The History of the Old Testament Methodized

JEHU being thus come to the Crown, and having already executed his Commission on Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel, he now proceeds on to root out the house of Ahab. It seems Ahab had many Sons born to him of several wives, and many grand-children, (in all about seventy ) who were bred up under several great men (and some of them Rulers in Jezreel ) who upon these distractions fled with them to Samaria (a well fortified City) to secure them there. Jehu understanding this, wrote a Letter to those who had the tuition of these children, and to the Elders of Samaria which spake after this manner, Seeing your Masters Sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, and you are in a fenced City, and have arms; look out therefore the best and meetest of your Masters Sons, and set him on his Fathers Throne, and fight for your Masters house. This he wrote in an Ironical way, but gave them thereby an intimation that if they stood out against him, or offered to oppose him, he doubted not but he should easily subdue them. And indeed the Lord having appointed him to destroy the whole stock of Ahab, did in order therēunto put such a fear into the hearts of these Rulers, that they said among themselves, Behold two Kings could not stand before him, how then shall we be able to deal with him? Hereupon he that was chief over all those that appertained to Ahab's house, and the chief Magistrate of Samaria, and the Senators of the City, and the Governors of the Kings childre • returned this tame answer to Jehu, we are thy servants, and will do whatever thou commandest us, (they interpose no such condition as this, if the thing be honest and just, or the like, so slavish does fear make men) we will make no King, nor set up any to oppose thee; thou mayest do what thou pleasest as for us, we are ready to obey thee in everything. Jehu then wrote another Letter wherein he told them that if they were his servants in reality, and would be obedient to him, (as they professed) then he required them forthwith to cut off the heads of those seventy Sons and Grandchildren of Ahab, and to bring them to him to Jezreel the next day. This was indeed a very severe command, and 'tis strange they did not utterly refuse to obey it, but they •• garding more their own safety then either humanity or the charge and trust committed to them, without anymore ado complied with it, and cutting off the heads of these young Princes put them in baskets, and sent them to Jezreel, and followed after them themselves. When they were come thither a messenger acquainted Jehu that these Rulers of Samaria had brought the heads of the Kings Sons unto him according to his command. It being (as it seems) late, Jehu ordered that they should be laid in two heaps at the entering of the Gate till the morning; certainly a most sad and ruful spectacle it was to see so many young Princes heads lying on heaps together; but this seems so ordered by Providence that all the people might see the dreadful judgment of God upon the house of Ahab for his cruelty and Idolatry, and might be deterred from going on in it. In the morning Jehu went out himself to see these heads, and abundance of people being gathered together to gaze on this lamentable spectacle, he there took occasion before them all to justify himself and his proceedings, speaking to them after this manner: As for you (says he) that are here spectators of this woeful spectacle, I do pronounce you all clear and innocent touching the death of these Sons of Ahab. But possibly you will say that I myself am not innocent, and that I have conspired against the King my Master, and have slain him, and you will say also tha I have slain all these whose heads lie here; for who else hath slain them but myself, seeing they were put to death by my command. I do therefore declare before you all that all these strange things which I have done, I have not done them on my own head, but by the command of God, and only to execute what he had determined should be done against the house of Ahab, and which he threatened against it openly and publicly by his Prophet Elijah, 1 King. 21.21. And you may plainly see that these seventy persons could not so easily have lost their lives, nor those that have cut off their heads been so easily drawn to do it (seeing they had many ways to have avoided it) if there had not been an extraordinary hand of God therein to accomplish his own purposes. Therefore neither they nor I have done ought herein but what God would have done, and that is abundantly sufficient to excuse both them and me. 2 King. 10. from 1, to 11.

