Antiquities of the Jews - Book IX
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS
FROM THE DEATH OF AHAB TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES
CHAPTER 1
CONCERNING JEHOSHAPHAT AGAIN; HOW HE CONSTITUTED JUDGES AND, BY GOD'S
ASSISTANCE OVERCAME HIS ENEMIES
1. When Jehoshaphat the king was come to Jerusalem, from the assistance
he had afforded Ahab, the king of
Israel, when he fought with Benhadad, king of Syria, the prophet
Jehu met him, and accused him for assisting Ahab,
a man both impious and wicked; and said to him, that God was displeased
with him for so doing, but that he
delivered him from the enemy, notwithstanding he had sinned, because
of his own proper disposition, which was
good. Whereupon the king betook himself to thanksgivings and sacrifices
to God; after which he presently went
over all that country which he ruled round about, and taught the
people, as well the laws which God gave them by
Moses, as that religious worship that was due to him. He also constituted
judges in every one of the cities of his
kingdom; and charged them to have regard to nothing so much in judging
the multitude as to do justice, and not to
be moved by bribes, nor by the dignity of men eminent for either
their riches or their high birth, but to distribute
justice equally to all, as knowing that God is conscious of every
secret action of theirs. When he had himself
instructed them thus, and gone over every city of the two tribes,
he returned to Jerusalem. He there also
constituted judges out of the priests and the Levites, and principal
persons of the multitude, and admonished them
to pass all their sentences with care and justice (1) And that if
any of the people of his country had differences of
great consequence, they should send them out of the other cities
to these judges, who would be obliged to give
righteous sentences concerning such causes; and this with the greater
care, because it is proper that the sentences
which are given in that city wherein the temple of God is, and wherein
the king dwells, be given with great care and
the utmost justice. Now he set over them Amariah the priest, and
Zebadiah, [both] of the tribe of Judah; and after
this manner it was that the king ordered these affairs.
2. About the same time the Moabites and Ammonites made an expedition
against Jehoshaphat, ,and took with them
a great body of Arabians, and pitched their camp at Engedi, a city
that is situate at the lake Asphaltiris, and distant
three hundred furlongs from Jerusalem. In that place grows the best
kind of palm trees, and the opobalsamum. (2)
Now Jehoshaphat heard that the enemies had passed over the lake,
and had made an irruption into that country
which belonged to his kingdom; at which news he was aftrighted,
and called the people of Jerusalem to a
congregation in the temple, and standing over against the temple
itself, he called upon God to afford him power and
strength, so as to inflict punishment on those that made this expedition
against them (for that those who built this
his temple had prayed, that he would protect that city, and take
vengeance on those that were so bold as to come
against it); for they are come to take from us that land which thou
hast given us for a possession. When he had
prayed thus, he fell into tears; and the whole multitude, together
with their wives and children, made their
supplications also: upon which a certain prophet, Jahaziel by name,
came into the midst of the assembly, and cried
out, and spake both to the multitude and to the king, that God heard
their prayers, and promised to fight against
their enemies. He also gave order that the king should draw his
forces out the next day, for that he should find
them between Jerusalem and the ascent of Engedi, at a place called
The Eminence, and that he should not fight
against them, but only stand still, and see how God would fight
against them. When the prophet had said this, both
the king and the multitude fell upon their faces, and gave thanks
to God, and worshipped him; and the Levites
continued singing hymns to God with their instruments of music.
3. As soon as it was day, and the king was come into that wilderness
which is under the city of Tekoa, he said to the
multitude, "that they ought to give credit to what the prophet had
said, and not to set themselves in array for
fighting; but to set the priests with their trumpets, and the Levites
with the singers of hymns, to give thanks to God,
as having already delivered our country from our enemies." This
opinion of the king pleased [the people], and they
did what he advised them to do. So God caused a terror and a commotion
to arise among the Ammonites, who
thought one another to be enemies, and slew one another, insomuch
that not one man out of so great an army
escaped; and when Jehoshaphat looked upon that valley wherein their
enemies had been encamped, and saw it full
of dead men, he rejoiced at so surprising an event, as was this
assistance of God, while he himself by his own
power, and without their labor, had given them the victory. He also
gave his army leave to take the prey of the
enemy's camp, and to spoil their dead bodies; and indeed so they
did for three days together, till they were weary,
so great was the number of the slain; and on the fourth day, all
the people were gathered together unto a certain
hollow place or valley, and blessed God for his power and assistance,
from which the place had this name given it,
the Valley of [Berachah, or] Blessing.
4. And when the king had brought his army back to Jerusalem, he betook
himself to celebrate festivals, and offer
sacrifices, and this for many days. And indeed, after this destruction
of their enemies, and when it came to the ears
of the foreign nations, they were all greatly aftrighted, as supposing
that God would openly fight for him hereafter.
So Jehoshaphat from that time lived in great glory and splendor,
on account of his righteousness and his piety
towards God. He was also in friendship with Ahab's son, who was
king of Israel; and he joined with him in the
building of ships that were to sail to Pontus, and the traffic cities
of Thrace (3) but he failed of his gains, for the
ships were destroyed by being so great [and unwieldy]; on which
account he was no longer concerned about
shipping. And this is the history of Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 2
Concerning Ahaziah; The King Of Israel; And Again Concerning The
Prophet Elijah
1. And now Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, reigned over Israel, and made
his abode in Samaria. He was a wicked man,
and in all respects like to both his parents and to Jeroboam, who
first of all transgressed, and began to deceive the
people. In the second year of his reign, the king of Moab fell off
from his obedience, and left off paying those
tributes which he before paid to his father Ahab. Now it happened
that Ahaziah, as he was coming down from the
top of his house, fell down from it, and in his sickness sent to
the Fly, which was the god of Ekron, for that was this
god's name, to inquire about his recovery (4) but the God of the
Hebrews appeared to Elijah the prophet, and
commanded him to go and meet the messengers that were sent, and
to ask them, whether the people of Israel had
pot a God of their own, that the king sent to a foreign god to inquire
about his recovery? and to bid them return and
tell the king that he would not escape this disease. And when Elijah
had performed what God had commanded him,
and the messengers had heard what he said, they returned to the
king immediately; and when the king wondered
how they could return so soon, and asked them the reason of it,
they said that a certain man met them, and forbade
them to go on any farther; but to return and tell thee, from the
command of the God of Israel, that this disease will
have a bad end. And when the king bid them describe the man that
said this to them, they replied that he was a
hairy man, and was girt about with a girdle of leather. So the king
understood by this that the man who was
described by the messengers was Elijah; whereupon he sent a captain
to him, with fifty soldiers, and commanded
them to bring Elijah to him; and when the captain that was sent
found Elijah sitting upon the top of a hill, he
commanded him to come down, and to come to the king, for so had
he enjoined; but that in case he refused, they
would carry him by force. Elijah said to him, "That you may have
a trial whether I be a true prophet, I will pray that
fire may fall from heaven, and destroy both the soldiers and yourself.”
(5) So he prayed, and a whirlwind of fire fell
[from heaven], and destroyed the captain, and those that were with
him. And when the king was informed of the
destruction of these men, he was very angry, and sent another captain
with the like number of armed men that were
sent before. And when this captain also threatened the prophet,
that unless he came down of his own accord, he
would take him and carry him away, upon his prayer against him,
the fire [from heaven] slew this captain as well the
other. And when, upon inquiry, the king was informed of what happened
to him, he sent out a third captain. But
when this captain, who was a wise man, and of a mild disposition,
came to the place where Elijah happened to be,
and spake civilly to him; and said that he knew that it was without
his own consent, and only in submission to the
king's command that he came to him; and that those that came before
did not come willingly, but on the same
account; - he therefore desired him to have pity on those armed
men that were with him, and that he would come
down and follow him to the king. So Elijah accepted of his discreet
words and courteous behavior, and came down
and followed him. And when he came to the king, he prophesied to
him and told him that God said, "Since thou hast
despised him as not being God, and so unable to foretell the truth
about thy distemper, but hast sent to the god of
Ekron to inquire of him what will be the end of this thy distemper,
know this, that thou shalt die."
2. Accordingly the king in a very little time died, as Elijah had
foretold; but Jehoram his brother succeeded him in
the kingdom, for he died without children: but for this Jehoram,
he was like his father Ahab in wickedness, and
reigned twelve years, indulging himself in all sorts of wickedness
and impiety towards God, for, leaving off his
worship, he worshipped foreign gods; but in other respects he was
an active man. Now at this time it was that Elijah
disappeared from among men, and no one knows of his death to this
very day; but he left behind him his disciple
Elisha, as we have formerly declared. And indeed, as to Elijah,
and as to Enoch, who was before the deluge, it is
written in the sacred books that they disappeared, but so that nobody
knew that they died.
CHAPTER 3
How Joram And Jehoshaphat Made An Expedition Against The Moabites;
As Also Concerning The Wonders Of Elisha; And The Death Of Jehoshaphat.
1. When Joram had taken upon him the kingdom, he determined to make
an expedition against the king of Moab,
whose name was Mesha; for, as we told you before, he was departed
from his obedience to his brother [Ahaziah],
while he paid to his father Ahab two hundred thousand sheep, with
their fleeces of wool. When therefore he had
gathered his own army together, he sent also to Jehoshaphat, and
entreated him, that since he had from the
beginning been a friend to his father, he would assist him in the
war that he was entering into against the Moabites,
who had departed from their obedience, who not only himself promised
to assist him, but would also oblige the king
of Edom, who was under his authority, to make the same expedition
also. When Joram had received these
assurances of assistance from Jehoshaphat, he took his army with
him, and came to Jerusalem; and when he had
been sumptuously entertained by the king of Jerusalem, it was resolved
upon by them to take their march against
their enemies through the wilderness of Edom. And when they had
taken a compass of seven days' journey, they
were in distress for want of water for the cattle, and for the army,
from the mistake of their roads by the guides that
conducted them, insomuch that they were all in an agony, especially
Joram; and cried to God, by reason of their
sorrow, and [desired to know] what wickedness had been committed
by them that induced him to deliver three kings
together, without fighting, unto the king of Moab. But Jehoshaphat,
who was a righteous man, encouraged him, and
bade him send to the camp, and know whether any prophet of God was
come along with them, that we might by him
learn from God what we should do. And when one of the servants of
Joram said that he had seen there Elisha, the
son of Shaphat, the disciple of Elijah, the three kings went to
him, at the entreaty of Jehoshaphat; and when they
were come at the prophet's tent, which tent was pitched out of the
camp, they asked him what would become of the
army? and Joram was particularly very pressing with him about it.
And when he replied to him, that he should not
trouble him, but go to his father's and mother's prophets, for they
[to be sure] were true prophets, he still desired
him to prophesy, and to save them. So he swore by God that he would
not answer him, unless it were on account of
Jehoshaphat, who was a holy and righteous man; and when, at his
desire, they brought him a man that could play on
the psaltery, the Divine Spirit came upon him as the music played,
and he commanded them to dig many trenches in
the valley; for, said he, "though there appear neither cloud, nor
wind, nor storm of rain, ye shall see this river full of
water, till the army and the cattle be saved for you by drinking
of it. Nor will this be all the favor that you shall
receive from God, but you shall also overcome your enemies, and
take the best and strongest cities of the
Moabites, and you shall cut down their fruit trees, (6) and lay
waste their country, and stop up their fountains and
rivers."
