6

Elisha fell dangerously ill. The young king came to visit him, and feeling how soon he was to lose his wise and patriotic counsellor, he wept bitterly, exclaiming, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!' Elisha bade Joash take his bow to the open window and shoot an arrow eastward into the air. He himself guided the hands of the king, and exclaimed, An arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and an arrow of deliverance from Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Apħek, till thou hast consumed them.' Then he bade the king take the arrows and strike the ground with them. Joash struck the ground three times; then the prophet said to him angrily, Thou shouldst have struck five or six times, then hadst thou smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.'

Elisha died soon afterwards, and he was buried by his loving disciples, probably in the outskirts of Samaria, and was mourned by all Israel. His memory remained dear to the people, and was faithfully handed down from generation to generation. A wonderful power of healing and restoring was attributed even to his sepulchre; for about a year after his death, when some Israelites, engaged in burying one of their kinsmen, were suddenly surprised by a band of Moabites, and in the haste and alarm of the moment cast the body into the grave of the prophet, the man as soon as he touched the bones of Elisha, revived and stood upon his feet.' Elisha was indeed looked upon as the good and healing prophet, as the gentle and benevolent messenger of God. If it be remembered how he sweetened the bitter waters and multiplied the widow's cruse of oil, recompensed the Shunamite and restored her child to life, fed the starving prophets and assisted them in all their wants; how diligently he watched over Israel's welfare, and extended his benefits also to the heathens;

it is easy to understand why the king called him the chariot and horsemen of Israel,' and why his death was felt as an irreparable misfortune.

Elisha's predictions with respect to the Syrians were realised. Joash recovered the eastern cities which his father had lost, and defeated the Syrians in three battles. Provoked to warfare by Amaziah, king of Judah, Joash next turned his arms against the southern kingdom. He was again successful, gaining at Beth-shemesh a complete victory over Amaziah, who fell into his hands. He then marched on Jerusalem, broke down the walls of the city, and entered in triumph. He impiously plundered the Temple of all its gold and silver vessels, seized the treasures of the king's palace, and returned to Samaria with a large number of hostages.

He died in his own city, and was succeeded by his son.

126. JEROBOAM II. (825-784).

[2 KINGS XIV. 23-29; AMOS, HOSEA.]

Although Jeroboam obstinately preserved the idolatrous worship of his predecessor, he proved a great and remarkable ruler. He restored his kingdom to much of its former proportions, for he reconquered all the land from the northern district of Hamath southward to the Dead Sea, and took Damascus, the flourishing capital of the Syrians. The Moabites, who had been plundering the kingdom during the preceding reigns, were kept in subjection, and compelled to pay their tribute of flocks and herds.

It was during the reign of the second Jeroboam that the prophet Jonah lived, who is in our minds so intimately associated with the history of Nineveh. At the same time wrote the prophet Amos, the herdsman of Tekoah, who gives us a vivid picture of that age of cor

ruption of the cruel and selfish oppression of the kings, of the reckless iniquity of the priests, of the wanton lawlessness and the vices of the people. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; they pant after the dust of the earth on the head. of the poor, and pervert the cause of the lowly; and a man and his father will go in to the same house, to profane My name. And they lay themselves down upon pledged clothes by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the House of their God.' Then the prophet announced the terrible retribution that awaited the people for so much wickedness. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, Bring and let us drink. The Lord God swears by His holiness that, behold, the days shall come upon you, that you will be taken away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks. And you shall go out at the ruins, every one his own way; and you shall cast yourselves into the mountain, says the Lord.' And rising to greater distinctness, and menacing the king himself, he exclaimed: Thus He showed me; and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in His hands. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel, I will no longer pass it over, 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.' The boldness of these and similar speeches drew upon Amos the persecution of the king and his officers. Amaziah especially, a priest in Beth-el, sent word to the king: Amos has conspired

against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.' Amos was ordered at once to leave the kingdom of Israel and to go to Judah. But he answered, 'I am no prophet, nor am I a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit; and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Israel. Now, therefore, hear thou the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and speak not against the house of Isaac. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Thy wife shall be dishonoured in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line, and thou shalt die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into captivity out of this land.'

No less stern were the warnings and rebukes of the prophet Hosea, who raised his voice about the same period; however different from Amos in style and manner, he closely resembles him in describing the degeneracy of the time, and in predicting terrible misfortunes. 'Hear ye the word of the Lord,' he exclaimed, 'ye children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land-swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery—they break out in violence, and blood follows upon blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone in it shall perish.'

But Jeroboam did not see the fearful day of retribution foretold by the prophets. He died in peace in the year 784.

127. INTERREGNUM; ZACHARIAH; SHALLUM; MENAHEM; PEKAHIAH (784-759).

[2 KINGS XV. 8-26.]

Jeroboam's death was the signal for general confusion and anarchy. As the prophet Hosea said, 'they had sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.' For ten years this Interregnum distracted the land (784-774), when at last Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, was placed on the throne. He was also an idolater, and was, with the approval of the people, murdered by Shallum, the son of Jabesh, after a short reign of six months; and thus ended the dynasty of the house of Jehu.

Shallum, who was proclaimed king, reigned but one month, and was slain in his turn by Menahem, the son of Gadi, who came up from Tirzah, and seized the throne of Israel, which he occupied for ten years (773-763).

Menahem was barbarously cruel, and wreaked fearful vengeance upon the cities that would not at once acknowledge his sovereignty. He maintained the worship of the golden calves in Beth-el and Dan. But Pul, the great Assyrian conqueror, invaded his kingdom; Menahem, anxious solely for his own safety, secured a truce and the invader's support against his Hebrew subjects by paying the enormous tribute of 1,000 talents of silver, which he obtained by imposing upon each person of the wealthier class an impost of fifty shekels. Then Pul left the land.

Menahem was succeeded by his son Pekahiah (763— 759). After a short and evil reign, during which the whole kingdom seems to have been convulsed by crime and bloodshed, Pekahiah was slain in his own palace by Pekah, the son of Remaliah, one of the captains of his army, who attacked him at the head of a band of fifty conspirators from Gilead, and who succeeded him on the throne.