Jehu in the next place falls upon Ahab 's great men in Jezreel, that is, such as he had raised to great places and offices, and upon his kinsfolk, and his household-Priests, and cut them off, v. 11. Having settled things at Jezreel, he goes now to Samaria, and in the way unexpectedly meets forty two Sons of the brethren of Ahaziah, whom he slew because they were of the cursed stock of Ahab, v. 12, 13, 14. See more hereof in the life of Ahaziah. When he was gone a little further he met Jehonadab Son of Rhecab who was coming to meet him. This Jehonadab was a Kenite of the stock of Jethro, [1 Chron. 2.55.] and either now or afterwards imposed upon his Sons an austere rule of life as we read Jer. 35.6. viz. That they should drink no wine, nor build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, nor have any; and that they should all their days dwell in tents; and that (as 'tis probable) the better to secure them from being corrupted with the growing luxury of those times, and to inure them beforehand to hardness, that they might be the better able to endure the misery he foresaw the sins of the people would bring upon them. This pious and good man coming to meet him, he kindly saluted him and blessed him; for Jehu was now the greater man, and the less was to be blessed of the greater, Heb. 7.7. He asks him, Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart; that is, Is thy heart faithful towards me as mine is towards thee? Jehonadab answers, It was. If it be (says Jehu) give me thy hand, and he gave him his hand as a further assurance thereof. Then Jehu (to testify his high esteem of him as a person of great piety and prudence ) took him up into his chariot, and said to him, Come along with me, and see my zeal for the Lord, and when he came to Samaria he slew all that he found were allied, or any way appertained to Ahab, and destroyed all that might be any way accounted his, according to the saying of the Lord which he spake to Elijah, v. 15, 16, 17. Jehu having thus destroyed the posterity of Ahab (who had been always the great promoters of the Idolatry of Baal ) 'tis like the Baalites in all places began to shift for themselves, and to hide their heads in corners as fearing what he would do to them; therefore that he might catch them all in a trap together he now pretends himself to be altered in his judgment from what he was lately, and to be for the worship of Baal , yea to be very zealous for it, declaring that Ahab served Baal but a little to what he would do, and that he would serve him much more; and knowing the people to be much addicted to this Idolatry, he called them together to make this profession before them. His end might possibly be good to destroy the worshippers of Baal, but his lying and dissembling was very evil, for he ought not to have done evil that good might come thereby. After this he proclaimed a solemn Assembly for the worship of Baal, and required all the Priests and Prophets of Baal to be present at it, and that none should be absent upon pain of death. Hereupon they all came, (apprehending no cause to distrust the reality of the Kings intentions ) so that Baals house or Temple in Samaria was full from one end to the other, God suffering them thus to be beguiled that they might be destroyed for their Idolatry. Jehu now gave order to him that had the keeping of all such things as appertained to the worship of Baal, that he should bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal, which was accordingly done. Then Jehu and Jehonadab went into the house of Baal, and bad them search diligently whether there were none there that called themselves Prophets of the Lord, for he would not have the worship of Baal profaned (as he pretended) by the presence of any that were not cordial to his service. These things being done when the Priests of Baal were gone in to offer sacrifice, Jehu appointed fourscore of his Soldiers to stand at the doors of Baals house and charged them to keep them all in, and declared that he whoever let any man among them escape, his life should go for his that escaped. As soon as Baals chief Priest had made an end of offering the burnt-offerings to Baal, Jehu commanded those Officers and Soldiers to enter in immediately into the house of Baal and to destroy all they found there, and not to spare a man; which they did accordingly, and then cast out their dead bodies out of the house, that it might be seen what a slaughter they had made. Then this guard went to some City near Samaria (which was particularly dedicated to Baal, and where his chief Temple was) and brought forth the Images out of it and burnt them, and broke down the Image of Baal, and brake down this house of Baal, and made it a draught-house or jakes, thereby to express their great detestation of that vile Idolatry wherewith the Kingdom of Israel had been so long defiled.

Thus Jehu destroyed the worship of Baal out of all the Ten Tribes; but though he overthrow this Idolatry yet he departed not from the Idolatry of Jeroboam, viz. that of the Golden Calves of Dan and Bethel. He also rooted out the house of Ahab, yet it seems he had a greater zeal for the establishing the Kingdom to himself, than purely to execute the command of God; therefore Hos. 1.4. God threatens to revenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. However for these acts God sends a Prophet to him to tell them that because he had done well as to the matter of what he had done, (though not as to the manner) his seed to the fourth generation should sit on that Throne; which accordingly they did as we shall see afterwards. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel sincerely and with all his heart, but followed the Idolatry of Jeroboam, by which God was so provoked that even in his days he did begin to cut Israel short, that is, to abate their power by Hazael King of Syria, especially in the two Tribes and an half beyond Jordan. For Hazael made sore havoc among the people there, and 'tis like he did then or afterwards (in the days of Jehoahaz ) exercise those inhumane cruelties upon the Israelites which Elisha had foretold, 2 King. 8.12.

Jehu reigned twenty and eight years (which was the longest time that any of the Kings of Israel had hitherto reigned) whereof six years Contemporary with Athaliah, and the remaining twenty two with Joash Son of Ahaziah; and they buried him in Samaria, and Jehoahaz his Son reigned in his stead.

2 King. 10. from 11, to the end.

IEHOAHAZ Son of Jehu, (and first of his race) reigned seventeen years. All which time Joash the Son of Ahaziah reigned in Judah. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he and his people followed the Idolatry of Jeroboam, and continued the Grove in Samaria (which Ahab had planted, 1 King. 16.33.) and did not destroy it as he should have done. Hereupon the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of Hazael King of Syria, and into the hands of Benhadad his Son all the days that Jehoahaz reigned alone; for two years before his death he took his son Joash into copartnership with him in the Government. Hazael had invaded and destroyed Israel beyond Jordan before, and threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron, see Amos 1.3. And now he cometh on this side Jordan and oppresseth the Israelites so sore there that he left them but fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; and broke them to pieces, and scattered them (as corn is scattered with overmuch threshing ) insomuch that they had scarce anywhere an army together, and they were brought to be a people of no power or esteem. And though Jehoahaz resisted them with all the valor and might he could, yet still they prevailed against him. Which is the rather noted to make it appear that the calamities that befell the Israelites in his time were rather from God's hand and just judgment because of their sins, than from any want of courage or conduct in their King.

