, and Elijah was his servant--fire fell from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the altar. All the people fell on their faces, and Elijah said, Seize the prophets of Baal; let none of them escape. The people fell upon them; they were brought down from the mountain, and Elijah slew them at the brook Kishon. Then a little cloud was seen from Carmel rising out of the sea, of the size of a man's hand, and Elijah said to the king, "Harness thy chariot and haste away, that the rain overtake thee not." The sky was quickly covered with black clouds, and heavy rain followed upon storms of wind.

But Elijah ran before Ahab to his palace in Jezreel.[448] Of this narrative, which belongs to the prophetic revision of the annals, we may perhaps retain with certainty the facts that Elijah declared a severe famine and drought in the land to be the punishment of Jehovah for the worship of Baal; that the excited people slew the priests of Baal; that Ahab accorded to the prophets of Jehovah permission to return to their homes and liberty; and that the worship of Jehovah in Israel, which had been seriously threatened by those rites, regained the upper hand and decided victory, though it could not entirely drive out the worship of Baal.

The increase in the strength of Israel under Omri and Ahab, the connection into which Ahab entered with Jehoshaphat of Judah, the alliance between the two houses, must have appeared to Benhadad II., the king of Damascus, a serious matter for his own position. For this or for other reasons he broke with Ahab, and renewed the struggle which had gone on in Omri's time between Israel and Damascus. He invaded Israel with all his power: 32 kings were with him--such is the no doubt greatly exaggerated account. Ahab fell upon the Aramaeans while Benhadad was at a banquet, and though his army was only 7000 strong, he obtained a great victory. Then, as we are told in the prophetic revision of the Books of Kings, Benhadad's servants advised him to contend with the Israelites on the plain; their G.o.ds were G.o.ds of the hills, and therefore they had gained the victory. Benhadad came in the next year with an army of Aramaeans, which filled the land. Nevertheless Ahab again defeated them at Aphek (eastward of Lake Merom), and so utterly overthrew them that Benhadad sent his servants with sackcloth about their loins, and halters round their heads, to Ahab to pray for mercy. This Ahab granted, and Benhadad in turn undertook to restore the cities which his father had taken from the father of Ahab, _i.e._ from Omri.

The princes of Syria had every reason to forget their hatred and make up their quarrels. a.s.surbanipal and Shalmanesar II., kings of a.s.syria, had attacked and subjugated the districts on the Euphrates, and established fortresses there. The former forced his way as far as the Orontes and the Ama.n.u.s; the latter had already subjugated Cilicia. In the year 854 B.C. Shalmanesar II. left Nineveh in the spring, crossed the Euphrates, demanded tribute there, and then turned towards Damascus. He came upon Benhadad (Bin-hidri) of Damascus, to whom Ahab (Achabbu), king of Israel, as well as the king of Hamath, and the king of Aradus, together with some other Syrian kings, had brought up their forces. To the army of the Syrians Shalmanesar allowed more than 60,000 men--he enumerates 12 princes who combined to oppose him. Damascus furnished the strongest contingent, viz., 20,000 men and 1200 chariots; then came Israel, with 10,000 men and 200 chariots; and Hamath, with 10,000 men and 700 chariots. The armies met at Karkar. The king of a.s.syria claims the victory; he professes to have captured the chariots and hors.e.m.e.n of the Syrians, and to have cut down their leaders. According to one inscription 14,000 Syrians, according to two others 20,500, were left on the field. But Shalmanesar says nothing of the subjection of the princes who fought against him, or of the payment of tribute by those who are said to be vanquished, or of conquered cities. Hence the truth is that the combined forces of the Syrians succeeded in repulsing the attack of the a.s.syrians. This was their victory, though they may not have obtained the victory on the field.[449]

