hat pontif's authority had only forced from them, came nd proftrated themfelves before the king, defiring that hey might have leave to return to the old way of worship, which they had been used to in former reigns; which he easy king, pleased, perhaps, with their uncommon ubmiffion, having too readily granted, they immediately Joash and orfook the temple and worship of GOD, and fet up new his chiefs altars to thofe filthy idols, which they had formerly been forfake ufed to worship in their groves, with the most abominable God. ceremonies. This ungrateful defection, after fo fignal a deliverance, was not however punished, till they had been often forewarned by feveral prophets, of the miferies which it fhould bring upon them (Y). But, when they proved deaf to all thofe divine admonitions, GOD ftirred up the Syrian king against them, who began to commit fevere The king Outrages in Judea, whilft the cowardly Jews, though of Syria much fuperior in number, were delivered into his hands, invades as a punishment for their idolatry. Hazael, flushed Judah. with the fuccefs he had had against Judah, and with the Year of vaft quantity of spoil which he had fent from thence to Damafcus, came up against Jerufalem, and made a ter- Bef. Chr. rible flaughter among thofe Jewish princes, who had been the first authors of that defection. The king himself found no other way to escape fharing of their fate, but by ftripping the temple and his own palace of all their treasure, and giving it as a ranfom to the Syrian conqueror, who thereupon left Jerufalem, and returned to Damafcuss. Joash, however, did not escape the divine Vide 2 Chron. xxiv. 24. • Comp. 2 Kings xii. paff. & 2 Chron. xxiv. paff. See also before, vol. ii. p. 312, & feq, (Y) Among thofe prophets, who dared to reprove the king and his nobles, and to affure them, that these would prove only the preludes of worfe mifchiefs, was the high-prieft Zechariah, the worthy fon and fucceffor of the late Jehoiada; but his zeal coft him his life. The impious king caufed him to be ftoned to death in the very court of the temple, without regard to either the facredness of the place, or of (87) 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, & feq. vengeance; the flood 1509. 839. Joafh is vengeance; and, those them bared under fome gre murdered, vous disease, his own series coe pred against him, a murdered him in ha det, in the seth year of his reg and crowned bis La (meras) a his ftead (Z). Joath fuc AMAZIAH fucceded him in the twenty-fifth year ceeded by his age, by which time Father, the son of Jebu, have Amaziah. reigned seventeen years aan, had left the kingdom: his fon Dering this time nothing confidera had happened in that goom, except that their ido tries had alfo exposed them to the cruel cppreffions of t king of Syria, tā Fabuhan's repentance and prayer o tained a kind of mirenicus celiverance; for the full account of which, we tha" refer the reader to a forme chapter y. What happened during his fon's reign, w fhall fee in its proper place. In the mean time, th young king of Fab called the murderers of his fath to be put to death; but the text obferves, that he fpare: their children, according to the law of Moses; from which one may reataib v fogpole, that all his predeceffors were not equally fit cervers of it. Amaziah had indeed feen fuch fevere judgments iced upon Joaß his father, and his aportate criefs, as made him for fome time afraid to imitate them; though he forgot them but too foon, and, like Fach, having begun his reign pioufl and fuccefsfully, he made as impious and tragical an en of it. His fignal fuccefs against the Emites, promife ziah's fuc- to him by GoD himfelt, did but too much fwell th cefs. heart of that young monarch. He had an army of 300,00 fighting men, and had hired 100,000 more of the kin of Ifrael, when he was going upon that expedition but was at length prevailed upon, by a prophet, difmifs thefe laft, not without great refentment an heart-burning on their fide, of which they failed n to give an ample proof, by burning and ravaging all th countries they went through, in their return home. This broke at once all friendthip between thofe two monarch Ama x 2 Kings xiii. 3, 4, 5, 6. y See before, vol. ii. p. 31 & feq. z Deut. xxiv. 16. See before, vol. ii. p. 178, & feq. a (Z) Joash was by this time buried in the city of Davi yet the text fays, that they d not depofit his body in the pulcre of his ancestors, but in fome places apart (88). (88) 2 Chram, xxiv. 25. and proved the fource of a bloody war. en for Amaziah, if this had been all; Happy had it but that infatu d prince, after his victory over Edom, became fo ftu- and idolally fond of the idols, which he had taken from them, try. t, as if all his fuccefs had been owing to them, he fed them to be fet up in Judah at his return, and nt fo far as to burn incense himself before them, and to nt fome infolent threats to a prophet fent from GOD to claim him. No wonder, then, if GOD left him to sh into his utter ruin. AMAZIAH had indeed cause to resent the ravages which e difbanded Ifraelites had committed in his kingdom, ring his expedition against Edom; and, had he been ́s elated with his fuccefs, might