Jehoash behaved well during his minority, and so long after as he remained under the influence of the high-priest. Excepting that the high-places were still resorted to for incense and sacrifice, pure religion was restored, large contributions were made for the repair of the Temple, which was accordingly restored, and the country seems to have been free from foreign invasion and domestic disturbance. But when this venerable adviser died the king seems to have felt himself reliev- ed from a yoke, and, to manifest his freedom, began to
take the contrary course to that which he had followed while under pupilage. Gradually the persons who had possessed influence formerly, when the house of David was contaminated by its alliance with the house of Ahab, insinuated themselves into his councils, and ere long the worship of Jehovah and the observances of the law were neglected, and the land was defiled with idol- atries and idolatrous usages. The prophets then uttered their warnings, but were not heard ; and the infatuated king had the atrocious ingratitude to put to death Zechariah, the son and successor of his benefactor Je- hoiada. For these deeds Jehoash was made an example of the divine judgments. He saw his realm devastated _
by the Syrians under Hazael; his armies were cut in pieces by an enemy of inferior numbers; and he was even besieged in Jerusalem, and only preserved his cap- ital and crown by giving np the treasures of the Tem- ple. Besides this, a painfid malady embittered all his latter days, and at length he became so odious that his own servants conspired against him, and slew him on his bed. They are said to have done this to avenge the blood of Zechariah, who at his death had cried, " The Lord look upon it and require it ;" and it is hence probable that public opinion ascribed all the calamities of his life and reign to that infamous deed. See Zech- auiah. Jehoash was buried in the city of David, but a place in the sepulchre of the kings was denied to his remains (2 Kings xi; xii; 2 Chron. xxiv). He is one of the three kings" (Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah) omit- ted by Matthew in the genealogy of Christ (ilatt. i, 8).
With regard to the different accounts of the Syrian invasion given in 2 Kings and in 2 Chron., which have led some (as Thenius and many other commentators) to imagine two distinct Syrian invasions, and others to see a direct contradiction, or at least a strange incom- pleteness in the narratives, as Winer, the difficulty ex- ists solely in the minds of the critics. See Syria. The , narrative given above, which is also that of Keil and E. Bertheau (^Exeg. handb. z. A . T.) as well as of Josephus (Ant. ix, 8, 4), perfectly suits the two accounts, which are merely different abridgments of the one fuller ac- count contained in the original chronicles of the king- dom.—Kitto ; Smith. See Judaii, Kingdom of.
2. The son and successor of Jehoahaz, king of Israel; reigned thirteenth over the separate kingdom sixteen (nominal) years, B.C. 838-823, and for about one year contemporaneously with his namesake of Judah (2 Kings xiv, 1 ; comp. with xii, 1, xiii, 10). When he succeed- ed to the crown the kingdom was in a deplorable state from the devastations oi' Hazael and Benhadad, kings of Syria, of whose power at this time we had also evi- dence in the preceding article. Jehoash, it is true, fol- lowed the example of his predecessors in the policy of keeping up the worship of the golden calves ; but, apart from this, he bears a fair character, and had intervals, at least, of sincere piety and true devotion to the C'od of his fathers (comp. Josephus, Ant. ix, 8, G). Indeed, custom and long habit had so established the views of political expediency on which the schismatical estab- lishments at Dan and Bethel were founded, that at length the reprehension which regularly recurs in the record of each king's reign seems rather to apply to it as a mark of the continuance of a public crime than as indicative of the character or disposition of the reigning prince, which is to be sought in the more detailed ac- counts of his own conduct. These accounts are favora- ble with respect to Jehoash. He held the prophet Eli- sha in high honor, looking up to him as a father. When he heard of his last ilhiess he repaired to the bedside of the dj'ing prophet, wept over his face, and addressed him as " the chariot of Israel and the horsemen there- of." The prophet promised him deliverance from the Syrian yoke in Aphek, the scene of Ahab's great victory over a former Benhadad (1 Kings xx. 2G-30). He then bid him smite upon the ground, and the king smote thrice and then stayed. The prophet rebuked him for staying, and hmited to three his victories over Syria.
JEIIOHANAN
(99
JEHOIACHIN
These promises were accomplished after the prophet's death. God took compassion upon the extreme misery of Israel, and, in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, interposed to save them from entire destruction. In three signal and successive victories Jehoash overcame the Syrians, and retook from them the towns which Hazael had rent from Is- rael. These advantages rendered the kingdom of Israel more potent than that of Judah. Jehoash, however, sought no quarrel with that kingdom, but he neverthe- less became involved in a war with Amaziah, king of Judah. The grounds of this war are given fidly in 2 Chron. xxv. Sec Axiaziah. The hiring of 100,000 men of Israel for 100 talents of silver by Amaziah is the only instance on record of such a transaction, and im- plies that at that time the kingdom of Israel was free from all fear of the Syrians. These mercenary soldiers, having been dismissed by Amaziah, at the instigation of a prophet, without being allowed to take part in the Edomitish expedition, returned in great wrath to their own coimtry, and sacked and plundered the cities of Judah in revenge for the slight put upon tliem, and also to indemnify themselves for the loss of their share of the plunder. It was to avenge this injury that Amazi- ah, on his return from his triumph over the Edomites, declared war agdnst Jehoash, in spite of the warning of the prophet ; but Jehoash, when he received the de- fiance from Amaziah, answered with becoming spirit in a parable (q. v.), which by its images calls to mind that of Jotham ; the cool disdain of the answer must have been, and in fact was, exceedingly galling to Amaziah : " The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to w-ife ; and there came by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trod down the thistle." This was admira- ble; nor was the application less so: "Thou hast in- deed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up : glory of this, and tarry at home; for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee." In the war, or, rather, ac- tion which followed, Jehoash was victorious. Having defeated Amaziah at Bcth-shemesh, in Judah, he ad- vanced to Jerusalem, broke down the wall to the extent of 400 cubits, and carried away the treasures both of the Temple and the palace, together with hostages for the future good behavior of the crestfallen Amaziah. Je- hoash himself did not long survive this victory ; he died in peace, and was buried in Samaria (2 Kings xiv, 1-17). — Kitto ; Smith. See Israel, kixgdo.m of.