When the danger threatened by the attack of a.s.syria pa.s.sed away, the contention between Damascus and Israel broke out again. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that Benhadad did not keep his promise, and did not restore the city of Ramoth in Gilead to Ahab. Ahab may have thought that he had the greater ground for complaint against Damascus, as he took upon himself the severe battle against a.s.syria, though it was Damascus, and not Israel, which stood in the direct line of danger. He united with Judah against Damascus, and sent a request to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to march out with him. Jehoshaphat answered, "I will go forth as thou goest; my people as thy people; my horses as thy horses;" and he came with his warriors to Samaria. Both kings sat on their seats at the gate, in order to review the army as it pa.s.sed out; and the prophets of Jehovah, 400 in number, prophesied good things to them, and said, "Go forth against Ramoth in Gilead; Jehovah will give it into your hands."

One only of these prophets, Michaiah, the son of Imlah, prophesied evil; Ahab, we are told, caused him to be thrown into prison till he should return in prosperity.[450] A battle took place in the neighbourhood of Ramoth in Gilead; Ahab was severely wounded by an arrow which pa.s.sed between the joints of his mail; he caused the wound to be bound up, and returned to the fight, in order not to discourage his warriors, and continued to stand upright in his chariot, though his blood flowed to the bottom of it, till the evening, when he died. When the soldiers heard of the death of the king the army dispersed in every direction.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, escaped (853 B.C.).

The death of such a brave warrior as Ahab was a heavy blow to the kingdom of Israel. We are not told by what sacrifices Ahaziah, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, had to purchase peace; we only know that the Moabites revolted from Israel on the news of the death of Ahab, and that Mesha no longer paid the tribute which he and his father had paid to Omri and Ahab. In any case it was a great relief for Israel when Shalmanesar, king of a.s.syria, in the years 851 and 850 B.C., turned his arms against Hamath and Damascus.[451] In this way Ahaziah's younger brother, Joram, who succeeded him after a short reign (851-843 B.C.), was able to attempt to subjugate the Moabites anew. He called on Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to go out with him, and Jehoshaphat said, "I am as thou art; my horses as thy horses," and raised not only the warriors of Judah, but those of Edom also. The attack was made from the land of the kingdom of Judah and Edom on the southern border of the Moabites. The Moabites were defeated, their cities destroyed, their fields laid waste, their wells filled up. Mesha threw himself into the fortress of Kir Harosheth, which is probably the later Kerak, to the south of the Arnon, not far from the east sh.o.r.e of the Dead Sea. The slingers of both kings surrounded the fortress, and cast stones against the walls. "And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him," and he had attempted in vain to break out, "he took his firstborn son, who would be king in his place, and sacrificed him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there was a great anger against Israel, and they returned from him, and went back into their own land" (849 B.C.).

Notwithstanding this fortunate beginning, the campaign against Moab, as is allowed even by the Books of Kings, was finally wrecked. This termination agrees with the statements of Mesha on the monument of Dibon. "Forty years," it says, "Israel dwelt in Medabah; Camos gave it back in my days. And the king of Israel built Ataroth, and I fought against the stronghold and took it, and took all the men captive, and brought them as a pleasing spectacle to Camos and Moab. And Camos said to me, Go and take Nebo from Israel; and I went in the night and fought against it from daybreak to mid-day; and I took it. It was devoted to destruction to Ashtor-Camos (I. 373); and I took from thence the furniture of Jehovah, and dragged them before Camos. And the king of Israel built Jahaz, and placed himself therein, in his contest against me, and Camos drove him out before me. I took from Moab 200 men, all the chiefs, and led them out to Jahaz, and took it, in order to unite it to Dibon. I built Karho,[452] the gates, the towers, and the royal palace.

I built Aroer, and made the road over the Arnon. I built Beth Bamoth, which was destroyed. I built Bazor, and Beth Diblathaim, and Beth Baal-Meon. And Camos said to me, Go down to fight against Horonaim."

Here our fragments of the inscription break off. We see that Ahab's successors, Ahaziah and Joram, attempted to force Moab to submission by planting fortresses in the land; that they attempted to subjugate the Moabites from Ataroth, Nebo, and Jahaz. When this mode of warfare did not succeed, and the fortresses were destroyed, the great campaign was undertaken which in the end came to disaster, unless we were to place this campaign before the time when Joram built those fortresses.