2. When the prophet had said this, the next day, before the sun-rising,
a great torrent ran strongly; for God had
caused it to rain very plentifully at the distance of three days'
journey into Edom, so that the army and the cattle
found water to drink in abundance. But when the Moabites heard that
the three kings were coming upon them, and
made their approach through the wilderness, the king of Moab gathered
his army together presently, and
commanded them to pitch their camp upon the mountains, that when
the enemies should attempt to enter their
country, they might not be concealed from them. But when at the
rising of the sun they saw the water in the torrent,
for it was not far from the land of Moab, and that it was of the
color of blood, for at such a time the water especially
looks red, by the shining of the sun upon it, they formed a false
notion of the state of their enemies, as if they had
slain one another for thirst; and that the river ran with their
blood. However, supposing that this was the case, they
desired their king would send them out to spoil their enemies; whereupon
they all went in haste, as to an advantage
already gained, and came to the enemy's camp, as supposing them
destroyed already. But their hope deceived
them; for as their enemies stood round about them, some of them
were cut to pieces, and others of them were
dispersed, and fled to their own country. And when the kings fell
into the land of Moab, they overthrew the cities
that were in it, and spoiled their fields, and marred them, filling
them with stones out of the brooks, and cut down
the best of their trees, and stopped up their fountains of water,
and overthrew their walls to their foundations. But
the king of Moab, when he was pursued, endured a siege; and seeing
his city in danger of being overthrown by
force, made a sally, and went out with seven hundred men, in order
to break through the enemy's camp with his
horsemen, on that side where the watch seemed to be kept most negligently;
and when, upon trial, he could not get
away, for he lighted upon a place that was carefully watched, he
returned into the city, and did a thing that showed
despair and the utmost distress; for he took his eldest son, who
was to reign after him, and lifting him up upon the
wall, that he might be visible to all the enemies, he offered him
as a whole burnt-offering to God, whom, when the
kings saw, they commiserated the distress that was the occasion
of it, and were so affected, in way of humanity and
pity, that they raised the siege, and every one returned to his
own house. So Jehoshaphat came to Jerusalem, and
continued in peace there, and outlived this expedition but a little
time, and then died, having lived in all sixty years,
and of them reigned twenty-five. He was buried in a magnificent
manner in Jerusalem, for he had imitated the
actions of David.
CHAPTER 4
Jehoram Succeeds Jehoshaphat; How Joram, His Namesake, King Of Israel,
Fought With The Syrians; And What Wonders Were Done By The Prophet Elisha.
1. Jehoshapat had a good number of children; but he appointed his
eldest son Jehoram to be his successor, who had
the same name with his mother's brother, that was king of Israel,
and the son of Ahab. Now when the king of Israel
was come out of the land of Moab to Samaria, he had with him Elisha
the prophet, whose acts I have a mind to go
over particularly, for they were illustrious, and worthy to be related,
as we have them set down in the sacred books.
2. For they say that the widow of Obadiah (7) Ahab's steward, came
to him, and said, that he was not ignorant how
her husband had preserved the prophets that were to be slain by
Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for she said that he hid
a hundred of them, and had borrowed money for their maintenance,
and that, after her husband's death, she and her
children were carried away to be made slaves by the creditors; and
she desired of him to have mercy upon her on
account of what her husband did, and afford her some assistance.
And when he asked her what she had in the
house, she said, "Nothing but a very small quantity of oil in a
cruse." So the prophet bid her go away, and borrow a
great many empty vessels of her neighbors, and when she had shut
her chamber door, to pour the oil into them all;
for that God would fill them full. And when the woman had done what
she was commanded to do, and bade her
children bring every one of the vessels, and all were filled, and
not one left empty, she came to the prophet, and
told him that they were all full; upon which he advised her to go
away, and sell the oil, and pay the creditors what
was owing them, for that there would be some surplus of the price
of the oil, which she might make use of for the
maintenance of her children. And thus did Elisha discharge the woman's
debts, and free her from the vexation of
her creditors.
3. Elisha also sent a hasty message to Joram, (8) and exhorted him
to take care of that place, for that therein were
some Syrians lying in ambush to kill him. So the king did as the
prophet exhorted him, and avoided his going a
hunting. And when Benhadad missed of the success of his lying in
ambush, he was wroth with his own servants, as if
they had betrayed his ambushment to Joram; and he sent for them,
and said they were the betrayers of his secret
counsels; and he threatened that he would put them to death, since
such their practice was evident, because he had
intrusted this secret to none but them, and yet it was made known
to his enemy. And one that was present said that
he should not mistake himself, nor suspect that they had discovered
to his enemy his sending men to kill him, but
that he ought to know that it was Elisha the prophet who discovered
all to him, and laid open all his counsels. So he
gave order that they should send some to learn in what city Elisha
dwelt. Accordingly those that were sent brought
word that he was in Dothan; wherefore Benhadad sent to that city
a great army, with horses and chariots, to take
Elisha: so they encompassed the city round about by night, and kept
him therein confined; but when the prophet's
servant in the morning perceived this, and that his enemies sought
to take Elisha, he came running, and crying out
after a disordered manner to him, and told him of it; but he encouraged
him, and bid him not be afraid, and to
despise the enemy, and trust in the assistance of God, and was himself
without fear; and he besought God to make
manifest to his servant his power and presence, so far as was possible,
in order to the inspiring him with hope and
courage. Accordingly God heard the prayer of the prophet, and made
the servant see a multitude of chariots and
horses encompassing Elisha, till he laid aside his fear, and his
courage revived at the sight of what he supposed was
come to their assistance. After this Elisha did further entreat
God, that he would dim the eyes of their enemies, and
cast a mist before them, whereby they might not discern him. When
this was done, he went into the midst of his
enemies, and asked them who it was that they came to seek; and when
they replied, "The prophet Elisha," he
promised he would deliver him to them, if they would follow him
to the city where he was. So these men were so
darkened by God in their sight and in their mind, that they followed
him very diligently; and when Elisha had
brought them to Samaria, he ordered Joram the king to shut the gates,
and to place his own army round about
them; and prayed to God to clear the eyes of these their enemies,
and take the mist from before them. Accordingly,
when they were freed from the obscurity they had been in, they saw
themselves in the midst of their enemies; and
as the Syrians were strangely amazed and distressed, as was but
reasonable, at an action so Divine and surprising,
and as king Joram asked the prophet if he would give him leave to
shoot at them, Elisha forbade him so to do; and
said, that "it is just to kill those that are taken in battle, but
that these men had done the country no harm, but,
without knowing it, were come thither by the Divine Power:" - so
that his counsel was to treat them in a hospitable
manner at his table, and then send them away without hurting them.
(9) Wherefore Joram obeyed the prophet; and
when he had feasted the Syrians in a splendid and magnificent manner,
he let them go to Benhadad their king.
4. Now when these men were come back, and had showed Benhadad how
strange an accident had befallen them,
and what an appearance and power they had experienced of the God
of Israel, he wondered at it, as also at that
prophet with whom God was so evidently present; so he determined
to make no more secret attempts upon the king
of Israel, out of fear of Elisha, but resolved to make open war
with them, as supposing he could be too hard for his
enemies by the multitude of his army and power. So he made an expedition
with a great army against Joram, who,
not thinking himself a match for him, shut himself up in Samaria,
and depended on the strength of its walls; but
Benhadad supposed he should take the city, if not by his engines
of war, yet that he should overcome the
Samaritans by famine, and the want of necessaries, and brought his
army upon them, and besieged the city; and the
plenty of necessaries was brought so low with Joram, that from the
extremity of want an ass's head was sold in
Samaria for fourscore pieces of silver, and the Hebrews bought a
sextary of dore's dung, instead of salt, for five
pieces of silver. Now Joram was in fear lest somebody should betray
the city to the enemy, by reason of the famine,
and went every day round the walls and the guards to see whether
any such were concealed among them; and by
being thus seen, and taking such care, he deprived them of the opportunity
of contriving any such thing; and if they
had a mind to do it, he, by this means, prevented them: but upon
a certain woman's crying out, "Have pity on me,
my lord," while he thought that she was about to ask for somewhat
to eat, he imprecated God's curse upon her, and
said he had neither thrashing-floor nor wine-press, whence he might
give her any thing at her petition. Upon which
she said she did not desire his aid in any such thing, nor trouble
him about food, but desired that he would do her
justice as to another woman. And when be bade her say on, and let
him know what she desired, she said she had
made an agreement with the other woman who was her neighbor and
her friend, that because the famine and want
was intolerable, they should kill their children, each of them having
a son of their own, and we will live upon them
ourselves for two days, the one day upon one son, and the other
day upon the other; and," said she, I have killed
my son the first day, and we lived upon my son yesterday; but this
other woman will not do the same thing, but hath
broken her agreement, and hath hid her son." This story mightily
grieved Joram when he heard it; so he rent his
garment, and cried out with a loud voice, and conceived great wrath
against Elisha the prophet, and set himself
eagerly to have him slain, because he did not pray to God to provide
them some exit and way of escape out of the
miseries with which they were surrounded; and sent one away immediately
to cut off his head, who made haste to
kill the prophet. But Elisha was not unacquainted with the wrath
of the king against him; for as he sat in his house
by himself, with none but his disciples about him, he told them
that Joram, (10) who was the son of a murderer, had
sent one to take away his head; "but," said he, "when he that is
commanded to do this comes, take care that you
do not let him come in, but press the door against him, and hold
him fast there, for the king himself will follow him,
and come to me, having altered his mind." Accordingly, they did
as they were bidden, when he that was sent by the
king to kill Elisha came. But Joram repented of his wrath against
the prophet; and for fear he that was commanded
to kill him should have done it before he came, he made haste to
hinder his slaughter, and to save the prophet: and
when he came to him, he accused him that he did not pray to God
for their deliverance from the miseries they now
lay under, but saw them so sadly destroyed by them. Hereupon Elisha
promised, that the very next day, at the very
same hour in which the king came to him, they should have great
plenty of food, and that two seahs of barley should
be sold in the market for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour should
be sold for a shekel. This prediction made Joram,
and those that were present, very joyful, for they did not scruple
believing what the prophet said, on account of the
experience they had of the truth of his former predictions; and
the expectation of plenty made the want they were in
that day, with the uneasiness that accompanied it, appear a light
thing to them: but the captain of the third band,
who was a friend of the king, and on whose hand the king leaned,
said, "Thou talkest of incredible things, O
prophet! for as it is impossible for God to pour down torrents of
barley, or fine flour, out of heaven, so is it
impossible that what thou sayest should come to pass." To which
the prophet made this reply," Thou shalt see
these things come to pass, but thou shalt not be in the least a
partaker of them."
5. Now what Elisha had thus foretold came to pass in the manner following:
There was a law at Samaria (11) that
those that had the leprosy, and whose bodies were not cleansed from
it, should abide without the city: and there
were four men that on this account abode before the gates, while
nobody gave them any food, by reason of the
extremity of the famine; and as they were prohibited from entering
into the city by the law, and they considered
that if they were permitted to enter, they should miserably perish
by the famine; as also, that if they staid where
they were, they should suffer in the same manner, - they resolved
to deliver themselves up to the enemy, that in
case they should spare them, they should live; but if they should
be killed, that would be an easy death. So when
they had confirmed this their resolution, they came by night to
the enemy's camp. Now God had begun to affright
and disturb the Syrians, and to bring the noise of chariots and
armor to their ears, as though an army were coming
upon them, and had made them suspect that it was coming nearer and
nearer to them In short, they were in such a
dread of this army, that they left their tents, and ran together
to Benhadad, and said that Joram the king of Israel
had hired for auxiliaries both the king of Egypt and the king of
the Islands, and led them against them for they
heard the noise of them as they were coming. And Benhadad believed
what they said (for there came the same
noise to his ears as well as it did to theirs); so they fell into
a mighty disorder and tumult, and left their horses and
beasts in their camp, with immense riches also, and betook themselves
to flight. And those lepers who had departed
from Samaria, and were gone to the camp of the Syrians, of whom
we made mention a little before, when they were
in the camp, saw nothing but great quietness and silence: accordingly
they entered into it, and went hastily into one
of their tents; and when they saw nobody there, they eat and drank,
and carried garments, and a great quantity of
gold, and hid it out of the camp; after which they went into another
tent, and carried off what was in it, as they did at
the former, and this did they for several times, without the least
interruption from any body. So they gathered
thereby that the enemies were departed; whereupon they reproached
themselves that they did not inform Joram
and the citizens of it. So they came to the walls of Samaria, and
called aloud to the watchmen, and told them in what
state the enemies were, as did these tell the king's guards, by
whose means Joram came to know of it; who then
sent for his friends, and the captains of his host, and said to
them, that he suspected that this departure of the king
of Syria was by way of ambush and treachery, and that out of despair
of ruining you by famine, when you imagine
them to be fled away, you may come out of the city to spoil their
camp, and he may then fall upon you on a sudden,
and may both kill you, and take the city without fighting; whence
it is that I exhort you to guard the city carefully,
and by no means to go out of it, or proudly to despise your enemies,
as though they were really gone away." And
when a certain person said that he did very well and wisely to admit
such a suspicion, but that he still advised him to
send a couple of horsemen to search all the country as far as Jordan,
that "if they were seized by an ambush of the
enemy, they might be a security to your army, that they may not
go out as if they suspected nothing, nor undergo
the like misfortune; and," said he, "those horsemen may be numbered
among those that have died by the famine,
supposing they be caught and destroyed by the enemy." So the king
was pleased with this opinion, and sent such as
might search out the truth, who performed their journey over a road
that was without any enemies, but found it full
of provisions, and of weapons, that they had therefore thrown away,
and left behind them, in order to their being
light and expeditious in their flight. When the king heard this,
he sent out the multitude to take the spoils of the
camp; which gains of theirs were not of things of small value, but
they took a great quantity of gold, and a great
quantity of silver, and flocks of all kinds of cattle. They also
possessed themselves of [so many] ten thousand
measures of wheat and barley, as they never in the least dreamed
of; and were not only freed from their former
miseries, but had such plenty, that two seahs of barley were bought
for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a
shekel, according to the prophecy of Elisha. Now a seah is equal
to an Italian modius and a half. The captain of the
third band was the only man that received no benefit by this plenty;
for as he was appointed by the king to oversee
the gate, that lm might prevent the too great crowd of the multitude,
and they might not endanger one another to
perish, by treading on one another in the press, he suffered himself
in that very way, and died in that very manner,
as Elisha had foretold such his death, when he alone of them all
disbelieved what he said concerning that plenty of
provisions which they should soon have.