Jehoahaz in these distresses seeks to the Lord for help, and God afterwards gave Israel a Savior, to wit, Joash his Son, (who in his time mightily prevailed against the Syrians. ) And after him he raised up Jeroboam his Son [ Chap. 14.27.] who was also very successful against them. So that afterwards the children of Israel dwelt in their houses quietly and peaceably as in former times. Jehoahaz dies, and is buried in Samaria, and Joash his Son succeeds him.

2 King. 13. from v. 1, to 10.

JOASH (the second of the race of Jehu ) reigned sixteen years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. Elisha being now sick of his last sickness, Joash came to visit him, and wept over him, saying, O my Father, my Father, the Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. Elisha bids him take bow and arrows, he did so, and Elisha puts his hands on the Kings hands (to signify perhaps that God would fight with him, and that no action of ours without God's assistance and blessing can prosper), and bidding him to open the window Eastward (towards Syria ) and to shoot, he said, This is the arrow of the Lord's deliverance from Syria; that is, by this arrow is signified that the Lord by thee will certainly deliver his people from the Syrians; for thou shalt smite them as they were smitten in Aphek, 1 King. 29.26. (or mightily ) till thou hast consumed those particular Armies which they shall have at that time. Then he bids the King take arrows and smite on the ground, which he supposed he might easily understand to be a sign that he should smite the Syrians, and thereupon would have been eager to give many strokes on the ground as a sign that he should often conquer them, but he smote only thrice, whereupon the man of God was wroth with him, and told him he should have smitten five or six times, and then he should have smitten Syria till he had consumed them, and utterly ruined the whole power of their Kingdom, whereas now he should smite them but thrice only.

Elisha now dies, and is laid in his sepulcher; he had been a famous Prophet about sixty years; God had manifested that the spirit of Elijah did rest upon him by enabling him to do the same kind of miracles that Elijah had done: Elijah divided Jordan with his mantle, [2 King. 2.8.] so did Elisha, v. 14. Elijah multiplied the widow of Sarepta 's oil, [1 King. 17.14.] and Elisha did as much for a poor Prophets widow, [2 King. 4.2.] Elijah brought rain from Heaven after a time of great drought, [1 King. 18.41.] and Elisha supplied three Kings and their armies with water, when they were ready to perish for want of it, [2 King. 3.16.] Elijah cursed the Captains and their fifties that came to apprehend him, and they were presently destroyed with fire from Heaven, [2 King. 1.10.] and Elisha cursed the children that reproached and mocked him, and they were presently torn in pieces by two she-bears, [2 King. 2.24.] Elijah raised the Sareptans son to life, [1 King. 17.22.] and Elisha the Shunamites, [2 King. 4.35.] Nay, as Elisha desired that a double portion of the spirit of Elijah might be given him, so some observe that Elisha wrought as many more miracles as Elijah did. Sometime after Elisha 's funeral, some Israelites that were going to bury a dead man espied a band of Moabites near them (that were broken into their land to rob and spoil) and so through fear not daring to carry him to the place prepared for his burial, they removed the stone that covered Elisha 's sepulcher, and in hast cast him in there, whereupon the dead man as soon as he touched the bones of Elisha revived and stood upon his feet. By this miracle God gave testimony to the sanctity and holiness of Elisha that the people might be induced to believe what he had Prophesied concerning their smiting the Syrians, and hereby also he confirmed to them the hope of a resurrection and a future life after this.

But to proceed, though Hazael oppressed Israel all the days that Jehoahaz reigned alone (as we shown before) yet it pleased the Lord to make Joash very successful against the Syrians, so that in the days of Benhadad (Son of Hazael ) he did according to Elisha's Prophesy obtain three notable victories over them, and recovered out of their hands the Cities his Father had lost. For the Lord was gracious unto the Israelites, and had compassion on them because of his Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would not destroy them as yet, nor cast them out of his favor, nor out of the land which he had chosen for his habitation, though he did it afterwards, they persisting in their Idolatry and other sins.

Joash also conquered Amaziah King of Judah, and took him prisoner, and brake down four hundred cubits of the wall of Jerusalem, even from the Gate of Ephraim to the corner-gate: And having gotten from him all the Treasure both of the Temple and of the Kings house returned to Samaria, as is more fully related in the life of Amaziah.

Joash now died, and was buried in Samaria, and Jeroboam his Son reigned in his stead.

2 King. 13. from 10, to the end.

2 King. 14. from 8, to the 17.

JEroboam the second (the third of the race of Jehu ) reigned forty one years (to wit fourteen years and upwards with Amaziah, and twenty seven in the days of Uzziah) he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the Idolatry of Jeroboam the first, the Son of Nebat. 2 King. 14.23, 24.