It was impossible for Joram to entertain any further hopes of the subjugation of Moab when Benhadad, after escaping from the attack of Shalmanesar, turned upon him. The Israelites were unable to keep the field, and Joram was shut up in Samaria. The supplies failed, and the famine is said to have been so grievous in the city that an a.s.s's head sold for 80 shekels, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five shekels, and mothers even laid their hands upon their own children.

But Elisha, the favourite disciple of Elijah, is said to have urged them to hold out, and promised present help from Jehovah. Suddenly, in a single night, the army of the Aramaeans disappeared. They feared, so the prophetic revision of the annals relates, that the kings of the Hethites and the kings of Egypt had set out to the aid of Joram. As Shalmanesar of a.s.syria tells us that he marched in the year 846 B.C. with 120,000 men against Benhadad of Damascus and Irchulina of Hamath, we may a.s.sume that it was the approach of the a.s.syrians which induced Benhadad to raise the siege of Samaria, in order to meet the a.s.syrians with all his own forces and those of Hamath. Here again Shalmanesar announces a victory obtained over Benhadad and Irchulina of Hamath, and twelve princes, and again the victory is without results.

It was not to the power of Shalmanesar, but to Elisha, the prophet of Israel, that Benhadad of Damascus succ.u.mbed. For what reason we know not, Elisha left Israel and went to Damascus. Benhadad lay sick. He sent his chosen servant Hazael with costly presents to Elisha to inquire if he would recover. Elisha answered, Say to him, thou shalt recover; but Jehovah has shown me that he will die. Hazael announced the message, and on the next day smothered the king, and placed himself on the throne of Damascus (844 B.C.). The new king at once resumed the war with Israel, and, as it would appear, not without the instigation of Elisha.[453]

Jehoshaphat of Judah had died a few years previously (848 B.C.). The crown pa.s.sed to his son Jehoram, the brother-in-law of Joram. The Edomites, who had continued to follow Jehoshaphat into the field against Moab, revolted from him, and slew the Judaeans who had settled in Edom,--these settlers may have been most numerous in the harbour city of Elath,--and placed themselves under a king.[454] Jehoram attempted to reduce them in vain; the fortune of war was against him; he was surrounded by the Edomites, and was compelled to force his way with his chariots of war by night through the army of the Edomites. The Philistines also pressed upon Jehoram, and carried away, even from Jerusalem, captives and precious things.[455] Jehoram's reign continued for four years. Yet the misfortunes of Judah do not seem to have been very heavy. Jehoram's son Ahaziah, the nephew of Joram of Israel, who came to the throne in the year 844 B.C., was soon after his accession in a position to aid his uncle against the men of Damascus. Both kings encamped at Ramoth Gilead, in order to maintain the city against Hazael.[456] In the conflict Joram was wounded; he returned to Jezreel to be healed, and soon after Ahaziah left the camp at Ramoth in order to visit his uncle in his sickness.

To Elisha this seemed the most favourable moment for overthrowing the king of Israel, and he urged Jehu, the foremost captain in the Israelite army, to revolt against the wounded king. He sent one of his disciples to Ramoth with instructions to pour oil upon Jehu, with the words, "Jehovah says, I anoint thee to be king over Israel." The chiefs were sitting together at Ramoth when the messenger of Elisha entered. "I have a message for Jehu," he said; and poured the oil upon him with the words, "Jehovah, the G.o.d of Israel, anoints thee to be king over his people, and says, thou shalt destroy the house of thy master. I will avenge the blood of my prophets on Jezebel. The house of Ahab shall be destroyed, and I will cut off from Ahab what p.i.s.seth against the wall, and dogs shall eat Jezebel in Jezreel, and none shall bury her." The youth had scarcely uttered these words when he returned in haste. The chiefs and the servants asked in wonder, "Wherefore came this madman?"