6. Hereupon, when Benhadad, the king of Syria, had escaped to Damascus,
and understood that it was God himself
that cast all his army into this fear and disorder, and that it
did not arise from the invasion of enemies, he was
mightily cast down at his having God so greatly for his enemy, and
fell into a distemper. Now it happened that
Elisha the prophet, at that time, was gone out of his own country
to Damascus, of which Berthadad was informed:
he sent Hazael, the most faithful of all his servants, to meet him,
and to carry him presents, and bade him inquire of
him about his distemper, and whether he should escape the danger
that it threatened. So Hazael came to Elisha
with forty camels, that carried the best and most precious fruits
that the country of Damascus afforded, as well as
those which the king's palace supplied. He saluted him kindly, and
said that he was sent to him by king Berthadad,
and brought presents with him, in order to inquire concerning his
distemper, whether he should recover from it or
not. Whereupon the prophet bid him tell the king no melancholy news;
but still he said he would die. So the king's
servant was troubled to hear it; and Elisha wept also, and his tears
ran down plenteously at his foresight of what
miseries his people would undergo after the death of Berthadad.
And when Hazael asked him what was the
occasion of this confusion he was in, he said that he wept out of
his commiseration for the multitude of the
Israelites, and what terrible miseries they will suffer by thee;
"for thou wilt slay the strongest of them, and wilt burn
their strongest cities, and wilt destroy their children, and dash
them against the stones, and wilt rip up their women
with child." And when Hazael said, "How can it be that I should
have power enough to do such things ?" the
prophet replied, that God had informed him that he should be king
of Syria. So when Hazael was come to
Benhadad, he told him good news concerning his distemper (12) but
on the next day he spread a wet cloth, in the
nature of a net, over him, and strangled him, and took his dominion.
He was an active man, and had the good-will of
the Syrians, and of the people of Damascus, to a great degree; by
whom both Benhadad himself, and Hazael, who
ruled after him, are honored to this day as gods, by reason of their
benefactions, and their building them temples by
which they adorned the city of the Damascenes. They also every day
do with great pomp pay their worship to these
kings, (13) and value themselves upon their antiquity; nor do they
know that these kings are much later than they
imagine, and that they are not yet eleven hundred years old. Now
when Joram, the king of Israel, heard that
Berthadad was dead, he recovered out of the terror and dread he
had been in on his account, and was very glad to
live in peace.
CHAPTER 5
Concerning The Wickedness Of Jehoram King O Jerusalem; His Defeat
And Death
1. Now Jehoram the king of Jerusalem, for we have said before that
he had the same name with the king of Israel,
as soon as he had taken the government upon him, betook himself
to the slaughter of his brethren, and his father's
friends, who were governors under him, and thence made a beginning
and a demonstration of his wickedness; nor
was he at all better than those kings of Israel who at first transgressed
against the laws of their country, and of the
Hebrews, and against God's worship. And it was Athaliah, the daughter
of Ahab, whom he had married, who taught
him to be a bad man in other respects, and also to worship foreign
gods. Now God would not quite root out this
family, because of the promise he had made to David. However, Jehoram
did not leave off the introduction of new
sorts of customs to the propagation of impiety, and to the ruin
of the customs of his own country. And when the
Edomites about that time had revolted from him, and slain their
former king, who was in subjection to his father,
and had set up one of their own choosing, Jehoram fell upon the
land of Edom, with the horsemen that were about
him, and the chariots, by night, and destroyed those that lay near
to his own kingdom, but did not proceed further.
However, this expedition did him no service, for they all revolted
from him, with those that dwelt in the country of
Libnah. He was indeed so mad as to compel the people to go up to
the high places of the mountains, and worship
foreign gods.
2. As he was doing this, and had entirely cast his own country laws
out of his mind, there was brought him an epistle
from Elijah the prophet (14) which declared that God would execute
great judgments upon him, because he had not
imitated his own fathers, but had followed the wicked courses of
the kings of Israel; and had compelled the tribe of
Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem, to leave the holy worship
of their own God, and to worship idols, as Ahab had
compelled the Israelites to do, and because he had slain his brethren,
and the men that were good and righteous.
And the prophet gave him notice in this epistle what punishment
he should undergo for these crimes, namely, the
destruction of his people, with the corruption of the king's own
wives and children; and that he should himself die of
a distemper in his bowels, with long torments, those his bowels
falling out by the violence of the inward rottenness
of the parts, insomuch that, though he see his own misery, he shall
not be able at all to help himself, but shall die in
that manner. This it was which Elijah denounced to him in that epistle.
3. It was not long after this that an army of those Arabians that
lived near to Ethiopia, and of the Philistines, fell
upon the kingdom of Jehoram, and spoiled the country and the king's
house. Moreover, they slew his sons and his
wives: one only of his sons was left him, who escaped the enemy;
his name was Ahaziah; after which calamity, he
himself fell into that disease which was foretold by the prophet,
and lasted a great while, (for God inflicted this
punishment upon him in his belly, out of his wrath against him,)
and so he died miserably, and saw his own bowels
fall out. The people also abused his dead body; I suppose it was
because they thought that such his death came
upon him by the wrath of God, and that therefore he was not worthy
to partake of such a funeral as became kings.
Accordingly, they neither buried him in the sepulchers of his fathers,
nor vouchsafed him any honors, but buried
him like a private man, and this when he had lived forty years,
and reigned eight. And the people of Jerusalem
delivered the government to his son Ahaziah.
CHAPTER 6
How Jehu Was Anointed King, And Slew Both Joram And Ahaziah; As Also
What He Did For The Punishment Of The Wicked
1. Now Joram, the king of Israel, after the death of Benhadad, hoped
that he might now take Ramoth, a city of
Gilead, from the Syrians. Accordingly he made an expedition against
it, with a great army; but as he was besieging
it, an arrow was shot at him by one of the Syrians, but the wound
was not mortal. So he returned to have his wound
healed in Jezreel, but left his whole army in Ramorb, and Jehu,
the son of Nimshi, for their general; for he had
already taken the city by force; and he proposed, after he was healed,:
to make war with the Syrians; but Elisha the
prophet sent one of his disciples to Ramoth, and gave him holy oil
to anoint Jehu, and to tell him that God had
chosen him to be their king. He also sent him to say other things
to him, and bid him to take his journey as if he
fled, that when he came away he might escape the knowledge of all
men. So when he was come to the city, he found
Jehu sitting in the midst of the captains of the army, as Elisha
had foretold he should find him. So he came up to
him, and said that he desired to speak with him about certain matters;
and when he was arisen, and had followed
him into an inward chamber, the young man took the oil, and poured
it on his head, and said that God ordained him
to be king, in order to his destroying the house of Ahab, and that
he might revenge the blood of the prophets that
were unjustly slain by Jezebel, that so their house might utterly
perish, as those of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and
of Baasha, had perished for their wickedness, and no seed might
remain of Ahab's family. So when he had said this,
he went away hastily out of the chamber, and endeavored not to be
seen by any of the army.
2. But Jehu came out, and went to the place where he before sat with
the captains; and when they asked him, and
desired him to tell them, wherefore it was that this young man came
to him, and added withal that he was mad, he
replied, - “You guess right, for the words he spake were the words
of a madman;" and when they were eager about
the matter, and desired he would tell them, he answered, that God
had said he had chosen him to be king over the
multitude. When he had said this, every one of them put off his
garment, (15) and strewed it under him, and blew
with trumpets, and gave notice that Jehu was king. So when he had
gotten the army together, he was preparing to
set out immediately against Joram, at the city Jezreel, in which
city, as we said before, he was healing of the wound
which he had received in the siege of Ramoth. It happened also that
Ahaziah, king of Jerusalem, was now come to
Joram, for he was his sister's son, as we have said already, to
see how he did after his wound, and this upon account
of their kindred; but as Jehu was desirous to fall upon Joram, and
those with him, on the sudden, he desired that
none of the soldiers might run away and tell to Joram what had happened,
for that this would be an evident
demonstration of their kindness to him, and would show that their
real inclinations were to make him king.
3. So they were pleased with what he did, and guarded the roads,
lest somebody should privately tell the thing to
those that were at Jezreel. Now Jehu took his choice horsemen, and
sat upon his chariot, and went on for Jezreel;
and when he was come near, the watchman whom Joram had set there
to spy out such as came to the city, saw Jehu
marching on, and told Joram that he saw a troop of horsemen marching
on. Upon which he immediately gave
orders, that one of his horsemen should be sent out to meet them,
and to know who it was that was coming. So when
the horseman came up to Jehu, he asked him in what condition the
army was, for that the king wanted to know it;
but Jehu bid him not at all to meddle with such matters, but to
follow him. When the watchman saw this, he told
Joram that the horseman had mingled himself among the company, and
came along with them. And when the king
had sent a second messenger, Jehu commanded him to do as the former
did; and as soon as the watchman told this
also to Joram, he at last got upon his chariot himself, together
with Ahaziah, the king of Jerusalem; for, as we said
before, he was there to see how Joram did, after he had been wounded,
as being his relation. So he went out to
meet Jehu, who marched slowly, (16) and in good order; and when
Joram met him in the field of Naboth, he asked
him if all things were well in the camp; but Jehu reproached him
bitterly, and ventured to call his mother a witch and
a harlot. Upon this the king, fearing what he intended, and suspecting
he had no good meaning, turned his chariot
about as soon as he could, and said to Ahaziah, "We are fought against
by deceit and treachery." But Jehu drew
his bow, and smote him, the arrow going through his heart: so Joram
fell down immediately on his knee, and gave
up the ghost. Jehu also gave orders to Bidkar, the captain of the
third part of his army, to cast the dead body of
Joram into the field of Naboth, putting him in mind of the prophecy
which Elijah prophesied to Ahab his father,
when he had slain Naboth, that both he and his family should perish
in that place; for that as they sat behind Ahab's
chariot, they heard the prophet say so, and that it was now come
to pass according to his prophecy. Upon the fall of
Joram, Ahaziah was afraid of his own life, and turned his chariot
into another road, supposing he should not be seen
by Jehu; but he followed after him, and overtook him at a certain
acclivity, and drew his bow, and wounded him; so
he left his chariot, and got upon his horse, and fled from Jehu
to Megiddo; and though he was under cure, in a little
time he died of that wound, and was carried to Jerusalem, and buried
there, after he had reigned one year, and had
proved a wicked man, and worse than his father.
4. Now when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself and
stood upon a tower, and said, he was a fine
servant that had killed his master! And when he looked up to her,
he asked who she was, and commanded her to
come down to him. At last he ordered the eunuchs to throw her down
from the tower; and being thrown down, she
be-sprinkled the wall with her blood, and was trodden upon by the
horses, and so died. When this was done, Jehu
came to the palace with his friends, and took some refreshment after
his journey, both with other things, and by
eating a meal. He also bid his servants to take up Jezebel and bury
her, because of the nobility of her blood, for she
was descended from kings; but those that were appointed to bury
her found nothing else remaining but the extreme
parts of her body, for all the rest were eaten by dogs. When Jehu
heard this, he admired the prophecy of Elijah, for
he foretold that she should perish in this manner at Jezreel.
