coul'8ll. "Why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, thnt thou shouldest fll.)[, even thou, and Judah with thee?" It perhaps was not to be expected thnt Amaziah should take advice so unpalatable, so tauntingly conveyed, so wounding to his pride and royal honour. But the result showed that Joash had not overstated his case. Amaziah meddled truly to bis hurt, and he fell, even be, and Judah with him. It is the fatality of a fooli~h mind that it is impregnable to considerations which would show it its folly. III. THE CRUSHING DEFEAT. Ama.ziah, as was to be expected, would not hear. No obstinate man does. He went on his foolish, headstrong wa.y, a.nd brought down upon himself an avalanche of trouble. 1. Tiu army was defeated. He and Joash met in battle, and his army was utterly routed. It is chamcteristic that the fight took place at Beth-shemesh, in the territory of Judah. This shows that Jol\sh was the first to move when he saw that war was inevitable. While Amaziah was dallyin~ and muster- ing his men, Joash was already on the march, and took the offensive. For victory of any kind, much depends on promptitude, alertness, and activity on the part of the assailant. 2. The king was taken prisoner. Joash "took Amaziah." How long the king remained a captive is not said. He was probably delivered up after "hostages " had been given. But the humiliation was great and bitter. 'The people of Judah never forgot or forgave it. 3. Jerusalem was captured and plundered. 'l'he royal city shared the fate of its king. It had no alternative but to open its gates to the CC'n- queror. Joash did not spare it. To mark the completeness of his conquest he, (1) brake down four hundred cubits of the city wall on the side towards Ephraim; (2) plundered the house of the Lord and the palace of the king of their treasures. The treasuries had been emptied in the preceding reign for Hazael (eh. xii. 18); now a second time their contents are taken away. Miserable people, and miserable king I No wonder burning indignation existed against Amaziah, who had led the kingdom into this trouble. We may eee some parallel to it in the feelings of the French towards their emperor after the Franco-Prussian War. The lesson had been taught in the preceding reign, but Amaziah had not profited by his father's misfortunes ; and, having followed his footsteps in sin, was now reaping the consequences in even severer chas- tisement.-J. 0. Vers. 15-22.-l'hanges in tu,o thrones. The next events recorded are the acces- sion of Jeroboam IL after the death of Joash, in Israel; and the conspiracy against Amazie.h fifteen years later and the accession of .Azariah, in Judah. L THE .ACCESSION OF J EBOBOAM. More is not told us, than we have already heard, of the" might" of Joash. Jeroboam, who succeeded him, proved the able son of an able father. But the stock of Jehu was godless as ever. The new king also, as we are to see, "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and kept up the " sin " of his namesake, J ero- boam I., in the worship of the calves. Great natural ability is often associated with godlessness of heart. II. THE ACCESSION OF .AzARIAH. 1. .Azariah made king. The notice of the con- spiracy against Amaziah precedes in the narrative the notice of Azariah's accession; but there is some reason from the chronology to think that the son was made king along with his father shortly after Amaziah's disastrous defeat. (1) It is Btated in eh. xv. 8 that the son of Jeroboam II., Zachariah, began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, and as there is no sign in the narrative of the interregnum of eleven years which chronologers usually introduce, it would follow that Azariab really begP.n to reiga about eleven years before his father's death. (2) This is in itself not unlikely when we remember the odium which must have fallen on Amaziah after his defeat and captivity, and the capture of Jerusalem. The proof he bad given of incapacity for g01'ernment would make it desirable, to secure the popularity of tho throne, that hie son should be associated with him in the kingdom. (3) 'l'hero are indications in the narrative which point in this direction, e.g. the age of Amaziab, oaly sixteen years; the statement that Amaziah "lived" fifteen years after the death of Joash, where we might have expected the word "reigned; " lastly, the statement that Amaziah "built Elatb, and restored it to Judah, after that the kiag slept with his fathers." 2. .Amaziah'B ignominiouB end. In any case, it seems certain that Amaziah'e popularity never revived after the unhappy encounter with Joash. Fifteen years rolled on, and et length, from cauijes to us unknowD, a plot was formed against him in Jerusalem. on. xv. 1-38.) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 295
He fled to Le.chi_eh, !mt was pureue_d and killed. The slain king was brought back on horses, and buned Ill Jerusalem m the royal sepulchre. Thus the sun of another descendant of David, who had forsaken the God of his fathers, went down in blood and shame.-J. 0,