The King of Assyria, here named Pul, came against the land, evidently with hostile intent; but Menahem, by the payment of a huge tribute, bought him off, and secured bis sanction to bis occupancy of the throne. (On the identific:ition of Pu!, see the Exposition.) Israel now c,1me under a foreign yoke, and "sorrowed," as Hosea says, " for the burden of the King of princes" (Hos. viii. 10). Sin, which is an effort after emancipation from the Law and authority of God, ends in the sinner being reduced to miserable bondage (Luke xv. 15, 16; John viii. 34). 4. Bis oppression of the peopl~. 'l'o raise the money for Pul, Menabem was under the necessity of exacting large sums from the men of wealth in the land. From each, we are told, he took fifty shekels of silver. Much of this money had been wrung from the poor, and now it was taken from the rich. In the end, it was probably upon the poor that the burden would come back. Thus the land groaned under tyranny, foreign oppression, robbery, and grinding of class by class. The end was not quite yet, but it was fast approaching. We need not doubt that Menabem•~ oppressive reign was hateful to the people. He escaped, how• ever, the penalty of his misdeeds in his own person, and "slept with his fathers." H was his son Pekahiah who reaped the harvest he had sown. III. THE REIGN OF PEKA.H. Pekabiah's reign of two years, like that of Shallum, m:i.y be passed over. A stronger hand was needed to hold together the warring elem~nts in this distracted kingdom, and such a hand was that of Pekah, the son of Remaliah. 1. Overthrow of the house of Menahem. Menahem had succeeded in handing down the throne to his son, but the latter could not keep it. The bold and ambitious Pekah, «me of Pekahiah's captains, having secured the co-operation of fifty Gileadites, smote the king in his pa.lace, and his attendants with him. Thus another violent revolution took place in Israel. It is stated that Peko.h kept the throne for twenty years, but there is great difficulty at this point in adjusting the chronology. It seems impossible, on the side of Judah, to shorten the reign of Abaz, having regard to his own age, and that of bis son Hezekio.b, at their respective accessions. To bring the Jewish and Assyrian chronologies into accord, we must apparently either (1) shorten the reign of Pekah by about teu years, and bring down the reign of Ahaz to a date considerably below that usually given, which involves also the abandonment of the biblical date for the commencement of the reign of Hezekiah (eh. xviii. 1), and of the synchronisms of this period generally; or (2) suppose some break or hiatus of twenty years or so in the Assyrian lists at the epoch of the accession of Tiglath-pileser, i.e. the commence- ment of the new Assyrian empire. This view has its difficulties, but is not impossible. Pekah's reign was as evil as that of his predecessors. 2. Invasions of Tiglath-pileser. During this reign began those invasions of the Assyrians, and deportations of the 1iopulation, which culminated in the fall of Samaria. and carrying captive of the whole people, some years later. This expedition, of which mention is made in the Assyrian inscriptions, took place towards the end of Pekah's period of rule, and was a sequel to the events related in eh. xvi. 5-9. Peka.h, in alliance with Rezin of Damascus, had made a plot to depose Abaz of Judah, and to set a creature of his own upon the throne (Isa. vii. 1-6). To this proposed atto.ck we owe Isaio.h's magnificent prophecy of the Child Immanuel. 3. Pelcah's death. 'fhis intriguing monarch also, as he had climbed to the throne by asso.ssination, fell a victim to assassination. He was slain by Rosbea, the son of Elah, who succeeded him as the last King of lsrael.-J. 0.
Vera. 32-38.-.A good reign. In welcome contrast with the character of the reigns we have been considering, stands this of Jotham, who walked in the footsteps of his father in all that was right. I. JUDAH WELL GOVERNED. 1. Rule in the fear of God. Jotham proved an excel- lent ruler. lie took warning from his father's example, and "prepared his ways before the Lord his God" (2 Chron. xxvii. 6). His reign, indeed, was a brief one compared with his father's, and, had time been given, he might have backsliddeu as h:id his predecessors. But, so far as it went, his conduct was blameless, except that the high places were still unremoved. 1f we assume that Jotham's years of rule are reckoned from the time when he took his father's place in the public administration. he cannot have reigned alone for more than five or six years. 2. Religion honoured, It is told of him, negatively, that he did not, liko his father, enter into the temple of the Lord (2 Chron. uvii. 2), and positively, that " he built the higher gate of the 812 THE SECO),D BOOK OF THE KINGS. [cu. XVI. 1-20,
house of the Lord." \Vhereas a wicked ruler like .A.thaliah \Jroke do;wn Iha temple, thi& good king set himself to adorn and strengthen it. In this he showed a laudable 11eal for God's honour. 3. The kingdom strnngthened. Jotham strengthened the kingdom of Judah in many other ways-by juRt administration, by extensive works of building, by subjugation of enemies, etc. (2 Chroa. xx:vii. 3-6). If the annals of this reign, "written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah," could be recovered, they would show Jotham to be one of the best kings Judah ever had-a. worthy son of a very able father. Such rulers are a blessing to a country. Their loss is to be deplorer., for there is no guar-antee that their successors will be like them. From Jotham to .A.haz the descent is great. II. JUDAH THREATENED. 1. A discorda.nt note. It is said in Chronicles that, not- withstanding Jotham's enlightened and righteous government," the people did yet cor- ruptly " (2 Chron. xxvii. 2). It is not easy to purge out evil leaven when once it has got into a community; and the worship of the high places gave opportunity for evil practices to develop themselves away from the centre, which was more under the king's eye. The pictures Isaiah now begins to draw for us show that the corruption was not slight. 2. Threatened invasion. 'l'o this inward c01Tuption of the people may be attributed the chastisements which God now saw fit to send on Judah. In Jotham's reign they bnt begin, but in the reign of .A.haz they develop to considerable proportions. In the text we are simply told," In those days the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the King of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah." These two kings, as we shall subsequ~utly see, had designs upon the throne of Judah. Chastisement is the more deserved when great privileges a.re given and fa.ii to be improved.-J. 0,