5. Now Ahab had seventy sons brought up in Samaria. So Jehu sent
two epistles, the one to them that brought up
the children, the other to the rulers of Samaria, which said, that
they should set up the most valiant of Ahab's sons
for king, for that they had abundance of chariots, and horses, and
armor, and a great army, and fenced cities, and
that by so doing they might avenge the murder of Ahab. This he wrote
to try the intentions of those of Samaria.
Now when the rulers, and those that had brought up the children,
had read the letter, they were afraid; and
considering that they were not at all able to oppose him, who had
already subdued two very great kings, they
returned him this answer: That they owned him for their lord, and
would do whatsoever he bade them. So he wrote
back to them such a reply as enjoined them to obey what he gave
order for, and to cut off the heads of Ahab's sons,
and send them to him. Accordingly the rulers sent for those that
brought up the sons of Ahab, and commanded them
to slay them, to cut off their heads, and send them to Jehu. So
they did whatsoever they were commanded, without
omitting any thing at all, and put them up in wicker baskets, and
sent them to Jezreel. And when Jehu, as he was at
supper with his friends, was informed that the heads of Ahab's'
sons were brought, he ordered them to make two
heaps of them, one before each of the gates; and in the morning
he went out to take a view of them, and when he
saw them, he began to say to the people that were present, that
he did himself make an expedition against his
master [Joram], and slew him, but that it was not he that slew all
these; and he desired them to take notice, that as
to Ahab's family, all things had come to pass according to God's
prophecy, and his house was perished, according
as Elijah had foretold. And when he had further destroyed all the
kindred of Ahab that were found in Jezreel, he
went to Samaria; and as he was upon the road, he met the relations
of Ahaziah king of Jerusalem, and asked them
whither they were going? they replied, that they came to salute
Joram, and their own king Ahaziah, for they knew
not that he had slain them both. So Jehu gave orders that they should
catch these, and kill them, being in number
forty-two persons.
6. After these, there met him a good and a righteous man, whose name
was Jehonadab, and who had been his friend
of old. He saluted Jehu, and began to commend him, because he had
done every thing according to the will of God,
in extirpating the house of Ahab. So Jehu desired him to come up
into his chariot, and make his entry with him into
Samaria; and told him that he would not spare one wicked man, but
would punish the false prophets, and false
priests, and those that deceived the multitude, and persuaded them
to leave the worship of God Almighty, and to
worship foreign gods; and that it was a most excellent and most
pleasing sight to a good and a righteous man to see
the wicked punished. So Jehonadab was persuaded by these arguments,
and came up into Jehu's chariot, and came
to Samaria. And Jehu sought out for all Ahab's kindred, and slew
them. And being desirous that none of the false
prophets, nor the priests of Ahab's god, might escape punishment,
he caught them deceitfully by this wile; for he
gathered all the people together, and said that he would worship
twice as many gods as Ahab worshipped, and
desired that his priests, and prophets, and servants might be present,
because he would offer costly and great
sacrifices to Ahab's god; and that if any of his priests were wanting,
they should be punished with death. Now
Ahab's god was called Baal; and when he had appointed a day on which
he would offer those sacrifices, he sent
messengers through all the country of the Israelites, that they
might bring the priests of Baal to him. So Jehu
commanded to give all the priests vestments; and when they had received
them, he went into the house [of Baal],
with his friend Jehonadab, and gave orders to make search whether
there were not any foreigner or stranger
among them, for he would have no one of a different religion to
mix among their sacred offices. And when they said
that there was no stranger there, and they were beginning their
sacrifices, he set fourscore men without, they being
such of his soldiers as he knew to be most faithful to him, and
bid them slay the prophets, and now vindicate the
laws of their country, which had been a long time in disesteem.
He also threatened, that if any one of them escaped,
their own lives should go for them. So they slew them all with the
sword, and burnt the house of Baal, and by that
means purged Samaria of foreign customs [idolatrous worship]. Now
this Baal was the god of the Tyrians; and
Ahab, in order to gratify his father-in-law, Ethbaal, who was the
king of Tyre and Sidon, built a temple for him in
Samaria, and appointed him prophets, and worshipped him with all
sorts of worship, although, when this god was
demolished, Jehu permitted the Israelites to worship the golden
heifers. However, because he had done thus, and
taken care to punish the wicked, God foretold by his prophet that
his .sons should reign over Israel for four
generations. And in this condition was Jehu at this time.
CHAPTER 7
How Athaliah Reigned Over Jerusalem For Five [Six] Years When Jehoiada
The High Priest Slew Her And Made Jehoash, The Son Of Ahaziah, King
1. Now when Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, heard of the death of
her brother Joram, and of her son Ahaziah, and
of the royal family, she endeavored that none of the house of David
might be left alive, but that the whole family
might be exterminated, that no king might arise out of it afterward;
and, as she thought, she had actually done it;
but one of Ahaziah's sons was preserved, who escaped death after
the manner following: Ahaziah had a sister by
the same father, whose name was Jehosheba, and she was married to
the high priest Jehoiada. She went into the
king's palace, and found Jehoash, for that was the little child's
name, who was not above a year old, among those
that were slain, but concealed with his nurse; so she took him with
her into a secret bed-chamber, and shut him up
there, and she and her husband Jehoiada brought him up privately
in the temple six years, during which time
Athaliah reigned over Jerusalem and the two tribes.
2. Now, on the Seventh year, Jehoiada communicated the matter to
certain of the captains of hundreds, five in
number, and persuaded them to be assisting to what attempts he was
making against Athaliah, and to join with him
in asserting the kingdom to the child. He also received such oaths
from them as are proper to secure those that
assist one another from the fear of discovery; and he was then of
good hope that they should depose Athaliah. Now
those men whom Jehoiada the priest had taken to be his partners
went into all the country, and gathered together
the priests and the Levites, and the heads of the tribes out of
it, and came and brought them to Jerusalem to the
high priest. So he demanded the security of an oath of them, to
keep private whatsoever he should discover to
them, which required both their silence and their assistance. So
when they had taken the oath, and had thereby
made it safe for him to speak, he produced the child that he had
brought up of the family of David, and said to them,
"This is your king, of that house which you know God hath foretold
should reign over you for all time to come. I
exhort you therefore that one-third part of you guard him in the
temple, and that a fourth part keep watch at all the
gates of the temple, and that the next part of you keep guard at
the gate which opens and leads to the king's
palace, and let the rest of the multitude be unarmed in the temple,
and let no armed person go into the temple, but
the priest only." He also gave them this order besides, "That a
part of the priests and the Levites should be about
the king himself, and be a guard to him, with their drawn swords,
and to kill that man immediately, whoever he be,
that should be so bold as to enter armed into the temple; and bid
them be afraid of nobody, but persevere in
guarding the king." So these men obeyed what the high priest advised
them to, and declared the reality of their
resolution by their actions. Jehoiada also opened that armory which
David had made in the temple, and distributed
to the captains of hundreds, as also to the priests and Levites,
all the spears and quivers, and what kind of weapons
soever it contained, and set them armed in a circle round about
the temple, so as to touch one another's hands, and
by that means excluding those from entering that ought not to enter.
So they brought the child into the midst of
them, and put on him the royal crown, and Jehoiada anointed him
with the oil, and made him king; and the multitude
rejoiced, and made a noise, and cried, "God save the king!”
3. When Athaliah unexpectedly heard the tumult and the acclamations,
she was greatly disturbed in her mind, and
suddenly issued out of the royal palace with her own army; and when
she was come to the temple, the. priests
received her; but as for those that stood round about the temple,
as they were ordered by the high priest to do, they
hindered the armed inert that followed her from going in. But when
Athaliah saw the child standing upon a pillar,
with the royal crown upon his head, she rent her clothes, and cried
out vehemently, and commanded [her guards] to
kill him that had laid snares for her, and endeavored to deprive
her of the government. But Jehoiada called for the
captains of hundreds, and commanded them to bring Athaliah to the
valley of Cedron, and slay her there, for he
would not have the temple defiled with the punishments of this pernicious
woman; and he gave order, that if any one
came near to help her, he should be slain also; wherefore those
that had the charge of her slaughter took hold of
her, and led her to the gate of the king's mules, arid slew her
there.
4. Now as soon as what concerned Athaliah was by this stratagem,
after this manner, despatched, Jehoiada called
together the people and the armed men into the temple, and made
them take an oath that they would be obedient to
the king, and take care of his safety, and of the safety of his
government; after which he obliged the king to give
security [upon oath] that he would worship God, and not transgress
the laws of Moses. They then ran to the house
of Baal, which Athaliah and her husband Jehoram had built, to the
dishonor of the God of their fathers, and to the
honor of Ahab, and demolished it, and slew Mattan, that had his
priesthood. But Jehoiada intrusted the care and
custody of the temple to the priests and Levites, according to the
appointment of king David, and enjoined them to
bring their regular burnt-offerings twice a day, and to offer incense
according to the law. He also ordained some of
the Levites, with the porters, to be a guard to the temple, that
no one that was defiled might come there.
5. And when Jehoiada had set these things in order, he, with the
captains of hundreds, and the rulers, and all the
people, took Jehoash out of the temple into the king's palace; and
when he had set him upon the king's throne, the
people shouted for joy, and betook themselves to feasting, and kept
a festival for many days; but the city was quiet
upon the death of Athaliah. Now Jehoash was seven years old when
he took the kingdom. His mother's name was
Zibiah, of the city Beersheba. And all the time that Jehoiada lived
Jehoash was careful that the laws should be
kept, and very zealous in the worship of God; and when he was of
age, he married two wives, who were given to him
by the high priest, by whom were born to him both sons and daughters.
And thus much shall suffice to have related
concerning king Jehoash, how he escaped the treachery of Athaliah,
and how he received the kingdom.
CHAPTER 8
Hazael Makes An Expedition Against The People Of Israel And The Inhabitants
Of Jerusalem. Jehu Dies, And Jehoahaz Succeeds In The Government. Jehoash
The King Of Jerusalem At First Is Careful About The Worship Of God But
Afterwards Becomes Impious And Commands Zechariah To Be Stoned. When Jehoash
[King Of Judah] Was Dead, Amaziah Succeeds Him In The Kingdom
1. Now Hazael, king of Syria, fought against the Israelites and their
king Jehu, and spoiled the eastern parts of the
country beyond Jordan, which belonged to the Reubenites and Gadites,
and to [the half tribe of] Manassites; as
also Gilead and Bashan, burning, and spoiling, and offering violence
to all that he laid his hands on, and this without
impeachment from Jehu, who made no haste to defend the country when
it was under this distress; nay, he was
become a contemner of religion, and a despiser of holiness, and
of the laws, and died when he had reigned over the
Israelites twenty-seven years. He was buried in Samaria, and left
Jehoahaz his son his successor in the
government.
2. Now Jehoash, king of Jerusalem, had an inclination to repair the
temple of God; so he called Jehoiada, and bid
him send the Levites and priests through all the country, to require
half a shekel of silver for every head, towards
the rebuilding and repairing of the temple, which was brought to
decay by Jehoram, and Athaliah and her sons. But
the high priest did not do this, as concluding that no one would
willingly pay that money; but in the twenty-third year
of Jehoash's reign, when the king sent for him and the Levites,
and complained that they had not obeyed what he
enjoined them, and still commanded them to take care of the rebuilding
the temple, he used this stratagem for
collecting the money, with which the multitude was pleased. He made
a wooden chest, and closed it up fast on all
sides, but opened one hole in it; he then set it in the temple beside
the altar, and desired every one to cast into it,
through the hole, what he pleased, for the repair of the temple.
This contrivance was acceptable to the people, and
they strove one with another, and brought in jointly large quantities
of silver and gold; and when the scribe and the
priest that were over the treasuries had emptied the chest, and
counted the money in the king's presence, they then
set it in its former place, and thus did they every day. But when
the multitude appeared to have cast in as much as
was wanted, the high priest Jehoiada, and king Joash, sent to hire
masons and carpenters, and to buy large pieces
of timber, and of the most curious sort; and when they had repaired
the temple, they made use of the remaining
gold and silver, which was not a little, for bowls, and basons,
and cups, and other vessels, and they went on to make
the altar every day fat with sacrifices of great value. And these
things were taken suitable care of as long as
Jehoiada lived.