But when Jehu declared to them what had taken place, they hastily took off their mantles, and spread them before Jehu's feet; they blew trumpets and cried, "Jehu is king."

Jehu at once set out with a host to Jezreel, that no tidings might precede him. The watchmen of the tower told the king that a troop was coming in great haste, and apparently led by Jehu. Thinking that Jehu was bringing news of the army, the wounded Joram went to meet him with his guest, Ahaziah, king of Judah. "Is it peace?" cried Joram to Jehu.

"What peace," he replied, "while the wh.o.r.edoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?" In terror Joram cried out, "There is treachery, O Ahaziah," and turned his horses to escape by flight. But Jehu smote him with an arrow in the back through the shoulders, so that the point reached the heart. Joram fell dead from the chariot. Ahaziah escaped. From the window of her palace at Jezreel Jezebel saw the death of the king, her second son. By this her own fate was decided. But her courage failed not. As Jehu approached she called to him from the window, "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?" Jehu made no answer, but called out, "Who is on my side?" Two or three eunuchs answered, "We are." Then Jehu commanded, "Throw the queen down." They threw the widow of Ahab out of the window, so that her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on Jehu's horses, and the ruthless murderer drove over the corpse.

She had survived Ahab ten years. Jehu went into the palace, ate and drank, and sent a message to the elders of the tribes and the captains of the fortresses: "If ye are on my side and obey my voice, slay the sons of Ahab who are with you, and send their heads to Jezreel." The elders feared the murderer to whom Joram and Jezebel had succ.u.mbed, and did as he bade them. Seventy sons and grandsons of Ahab were slaughtered; their heads were thrown in two heaps before the palace at Jezreel by Jehu's orders. Then he spoke in scorn to the people, "I have slain one; but who slew all these?" Still unsatisfied with blood, he caused all the kindred of the royal house, all the councillors, friends, and priests of Joram to be slain (843 B.C.).

Jehu had caused the king of Judah to be closely pursued on that day. At Jibleam the arrows of the pursuers reached Ahaziah; wounded to the death, he came to Megiddo, and there he died. Thus the prospect was opened to Jehu of becoming master of the kingdom of Judah also. With this object in view, he caused the brothers and relatives of the murdered Ahaziah to be ma.s.sacred, so far as he could take them; in all they were 42 men.[457] But meanwhile the mother of the murdered Ahaziah, Athaliah, heard in Judah of the death of her son in Israel, and seized the reins of government there. She determined to retain them against every one; and on her side also destroyed all who stood in her way. She did not spare even her own grandsons, the sons of Ahaziah; it was with difficulty that the king's sister succeeded in saving Joash, the infant son of her brother.[458]

The prophets of Israel took no offence at the cruelties of Jehu, to which they had given the first impulse; according to the revision of the annals, they even proclaimed to him the word of Jehovah. "Because thou hast done what is right and good in my eyes, and hast executed upon the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, thy descendants shall sit upon the throne of Israel."[459] Jehu on his part was no less anxious to show his grat.i.tude to the men to whom he owed his exaltation. He summoned the priests of Baal, and announced to them in craft, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much;" and caused a great sacrifice to be made to Baal; all who remained absent should not live. Thus he collected all the servants and priests of Baal in the temple of the G.o.d at Samaria. The sacrifice began; Jehu came in person to take part in the solemnity; when on a sudden 80 soldiers entered the temple and ma.s.sacred them all. The two pillars before the temple were burnt, the image of Baal was thrown down, the temple was destroyed, and the place purified.[460]

A hundred and ten years had elapsed since the revolt of the ten tribes from the house of David and the division of Israel. During this time the two kingdoms had been at war, and had summoned strangers into the land against each other; even the connection into which they had entered in the last thirty years, and the close relations existing between Ahab and Joram of Israel and Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah of Judah had not been able to give more than a transitory firmness and solidity to the two kingdoms. In the kingdom of Judah the crown continued in the house of David; in Israel neither Jeroboam's nor Baasha's race had taken root.

