It seem!! to us (9 that the bihlical data do not warrant us in assuming the irlentity r,r the Pu! of 2 Kings xv. 19, 20, to whom Mennhem paid tribute, with Tiglath-pileser (of, 1 Chron. vi. 26); ancl that insupernble difficulties attend the lowering of the dates of the kings to the degree necessary to bring them into entire accord with the dates in the Assyrian canon. We believe it will be found that there is a break in the canon at B.c. 745, sufficient for the insertion of the reign of Pul, and that the Menahem of the monuments, who paid tribute to Tiglath-pifeser in B.C. 738, is not the Menahem of Scripture, but probably a second Menahem, a rival of Pekah's, whom Tiglath-pileser, after putting down the revolts of B.o. 743-748, attempted to set on the throne in his own interest. We have a Menahem of Samaria, clearly an Assyrian viceroy, as late as n.o. 702, in the reign of Sennacherib (Smith 'History of Assyria,' p. 113). (2) On the other hand, there are strong grounds for \clicving that the interregna common!,· assumed to have existed between the death of Jeroboam II. and the accession of Zachariah (eleven years), and again, between the murder of Pekah and the accession of Hoshea (eight or nine years), must be abandoned as untenable. Scripture does not recognize them, and, as shown by the monuments, Pekah and Rezin of Damascus (2 Kings xvi. 5; Isa. vii. 1) were certainly at war in B.c. 734. The numbers are probably to be harmonized by assuming that the regnal years of Uzziab and Jotham include, the former, eleven years of association with Amaziah, and the latter, eight or nine years of association with Uzziah (cf. 2 Chron. xxvi. 21). For an example of this mode of reckoning, see 2 Chron. xxi. 5 compared with 2 Kings viii. 16. This lowers the dates by nineteen years, and assuming a break of twenty-eight years in the canon at date of Pul (Rawlinson, 'Ancient History,' allows him twenty-five years), we bring the two chronologies from Ahab downwards into harmony. A formidable objection to the theory of a break in the canon is the mention, under date June, 763 B.c., of an eclipse of the sun, known to astronomy to have taken place at that date ; but it is noteworthy that a similar eclipse took place June, 791 B.c., that is, twenty-eight years earlier, which exactly satisfies the conditions of our hypothesis (see Pusey on Amos viii. 9). The seventeenth of Pekah, given in 1 Kings xvi. 1 as the year of the accession of Ahaz, must, on this theory, be corrected to the seventh, and this is the only change required in the biblical numbers. Accepting these dates, it will follow that Jeroboam II. died about B.c. 762 or 763, a little more than forty years before the fall of Samaria (B.c. 721). If, further, we assume eh. i.-iii. of this book to be based on real history, and to have been composed before the downfall of the house of Jehu, we must suppose the prophet to have commenced his ministry about the middle of Jeroboam's reign, and to have laboured for nearly sixty years. 2. The character of the times. They were evil exceedingly. The state was tottering to its downfall. Revolution succeeded revolution (eh. vii. 7). The land was filled with idolatry and with every species of wickedness (eh. iv. 1, 19). Priests and prophets, instead of reproving sin, openly encouraged it (eh. iv. 5-9). The result was a general dis,;olution of social ties ( eh. iv. 2). To internal miseries were added the horrors of foreign inva- sion (eh. v. 8-11). Yet in their distress the people sought not to God, but turned instead to Assyria and Egypt (eh. v. 13; vii. 11; viii. 9; x. 6; xii. 1). 'l'he nation, in s'hort, was reeling to its ruin, and remonstrance and warning had no longer ariy effect upon it. 'l'he blow fell in the capture of l:lamaria, followed by the captivity c/ the peo1)!e (eh. xiii. 16). III. Hrs .MISSION. "The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea." Hosea's task in Israel was: 1. To testify age.inst Israel for its sins; to hold up to the people a mirror which should show them to themselves. 2. To show them the root of their trans- gressions in apo2tasy from God. 3. To show them how God felt to them in their backslidings-how strong, pure, consistent, and unchanging was his affection towards them. 4. 'l'o warn them of the inevitable destruction they were bringing on themselves by sin. 6. To blend promise with threatening, and declare how grace would triumph even over Israel's unfaithfulness. Though she.ring in many of the calamities of the latter days of the nation, Hosea seems to have been removed before the final stroke foll. 'l'his was God's mercy to him; he was "taken away from the evil to come" (Isa. lvii. 1). IV. His BOOK:. Hosea's prophecy preserves to us the substance of his puhlic teaching. 'l'he materials wrought up in it belong to different perio<ls of his ministry. 38 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [on. 1.1-11,
Ch. i.-iii. belong to thE, reign of Jeroboam (eh. i. 4). They 11how no tracos of the :rnar?hy w~ich set i':1 after that monarch's death. Ch. iv.-vi. belong to tho suc- cecdmg pcnod, the reign of Mena.hem, and earlier years of Pcknh. Ch. vii. and viii. moy he a httlc later. They speak of a time of busy political intrigue, and of chastisomcnt by the Assyrians. We are disposed to refer them to the middle of the reign of Pekah when the Assyrians were frequently in Palestine (e.o. 743-738). 'l'he key-note of eh: ix., "Rejoice not," suggests a gleRm of returninp; prosperity. 'l'his answers to Pekah's later days when at war with Abaz (2 Chron. xxviii.), prior to the crushing of his power by Tiglath-pileser (1 Kings xv. 29). Ch. x. plainly takes us unto the times of Hoshea, while eh. xi.-xiii. refer to the very last days of the kingdom. The abrupt- ness, pathos, and quick emotional transitions which have been noted ea characteristic of the prophet's style appear in these clta.pters in an exceptional degr~e. Ch. xiv. is the fitting conclusion to the whole. Calm succeeds to storm. 'l'ho language is soft, gliding, peaceful, and laden with tenderness; the imagery is idyllic; glorious vistas open themselves into the future. Keil's division of the second part of the book into three sections, viz. c.h. iv.-vi. 3; eh. vi. 4--xi, 11; eh. xii.-xiv., each section rounded off by promise, is as good as any.--J. 0.