3. But as soon as he was dead (which was when he had lived one hundred
and thirty years, having been a righteous,
and in every respect a very good man, and was buried in the king's
sepulchers at Jerusalem, because he had
recovered the kingdom to the family of David) king Jehoash betrayed
his [want of] care about God. The principal
men of the people were corrupted also together with him, and offended
against their duty, and what their
constitution determined to be most for their good. Hereupon God
was displeased with the change that was made on
the king, and on the rest of the people, and sent prophets to testify
to them what their actions were, and to bring
them to leave off their wickedness; but they had gotten such a strong
affection and so violent an inclination to it,
that neither could the examples of those that had offered affronts
to the laws, and had been so severely punished,
they and their entire families, nor could the fear of what the prophets
now foretold, bring them to repentance, and
turn them back from their course of transgression to their former
duty. But the king commanded that Zechariah,
the son of the high priest Jehoiada, should be stoned to death in
the temple, and forgot the kindnesses he had
received from his father; for when God had appointed him to prophesy,
he stood in the midst of the multitude, and
gave this counsel to them and to the king: That they should act
righteously; and foretold to them, that if they would
not hearken to his admonitions, they should suffer a heavy punishment.
But as Zechariah was ready to die, he
appealed to God as a witness of what he suffered for the good counsel
he had given them, and how he perished
after a most severe and violent manner for the good deeds his father
had done to Jehoash.
4. However, it was not long before the king suffered punishment for
his transgression; for when Hazael, king of
Syria, made an irruption into his country, and when he had overthrown
Gath, and spoiled it, he made an expedition
against Jerusalem; upon which Jehoash was afraid, and emptied all
the treasures of God and of the kings [before
him], and took down the gifts that had been dedicated [in the temple],
and sent them to the king of Syria, and
procured so much by them, that he was not besieged, nor his kingdom
quite endangered; but Hazael was induced by
the greatness of the sum of money not to bring his army against
Jerusalem; yet Jehoash fell into a severe
distemper, and was set upon by his friends, in order to revenge
the death of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. These
laid snares for the king, and slew him. He was indeed buried in
Jerusalem, but not in the royal sepulchers of his
forefathers, because of his impiety. He lived forty-seven years,
and Amaziah his son succeeded him in the kingdom.
5. In the one and twentieth year of the reign of Jehoash, Jehoahaz,
the son of Jehu, took the government of the
Israelites in Samaria, and held it seventeen years. He did not [properly]
imitate his father, but was guilty of as
wicked practices as hose that first had God in contempt: but the
king of Syria brought him low, and by an expedition
against him did so greatly reduce his forces, that there remained
no more of so great an army than ten thousand
armed men, and fifty horsemen. He also took away from him his great
cities, and many of them also, and destroyed
his army. And these were the things that the people of Israel suffered,
according to the prophecy of Elisha, when he
foretold that Hazael should kill his master, and reign over the
Syrians and Damcenes. But when Jehoahaz was
under such unavoidable miseries, he had recourse to prayer and supplication
to God, and besought him to deliver
him out of the hands of Hazael, and not overlook him, and give him
up into his hands. Accordingly God accepted of
his repentance instead of virtue; and being desirous rather to admonish
those that might repent, and not to
determine that they should be utterly destroyed, he granted him
deliverance from war and dangers. So the country
having obtained peace, returned again to its former condition, and
flourished as before.
6. Now after the death of Jehoahaz, his son Joash took the kingdom,
in the thirty-seventh year of Jehoash, the king
of the tribe of Judah. This Joash then took the kingdom of Israel
in Samaria, for he had the same name with the
king of Jerusalem, and he retained the kingdom sixteen years. He
was a good man, (17) and in his disposition was
not at all like his father. Now at this time it was that when Elisha
the prophet, who was already very old, and was
now fallen into a disease, the king of Israel came to visit him;
and when he found him very near death, he began to
weep in his sight, and lament, to call him his father, and his weapons,
because it was by his means that he never
made use of his weapons against his enemies, but that he overcame
his own adversaries by his prophecies, without
fighting; and that he was now departing this life, and leaving him
to the Syrians, that were already armed, and to
other enemies of his that were under their power; so he said it
was not safe for him to live any longer, but that it
would be well for him to hasten to his end, and depart out of this
life with him. As the king was thus bemoaning
himself, Elisha comforted him, and bid the king bend a bow that
was brought him; and when the king had fitted the
bow for shooting, Elisha took hold of his hands and bid him shoot;
and when he had shot three arrows, and then left
off, Elisha said, "If thou hadst shot more arrows, thou hadst cut
the kingdom of Syria up by the roots; but since
thou hast been satisfied with shooting three times only, thou shalt
fight and beat the Syrians no more times than
three, that thou mayst recover that country which they cut off from
thy kingdom in the reign of thy father." So when
the king had heard that, he departed; and a little while after the
prophet died. He was a man celebrated for
righteousness, and in eminent favor with God. He also performed
wonderful and surprising works by prophecy, and
such as were gloriously preserved in memory by the Hebrews. He also
obtained a magnificent funeral, such a one
indeed as it was fit a person so beloved of God should have. It
also happened, that at that time certain robbers cast
a man whom they had slain into Elisha's grave, and upon his dead
body coming close to Elisha's body, it revived
again. And thus far have we enlarged about the actions of Elisha
the prophet, both such as he did while he was
alive, and how he had a Divine power after his death also.
7. Now, upon the death of Hazael, the king of Syria, that kingdom
came to Adad his son, with whom Joash, king of
Israel, made war; and when he had beaten him in three battles, he
took from him all that country, and all those
cities and villages, which his father Hazael had taken from the
kingdom of Israel, which came to pass, however,
according to the prophecy of Elisha. But when Joash happened to
die, he was buried in Samaria, and the
government devolved on his son Jeroboam.
CHAPTER 9
How Amaziah Made An Expedition Against The Edomites And Amalekites
And Conquered Them; But When He Afterwards Made War Against Joash, He Was
Beaten And Not Long After Was Slain, And Uzziah Succeeded In The Government
1. Now, in the second year of the reign of Joash over Israel, Amaziah
reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem.
His mother's name was Jehoaddan, who was born at Jerusalem. He was
exceeding careful of doing what was right,
and this when he was very young; but when he came to the management
of affairs, and to the government, he
resolved that he ought first of all to avenge his father Je-hoash,
and to punish those his friends that had laid violent
hands upon him: so he seized upon them all, and put them to death;
yet did he execute no severity on their children,
but acted therein according to the laws of Moses, who did not think
it just to punish children for the sins of their
fathers. After this he chose him an army out of the tribe of Judah
and Benjamin, of such as were in the flower of
their age, and about twenty years old; and when he had collected
about three hundred thousand of them together,
he set captains of hundreds over them. He also sent to the king
of Israel, and hired a hundred thousand of his
soldiers for a hundred talents of silver, for he had resolved to
make an expedition against the nations of the
Amatekites, and Edomites, and Gebalites: but as he was preparing
for his expedition, and ready to go out to the
war, a prophet gave him counsel to dismiss the army of the Israelites,
because they were bad men, and because
God foretold that he should be beaten, if he made use of them as
auxiliaries; but that he should overcome his
enemies, though he had but a few soldiers, when it so pleased God.
And when the king grudged at his having
already paid the hire of the Israelites, the prophet exhorted him
to do what God would have him, because he should
thereby obtain much wealth from God. So he dismissed them, and said
that he still freely gave them their pay, and
went himself with his own army, and made war with the nations before
mentioned; and when he had beaten them in
battle, he slew of them ten thousand, and took as many prisoners
alive, whom he brought to the great rock which is
in Arabia, and threw them down from it headlong. He also brought
away a great deal of prey and vast riches from
those nations. But while Amaziah was engaged in this expedition,
those Israelites whom he had hired, and then
dismissed, were very uneasy at it, and taking their dismission for
an affront, (as supposing that this would not have
been done to them but out of contempt,) they fell upon his kingdom,
and proceeded to spoil the country as far as
Beth-horon, and took much cattle, and slew three thousand men.
2. Now upon the victory which Amaziah had gotten, and the great acts
he had done, he was puffed up, and began to
overlook God, who had given him the victory, and proceeded to worship
the gods he had brought out of the country
of the Amalekites. So a prophet came to him, and said, that he wondered
how he could esteem these to be gods,
who had been of no advantage to their own people who paid them honors,
nor had delivered them from his hands,
but had overlooked the destruction of many of them, and had suffered
themselves to be carried captive, for that
they had been carried to Jerusalem in the same manner as any one
might have taken some of the enemy alive, and
led them thither. This reproof provoked the king to anger, and he
commanded the prophet to hold his peace, and
threatened to punish him if he meddled with his conduct. So he replied,
that he should indeed hold his peace; but
foretold withal, that God would not overlook his attempts for innovation.
But Amaziah was not able to contain
himself under that prosperity which God had given him, although
he had affronted God thereupon; but in a vein of
insolence he wrote to Joash, the king of Israel, and commanded that
he and all his people should be obedient to
him, as they had formerly been obedient to his progenitors, David
and Solomon; and he let him know, that if he
would not be so wise as to do what he commanded him, he must fight
for his dominion. To which message Joash
returned this answer in writing: "King Joash to king Amaziah. There
was a vastly tall cypress tree in Mount
Lebanon, as also a thistle; this thistle sent to the cypress tree
to give the cypress tree's daughter in marriage to the
thistle's son; but as the thistle was saying this, there came a
wild beast, and trod down the thistle: and this may be a
lesson to thee, not to be so ambitious, and to have a care, lest
upon thy good success in the fight against the
Amalekites thou growest so proud, as to bring dangers upon thyself
and upon thy kingdom."
3. When Amaziah had read this letter, he was more eager upon this
expedition, which, I suppose, was by the
impulse of God, that he might be punished for his offense against
him. But as soon as he led out his army against
Joash, and they were going to join battle with him, there came such
a fear and consternation upon the army of
Amaziah, as God, when he is displeased, sends upon men, and discomfited
them, even before they came to a close
fight. Now it happened, that as they were scattered about by the
terror that was upon them, Amaziah was left alone,
and was taken prisoner by the enemy; whereupon Joash threatened
to kill him, unless he would persuade the
people of Jerusalem to open their gates to him, and receive him
and his army into the city. Accordingly Amaziah
was so distressed, and in such fear of his life, that he made his
enemy to be received into the city. So Joash over
threw a part of the wall, of the length of four hundred cubits,
and drove his chariot through the breach into
Jerusalem, and led Amaziah captive along with him; by which means
he became master of Jerusalem, and took
away the treasures of God, and carried off all the gold and silver
that was in the king's palace, and then freed the
king from captivity, and returned to Samaria. Now these things happened
to the people of Jerusalem in the
fourteenth year of the reign of Amaziah, who after this had a conspiracy
made against him by his friends, and fled
to the city Lachish, and was there slain by the conspirators, who
sent men thither to kill him. So they took up his
dead body, and carried it to Jerusalem, and made a royal funeral
for him. This was the end of the life of Amaziah,
because of his innovations in religion, and his contempt of God,
when he had lived fifty-four years, and had reigned
twenty-nine. He was succeeded by his son, whose name was Uzziah.
CHAPTER 10
Concerning Jeroboam King Of Israel And Jonah The Prophet; And How
After The Death Of Jeroboam His Son Zachariah Took The Government. How
Uzziah, King Of Jerusalem, Subdued The Nations That Were Round About Him;
And What Befell Him When He Attempted To Offer Incense To God
1. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah, Jeroboam the son
of Joash reigned over Israel in Samaria forty
years. This king was guilty of contumely against God, (18) and became
very wicked in worshipping of idols, and in
many undertakings that were absurd and foreign. He was also the
cause of ten thousand misfortunes to the people
of Israel. Now one Jonah, a prophet, foretold to him that he should
make war with the Syrians, and conquer their
army, and enlarge the bounds of his kingdom on the northern parts
to the city Hamath, and on the southern to the
lake Asphaltitis; for the bounds of the Canaanites originally were
these, as Joshua their general had determined
them. So Jeroboam made an expedition against the Syrians, and overran
all their country, as Jonah had foretold.
