Chapter III

_AMAZIAH AND JEROBOAM II. ERA OF JONAH._
2 KINGS XIV. JONAH I.–IV. B.C. 840–758.

MEANWHILE AMAZIAH had succeeded to the throne of Judah. His first care after his accession was to punish the murderers of his father, which he did with unusual lenity, sparing their children, in accordance with the true spirit of the Mosaic law (Deut. xxiv. 16; Ezek. xviii. 4, 20). He next resolved to take vengeance on the revolted Edomites, and for this purpose summoned to his standard 300,000 of Judah, and, at the rate of 100 silver talents, hired 100,000 of Israel (2 Chr. xxv. 6). Warned, however, by a prophet against leading any of the idolatrous Israelites into battle amongst his own forces, he was induced to dismiss his mercenaries, who returned home in great anger. With his own army he then marched against the Edomites, and defeated them with great slaughter in the Valley of Salt, south of the Dead Sea, capturing also their rocky fortress-capital Petra or Sela, and flinging 10,000 of his captives headlong from their native cliffs. But with strange perversity he now set up in Jerusalem the idols of the very nation he had just subdued, and paid them religious honours (2 Chr. xxv. 14). For this apostasy a prophet threatened him with speedy vengeance, and misfortunes quickly thickened around him.

The Israelite mercenaries, in revenge for the loss of booty they had sustained, on their way homewards ravaged many of the towns of Judah. Smarting under this insult Amaziah was foolish enough to challenge his rival, the king of Israel, to battle. Jehoash replied by the contemptuous parable of the _Thistle and the Cedar_, and bade Amaziah not provoke a contest. The other, however, would not yield, and the rival armies met at Beth-shemesh[398], on the borders of Dan and Philistia, and the men of Judah were utterly defeated. Jehoash even took his rival prisoner, and conveyed him as a captive to Jerusalem, the walls of which he broke down on the side nearest to his own kingdom to the extent of 400 cubits, and after rifling the Temple of its treasures and exacting hostages returned to Samaria. Shortly after this, however, he died, and bequeathed his throne to his son JEROBOAM II., B.C. 825, while Amaziah survived him 15 years, at the close of which period a conspiracy was formed against him, from which he fled to Lachish, where he was assassinated, and was succeeded by his son AZARIAH or UZZIAH, B.C. 810 (2 K. xiv. 19, 20).

The reign of Jeroboam II. which lasted 41 years[399], was the most prosperous the kingdom of Israel had ever known. The new king did not simply content himself with repelling the attacks of the Syrian invaders, but carried the war into their own country, captured their capital Damascus, and recovered all the old dominion of Israel from Hamath to the Dead Sea, together with the territory of Moab and Ammon. These successes had been predicted (2 K. xiv. 25) by the earliest of the prophets, whose writings as well as words have come down to us, JONAH, the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Zebulun. The idolatries, however, of the king called forth the protests of HOSEA, a prophet of uncertain tribe and birth-place (Hos. i. 1), and AMOS, a herdsman of Tekoa[400] (Am. i. 1). Those of Amos were keenly resented by Amaziah the high-priest of Bethel (Am. vii. 10), and he reported him to the king as having predicted the destruction of the royal house and the captivity of the nation (Am. vii. 11–17), which, though not fulfilled in his reign, were only deferred[401].

AZARIAH or UZZIAH, the new king of Judah, retained the sceptre for upwards of 52 years, and was successful in several warlike expeditions. He subjugated the Philistines, and dismantled Gath and Ashdod, reduced the Arabians and Mehunims to obedience, and recovered Elath, the famous port on the Red Sea (2 Chr. xxvi. 2, 7). He also improved the internal resources of his kingdom, restored the fortifications of Jerusalem, built military engines, and established a powerful army. Moreover he devoted himself to the encouragement and protection of husbandry, building towers and wells for his numerous herds in the low country and in the plains, and growing vines on the terraces of the mountains (2 Chr. xxvi. 9–15). But in the hour of prosperity _his heart was lifted up to his destruction_. Assuming priestly functions, he entered the Holy Place in the Temple for the purpose of offering incense on the Golden Altar. This flagrant violation of the Law was resolutely opposed by the high-priest Azariah and others of the Levitical body, and drew down upon the king signal punishment. As he stood censer in hand by the Altar, the leprosy _rose up in his forehead_, and he hurried in alarm from the sacred enclosure. He was now incapable of discharging the regal functions[402], and till the day of his death lived in a separate house, while Jotham his son was entrusted with the regency, and eventually succeeded him B.C. 758 (2 K. xv. 5; 2 Chr. xxvi. 16–22).

Meanwhile the great Empire, destined to be the instrument of punishing the apostate kingdom of Israel, was advancing with gigantic strides in the path of universal conquest. Beyond the territory of the Syrians――the scourge of Jehu and his dynasty――was the far more powerful Empire of the Assyrians, including the whole region watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, and already augmented by important conquests in Cappadocia, Armenia, and Babylonia. To Nineveh, its celebrated capital, the prophet JONAH, already mentioned, was directed to go and denounce its approaching doom, unless its people repented of their sins. The prophet shrunk from this arduous commission, and instead of crossing the Syrian desert, went down to Joppa, and there took ship for Tarshish, probably Tartessus[403] on the southern coast of Spain (Jon. i. 3). But during the voyage an awful storm arose, and in their alarm the mariners threw him at his own request into the sea, where a large fish took him up, and after three days and three nights flung him forth alive on the dry land (Matt. xii. 40, xvi. 4; Lk. xi. 30). Thus miraculously delivered he was a second time bidden to undertake the arduous journey, and now not daring to disobey arose and went. Suddenly appearing in the midst of Nineveh[404], clothed in his rough prophet’s robe, he cried through corridor, and lane, and square, _Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!_ His mysterious words filled the hearts of all with fear and consternation, and before long reached the palace, where the king sat “on his royal throne in the great audience-chamber, surrounded by all the pomp and magnificence of his court[405].” The words of the unknown prophet touched even his heart, and _he arose from his throne, and laid aside his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes_ (Jon. iii. 6). Then he proclaimed a decree that all his people, from the greatest even to the least, should be covered with sackcloth, and that even the beasts should be put in mourning[406]. His decree was obeyed, a fast was observed, and the people of Nineveh, laying aside their revelry and feasting, assumed the garb of mourning, humbled themselves, turned from their evil way, and offered up petitions for mercy to the Most High. Their repentance was accepted, God had pity on the great city, with its 120,000 _persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left_, and deferred the judgment. In vain the prophet sat in his booth of woven boughs, at the east side of the city, waiting for the doom he had denounced. In vain he complained of the deferring of the punishment. God was more merciful than man, and for more than another century Nineveh was to stand unharmed (Jon. iv. 5–11).