In his days those three eminent Prophets Jonah, Hosea and Amos Prophesied, God sending to Israel extraordinary Prophets, and more in number than he did to the Kingdom of Judah, intending by them to supply the defect and want of the ordinary Priests and Levites. Jonah was of Gath-Hepher, a Town in the Tribe of Zebulun in Galilee of the Gentiles, Isa. 9.1. which confutes that of the Pharisees to Nicodemus, [Joh. 7.52.] who said that out of Galilee arose no Prophet. This Prophet when the Syrians sorely oppressed Israel foretold that Jeroboam, Joash 's Son, should deliver Israel out of their hands, and avenge the wrongs they had done them. We read not indeed before of any such Prophesy, but hence it is certain that there was such an one, and it might be in the days of Jehoahaz, when in his trouble he prayed unto the Lord and the Lord heard him, Ch. 13.3, 4. Jeroboam accordingly recovered all the land of the two Tribes and half beyond Jordan, taken by the Syrians, even from Hamath a City near Damascus (which was the Northern entrance into Canaan ) to the Sea of the Plain, or Dead-Sea in the South, and also so far prevailed against them that he recovered from them Damascus and Hamath (which formerly belonged to Judah, and joined them to his own Kingdom, see 2 Sam. 8.6. 2 Chron. 8.3.) for the Lord saw the affliction of Israel which in the days of Jehoahaz (not long before this) was very bitter, for at that time none were safe, whether shut up in a place of defense, or left abroad, neither could the King of Israel or any of his Princes help them against their enemies, nor could they get any foreign succor. And the Lord had not as yet determined to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, nor utterly to destroy them from being a Kingdom (though afterwards he did so determine, they going on in their sins ) and therefore for the present he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam. 2 King. 14. from 25, to 29. The Israelites continuing (as it seems) impenitent under the preaching of Jonah, the Lord sent him to Nineveh the Metropolis and chief City of the Assyrian Empire to cry against it for its great wickedness. But being afraid to go, he fled to Joppa and there taking ship intended to go to Tarshish in Silicia (the clean contrary way) but he was followed with a tempest, and being thrown overboard was swallowed up by a Whale; he continued in the Whales belly three days, and three nights, which was a resemblance of Christ's lying in the grave, and to that end thrice alluded unto, and alleged by our Savior himself, Mat. 12.40. & Ch. 16.4. Luk. 11.29. Being miraculously kept alive in the Whales belly he prayeth earnestly to the Lord to have pity upon him, and so the Whale vomited him out upon the dry land. Being sent a second time to Nineveh, he obeys, and going thither, He cried, Forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. This threatening implied a condition, viz. if they did not repent in that time . And they repenting God spared the City for that time, and justified his sparing of them against the angry Prophets repining at it. And this is the sum of the History of Jonab, but there is no Prophesy of his left, either against Israel or Judah.

Another eminent Prophet whom the Lord raised up at that time was HOSEA, he Prophesied very many years, (some think about seventy ) in the days of four Kings of Judah, viz. from Uzziah to Hezekiah, and of seven Kings of Israel, viz. from this Jeroboam the second to Hoshea. He threatens the ruin and desolation of this Kingdom of Israel, though it was now in its highest flourish under Jeroboam, the most prosperous and victorious King that ever reigned over the Ten Tribes; which ruin he himself lived to see, continuing in his Prophetick function to the reign of Hezekiah, in the sixth year of whose reign the Kingdom of Israel came to its final end. He is sent principally to Israel, yet hath a word of Prophesy to Judah also. This Prophet delivers his Prophesy, 1. In types and figurative representations in his three first Chapters: 2. In plain and express terms in which he charges them with their heinous Idolatry, and other horrible iniquities against both Tables, whereof all conditions among them were guilty. He threatens judgments, exhorts them to repent, promises mercies to the penitent. All these are intermix'd and gone over and over again in the residue of the Prophesy.

A third eminent Prophet whom the Lord raised up at the same time was AMOS sent principally to the people of Israel. He was an Herdsman, and taken from following his herd in Judea, and sent to Prophesy to the people of Israel, Amos 1.1. The words of Amos who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa. And Chap. 7.14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no Prophet nor Prophets Son, but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of Sycamore fruits. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel. Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would have stirred up Jeroboam against him for Prophecying against his house, Amos 7.10. Then Amaziah the Priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam King of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, the land is not able to bear all his words: For he saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou Seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. Amos being thus ill used by him, pronounceth a heavy judgment from the Lord upon him, ver. 17. Thy wife shall play the whore, and thy sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and thou shalt die in a polluted land, (viz. that of Assyria) when Israel shall be carried away captive out of her own land.