have taken more proper easures for doing himself juftice for them. On the her hand, Joah had no lefs reason to truft to his own our; who, foon after his acceffion to the crown, had en paying a mournful vifit to the prophet Elisha, who s then lying on his death-bed, to reprefent to that holy fon the melancholy ftate in which he was going to we the kingdom, which had already fuffered the greateft amities from the kings of Syria, during the two laft gns; and the prophet, touched with a fense of it, had phefied to him, that he fhould gain three fucceeding Rories over that domineering nation. Joah, theree, who had by this time given fuch fignal proofs of his rage and conduct, by those three victories which he I gained over the Syrians, and by recovering all the ces which they had taken from his predeceffors (Z), uld not forbear expreffing the utmoft contempt at =2 Kings xiii. 14, & feq. feq. his See alfo vol. ii. p. 312, after the beginning of it (28). Z) It is not eafy to deterne the time when Joah won fe three victories; but, hower, it is more than probable, t it was long before he reved the proud challenge m Amaziah, when he was the 16th year of his reign -). The text would even line one to believe, that he gan to beat the Syrians soon 27) Vid. Uffer. ann. fub A. M. 3178. Seq. (29) Ubi fup fub, A. M. 3168. VOL. IV. (28) Vid. 2 Kings xiii. 22, The his arrogant challenge. The anfwer he returned, couched in the moft fcornful and mortifying terms, ur the allegory of a defpicable thistle, which, having af to an alliance with the noble cedar, had, for his ambit been crushed under the feet of a wild beaft: he c cluded with advising him to reft contented with late petty victories, and not fuffer his ambition to c him into a defperate attempt, which would end, in likelihood, in the total lofs of his kingdom. Amaziah only the more exafperated at this anfwer, and hafte Is defeat- go out againft this rival: the two armies met in the ne ed by the bourhood of Bethfhemesh, where Judah was tot king of routed. Jofephus adds, that they were feized with a panic, at the very firft onfet, that they turned backs without ftriking one ftroke, and left their king Amaziah the mercy of the conqueror ". Amaziah was actu taken pri- taken prifoner, and Joash marched on with him, and A Janer. own army, to Jerufalem, where he obliged him to Ifrael. Ant. 1. ix. c. 10. The remarkable manner in which the good old prophet "was not over-awed by any "prince, neither could 66 no word could overco "him; and, after his dea " he prophefied, &c (3 The Jews add, that the thus miraculously raised, called Salum; and that he gat fons and daughters wards. foretold thefe fignal victories," bring him into fubjectio Some authors, howeve content with the mirac wrought during his life, a ter his death, have acc nied his birth with a remar ble one; namely, that the golden calves bellowe these words, with fuch a voice, that it was heard Gilgal to Jerufalem; 1 be that is to deftroy the c idols, and break the images in pieces (32). de mort, prophet, & chron. Pafcbe (31) Ecclus. xlviii. 12, & is freedom, at the expence of all the gold and filver hich were found, either in the temple, or in his own eafury; after which, having demolished about 400 cuts length of the city wall, and taken fome hoftages with m, he returned to Samaria. He did not outlive this ctory above one year, after which he was fucceeded by is fon Jeroboam, the second of that name, after he had igned fixteen years. As for Amaziah, though he outved his difgrace above fifteen years, yet we read no nore of him till the latter end of his reign; when, aving discovered a confpiracy that was formed against im at Jerufalem, he was forced to flee to Lachish, here he was pursued and murdered by the confpirators. le was carried back upon horfes to Jerufalem, and buied with his ancestors; and his fon Azariah proclaimed his ftead 2. IN the mean time, whilst Amaziah spent the remnant f his reign in a kind of inactive fecurity in Jerufalem, 'eroboam II. the brave grandfon of Jehu, feemed Jeroboam rdained by Providence to reftore the kingdom of Ifrael II. king of › its priftine fplendor and greatness. His reign, which Israel. fted forty-one years, befides thofe ten which he had Year of ent in copartnership with his father, gave him time the flood ore than fufficient to perform that noble work, to 1523. hich he was encouraged by the prophets Jonah the fon Bef. Chr. F Amittai (A), and Hofea the fon of Beeri, who were temporaries with him, and foretold, that he should omplete the deliverance of Ifrael, which his father had Uber 2 Chron. xxv. per tot. es, which he foretold to the (A) This is the fame Jonah, Jonas, as he is called in the ofpel (34), who was afterards fent to preach repentance > the Ninevites (35). iftly obferves, that he was a ative of Gathepher (36), a Own in the tribe of Zebulun 37), in Galilee of the Gentiles 38), against that falfe affirmtion of the Jews, That out f Galilee there never arose a rophet (39). It is uncertain hether thofe glorious fucceff(34) Matt. xii. 41. (35) Fonab iii. pass. (38) Ifai. ix. 1. 37) Job. xix. 13. nn. fub A. M. 3197. L2. (36) 2 Kings xiv. 25. (39) John vii. 52. Vid. Uffer. begun, 825. |