2. Now I cannot but think it necessary for me, who have promised
to give an accurate account of our affairs, to
describe the actions of this prophet, so far as I have found them
written down in the Hebrew books. Jonah had been
commanded by God to go to the kingdom of Nineveh; and when he was
there, to publish it in that city, how it should
lose the dominion it had over the nations. But he went not, out
of fear; nay, he ran away from God to the city of
Joppa, and finding a ship there, he went into it, and sailed to
Tarsus, in Cilicia (19) and upon the rise of a most
terrible storm, which was so great that the ship was in danger of
sinking, the mariners, the master, and the pilot
himself, made prayers and vows, in case they escaped the sea: but
Jonah lay still and covered [in the ship,] without
imitating any thing that the others did; but as the waves grew greater,
and the sea became more violent by the
winds, they suspected, as is usual in such cases, that some one
of the persons that sailed with them was the
occasion of this storm, and agreed to discover by lot which of them
it was. When they had cast lots, (21) the lot fell
upon the prophet; and when they asked him whence he came, and what
he had done? he replied, that he was a
Hebrew by nation, and a prophet of Almighty God; and he persuaded
them to cast him into the sea, if they would
escape the danger they were in, for that he was the occasion of
the storm which was upon them. Now at the first
they durst not do so, as esteeming it a wicked thing to cast a man
who was a stranger, and who had committed his
life to them, into such manifest perdition; but at last, when their
misfortune overbore them, and the ship was just
going to be drowned, and when they were animated to do it by the
prophet himself, and by the fear concerning their
own safety, they cast him into the sea; upon which the sea became
calm. It is also reported that Jonah was
swallowed down by a whale, and that when he had been there three
days, and as many nights, he was vomited out
upon the Euxine Sea, and this alive, and without any hurt upon his
body; and there, on his prayer to God, he
obtained pardon for his sins, and went to the city Nineveh, where
he stood so as to be heard, and preached, that in a
very little time they should lose the dominion of Asia. And when
he had published this, he returned. Now I have
given this account about him as I found it written [in our books.]
3. When Jeroboam the king had passed his life in great happiness,
and had ruled forty years, he died, and was
buried in Samaria, and his son Zachariah took the kingdom. After
the same manner did Uzziah, the son of Amaziah,
begin to reign over the two tribes in Jerusalem, in the fourteenth
year of the reign of Jeroboam. He was born of
Jecoliah, his mother, who was a citizen of Jerusalem. He was a good
man, and by nature righteous and
magnanimous, and very laborious in taking care of the affairs of
his kingdom. He made an expedition also against
the Philistines, and overcame them in battle, and took the cities
of Gath and Jabneh, and brake down their walls;
after which expedition he assaulted those Arabs that adjoined to
Egypt. He also built a city upon the Red Sea, and
put a garrison into it. He, after this, overthrew the Ammonites,
and appointed that they should pay tribute. He also
overcame all the countries as far as the bounds of Egypt, and then
began to take care of Jerusalem itself for the
rest of his life; for he rebuilt and repaired all those parts of
the wall which had either fallen down by length of time,
or by the carelessness of the kings, his predecessors, as well as
all that part which had been thrown down by the
king of Israel, when he took his father Amaziah prisoner, and entered
with him into the city. Moreover, he built a
great many towers, of one hundred and fifty cubits high, and built
walled towns in desert places, and put garrisons
into them, and dug many channels for conveyance of water. He had
also many beasts for labor, and an immense
number of cattle; for his country was fit for pasturage. He was
also given to husbandry, and took care to cultivate
the ground, and planted it with all sorts of plants, and sowed it
with all sorts of seeds. He had also about him an
army composed of chosen men, in number three hundred and seventy
thousand, who were governed by general
officers and captains of thousands, who were men of valor, and of
unconquerable strength, in number two thousand.
He also divided his whole army into bands, and armed them, giving
every one a sword, with brazen bucklers and
breastplates, with bows and slings; and besides these, he made for
them many engines of war for besieging of
cities, such as cast stones and darts, with grapplers, and other
instruments of that sort.
4. While Uzziah was in this state, and making preparation [for futurity],
he was corrupted in his mind by pride, and
became insolent, and this on account of that abundance which he
had of things that will soon perish, and despised
that power which is of eternal duration (which consisted in piety
towards God, and in the observation of the laws);
so he fell by occasion of the good success of his affairs, and was
carried headlong into those sins of his father,
which the splendor of that prosperity he enjoyed, and the glorious
actions he had done, led him into, while he was
not able to govern himself well about them. Accordingly, when a
remarkable day was come, and a general festival
was to be celebrated, he put on the holy garment, and went into
the temple to offer incense to God upon the golden
altar, which he was prohibited to do by Azariah the high priest,
who had fourscore priests with him, and who told him
that it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, and that "none
besides the posterity of Aaron were permitted so to
do." And when they cried out that he must go out of the temple,
and not transgress against God, he was wroth at
them, and threatened to kill them, unless they would hold their
peace. In the mean time a great earthquake shook
the ground (26) and a rent was made in the temple, and the bright
rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the
king's face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately.
And before the city, at a place called Eroge,
half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled
itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east
mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's gardens, were spoiled
by the obstruction. Now, as soon as the priests
saw that the king's face was infected with the leprosy, they told
him of the calamity he was under, and commanded
that he should go out of the city as a polluted person. Hereupon
he was so confounded at the sad distemper, and
sensible that he was not at liberty to contradict, that he did as
he was commanded, and underwent this miserable
and terrible punishment for an intention beyond what befitted a
man to have, and for that impiety against God which
was implied therein. So he abode out of the city for some time,
and lived a private life, while his son Jotham took
the government; after which he died with grief and anxiety at what
had happened to him, when he had lived
sixty-eight years, and reigned of them fifty-two; and was buried
by himself in his own gardens.
CHAPTER 11
How Zachariah Shallum, Menahem Pekahiah And Pekah Took The Government
Over The Israelites ; And How Pul And Tiglath-Pileser Made An Expedition
Against The Israelites. How Jotham, The Son Of Uzziah Reigned Over The
Tribe Of Judah; And What Things Nahum Prophesied Against The Assyrians
1. Now when Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, had reigned six months
over Israel, he was slain by the treachery of
a certain friend of his, whose name was Shallum, the son of Jabesh,
who took the kingdom afterward, but kept it no
longer than thirty days; for Menahem, the general of his army, who
was at that time in the city Tirzah, and heard of
what had befallen Zachariah, removed thereupon with all his forces
to Samaria, and joining battle with Shallum,
slew him; and when he had made himself king, he went thence, and
came to the city Tiphsah; but the citizens that
were in it shut their gates, and barred them against the king, and
would not admit him: but in order to be avenged
on them, he burnt the country round about it, and took the city
by force, upon a siege; and being very much
displeased at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah had done, he slew
them all, and spared not so much as the infants,
without omitting the utmost instances of cruelty and barbarity;
for he used such severity upon his own countrymen,
as would not be pardonable with regard to strangers who had been
conquered by him. And after this manner it was
that this Menahem continued to reign with cruelty and barbarity
for ten years. But when Pul, king of Assyria, had
made an expedition against him, he did not think meet to fight or
engage in battle with the Assyrians, but he
persuaded him to accept of a thousand talents of silver, and to
go away, and so put an end to the war. This sum the
multitude collected for Menahem, by exacting fifty drachme as poll-money
for every head; (23) after which he died,
and was buried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah his successor
in the kingdom, who followed the barbarity of
his father, and so ruled but two years only, after which he was
slain with his friends at a feast, by the treachery of
one Pekah, the general of his horse, and the son of Remaliah, who
laid snares for him. Now this Pekah held the
government twenty years, and proved a wicked man and a transgressor.
But the king of Assyria, whose name was
Tiglath-Pileser, when he had made an expedition against the Israelites,
and had overrun all the land of Gilead, and
the region beyond Jordan, and the adjoining country, which is called
Galilee, and Kadesh, and Hazor, he made the
inhabitants prisoners, and transplanted them into his own kingdom.
And so much shall suffice to have related here
concerning the king of Assyria.
2. Now Jotham the son of Uzziah reigned over the tribe of Judah in
Jerusalem, being a citizen thereof by his
mother, whose name was Jerusha. This king was not defective in any
virtue, but was religious towards God, and
righteous towards men, and careful of the good of the city (for
what part soever wanted to be repaired or adorned
he magnificently repaired and adorned them). He also took care of
the foundations of the cloisters in the temple,
and repaired the walls that were fallen down, and built very great
towers, and such as were almost impregnable;
and if any thing else in his kingdom had been neglected, he took
great care of it. He also made an expedition
against the Ammonites, and overcame them in battle, and ordered
them to pay tribute, a hundred talents, and ten
thousand cori of wheat, and as many of barley, every year, and so
augmented his kingdom, that his enemies could
not despise it, and his own people lived happily.
3. Now there was at that time a prophet, whose name was Nahum, who
spake after this manner concerning the
overthrow of the Assyrians and of Nineveh: "Nineveh shall be a pool
of water in motion (23) so shall all her people
be troubled, and tossed, and go away by flight, while they say one
to another, Stand, stand still, seize their gold and
silver, for there shall be no one to wish them well, for they will
rather save their lives than their money; for a
terrible contention shall possess them one with another, and lamentation,
and loosing of the members, and their
countenances shall be perfectly black with fear. And there will
be the den of the lions, and the mother of the young
lions! God says to thee, Nineveh, that they shall deface thee, and
the lion shall no longer go out from thee to give
laws to the world." And indeed this prophet prophesied many other
things besides these concerning Nineveh, which
I do not think necessary to repeat, and I here omit them, that I
may not appear troublesome to my readers; all
which thing happened about Nineveh a hundred and fifteen years afterward:
so this may suffice to have spoken of
these matters.
CHAPTER 12
How Upon The Death Of Jotham, Ahaz Reigned In His Stead; Against
Whom Rezin, King Of Syria And Pekah King Of Israel, Made War; And How Tiglath-Pileser,
King Of Assyria Came To The Assistance Of Ahaz, And Laid Syria Waste And
Removing The Damascenes Into Media Placed Other Nations In Their Room
1. Now Jotham died when he had lived forty-one years, and of them
reigned sixteen, and was buried in the
sepulchers of the kings; and the kingdom came to his son Ahaz, who
proved most impious towards God, and a
transgressor of the laws of his country. He imitated the kings of
Israel, and reared altars in Jerusalem, and offered
sacrifices upon them to idols; to which also he offered his own
son as a burnt-offering, according to the practices of
the Canaanites. His other actions were also of the same sort. Now
as he was going on in this mad course, Rezin, the
king of Syria and Damascus, and Pekah, the king of Israel, who were
now at amity one with another, made war with
him; and when they had driven him into Jerusalem, they besieged
that city a long while, making but a small
progress, on account of the strength of its walls; and when the
king of Syria had taken the city Elath, upon the Red
Sea, and had slain the inhabitants, he peopled it with Syrians;
and when he had slain those in the [other] garrisons,
and the Jews in their neighborhood, and had driven away much prey,
he returned with his army back to Damascus.
Now when the king of Jerusalem knew that the Syrians were returned
home, he, supposing himself a match for the
king of Israel, drew out his army against him, and joining battle
with him was beaten; and this happened because
God was angry with him, on account of his many and great enormities.
Accordingly there were slain by the
Israelites one hundred and twenty thousand of his men that day,
whose general, Amaziah by name, slew Zechariah
the king's son, in his conflict with Ahaz, as well as the governor
of the kingdom, whose name was Azricam. He also
carried Elkanah, the general of the troops of the tribe of Judah,
into captivity. They also carried the women and
children of the tribe of Benjamin captives; and when they had gotten
a great deal of prey, they returned to Samaria.
2. Now there was one Obed, who was a prophet at that time in Samaria
;he met the army before the city walls, and
with a loud voice told them that they had gotten the victory not
by their own strength, but by reason of the anger
God had against king Ahaz. And he complained that they were not
satisfied with the good success they had had
against him, but were so bold as to make captives out of their kinsmen
the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He also
gave them counsel to let them go home without doing them any harm,
for that if they did not obey God herein, they
should be punished. So the people of Israel came together to their
assembly, and considered of these matters, when
a man whose name was Berechiah, and who was one of chief reputation
in the government, stood up, and the others
with him, and said, "We will not suffer the citizens to bring these
prisoners into the city, lest we be all destroyed by
God; we have sins enough of our own that we have committed against
him, as the prophets assure us; nor ought we
therefore to introduce the practice of new crimes." When the soldiers
heard that, they permitted them to do what
they thought best. So the forenamed men took the captives, and let
them go, and took care of them, and gave them
provisions, and sent them to their own country, without doing them
any harm. However, these four went along with
them, and conducted them as far as Jericho, which is not far from
Jerusalem, and returned to Samaria.
