reign the agriculture of Judea seems to have been carried to a high state of perfection. In one respect, however, he greatly erred; and he was signally punished for his error. As if continued success had unsettled his reason, he ventured, on a certain occasion, to invade the priest's office, and in spite of the resistance of the Levites on duty, he forced his way into the holy place. He was immediately smitten with leprosy; and being thereby cut off from all familiar intercourse with men, he hid himself in a separate dwelling, and appointed his son Jotham to act for him. He did not long survive this calamity, and though buried in the field where his ancestors lay, was not honoured by having his dust mingled with theirs. CHAP. XXXIV. SECOND BOOKS OF KINGS AND OF KINGS OF ISRAEL WHILE the line of David was thus wonderfully preserved in unbroken succession on the throne of Judah, in Israel a continuance of those bloody revolutions went on, which beginning after the death of Jeroboam, ended only with the final dispersion of the ten tribes. Doubtless the house of Jehu retained its hold upon the throne during four KINGS OF ISRAEL. 199 generations; such had been God's promise to the founder of the family; and on the death of Jehohaz,. Jeroboam II., the great grandson of Jehu, mounted without opposition the vacant chair. Moreover, being an able, though an impious man, he kept his seat longer than any of his predecessors; and by his successes in war, he in a great measure renewed the glories of earlier and better times. He won back the old boundaries of Israel from his neighbours, and caused his will to be respected far beyond the actual limits of the kingdom. But he took no steps to root out the sin of idolatry in the land itself. Hence, whatever amount of fear he might excite among those over whom he reigned, the principles of love and of loyalty were wanting, and the consequence was, that after his demise, there occurred in all quarters revolts and confusions, which kept the nation in a state of anarchy for rather more than twenty years, and prepared it for a final overthrow. B. C. 771.-Wearied out, at length, by intestine divisions, the chiefs of parties in Israel agreed to acknowledge as their sovereign, Zachariah, the son of the late king. He mounted the throne in the thirtieth year of the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in sixth months disgusted by his folly and his crimes the very persons who had been mainly instrumental in his advancement. An officer called Shallum took advantage of his unpopularity to slay the king and seize the crown; and was himself slain in his turn by Menahem, captain of the king's guard. But Menahem had no better hold upon the sceptre than his immediate predecessor. An enemy more powerful than any with whom either Israel or Judah had yet been called upon to contend, was moving against him, and resistance seemed vain. He therefore tried to effect by largess what he could not accomplish by force of arms; and by laying a heavy tax on his nobles, so disgusted them, that the residue of his brief reign was passed amid continual difficulties and dangers. It will be necessary to the right understanding of much which is to follow, that I should briefly inform my readers of the condition, at this time, of some of the more important of the empires with which Judah and Israel were forced into connection. Apart from the smaller states, such as the confederations of the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites, the Amorites, and so forth, we find the chosen people, at various stages in their annals, coming into contact, for good or for evil, with the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Syrians. Of the Egyptians it is unnecessary to say much. Though subject, like other nations, to frequent changes of dynasty, they continued, down to the days of Uzziah and later, pretty much as we found them when Joseph and his brethren dwelt in Goshen. Not habitually a warlike people, they were yet, from time to time, governed by warlike princes, who led them forth to conquest abroad, or else fought to repel the different enemies by whom they were invaded. We find them, more than once, at strife with the Israelites, especially after the overthrow of Solomon's father-in-law. But, generally speaking, their relations with the latter were friendly. The Syrian empire seems to have arisen out of a combination of many small tribes, which came by degrees under one head, and grew into a considerable state. Ben-hadad the First, Hazael, and Ben-hadad the Second, appear to have carried the empire to the extreme height of its power. Their BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA. 201 capital was Damascus; and, as the course of our history has already shown, their intercourse both with Judah and with Israel was frequent. Babylonia and Assyria constituted, for many ages, distinct portions of the one immense Chaldean empire. Of this Nimrod was the founder. He fixed his capital in Babylon, where the famous tower or citadel of Babel long stood; and built, a few years subsequently, in Assyria, Nineveh, to be the residence of his son Ninus. And for about 225 years the Chaldean dynasty, descended from Nimrod, kept its place. It then gave way to a family of Arabs, who filled the throne about 215 years, not only not losing a single province all the while, but, from age to age, adding to their number. But about the year B. C. 2114 a revolution occurred, which first of all severed the Assyrian from the Babylonish provinces, and by and by re-united them in an order the reverse of that which originally held good. Nineveh thenceforth became the capital, and the whole received the name of the Assyrian empire. Thus matters stood till about the year B. C. 841, when a family which had reigned through six-andthirty generations, became worn out. A Median soldier, by name Abaris, then seized the throne, and that intercourse began between the Assyrians and the chosen people which was destined ere long to operate powerfully in the furtherance of God's great purpose towards mankind. It was during the reign of this Abaris that Jonah the prophet visited Nineveh, and called its people to repentance. Pul, the son of Abaris, played, however, a more important part than his father, in the drama of Israel's fortunes; and having brought the reader down to the accession of that prince, I resume the thread of sacred history at the point where, a short time ago, we dropped it. B.C. 771. — Uzziah (or Azariah, for the names are indifferently used) had occupied the throne of Judah nine-and-thirty years, when Menahem, the son of Gadi, made himself master of that of Israel. It is recorded of him that "he did evil in the sight of the Lord," and that Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against him. We are not told how the quarrel between these princes originated; but Menahem found himself unable to resist the invasion. He was therefore glad to purchase the retreat of the Assyrians by the payment of a thousand talents of silver; and seems to have acted with much severity in collecting the money from his subjects. This, coming on the back of other tyrannical proceedings, so disgusted the nation that more than one attempt was made to get rid of him. Nevertheless, he kept his seat ten years, and left it, at his death, to his son, Pekahiah. But Pekahiah's tenure of office was very short. Before the second year expired, Pekah, the general of his troops, rose up against him; and, putting him to death, seized the crown, which he wore, amid many troubles, for twenty years. B. C. 757. Meanwhile, in Judah, the death of Uzziah transferred to Jotham the trappings of that kingly power, which, for the two preceding years, he had in reality wielded. No man could govern more wisely, or with greater moderation. He maintained in its integrity the worship of Jehovah. He rebuilt the temple, which had again fallen to decay; he strengthened the works by which Jerusalem was covered; he put down a rebellion of the Moabites and Ammonites; and made ready to encounter a storm which threatened from another quarter. For |