Amos began to Prophesy two years before the Earthquake, and foretold it before it came, which happened (as 'tis thought) about two years before Jeroboam 's death. He Prophesied against six Nations besides Israel and Judah: First, he declares God's judgments against the neighbor Nations (that were enemies to the Jews ) viz. 1. Damascus, 2. Gaza, and other adjacent places of the Philistines. 3. Tyre. 4. Edom. 5. Ammon. 6. Moab. Then he threatens the Jews for their sins, speaking sometimes to Judah, but principally to Israel, against whom he Prophesies first in plain terms, secondly in types and visions. First in plain terms he threateneth them for their ingratitude and idolatry, Ch. 3. Their violence and incorrigibleness, Ch. 4. Their injustice and oppression of the poor, their slighting God's threatenings, and their hypocritical worship, Chap. 5. Their putting off the evil day, and their wanton voluptuousness, Ch. 6. Then his threatenings are delivered in visions and types: 1. Of grasshoppers and locusts, signifying famine: 2ly, Of fire devouring the great deep, signifying war. 3ly, Of a plum-line signifying the overthrow of the Kingdom and of the Kings house, and that the Lord would deal with them according to the strict rule of justice, and not in mercy as he had formerly done; and he further denounces particular judgments against Amaziah the Priest and his family who accused him of conspiracy (of which we have spoken before) Ch. 7. 4ly, Of a basket of Summer-fruits, representing the ripeness of their sins, and of God's judgments . 5ly, Of smiting the lintel of the door of the Temple, till the posts upholding it did shake, signifying not only the destruction of the Temple, but the cutting off of great and small of the people. Lastly he sweetens and moderates these severe and hard Prophesies with a twofold promise: 1. That God would spare a remnant in the midst of these calamities though he destroyed the profane body of the Nation. 2. That in due time he would recollect and restore the Church of Israel, and would raise up a Gospel-Church from among them under Christ, which he would enlarge by the addition of the believing Gentiles to it. Jeroboam now dies and is buried with his predecessors, 2 King. 14.28, 29. After Jeroboam 's death (under whom that Kingdom came to its full height of glory) all things declined, and those tumults arose which were the forerunners of the destruction not only of Jeroboams own house, but also of the whole Kingdom, as was foretold in Chap. 7, 8. of Amos. In which troubled and tempestuous state of things they fell into a plain Anarchy which lasted about eleven years and an half. For if we compare the times of these two Kingdoms together, we must be forced to grant such an Interregnum or vacancy of a King in the land of Israel, that the six months of Zachariah the Son of Jeroboam , may fall even with the thirty eighth year, and the one month of Shallum , (who slew him) with the thirty ninth year of Uzziah King of Judah, according to what we find recorded, 2 King. 15.8. In the thirty eighth year of Azariah King of Judah, did Zachariah the Son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months, and v. 13. Shallum the Son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah King of Judah, and he reigned a full month in Samaria. The occasion of this Interregnum or vacancy might possibly be the great dissensions and divisions in Israel upon the death of Jeroboam, or some mislike of Zachariah his Son that was to succeed him.

THE Subjects of the Kingdom of Israel being wearied out (as it seems) with their dissensions, at last settled Zachariah the Son of Jeroboam (the fourth and last of the race of Jehu, in his Fathers Throne as God had promised, 2 King. 10.30.) after eleven years vacancy, as has been shown before. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and departed not from the Idolatry of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin, and reigned only six months.

At the end of those six months Shallum who was (as it seems) some great Commander in the Army (such an one as Omri, 1 King. 16.16.) first secretly conspired against him, but then having got many to side with him he slew him openly and publicly in the very sight of the people, they not at all opposing it, or endeavoring to hinder it. After whose death followed those direful calamities, which were foretold by Amos, Ch. 7.9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the Sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. And thus Jehu 's race ended. In the continuance of it so long we may observe how the Lord was pleased to intermix justice and mercy. First justice in cutting Israel short even in Jehu's time, 2 King. 10.32. and in delivering them into the hands of the King of Syria in Jehoahaz time, Ch. 13.3. 2ly, Mercy in making Jeboash and Jeroboam Savior's and Deliverers to them, Ch. 13.15.

2 King. 15. from v. 8, to 13.

SHALLUM having by the murder of Zachariah got the Kingdom, he held it but one month; for Menahem going from Tirzah to Samaria, slew him there, and reigned in his stead.

2 King. 15. from 13, to 16.

MENAHEM having gotten the Kingdom held it ten years, God suffering him to continue so long that he might be a scourge to that rebellious people. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. In the beginning of his reign (as it seems) coming to Tipsah, not far from Tirzah in the Tribe of Ephraim, the City refused to acknowledge him for their King, and would not open their Gates to receive him. Whereupon being highly enraged against them like a cruel Tyrant (to terrify other Cities from following their example) he smote not only that City, but all the coasts about it, destroying the inhabitants and exercising all kind of cruelty, insomuch that he ripped up the very women with child. To such monstrous barbarity does wrath mixed with scorn and disdain sometimes transport wicked men.

