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In the seventh year the high-priest Jehoiada judged that the fit time had ar rived for the disclosure. He therefore made known the secret to some of the chiefs and military commanders on whom he could depend, and received from them the promise to concur in the bold act of proclaiming and crowning the rightful king. Joash was now only seven years of age; but good reason was seen to prefer the regency of such a man as Jehoiada to the reign of such a woman as Athaliah. The persons whom Jehoiada had admitted to his confidence went about the country gaining over the paternal chiefs, and inducing them, as well as the Levites not on duty, to repair to Jerusalem. When all the adherents thus acquired had come to the metropolis, the high-priest concerted with them the plan of operations. According to this it was determined that the partisans of the young prince should be divided into three bodies, one of which was to guard the prince in the temple, the second to keep all the ave nues, and the third was placed at the gate leading to the royal palace. The people were to be admitted as usual to the outer courts. Then the armories of the temple were opened, and the spears, bucklers, and shields of King David were distributed to these parties, as well as to the Levites, who were to form an impenetrable barrier around the king during the ceremony. When all was disposed in this order, the highpriest appeared, leading by the hand the last scion of the royal house of David. He placed him by the pillar where the kings were usually stationed, and having anointed him with the sacred oil, he placed the crown upon his head, arrayed him in royal robes, and gave into his hands the book of the law, on which the usual oaths were administered to him. He was then seated on a throne which had been provided, in doing which he was hailed and recognised by the acclamations of "Long live the king."

By this time Athaliah had observed some indications of an extraordinary movement in the temple; and when these rejoicing clamors broke upon her ear, she hastened thither, and penetrated even to the court of the priests, where the sight met her view of the enthroned boy, crowned, and royally arrayed, while the hereditary chiefs, the military commanders and the Levites, stood at their several stations as in attendance on their king,-the latter, as was their wont in the temple, blowing their trumpets, and playing on their various instruments of music. No sooner did Athaliah behold this, than she rent her clothes, crying, "Treason! treason!" Jehoiada fearing that the guards would kill her on the spot, and thus pollute the holy place with human blood, which was most abhorrent to God, directed them to take her outside the tem ple courts, and there she was put to death. The king was then conducted with great pomp to the palace, escorted by all his guard, and there took possession of the throne of his fathers.

Jehoiada, without any formal appointment, appears to have been recognised, with one consent, as the guardian of the king and regent of the kingdom. He availed himself of the favorable dispositions which now existed, to induce the people to renew their ancient covenant with Jehovah. This precaution had become necessary from the long continuance of an idolatrous government. Actuated by the impulse thus received and the enthusiasm thus excited, and led by the priests and Levites of Jehovah, the people proceeded once more to extirpate the idolatries of Baal. They hastened to his temple, where they slew the high-priest Mattan before the altars, and then pulled the whole fabric to the ground. And not only at Jerusalem, but everywhere throughout the land, the temples, altars and monuments of Baal were utterly destroyed.

Jehoiada, being now at the head of affairs, both religious and civil, applied himself with great diligence in bringing into an orderly and efficient condition the administrations of both the court and temple. Those who had signalized their zeal in the restoration of the king, or were otherwise distinguished for their abilities, were appointed to high posts in the state, while the services of the temple were brought back to the models of David and Solomon. The glory of restoring the fabric of the temple he reserved for the king, who accordingly, in the twenty-third vear of his reign, thoroughly repaired that famous structure, after it had been built nearly one hundred and sixty years; and made numerous vessels of gold and silver for the sacred services, and presented burnt-offerings continually during the lifetime of Jehoiada, who died at the great age of one hundred and thirty-seven years. He was honored with a sepulchre among the kings of the family of David, “because he had done good in Israel."