3. Hereupon king Ahaz, having been so thoroughly beaten by the Israelites,
sent to Tiglath-Pileser, king of the
Assyrians, and sued for assistance from him in his war against the
Israelites, and Syrians, and Damascenes, with a
promise to send him much money; he sent him also great presents
at the same time. Now this king, upon the
reception of those ambassadors, came to assist Ahaz, and made war
upon the Syrians, and laid their country waste,
and took Damascus by force, and slew Rezin their king, and transplanted
the people of Damascus into the Upper
Media, and brought a colony of Assyrians, and planted them in Damascus.
He also afflicted the land of Israel, and
took many captives out of it. While he was doing thus with the Syrians,
king Ahaz took all the gold that was in the
king's treasures, and the silver, and what was in the temple of
God, and what precious gifts were there, and he
carried them with him, and came to Damascus, and gave it to the
king of Assyria, according to his agreement. So he
confessed that he owed him thanks for all he had done for him, and
returned to Jerusalem. Now this king was so
sottish and thoughtless of what was for his own good, that he would
not leave off worshipping the Syrian gods when
he was beaten by them, but he went on in worshipping them, as though
they would procure him the victory; and
when he was beaten again, he began to honor the gods of the Assyrians;
and he seemed more desirous to honor any
other gods than his own paternal and true God, whose anger was the
cause of his defeat; nay, he proceeded to such
a degree of despite and contempt [of God's worship], that he shut
up the temple entirely, and forbade them to bring
in the appointed sacrifices, and took away the gifts that had been
given to it. And when he had offered these
indignities to God, he died, having lived thirty-six years, and
of them reigned sixteen; and he left his son Hezekiah
for his successor.
CHAPTER 13
How Pekah Died By The Treachery Of Hoshea Who Was A Little After
Subdued By Shalmaneser; And How Hezekiah Reigned Instead Of Ahaz; And What
Actions Of Piety And Justice He Did
1. About the same time Pekah, the king of Israel, died by the treachery
of a friend of his,
whose name was Hoshea, who retained the kingdom nine years' time,
but was a wicked man, and a despiser of the
Divine worship; and Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, made an expedition
against him, and overcame him, (which
must have been because he had not God favorable nor assistant to
him,) and brought him to submission, and
ordered him to pay an appointed tribute. Now, in the fourth year
of the reign of Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz,
began to reign in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abijah, a
citizen of Jerusalem. His nature was good, and
righteous, and religious; for when he came to the kingdom, he thought
that nothing was prior, or more necessary, or
more advantageous to himself, and to his subjects, than to worship
God. Accordingly, he called the people together,
and the priests, and the Levites, and made a speech to them, and
said, "You are not ignorant how, by the sins of my
father, who transgressed that sacred honor which was due to God,
you have had experience of many and great
miseries, while you were corrupted in your mind by him, and were
induced to worship those which he supposed to be
gods; I exhort you, therefore, who have learned by sad experience
how dangerous a thing impiety is, to put that
immediately out of your memory, and to purify yourselves from your
former pollutions, and to open the temple to
these priests and Levites who are here convened, and to cleanse
it with the accustomed sacrifices, and to recover
all to the ancient honor which our fathers paid to it; for by this
means we may render God favorable, and he will
remit the anger he hath had to us."
2. When the king had said this, the priests opened the temple; and
when they had set in order the vessels of God,
and east out what was impure, they laid the accustomed sacrifices
upon the altar. The king also sent to the country
that was under him, and called the people to Jerusalem to celebrate
the feast of unleavened bread, for it had been
intermitted a long time, on account of the wickedness of the forementioned
kings. He also sent to the Israelites,
and exhorted them to leave off their present way of living, and
return to their ancient practices, and to worship God,
for that he gave them leave to come to Jerusalem, and to celebrate,
all in one body, the feast of unleavened bread;
and this he said was by way of invitation only, and to be done of
their own good-will, and for their own advantage,
and not out of obedience to him, because it would make them happy.
But the Israelites, upon the coming of the
ambassadors, and upon their laying before them what they had in
charge from their own king, were so far from
complying therewith, that they laughed the ambassadors to scorn,
and mocked them as fools: as also they affronted
the prophets, which gave them the same exhortations, and foretold
what they would suffer if they did not return to
the worship of God, insomuch that at length they caught them, and
slew them; nor did this degree of transgressing
suffice them, but they had more wicked contrivances than what have
been described: nor did they leave off, before
God, as a punishment for their impiety, brought them under their
enemies: but of that more hereafter. However,
many there were of the tribe of Manasseh, and of Zebulon, and of
Issachar, who were obedient to what the
prophets exhorted them to do, and returned to the worship of God.
Now all these came running to Jerusalem, to
Hezekiah, that they might worship God [there].
3. When these men were come, king Hezekiah went up into the temple,
with the rulers and all the people, and
offered for himself seven bulls, and as many rams, with seven lambs,
and as many kids of the goats. The king also
himself, and the rulers, laid their hands on the heads of the sacrifices,
and permitted the priests to complete the
sacred offices about them. So they both slew the sacrifices, and
burnt the burnt-offerings, while the Levites stood
round about them, with their musical instruments, and sang hymns
to God, and played on their psalteries, as they
were instructed by David to do, and this while the rest of the priests
returned the music, and sounded the trumpets
which they had in their hands; and when this was done, the king
and the multitude threw themselves down upon
their face, and worshipped God. He also sacrificed seventy bulls,
one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. He
also granted the multitude sacrifices to feast upon, six hundred
oxen, and three thousand other cattle; and the
priests performed all things according to the law. Now the king
was so pleased herewith, that he feasted with the
people, and returned thanks to God; but as the feast of unleavened
bread was now come, when they had offered
that sacrifice which is called the passover, they after that offered
other sacrifices for seven days. When the king
had bestowed on the multitude, besides what they sanctified of themselves,
two thousand bulls, and seven thousand
other cattle, the same thing was done by the rulers; for they gave
them a thousand bulls, and a thousand and forty
other cattle. Nor had this festival been so well observed from the
days of king Solomon, as it was now first
observed with great splendor and magnificence; and when the festival
was ended, they went out into the country
and purged it, and cleansed the city of all the pollution of the
idols. The king also gave order that the daily
sacrifices should be offered, at his own charges, and according
to the law; and appointed that the tithes and the
first-fruits should be given by the multitude to the priests and
Levites, that they might constantly attend upon
Divine service, and never be taken off from the worship of God.
Accordingly, the multitude brought together all
sorts of their fruits to the priests and the Levites. The king also
made garners and receptacles for these fruits, and
distributed them to every one of the priests and Levites, and to
their children and wives; and thus did they return to
their old form of Divine worship. Now when the king had settled
these matters after the manner already described,
he made war upon the Philistines, and beat them, and possessed himself
of all the enemy's cities, from Gaza to
Gath; but the king of Assyria sent to him, and threatened to overturn
all his dominions, unless he would pay him the
tribute which his father paid him formerly; but king Hezekiah was
not concerned at his threatenings, but depended
on his piety towards God, and upon Isaiah the prophet, by whom he
inquired and accurately knew all future events.
And thus much shall suffice for the present concerning this king
Hezekiah.
CHAPTER 14
How Shalmaneser Took Samaria By Force And How He Transplanted The
Ten Tribes Into Media, And Brought The Nation Of The Cutheans Into Their
Country [In Their Room]
1. When Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, had it told him, that [Hoshea]
the king of Israel had sent privately to So,
the king of Egypt, desiring his assistance against him, he was very
angry, and made an expedition against Samaria,
in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not
admitted [into the city] by the king, (24) he
besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth
year of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year
of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and quite demolished the government
of the Israelites, and transplanted all the
people into Media and Persia among whom he took king Hoshea alive;
and when he had removed these people out
of this their land he transplanted other nations out of Cuthah,
a place so called, (for there is [still] a river of that
name in Persia,) into Samaria, and into the country of the Israelites.
So the ten tribes of the Israelites were
removed out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven years after their
forefathers were come out of the land of
Egypt, and possessed themselves of the country, but eight hundred
years after Joshua had been their leader, and,
as I have already observed, two hundred and forty years, seven months,
and seven days after they had revolted
from Rehoboam, the grandson of David, and had given the kingdom
to Jeroboam. And such a conclusion overtook
the Israelites, when they had transgressed the laws, and would not
hearken to the prophets, who foretold that this
calamity would come upon them, if they would not leave off their
evil doings. What gave birth to these evil doings,
was that sedition which they raised against Rehoboam, the grandson
of David, when they set up Jeroboam his
servant to be their king, when, by sinning against God, and bringing
them to imitate his bad example, made God to
be their enemy, while Jeroboam underwent that punishment which he
justly deserved.
2. And now the king of Assyria invaded all Syria and Phoenicia in
a hostile manner. The name of this king is also
set down in the archives of Tyre, for he made an expedition against
Tyre in the reign of Eluleus; and Menander
attests to it, who, when he wrote his Chronology, and translated
the archives of Tyre into the Greek language,
gives us the following history: “One whose name was Eluleus reigned
thirty-six years; this king, upon the revolt of
the Citteans, sailed to them, and reduced them again to a submission.
Against these did the king of Assyria send an
army, and in a hostile manner overrun all Phoenicia, but soon made
peace with them all, and returned back; but
Sidon, and Ace, and Palsetyrus revolted; and many other cities there
were which delivered themselves up to the
king of Assyria. Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not submit
to him, the king returned, and fell upon them
again, while the Phoenicians had furnished him with threescore ships,
and eight hundred men to row them; and when
the Tyrians had come upon them in twelve ships, and the enemy's
ships were dispersed, they took five hundred
men prisoners, and the reputation of all the citizens of Tyre was
thereby increased; but the king of Assyria
returned, and placed guards at their rivers and aqueducts, who should
hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. This
continued for five years; and still the Tyrians bore the siege,
and drank of the water they had out of the wells they
dug." And this is what is written in the Tyrian archives concerning
Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria.
3. But now the Cutheans, who removed into Samaria, (for that is the
name they have been called by to this time,
because they were brought out of the country called Cuthah, which
is a country of Persia, and there is a river of the
same name in it,) each of them, according to their nations, which
were in number five, brought their own gods into
Samaria, and by worshipping them, as was the custom of their own
countries, they provoked Almighty God to be
angry and displeased at them, for a plague seized upon them, by
which they were destroyed; and when they found
no cure for their miseries, they learned by the oracle that they
ought to worship Almighty God, as the method for
their deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to the king of Assyria,
and desired him to send them some of those
priests of the Israelites whom he had taken captive. And when he
thereupon sent them, and the people were by
them taught the laws, and the holy worship of God, they worshipped
him in a respectful manner, and the plague
ceased immediately; and indeed they continue to make use of the
very same customs to this very time, and are
called in the Hebrew tongue Cutlans, but in the Greek tongue Samaritans.
And when they see the Jews in
prosperity, they pretend that they are changed, and allied to them,
and call them kinsmen, as though they were
derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance
with them; but when they see them falling into a
low condition, they say they are no way related to them, and that
the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or
marks of kindred from them, but they declare that they are sojourners,
that come from other countries. But of
these we shall have a more seasonable opportunity to discourse hereafter.
ENDNOTES
(1) These judges constituted by Jehoshaphat were a kind of Jerusalem
Sanhedrim, out of the priests, the Levites, and the principal of the people,
both here and 2 Chronicles 19:8; much like the old Christian judicatures
of the bishop, the presbyters, the deacons, and the people.
(2) Concerning this precious balsam, see the note on Atiq. B. VIII.
ch. 6. sect. 6.
(3) What are here Pontus and Thrace, as the places whither Jehoshaphat's
fleet sailed, are in our other copies Ophir and Tarshish, and the place
whence it sailed is in them Eziongeber, which lay on the Red Sea, whence
it was impossible for any ships to sail to Pontus or Thrace; so that Josephus's
copy differed from our other copies, as is further plain from his own words,
which render what we read, that "the ships were broken at Eziongeber, from
their unwieldy greatness." But so far we may conclude, that Josephus thought
one Ophir to be some where in the Mediterranean, and not in the South Sea,
though perhaps there might be another Ophir in that South Sea also, and
that fleets might then sail both from Phoenicia and from the Red Sea to
fetch the gold of Ophir.
(4) This god of flies seems to have been so called, as was the like
god among the Greeks, from his supposed power over flies, in driving them
away from the flesh of their sacrifices, which otherwise would have been
very troublesome to them.