While he was tugging in those broils to hold the Kingdom, God stirred up the spirit of Pul King of Assyria (1 Chron. 5.26.) to invade the Kingdom of Israel. This Pul seemeth to have been the self-fame man who was brought to repentance by the Preaching of Jonah; so that here the men of Nineveh may seem to have risen up in judgment against this Nation. If it were so, God now raised up a repenting heathen to take vengeance on unrepenting Israel. Menahem being unable to resist Pul, he purchased his peace with him, and gave him a thousand talents of silver to settle and confirm him in his Kingdom; whereunto some refer that of Hos. 5.13. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb, yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. This great sum of money Menahem exacted of all the mighty men of wealth in the land, of each man fifty shekels of silver, and so the King of Assyria turned back from him.

He now dies and Pekahiah his Son reigns in his stead.

2 King. 15. from 16, to 23.

PEKAHIAH began to reign in the fiftieth year of Uzziah King of Judah, and reigned two years, and did evil in the sight of the Lord. Pekah the Son of Remaliah a Captain of his conspired against him, and slew him in Samaria in his own Palace, Argoh and Arieh and fifty Gileadites assisting him therein.

1 King. 15. from 23, to 27.

PEKAH the Son of Remaliah began to reign in the fifty second year of Uzziah King of Judah, and reigned twenty years . He did evil in the sight of the Lord, 2 King. 15.27, 28. In the 17th. year of his reign he combines with Rezin King of Syria against Ahaz King of Judah, and they go up with their joint forces to besiege Jerusalem, and resolved to depose Ahaz, and set up the Son of Tabeal, probably some Syrian of note and eminency. Ahaz is comforted and encouraged by the Prophet Isaiah against this confederacy, of which see more in the life of Ahaz. And at this time they could not overcome Ahaz, nor take Jerusalem, but afterwards dividing their forces they prevailed against him. For God (for his great sins) gave him up first into the hands of the Syrians, so that Rezin carried away captive many of the people to Damascus, and then into the hands of the Israelites, so that Pekah slew in one day an hundred and twenty thousand of them, among whom was Maaziah the Kings Son, and Azrikam the Governor of his house, and Elkanah the second person to the King (who were all slain by Zichri a mighty man of Ephraim ) and the Israelites carried away captive at that time out of Judah two hundred thousand prisoners, reckoning men, women, boys and girls, and made a vast spoil of their goods, and were carrying all these to Samaria. But before they came thither, upon the counsel of Oded a Prophet of the Lord, and the command of the Princes and Elders of Samaria they released all that vast number of prisoners, and restored them their goods again, and treated them kindly, and caused them to be conveyed safe to their brethren at Jericho. See more of this in the life of Ahaz.

2 King. 16.5, 6.

Isai. 7. from v. 1, to 17.

2 Chron. 28. from 5, to 16.

Ahaz being brought low by the Syrians and Israelites sends to Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria (Son to Pul who had not many years before invaded the land of Israel in the days of Menahem ) to desire his help against these two Kings. Hereupon Tiglath-Pileser came up first against Syria and took Damascus, and slew Rezin, [2 King. 16.9.] and then he invaded Israel, and led away the people of Gilead or Peraea, to wit the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half Tribe of Manasseh, unto Chabor and Haran, and Gozan. Then passing over Jordan, possessed himself of Galilee , and carried away the inhabitants of Zebulun and Naphtali into Assyria; so that at this time he subdued in a manner five Tribes of Israel, to wit, those without Jordan (who as they had first their inheritance given them, so were the first that were carried away captive) and the Tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali who were settled in Galilee. And this was the first captivity of Israel. Neither do we read that these or their children ever returned again to their own land.

2 King. 16.7.

2 Chron. 28.16.

2 King. 15.29.

1 Chron. 5.26.

Pekah having got the Crown at first by murdering Pekahiah his Sovereign, and having unfortunately engaged against Ahaz King of Judah, and thereby brought Tiglath-Pileser upon him (who had carried so many of his subjects away captive into Assyria ) 'tis no wonder he should fall into the hatred of the people. Hereupon Hoshea the Son of Ela conspired against him and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham, that is in the twentieth year since Jotham began to reign. Some learned men think that Jotham reigned only sixteen years (as 'tis said 2 King. 15.33.) but that he lived twenty years after he was settled in the Throne of Judah, and that four years before he died he wholly resigned his Kingdom to his Son Ahaz. So it was in the fourth year of Ahaz that Hoshea slew Pekah, and in the twentieth of Jotham, because (according to them) Jotham still had the title of King, though he had resigned the Kingdom four years before. 'It is said indeed in 2 King. 17.1. that Hoshea began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz, because though he thrust himself into the Kingdom before, yet he was opposed as an usurper till the twelfth of Ahaz, at which time (it seems) he had the Crown confirmed to him, and afterwards reigned four years in Ahaz 's time, and five in Hezekiah 's, in all nine years.

