THE PERIOD OF ASSYRIAN DOMINANCE

120. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NORTHERN ISRAEL

When Joash the ruler of Israel died and was buried in Samaria with the rulers of Israel, his son Jeroboam succeeded him. He restored the boundary line of Israel from the entrance into Hamath to the Dead Sea, as Jehovah the God of Israel had declared through his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who lived at Gath-hepher.

When Jeroboam the ruler of Israel died and was buried, his son Zechariah succeeded him. But Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and put him to death in Ibleam, and for one month ruled in his place at Samaria. Then Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah and entered Samaria and put Shallum to death; and he ruled ten years in Samaria.

While he ruled, Pul [Tiglath-pileser], the king of Assyria, invaded the land. But Menahem gave Pul a hundred pounds of silver, that he might help him to maintain his rule. And Menahem exacted from each wealthy Israelite fifty pieces of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not remain.

When Menahem died his son Pekahiah succeeded him; but his commander, Pekah the son of Remaliah, conspired against him and assassinated him in Samaria in the castle of the palace, and Pekah ruled twenty years.

While Pekah ruled, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, and all the terri

tory of Naphtali, and took their inhabitants captive to Assyria.

Then Hoshea the son of Elah formed a conspiracy against Pekah and put him to death and succeeded him; and he ruled nine years.

But Shalmaneser king of Assyria came against him, and Hoshea became subject to Shalmaneser and paid him tribute. But when the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had formed a conspiracy, for he had sent messengers to Sewe king of Egypt and paid no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done each year before, the king of Assyria imprisoned him.

It was in the seventh year of Hoshea's rule that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came and besieged Samaria. At the end of three years, in the ninth year of Hoshea's rule, Samaria was captured by the Assyrians; and the king of Assyria carried the Israelites away captive and placed them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cutha, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria to take the place of the Israelites. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

121. JUDAH'S TROUBLED HISTORY

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam's rule over Israel, Uzziah the son of Amaziah began to rule over Judah, and he ruled forty-two years in Jerusalem.

And Jehovah afflicted Uzziah, so that he was a leper to the day of his death; but he lived in his own house without restraint, while his son Jotham ruled the people of the land at the palace.

In the seventeenth year of Pekah's rule Ahaz the

twenty-year-old son of Jotham became the ruler of Judah; and he ruled sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do that which pleased Jehovah his God, as did his ancestor David, but followed the policy of the rulers of Israel. In keeping with the abominated custom of the nations which Jehovah drove out before the Israelites, he made his son pass through fire. He also burnt sacrificial offerings at the old shrines on the heights and on the hills and under every green tree.

Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah came up to attack Jerusalem; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not conquer him. At that time the king of Edom drove the Judahites from Elath and reconquered it for the Edomites; and they have remained there until the present day.

But Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, 'I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the power of the king of Aram and from the power of the ruler of Israel, who have attacked me.'

Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that were found in the temple of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the royal palace, and sent them as a present to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria listened to his petitions and went up against Damascus and captured it, put Rezin to death, and carried the inhabitants away captive to Kir.

Now when Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, he saw there the altar that was at Damascus, and he sent a model of the altar and a pattern giving all the details of its construction to Urijah the priest. And Urijah built an altar exactly corresponding to the model that Ahaz sent from Damascus. When Ahaz returned from Damascus and saw it, he went up to the altar and offered his burnt-offering

and his cereal-offering, and poured out his libation, and sprinkled the blood of the fellowship offering upon the altar. The bronze altar, which stood in front of the temple, between it and his altar, he transferred to the north side of his altar, to win the favor of the king of Assyria.

When Ahaz died and was buried with ancestors in the City of David, Hezekiah his son succeeded him.

122. THE Two GREAT CRISES IN THE DAYS OF HEZEKIAH

In the third year of the rule of Hoshea of Israel, Hezekiah began to rule in Judah. He was twentyfive years old when he began to rule, and he ruled twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.

Hezekiah drove the Philistines back to Gaza and conquered their territory from the watch-tower to that fortified city. But in the fourteenth year of his rule, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Hezekiah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: 'I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever terms you impose upon me I will accept.' So the king of Assyria made Hezekiah pay thirty thousand pounds of silver and thirty thousand pounds of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the temple of Jehovah and in the treasures of the royal pal

ace.

Then Hezekiah placed the old Canaanite shrines under a ban, broke in pieces the sacred pillars, and cut down the heathen idols. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifices to it.

Later the king of Assyria sent the commander-in

chief, and the chief of the court attendants, and a high official from Lachish with a great army to Hezekiah at Jerusalem. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they stopped by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the way to the fuller's field. And when they called for the ruler of Judah, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was prefect of the palace, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the chancellor went out to them. Then the high official said to them, 'Say now to Hezekiah, "The great king, the king of Assyria, declares: What is the basis of this confidence which you cherish? You think, a simple word of the lips is counsel and strength enough for war! On whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?" But the people were silent and made no answer, for Hezekiah's command was, 'Do not answer him.'

Then the prefect of the palace, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the chancellor went to Hezekiah with torn clothes and told him the words of the high official. As soon as Hezekiah heard the report, he too tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the temple of Jehovah. He also sent Eliakim, and Shebnah, and the oldest of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. They said to him, 'Hezekiah declares, "This is a day of trouble and discipline and shame; for children are ready to be born but there is not strength enough to bring them into the world. It may be Jehovah your God will hear and administer a reproof for all the words of the high official, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God. Therefore pray earnestly for all who are left in Judah.”

When the servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, "Take this answer back to your