We may estimate the merits of Jehoiada's administration from the evil conse quences that followed his death. It then appeared that the good qualities which the king had seemed to manifest were the effects rather of the right counsels under which he had acted, than of any solid principles of good. As we have before seen stronger and older men than Joash yielding to the witcheries of idolatry, which seem so strange to us, we are the less surprised at the fall of this king. It now appeared what deep root idolatry had taken in the land during the years of its predominance under Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah: and the men of station who had imbibed or had been brought up in its principles, now reared themselves on high, as soon as the repressive power of God's high-priest was withdrawn. They repaired to the royal court, and by their attentions and flatteries so won upon the king that he was at length induced to give first his tolerance, and then his sanction, to the rank idolatries by which the two kingdoms had often been brought very low. Against this, Zechariah, the son of the late high-priest and a near relation to the king, raised his voice, and predicted the national calamities which would too surely follow; on which the people rose upon him, and, having received a consenting intimation from the king, stoned him to death in the very court of the temple. Thus did Joash repay the deep obligations, for his life and throue, which he owed to the house of Jehoiada. "The Lord look upon it and require it!"* was the prayer of the dying martyr. And He did require it. That very year, Hazael of Syria, who was then in possession of Gilead, advanced against Jerusalem, and, although his force was but small, defeated a large army which opposed him, and entered the city, from which he returned with abundant plunder to his own country. The chiefs who had seduced Joash were slain in the battle; and the king himself, who had been grievously wounded, was soon after murdered by his own servants, and the public voice refused the honors of a royal burial to his remains. He reigned forty years.

Joash was succeeded on the throne by his son AMAZIAH, then twenty-five years of age. The first act of his reign was to punish the murderers of his father: but it is mentioned that he respected the law of Moses by not including their children in their doom; and this seems to show that a contrary practice had previously prevailed.

About the twelfth year of his reign, Amaziah took measures for reducing to their former subjection the Edomites, who had revolted in the time of Jehoram. Not satisfied with the strength he could raise in his own kingdom, the king of Judah hired a hundred thousand auxiliaries out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. But these were tainted with idolatry: on which account a prophet was commissioned to exhort Amaziah to forego their assistance, and dismiss them. By a memorable act of faith, the king at once yielded to this hard demand, and sent home the Israelites, for whose services he had already paid. He then gained a decisive victory over the Edomites in the Salt valley, at the southern extremity of the Dead sea. thousand of the Edomites fell; and ten thousand more were cast down from the cliffs of their native mountains, and dashed in pieces.†

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This victory was the ruin of Amaziah, whose conduct had been hitherto praiseworthy. The idols of Edom, which he brought home among the spoil, proved a snare to him; and, in the end, he fell to the worship of the gods, who could not deliver their own people:" for which he was, without effect, upbraided by a prophet, and threatened with destructions from God.

The Israelites whom the king of Judah had dismissed from his army were filled with resentment at the indignity cast upon them, and probably disappointed in their hope of a share in the spoils of Edom." To testify their resentment, and to obtain compensation, they smote and plundered several of the towns of Judah, on their homeward march, and destroyed many of the inhabitants. It was probably on this account that Amaziah, elated by his victory over the Edomites, determined to make war upon Israel. It is singular that, instead of commencing, as usual, by some aggressive movement or overt act of warfare, Amaziah sent a formal challenge to the king of Israel, inviting a pitched battle, in the phrase, "Come, and let us look one another in the face." The truly oriental answer of Joash seemed designed to dissuade him from this undertaking, but was conceived in terms not well calculated

May not one of the essential differences of the Jewish and Christian dispensations be illustrated by the last words of two men respectivciv eminent in each, and dying under very similar circumstances "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!" was the last cry the dy ng Stephen.

+ This was probably at or in the neighborhood of Petra, of Mount Seir, of which see our engraving, p. 75.

to accomplish the object: "A thistle that was in Lebanon, sent to the cedar of Lebanon, saying, 'Give thy daughter to my son to wife:' and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trod down the thistle. Thou sayest, Lo! I have smitten the Edomites,' and thy heart is lifted up. Abide now at home: why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt, so that thou shouldst fall, and Judah with thee?"

But Amaziah was not to be thus deterred. The two kings met in battle. Amaziah was defeated and taken prisoner, and his army routed at Beth-shemesh. Joash then pursued his triumphant march to Jerusalem, which he plundered, and spared not to lay his hands upon the sacred things of the temple. He also broke down four hundred cubits of the city wall. He however restored Amaziah to his throne, but took hostages with him on his return to Samaria.