2 King. 15.30, 31.

HOSHEA the Son of Ela having murdered Pekah got the Kingdom into his own hand, in the fourth year of Ahaz, yet by reason of stirs and tumults that arose hereupon, he could not quietly enjoy it, but that State continued in confusion, and a kind of Anarchy for the space of nine years. Hoshea having at length composed all differences at home began now quietly to reign in the latter end of the twelfth year of Ahaz, and reigned nine years.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the Kings of Israel that were before him; for though he continued Jeroboam 's Idolatry of the Golden Calves, yet he abandoned the grosser Idolatries of many of his Predecessors. And besides he suffered such of his subjects (as had a mind to it) to go up to Jerusalem to worship there, which the former Kings of Israel would not permit. For when Hezekiah had proclaimed a solemn Passover, many of the Ten Tribes went up to keep their Passover in Jerusalem as we read 2 Chron. 30.11. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulon humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem, 2 King. 17.1, 2.

Tiglath-Pileser (after he had reigned nineteen years) dying, Shalmaneser his Son succeeded him. This Shalmaneser either invited by the people, or taking advantage of those late broils in the Kingdom of Israel came up now against Hoshea, and at length prevailed so far that Hoshea was content to become his servant and pay him tribute, 2 King. 17.3.

But sometime after Hoshea confederating with the King of Egypt, resolved to cast off his yoke and refused to pay him tribute any longer. Shalmaneser understanding this, resolved to revenge this injury. Wherefore first of all making sure of all the land of the Moabites, that he might have no enemy on his back to annoy him, and rasing to the ground their two chief Cities, Ar and Kirharaseth according to the Prophesy of Isaiah (Chap. 15.) he then went through and wasted all the land of Israel, and at last marched to Samaria in the fourth year of Hezekiah, and seventh of Hoshea, and besieged it three years, viz. in the seventh, eighth and ninth year of Hoshea, which were concurrent with the fourth, fifth and sixth of Hezekiah.

Isa. 15. whole Chapter.

2 King. 17.4, 5.

2 King. 18.9, 10.

Toward the end of the third year of the siege (the sixth of the reign of Hezekiah and ninth of Hoshea) Shalmaneser took Samaria and their King Hoshea, and then shut him up and bound him in prison , (as Josephus says lib. 9.) and carried away the Israelites captives into his own country, and planted them in Chalachochabor and Nehar-Gozan cities of Assyria, (whither Tiglath-Pileser had before transported the inhabitants of Perea ) and in the Cities of Media. If any such inquire why the Lord did thus deliver up the Israelites into the hands of their enemies? the reason is here fully rendered, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his Covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them nor do them, 2 King. 18.12. And 2 King. 17.7, &c. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and they feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen (whom the Lord had cast out before them) and of the Kings of Israel, who made statutes for Idolatry. And besides their open Idolatry they did secretly many things which were not right, against the mind and will of the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their Cities, from the tower of the watchmen to their fenced Cities. And they set them up Images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree. And there they burnt incense in all the high places as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them, and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. Yea they served Idols whereof the Lord had said unto them, ye shall not do this thing. Notwithstanding the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all the Prophets, and by all the Seers whom he sent unto them, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments, and my statutes according to what I commanded your fathers in the wilderness, and which I have often since inculcated upon you by my servants the Prophets time after time. But they would not hear, but hardened their necks as their fathers did, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies whereby he testified against their transgressions, and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like unto them. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two Calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger; therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight, there was none left but the Tribe of Judah only. And another cause of Israel's ruin was, they were an ill example to Judah, and infected that Nation. And hereupon Judah also kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. So the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight; that is, out of that land where he manifested the evidences of his gracious presence. 'It is further added that when the Lord had rent Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the Son of Nebat King, and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did, they departed not from them, until the Lord removed them out of his sight, as he had threatened by all his servants the Prophets. And for these reasons was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria, where they remained as exiles when this History was written.

2 King. 17. from 7, to the 24.

2 King. 18.10, 11, 12.

This was the end of the Kingdom of Israel when it had stood severed from the Kingdom of Judah by the space of two hundred fifty four years. Their many great and crying sins highly provoked the Lord against them, especially their notorious idolatry, their contempt of the Lord's Prophets, and their contumacy and bold persisting in their wicked ways. For after the great blow they received by Tiglath-Piles • r, 2 King. 15.29. they were so far from any amendment that they used in the pride of their hearts that Proverb, Isa. 9. v. 10. The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down but we will change them into cedars; intimating thereby, that they would build their towns that were spoiled better than they were before. For these sins therefore the Lord was provoked to reject and cast them off, and to suffer them to be led away captive.