And now the house of Omri also was overthrown and destroyed by a ruthless murderer. With Jehu a third warrior had gained the crown of Israel by a violent hand, and a fourth dynasty sat upon the throne of Jeroboam.

It was a favourable circ.u.mstance for the new king of Israel that Shalmanesar II. of a.s.syria again made war upon Damascus. On the mountains opposite to the range of Lebanon, so Shalmanesar tells us, he defeated Hazael of the land of Aram, _i.e._ of Damascus, in the year 842 B.C.; he slew 16,000 of his warriors, and took 1121 war-chariots. After this he besieged him in Damascus, and destroyed his fortifications. Jehu could hardly think, as Ahab had done before him, of joining Damascus in resisting a.s.syria; his object was rather to establish the throne he had usurped by submission to and support from a.s.syria. In this year, as Shalmanesar tells us, he sent tribute like Sidon and Tyre. On an obelisk in his palace at Chalah, on which Shalmanesar caused the annals of his victories to be written and a picture to be made of the offering of the tribute from five nations, we see him standing with two eunuchs behind him, one of whom holds an umbrella, while two others lead before him the deputies of Jehu. The first Israelite prostrates himself and kisses the ground before the feet of Shalmanesar; seven other Israelites bring jars with handles, cups, sacks, goblets, and staves. They are bearded, with long hair, with shoes on their feet, and round caps on their heads, the points of which fall slightly backwards. The under garment reaches almost to the ancles; the upper garment falls in two parts evenly before and behind from the shoulders to the hem of the under garment. The inscription underneath runs: "The tribute of Jehu (Jahua), the son of Omri (Chumri): bars of gold, bars of silver, cups of gold, ladles and goblets of gold, golden pitchers, lead, and spears: this I received."[461]

Though Jehu submitted to the a.s.syrians, the power and spirit of Hazael was not broken by his defeat or by the siege of Damascus. Shalmanesar speaks of a new campaign against the cities of Hazael in the year 839 B.C. He does not tell us that he has reduced Damascus, he merely remarks that Sidon, Tyre, and Byblus have paid tribute; and again, under the year 835 B.C. he merely notes in general terms that he has received the tribute of all the princes of the land of Chatti (Syria). Hazael remained powerful enough to take from Jehu, who, though a b.l.o.o.d.y and resolute murderer, was a bad ruler, all the territory on the east of the Jordan which Ahab and Joram had defended with such vigour.[462] Under Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu (815-798 B.C.), the power of Israel sank lower and lower. Hazael, and after him his son, Benhadad III., pressed heavily upon him. Jehoahaz was compelled to purchase peace by further concessions;[463] his whole fighting force was reduced to 10 chariots of war, 50 hors.e.m.e.n, and 10,000 foot-soldiers, while Ahab had led 200 chariots into the field.

The devastation caused by Damascus in Israel was terrible. The Books of Kings represent Elisha as saying to Hazael, "The fortresses of Israel thou shalt set on fire, their young men thou shalt slay with the sword, their children thou shalt cut in pieces, and rip up their women with child;"[464] and in the prophet Amos we are told that the Damascenes had thrashed Israel with sledges of iron. In the prophecies of Amos, Jehovah says: "Therefore I will send fire into the house of Hazael, to consume the palaces of Benhadad, and break the bars of Damascus, and destroy the inhabitants of the valley of idols."[465]

The a.s.syrians brought relief to the kingdom of Israel. In the Books of the Kings we are told, "Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Aramaeans (Syrians), and they dwelt in their tents as yesterday and the day before."[466] It was Bin-nirar III., king of a.s.shur, who threatened Damascus and Syria. In the year 803 B.C. the canon of the a.s.syrians notices a campaign of this king against Syria, and in his inscriptions he mentions that he had conquered Mariah, king of Damascus (who must have been the successor of Benhadad III.), and laid heavy tribute upon him.[467] Though Israel (the house of Omri), as well as Sidon, the Philistines, and Edomites, had now to pay tribute to the conqueror of Damascus, yet in the last years of the reign of Jehoahaz the land was able to breathe again, and Joash, the grandson of Jehu (798-790 B.C.[468]), was able to retake from the enfeebled Damascus the cities which his father had lost,[469] and make the weight of his arms felt by the kingdom of Judah.