The life of Amaziah ended in a conspiracy, which may have been induced by the disgrace which he had brought upon the nation. This conspiracy was discovered by him, and he hastened to the fortified town of Lachish. But he was pursued and slain by the conspirators, who brought back his body "upon horses to Jerusalem," where a place in the sepulchres of his fathers was not denied him. He reigned twenty-nine years.-B. C. 809.

Uzziah, otherwise called Azariah, was only five years old when his father was slain. The Judahites were in no haste to tender their allegiance to an infant. They waited until he was sixteen years of age, and he was then formally called to the throne.* Much favorable influence upon the character of Uzziah is attributed to the early instruction and subsequent influence of the wise and holy Zechariah.† His adhesion to the principles of the theocracy secured him prosperity and honor. He paid equal attention to the arts of peace and of war; and he throve in all the undertakings, whether of war or peace, to which he put his hand. In the arts which belong to both, he encouraged and promoted various improvements; and it may be pardoned in an oriental king, if, in his improvements and undertakings, his own interest and glory was the inciting motive. It is rare, and in fact difficult, for an oriental monarch (considering the institutions by which he is surrounded, and the ideas which press upon him) to contemplate the interests of his people otherwise than as a contingent effect of undertakings in which his own interests and glory are the primary motives. So Uzziah performed the good deed of building towers and digging wells in the desert; but the reason immediately follows: "For he had many cattle both in the valleys and in the plains." He also "loved husbandry," and planted vineyards; and, accordingly, "he had ground-tillers and vine-dresserst in the mountains and in Carmel." These were laudable things; for the people could not but be benefited by them, even though their benefit were less the immediate intention than the indirect effect.

The same may even less doubtfully be said of this king's military organizations and improvements. New fortifications were built and the old repaired. At Jerusalem not only were the injuries which the walls had sustained repaired, but the gates and angles were strengthened with towers; and on these were mounted engines invented by skilful men, and made under the king's encouragement and direction, for the purpose of discharging arrows and great stones. It may be doubtful whether these engines were invented by Hebrew engineers, or successfully copied by them from foreigners. We have certainly no opinion that the Hebrews had much genius for mechanical invention; but we are bound to say the antiquities of Egypt, in the numerous warlike scenes which they represent, do not, as far as we know, contain any examples of projectile engines: and it must be admitted that in the art of war many ingenious devices originate with nations not otherwise distinguished for their inventive faculties.

Uzziah provided ample stores of weapons and armor-spears, shields, helmets, breastplates, bows, and stone-slings-for the numerous body which he enrolled as ready to be called into action, and which consisted of not less than 307,500 men un

"This naturally accounts for the length of the interregnum. (2 Kings xv. 1. 2: 2 Chron. xxvi 1.) Amaziah was slain fifteen years current after the death of Jehoash, king of Israel (2 Kings xiv. 17), or fourteen years complete from the accession of Jeroboam II., his son: and Azariah, or Uzziah, did not begin to reign till the twenty-fifth of Jeroboam (according to the foregoing correction, instead of the twentyseventh year. 2 Kings xv. i.), which gives the length of the interregnum eleven years complete."-Hales. ↑ No one will of course, confound thus person with the prophet of the same name, who lived long after. It is not, in fact, known who he was. Some conjecture that he was the son of the Zechariah who was slain in the time of Joash. But we know of no other foundation for this but the name. The distance of time does not favor the conjecture which identifies him with the Zechariah of Isaiah viti. 2.

See page 345.

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der 2,600 paternai chiefs. This formed a sort of militia, divided into bands, liable to be called into actual service by rotation, according to the number required.

With this force, and under these arrangements, Uzziah was enabled to establish and extend his power. He recovered possession of the port of Elath on the Red sea; he got possession of the principal Philistine towns, Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. The Arab hordes on the borders were subdued; and the Ammonites were reduced to tribute.