Tobit or Tobias the elder, saith of himself that he at this time with Anna his wife, and his Countrymen the Naphtalites was carried away into the land of Assyria, and there made purveyor or provider of corn and other victuals for Shalmaneser 's household, and also that he was carried into Media, and there placed in a principal City called Ruges, &c. Tobit Ch. 1.

Shalmaneser having thus carried away the Israelites captives, he planted Colonies there of five Nations of his own people, (taking them out of Babylon, Cutha, Ava, Emath and Sepharvaim ) and placed them in the Cities of Samaria in the room of the Israelites. And these were they that after this time were called Cuthaeans, by a Synecdoche, because the major part of them came out of Cutha a Country in Persia, many of these at their first coming thither not fearing the Lord, nor worshipping the true God of Israel were devoured by Lions; therefore a Jewish Priest was at the request of the rest of them sent out of Assyria to teach them the manner how the God of Israel would be worshipped. But this being (as it seems) one of Jeroboam 's Priests, and making his residence at Bethel, he taught them not the pure worship of God, nor to serve him as they ought in his Temple at Jerusalem, but in their own Country after the way of Jeroboam. Neither were these people brought to worship the true God alone, but every City had also a several Idol of their own, which they worshipped according to the custom of the Nations from which they were descended, and from whence they had been transported. So though they feared the Lord, that is, acknowledged the God of Israel to be the true God, yet they served their own gods also after the manner of the Nations from whence they came . And as for the Israelites that were carried away captive into Assyria, they were nothing amended by their captivity, but 'tis said of them 2 King. 17.34. That unto this day they do after their former manners; they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances (appointed and enjoined them by God) or after the Law and Commandments which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob (whom he named Israel) to observe with whom he made a Covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them. But the Lord (who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power, and a stretched out arm) him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice. And the statutes and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandments which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore , and ye shall not fear other gods. And the Covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget, neither shall ye fear other gods; but the Lord your God shall ye fear, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. But as for those Nations whom the King of Assyria brought out of other Countries and placed in Samaria, they went on in their mungrel way of Religion, they and their children from generation to generation.

After these first Colonies there were other Colonies brought thither by Esarhaddon King of Assyria, who was also called Asnapper the Great [Ezra 4.2.10.] Son of Sennacherib, and Grandchild to Shalmaneser. This seems to be the last of the Assyrian Kings, and the person that carried Manasseh prisoner to Babylon, which was then under the Assyrian Empire, 2 Chron. 33.11. So that the Prophesy of Isaiah seems now to be fulfilled, Chap. 7.8. The head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin, and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken that it be not a people. For though the greatest part of the Israelites were carried away by Shalmaneser some years before, and their Kingdom utterly abolished, yet among them that were left, there remained some show of a Government. But now by reason of the great multitude of foreigners which came to dwell there, the small remainder of the Ephraimites were accounted as nothing; yet they were not utterly extinct in their own Country as appears from 2 Chron. 34.6, 7. & v. 33. & Chap. 35.18. & 2 King. 23.19, 20.

2 King. 17. from 24, to the end.

These Samaritans before mentioned were succeeded by a second sort of Heretical Samaritans in the time of the Government of Nehemiah, in whose time one of the Sons of Ioiada the Son of Eliashib the High Priest married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, and therefore he chased him from him, Neh. 13.28. This Priest thus driven away from Jerusalem, went with other Jews (that had made the like mungrel marriages ) to the Samaritans their wives kindred, who there (as the Jewish Writers relate) assisted them in building an Anti-Temple on mount Gerizim, where a medley Nation devised a Miscellaneous worship of God, rejecting all the Scriptures, save the five Books of Moses, and maintaining many abominable superstitions. So that between these Samaritans and the Jews there grew a deadly hatred as appears Joh. 4. 9. the main difference between them in point of Religion is briefly and clearly stated in those words of the woman of Samaria to our Savior, Our Fathers (viz. Samaritans) worshipped in this mountain (viz. Gerizim) but ye Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship, Joh. 4.20. And observable it is, that whereas Moses appointed an Altar to be built on Mount Ebal, which Joshua accordingly afterwards erected in that place, Josh. 8.30. Yet the Samaritan Penteteuch maketh the same to be built on Mount Gerizim, in the very place where afterwards this mock-temple stood, to gain thereto the greater reputation of holiness, and so they willfully depraved the original, (vide Samarit. Pentet. in Deut. 27.4.) But if besides the five Books of Moses these Samaritans had received the Books of the Prophets, their testimony would have overthrown their cause ; for the Psalmist says expressly, Psal. 78. 67. He refused the Tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the Tribe of Ephraim, but chose the Tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. But to return, this Temple on mount Gerizim, Antiochus Epiphanes afterwards turned into the Temple of Jupiter, who is celebrated for hospitality, and it was destroyed something before the time of our Savior by John Hircanus, after it had stood above two hundred years. But though the Temple was taken away, yet the mountain remained still, in which the Samaritans continued their adoration and false worship.

Kings of Judah.