In Judah, as has been mentioned, Jehoram's widow, Athaliah, the mother of the murdered Ahaziah, had seized the throne (843 B.C.). She is the only female sovereign in the history of Israel. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab of Israel and Jezebel of Tyre; like her mother, she is said to have favoured the worship of Baal. As the prophets of Israel had prepared the ruin of the house of Omri in Israel, the high priest of the temple at Jerusalem, Jehoiadah, now undertook to overthrow the daughter of this house in Judah. Ahaziah's sister had saved a son of Ahaziah, Joash, while still an infant, from his grandmother (p. 255). He grew up in concealment in the temple at Jerusalem, and was now seven years old.

This boy the priest determined to place upon the throne. He won the captains of the body-guard, showed them the young Joash in the temple, and imparted his plan for a revolt. On a Sabbath the body-guard and the Levites formed a circle in the court of the temple. Jehoiadah brought the boy out of the temple and placed the crown upon his head; he was anointed, and the soldiers proclaimed him king to the sound of trumpets.

The people agreed. Athaliah hastened with the cry of treason into the temple. But at Jehoiadah's command she was seized by the body-guard, taken from the temple precincts, and slain in the royal palace. Then the boy was brought thither by the Levites and solemnly placed upon the throne. "And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was at rest," say the Books of Kings (837 B.C.).

The victory of the priesthood had the same result for Judah as the resistance of Elijah and the prophets against Ahab, and the overthrow of his house, had introduced in Israel, _i.e._ the suppression of the worship of Baal. The temple of Baal at Jerusalem was destroyed; the high priest of it, Mathan by name, was slain. Yet the number of the worshippers in Jerusalem must have been so considerable, and their courage so little broken, that it was thought necessary to protect the temple of Jehovah by setting a guard to prevent their attacks.[470]

Jehoiadah continued to act as regent for the young king, and the prophecies of Joel, which have come down to us from this period,[471]

prove that under this regency the worship of Jehovah became dominant, that the festivals and sacrifices were held regularly in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the ordinances of the priests were in full force.

When Joash became ruler he carried on the restoration of the temple, which had fallen into decay, even more eagerly than the priesthood. His labours were interrupted. It was the time when Israel could not defend themselves against Damascus. Marching through Israel, Hazael invaded Judah, and besieged Jerusalem. Joash was compelled to ransom himself with all that his fathers, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, had consecrated to Jehovah, and what he himself had dedicated in the temple, and with the treasures of the royal palace.[472]

Like his father and his grandmother, Joash died by a violent death. Two of his servants murdered him (797 B.C.); but his son Amaziah kept the throne, and caused the murderers of his father to be executed. He commenced a war, for what reason we know not, with Israel, who was now fighting with success against Damascus. Joash of Israel defeated him at Bethshemesh; Amaziah was taken prisoner and his army dispersed. The king of Israel occupied Jerusalem, plundered the temple and the palace, and did not set the king of Judah free till the walls of Jerusalem were thrown down for a s.p.a.ce of 400 cubits from the gate of Ephraim, _i.e._ the western gate of the outer city to the corner gate, at the north-west corner of Jerusalem, and the Judaeans had given hostages to keep the peace for the future. Against the Edomites Amaziah contended with more success. He defeated them in the Valley of Salt; 10,000 Edomites are said to have been left on the field on that day. The result of the victory was the renewal of the dependence of Edom on Judah, though not as yet throughout the whole extent of the land. Amaziah also fell before a conspiracy. It was in vain that he escaped from the conspirators from Jerusalem to Lachish; they followed him and slew him there. But the people placed his son Uzziah (Azariah), though only 16 years old, on the throne of Judah (792 B.C.).[473]