(5) It is commonly esteemed a very cruel action of Elijah, when he
called for fire from heaven, and consumed no fewer than two captains and
a hundred soldiers, and this for no other crime than obeying the orders
of their king, in attempting to seize him; and it is owned by our Savior,
that it was an instance of greater severity than the spirit of the New
Testament allows, Luke 9:54. But then we must consider that it is not unlikely
that these captains and soldiers believed that they were sent to fetch
the prophet, that he might be put to death for foretelling the death of
the king, and this while they knew him to be the prophet of the true God,
the supreme King of Israel, (for they were still under the theocracy,)
which was no less than impiety, rebellion, and treason, in the highest
degree: nor would the command of a subaltern, or inferior captain, contradicting
the commands of the general, when the captain and the soldiers both knew
it to be so, as I suppose, justify or excuse such gross rebellin and disobedience
in soldiers at this day. Accordingly, when Saul commanded his guards to
slay Ahimelech and the priests at Nob, they knew it to be an unlawful command,
and would not obey it, 1 Samuel 22:17. From which cases both officers and
soldiers may learn, that the commands of their leaders or kings cannot
justify or excuse them in doing what is wicked in the sight of God, or
in fighting in an unjust cause, when they know it so to be.
(6) This practice of cutting down, or plucking up by the roots, the
fruit trees was forbidden, even in ordinary wars, by the law of Moses,
Deuteronomy 20:19, 20, and only allowed by God in this particular case,
when the Moabites were to be punished and cut off in an extraordinary manner
for their wickedness See Jeremiah 48:11-13, and many the like prophecies
against them. Nothing could therefore justify this practice but a particular
commission from God by his prophet, as in the present case, which was ever
a sufficient warrant for breaking any such ritual or ceremonial law whatsoever.
(7) That this woman who cried to Elisha, and who in our Bible is
styled "the wife of one of the sons of the prophets," 2 Kings 4:1, was
no other than the widow of Obadiah, the good steward of Ahab, is confirmed
by the Chaldee paraphrast, and by the Rabbins and others. Nor is that unlikely
which Josephus here adds, that these debts were contracted by her husband
for the support of those "hundred of the Lord's prophets, whom he maintained
by fifty in a cave," in the days of Ahab and Jezebel, 1 Kings 18:4; which
circumstance rendered it highly fit that the prophet Elisha should provide
her a remedy, and enable her to redeem herself and her sons from the fear
of that slavery which insolvent debtors were liable to by the law of Moses,
Leviticus 25:39; Matthew 18:25; which he did accordingly, with God's help,
at the expense of a miracle.
(8) Dr. Hudson, with very good reason, suspects that there is no
small defect in our present copies of Josephus, just before the beginning
of this section, and that chiefly as to that distinct account which he
had given us reason to expect in the first section, and to which he seems
to refer, ch. 8. sect. 6. concerning the glorious miracles which Elisha
wrought, which indeed in our Bibles are not a few, 2 Kings 6-9., but of
which we have several omitted in Josephus's present copies. One of those
histories, omitted at present, was evidently in his Bible, I mean that
of the curing of Nanman's leprosy, 2 Kings 5.; for he plainly alludes to
it, B. III. ch. 11. sect. 4, where he observes, that "there were lepers
in many nations who yet have been in honor, and not only free from reproach
and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and been intrusted
with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering
into holy places and temples." But what makes me most regret the want of
that history in our present copies of Josephus is this, that we have here,
as it is commonly understood, one of the greatest difficulties in all the
Bible, that in 2 Kings 5:18, 19, where Naaman, after he had been miraculously
cured by a prophet of the true God, and had thereupon promised (ver. 17)
that "he would henceforth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto
other gods, but unto the Lord," adds, "In this thing the Lord pardon thy
servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimnu to worship there,
and he leaneth on my hands, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmort; when
I bow down myself in the house of Rimmort, the Lord pardon thy servant
in this thing. And Elisha said, Go in peace." This looks like a prophet's
permission for being partaker in idolatry itself, out of compliance with
an idolatrous court.
(9) Upon occasion of this stratagem of Elisha, in Josephus, we may
take notice, that although Josephus was one of the greatest lovers of truth
in the world, yet in a just war he seems to have had no manner of scruple
upon him by all such stratagems possible to deceive public enemies. See
this Josephus's account of Jeremiah's imposition on the great men of the
Jews in somewhat like case, Antiq. B. X. ch. 7. sect. 6; 2 Samuel 16:16,
&c.
(10) This son of a murderer was Joram, the son of Ahab, which Ahab
slew, or permitted his wife Jezebel to slay, the Lord's prophets, and Naboth,
1 Kings 18:4; 21:19; and he is here called by this name, I suppose, because
he had now also himself sent an officer to murder him; yet is Josephus's
account of Joram's coming himself at last. as repenting of his intended
cruelty, much more probable than that in our copies, 2 Kings 6:33, which
rather implies the contrary.
(11) This law of the Jews, for the exclusion of lepers out of the
camp in the wilderness, and out of the cities in Judea, is a known one,
Leviticus 13:46; Numbers 5:14.
(12) Since Elijah did not live to anoint Hazael king of Syria himself,
as he was empowered to do, 1 Kings 19:15, it was most probably now done,
in his name, by his servant and successor Elisha. Nor does it seem to me
otherwise but that Benhadad immediately recovered of his disease, as the
prophet foretold; and that Hazael, upon his being anointed to succeed him
though he ought to have staid till he died by the course of nature, or
some other way of Divine punishment, as did David for many years in the
like case, was too impatient, and the very next day smothered or strangled
him, in order to come directly to the succession.
(13) What Mr. Le Clerc pretends here, that it is more probable that
Hazael and his son were worshipped by the Syrians and people of Damascus
till the days of Josephus, than Benhadad and Hazael, because under Benhadad
they had greatly suffered, and because it is almost incredible that both
a king and that king's murderer should be worshipped by the same Syrians,
is of little force against those records, out of which Josephus drew this
history, especially when it is likely that they thought Benhadad died of
the distemper he labored under, and not by Hazael’s treachery. Besides,
the reason that Josephus gives for this adoration, that these two kings
had been great benefactors to the inhabitants of Damascus, and had built
them temples, is too remote from the political suspicions of Le Clerc;
nor ought such weak suspicions to be deemed of any force against authentic
testimonies of antiquity.
(14) This epistle, in some copies of Josephus, is said to come to
Jotare from Elijah, with this addition," for he was yet upon earth," which
could not be true of Elijah, who, as all agree, was gone from the earth
about four years before, and could only be true of Elisha; nor perhaps
is there any more mystery here, than that the name of Elijah has very anciently
crept into the text instead of Elisha, by the copiers, there being nothing
in any copy of that epistle peculiar to Elijah.
(15) Spanheim here notes, that this putting off men's garments, and
strewing them under a king, was an Eastern custom, which he had elsewhere
explained.
(16) Our copies say that this "driving of the chariots was like the
driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously," 2 Kings 9:20;
whereas Josephus's copy, as he understood it, was this, that, on the contrary,
Jehu marched slowly, and in good order. Nor can it be denied, that since
there was interval enough for king Joram to send out two horsemen, one
after another, to Jehu, and at length to go out with king Ahaziah to meet
him, and all this after he was come within sight of the watchman, and before
he was come to Jezreel, the probability is greatly on the side of Josephus's
copy or interpretation.
(17) This character of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, that "he was a
good man, and in his disposition not at all like to his father," seems
a direct contradiction to our ordinary copies, which say (2 Kings 13:11)
that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord; and that he departed not from
all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: he
walked therein." Which copies are here the truest it is hard positively
to determine. If Josephus's be true, this Joash is the single instance
of a good king over the ten tribes; if the other be true, we have not one
such example. The account that follows, in all copies, of Elisha the prophet's
concern for him, and his concern for Elisha, greatly favors Josephus's
copies, and supposes this king to have been then a good man, and no idolater,
with whom God's prophets used not to be so familiar. Upon the whole, since
it appears, even by Josephus's own account, that Amaziah, the good king
of Judah, while he was a good king, was forbidden to make use of the hundred
thousand auxiliaries he had hired of this Joash, the king of Israel, as
if he and they were then idolaters, 2 Chronicles 25:6-9, it is most likely
that these different characters of Joash suited the different parts of
his reign, and that, according to our common copies, he was at first a
wicked king, and afterwards was reclaimed, and became a good one, according
to Josephus.
(18) What I have above noted concerning Jehoash, seems to me to have
been true also concerning his son Jeroboam II., viz. that although he began
wickedly, as Josephus agrees with our other copies, and, as he adds, "was
the cause of a vast number of misfortunes to the Israelites" in those his
first years, (the particulars of which are unhappily wanting both in Josephus
and in all our copies,) so does it seem to me that he was afterwards reclaimed,
and became a good king, and so was encouraged by the prophet Jonah, and
had great successes afterward, when "God had saved the Israelites by the
hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joash," 2 Kings 14:27; which encouragement
by Jonah, and great successes, are equally observable in Josephus, and
in the other copies.
(19) When Jonah is said in our Bibles to have gone to Tarshish, Jonah
1:3, Josephus understood it that he went to Tarsus in Cilicia, or to the
Mediterranean Sea, upon which Tarsus lay; so that he does not appear to
have read the text, 1 Kings 22:48, as our copies do, that ships of Tarshish
could lie at Ezion-geber, upon the Red Sea. But as to Josephus's assertion,
that Jonah's fish was carried by the strength of the current, upon a nean,
it is by no means an improbable determination in Josephus.
(20) This ancient piece of religion, of supposing there was great
sin where there was great misery, and of casting lots to discover great
sinners, not only among the Israelites, but among these heathen mariners,
seems a remarkable remains of the ancient tradition which prevailed of
old over all mankind, that I Providence used to interpose visibly in all
human affairs, and storm, as far as the Euxine Sea, it is no way impossible;
and since the storm might have driven the ship, while Jonah was in it never
to bring, or at least not long to continue, notorious judge, near to that
Euxine Sea, and since in three more days, while but for notorious sins,
which the most ancient Book of he was in the fish's belly, that current
might bring him to the Job shows to have been the state of mankind for
about the Assyrian coast, and since withal that coast could bring him former
three thousand years of the world, till the days of Job nearer to Nineveh
than could any coast of the Mediterranian and Moses.
(21) This account of an earthquake at Jerusalem at the very same
time when Uzziah usurped the priest's office, and went into the sanctuary
to burn incense, and of the consequences of the earthquake, is entirely
wanting in our other copies, though it be exceeding like to a prophecy
of Jeremiah, now in Zechariah 14:4, 5; in which prophecy mention is made
of "fleeing from that earthquake, as they fled from this earthquake in
the days of Uzziah king of Judah;" so that there seems to have been some
considerable resemblance between these historical and prophetical earthquakes.
(22) Dr. Wall, in his critical notes on 2 Kings 15:20, observes,
"that when this Menahem is said to have exacted the money of Israel of
all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give
Pul, the king of Assyria, a thousand talents, this is the first public
money raised by any [Israelite] king by tax on the people; that they used
before to raise it out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, or of
their own house; that it was a poll-money on the rich men, [and them only,]
to raise £353,000, or, as others count a talent, £400,000,
at the rate of £6 or £7 per head; and that God commanded, by
Ezekiel, ch. 45:8; 46:18, that no such thing should be done [at the Jews'
restoration], but the king should have land of his own."
(23) This passage is taken out of the prophet Nahum, ch. 2:8-13,
and is the principal, or rather the only, one that is given us almost verbatim,
but a little abridged, in all Josephus's known writings: by which quotation
we learn what he himself always asserts, viz. that he made use of the Hebrew
original and not of the Greek version]; as also we learn, that his Hebrew
copy considerably differed from ours. See all three texts particularly
set down and compared together in the Essay on the Old Testament, page
187.
(24) This siege of Samaria, though not given a particular account
of, either in our Hebrew or Greek Bibles, or in Josephus, was so very long,
no less than three years, that it was no way improbable but that parents,
and particularly mothers, might therein be reduced to eat their own children,
as the law of Moses had threatened upon their disobedience, Leviticus 26;29;
Deuteronomy 28:53-57; and as was accomplished in the other shorter sieges
of both the capital cities, Jerusalem and Samaria; the former mentioned
Jeremiah 19:9; Antiq. B. IX. ch. 4. sect. 4, and the latter, 2 Kings 6:26-29.
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