Elated by all this prosperity, the king of Judah saw not why he should be precluded from a distinction which other monarchs enjoyed, and which his neighbor of Israel probably exercised-that of officiating on particular occasions at the incense-altar, as highpriest. He made the attempt. He went into the holy place, which none but the priests might lawfully enter, to offer incense on the altar there; but was followed by the high-priest, Azariah, and by eighty other priests, who opposed his design, and warned him of his trespass. The king, made wrathful by this opposition, seized the censer to offer incense; but in that moment he was smitten with leprosy, the marks of which appeared visibly on his forehead. On perceiving this, the priests thrust him forth as a pol

Eyptian vintage and vine-dressers,

lution; nay, confounded and conscience-smitten, he hastened to leave the place. From that day he was obliged to live apart as a leper, and his son Jotham administered the affairs of the government in his father's name. The year in which this happened is not well determined; but the whole duration of his reign was fifty-two years. This is the longest reign of any king of Judah, with the sole exception of Manasseh. Isaiah received his appointment to the prophetic office in the year that King Uzziah died (B.C. 757); and Amos, Hoshea, and probably Joel, began to prophecy in his reign.

The death of Uzziah left the kingdom under the same actual ruler, but exchanged his regency for the sovereignty. Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. He was a good and prosperous prince, and during the sixteen years of his separate reign continued the improvements and plans of his father. He built several fortresses, and confirmed the subjection of the Ammonites to his sceptre. It was in this reign that the city of Rome was founded, with the destinies of which the Hebrews were in the end to be so intimately connected. Jotham died in the year B. C. 741.

Ahaz succeeded Jotham when he was twenty years of age. He proved the most corrupt monarch that the house of David had as yet produced. He respected neither Jehovah, the law, nor the prophets; he broke through all the salutary restraints which law and usage imposed upon the Hebrew kings, and regarded nothing but his own depraved inclinations. He introduced the Syrian idolatry into Jerusalem, erected altars to the Syrian gods, altered the temple in many respects, according to the Syrian model, and finally caused it to be entirely shut up. For these things, adversities and punishments came soon upon him.

Pekah king of Israel, and Rezin king of Syria, had formed an alliance against Judah in the last year of Jotham, which began to take effect as soon as Ahaz had evinced the unworthiness of his character. The object of this alliance appears to have been no less than to dethrone the house of David, and to make "the son of Tabeal" king in the room of Ahaz.‡

In this war Elath was taken from Judah by the king of Syria, who restored it to the Edomites. He also defeated Ahaz in batile and carried away large numbers of his subjects as captives to Damascus. Pekah on his part was equally successful. He slew in one day 120,000 men of Judah, and carried away captives not fewer than 200,000 women and children, together with much spoil, to Samaria. But on his arrival there he was met by the prophet Obed, and by some of the chiefs of Ephraim. The former awakened the king's apprehensions for the consequences of the Divine anger on account of the evil already committed against the house of Judah, and exhorted him not to add to this evil and to their danger, by reducing the women and children of that kindred state to bondage. The prophet was vigorously seconded by the chiefs, who positively declared to the troops," Ye shall not bring in hither these captives to increase our guilt before Jehovah. Intend ye to add to our sin and to our trespass? for our trespass is great, and fierce is the wrath of Jehovah against Israel." On hearing this the warriors abandoned their captives, and left them in the hauds of the chiefs, who, with the concurrence and help of the people, "took the captives, and from the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed and shod them, and gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brethren." This beautiful incident comes over our sense as might some strain of soft and happy music amid the bray of trumpets and the the alarms of war. It also proves that, even in he worst of times, a righteous few were found, even in Israel, who honored the God of their fathers and stood in dread of his judgments.

The narrative in Isaiah records an unsuccessful attempt of the confederates against Jerusalem, the proper place of which in the history is not easily found, but which may appear to have been posterior to the occurrences which have been related. At the same time, the Edomites and Philistines invaded the south of Judah, and took possession of several cities of the low country, with their villages, and occupied

To this prodigy Josephus adds an earthquake, which, he says, shook the earth with such violence that the roof of the temple was rent; and one half of a mountain on the west of Jerusalem fell, or rather slipped, into the valley below, covering the royal gardens.

+ B.C. 748, or according to others, 750 or 752, all which dates fell in this reign.

Isa. vii. 5, 6. Of this "son of Tabeal" nothing is known, although much has been conjectured. Some make it to be Pekah himself, but the interpretation on which it is founded is not very sound, although the thing itself might not be unlikely.

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