FOOTNOTES:

[427] 1 Kings xi. 26 ff place the rebellion of Jeroboam in the time when Solomon built Millo (p. 186), and give him asylum with Shishak, king of Egypt. Solomon built Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and the fortifications (p. 186) when the building of the palace was finished (1 Kings ix. 10, 15, 24). The building of the palace was completed in 970 B.C. (p. 186); hence the building of Millo must have begun about this time. It can hardly have lasted more than 10 years. Jeroboam's rebellion, therefore, and Shishak's accession are not to be placed after, but a little before, 960 B.C. Lepsius puts Shishak's accession at 961 B.C.

[428] 1 Kings xii. 22; xiv. 30.

[429] O. Blau in "Zeitschr. D. M. G." 10, 233 ff, and below. The shield which Champollion read Judaha Malek is read Jehud by Blau, who refers it to Jehud, a place of the Southern Danites. Even the occurrence of names of towns belonging to the kingdom of Ephraim would not exclude the possibility that Shishak's campaign was undertaken in favour of Jeroboam. Jeroboam acknowledged the supremacy of Egypt in the meaning of the Pharaoh when he called on Egypt for help, and therefore, after the manner of Egyptian monuments of victory and inscriptions, his cities could be denoted as subject to Egypt. Hence Makethu, as Brugsch reads (Gesch. aegyptens, s. 661), may be Megiddo or Makedu in the north of Judah; in the first case the explanation given holds good. Jerusalem is not found among the names which can be read and interpreted.

[430] _Supra_, p. 112, _note_. I have remarked that a.s.sumptions there noticed are necessary to bring the Hebrew chronology into harmony with the a.s.syrian monuments and the stone of Mesha. That Ahaziah of Judah and Joram of Israel must have been slain, at the latest, in the year 843 B.C. is a necessary consequence of the fact that Jehu paid tribute to the a.s.syrians as early as the year 842 B.C. In the same way the a.s.syrian monuments prove that Ahab of Israel cannot have died before the year 853 B.C. As the Hebrew Scriptures, in the chronology of Israel, put Ahaziah with two years, and Joram with twelve years, between Ahab's death and Jehu's accession, four years must be struck out and deducted from the reign of Joram. To maintain the parallelism, the same operation must be performed with the contemporary kings of Judah, and the reign of Jehoram of Judah (for which, even if we retain the data of the Books of Kings, six years remain at the most) must be reduced from eight years to four.

These four years in each kingdom will be best added to the first reigns after the division, to Jeroboam (22 + 4 = 26) and Rehoboam (17 + 4 = 21). Twelve years must be added to the reign of Omri (p. 114, _n._). The same augmentation must be made in the corresponding reign of Asa of Judah, or, rather, as the chronology of Judah from Rehoboam to Athaliah gives three years less than that from Jeroboam to Jehu, 15 years must be added to Asa instead of 12, so that his reign reaches 41 + 15 = 56, and Omri's reign 12 + 12 = 24 years. Hence Rehoboam was succeeded by Abiam not in the eighteenth, but in the twenty-second year of Jeroboam; Ahab ascended the throne not in the thirty-sixth, but in the fifty-fourth year of Asa. From these a.s.sumptions are deduced the numbers given in the text. I consider it hopeless to attempt to reconcile the divergencies in the comparisons of the two series of kings in the Books of Kings; _e.

g._ that Omri should ascend the throne in the thirty-first year of Asa, and reign 12 years, while Ahab nevertheless ascends the throne in the thirty-eighth year of Asa.

[431] 1 Kings xv. 16-24; 2 Chron. xvi. 1-10.

[432] 1 Kings xv. 11-14; 2 Chron. xiv. 2-5.

[433] 1 Kings xxii. 48; 2, viii. 20.

[434] 1 Kings xxii. 49.