fand; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, hat his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in is hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of ilver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria urned back, and stayed not there in the land.* During the ten years he reigned in Samaria, he did hat which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and departed not all his days from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.† Menahem slept with his fathers; and was succeeded by his son,‡ PEKAHIAH. THIS monarch reigned only two years, during which, A. C. like his father, he did evil in the sight of Jehovah: he 771. departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. After which, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arich, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites; and he killed him, and reigned in his room.§ A. C. 761. PEKAH. THIS usurper having formed an unnatural alliance with Rezin, king of Syria, they marched against in those times, the father's name, Pul, was added, making Sardanpul; and this Pul is supposed to be the same that reigned in Nineveh when Jonah preached the terrors of the Lord to that city. 2 Kings, xv. 19, 20. + 2 Kings, xv. 17, 18. Judah,* and came up to Jerusalem to war, and bes Ahaz, but could not overcome him.† For God had; Isaiah to Ahaz, and by a most remarkable prophecy, raged him to resist and, finally, to defeat their attemp that time; and which was most probably to cut off the w house of David.§ The next year, however, the two monarchs returned u " attack, and made a great slaughter in Judah; and ca away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand wo sons, and daughters, who were, however, liberated on affecting appeal of the prophet Oded.|| Abaz having applied for assistance to Tiglath Piler the king of Assyria, that monarch invaded the territons Pekah, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachab, and Ja and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.** Pekah reigned twenty years, during which he also did: which was evil in the sight of Jehovah he departed from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made is to sin.†† And at the expiration of that period, Hoshes," son of Elah, made a conspiracy against Pekah, the s Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in: stead.++ Is. vii. viii. ix. See pp. 175-178. ¶ Or Arbaces, king of Assyria, who held his court at Ni Prid. 1–22. He is supposed to have been the successor of Sa apalus. He is called Thegamus and Ninus Junior. Beless Baladin, (Is. xxxix. 1.) united with him in a conspiracy ag Sardanapalus-Arbaces fixing the seat of his empire at Nine and which was destroyed during his reign; whilst Belesis settle Babylon. Dr. Wall in loco. ** 2 Kings, xv. 29. 1 Chron. v. 26. ++ 2 Kings, xv. 27, 28. 613 Pe . C. 39. HOSHEA. * SHALMANESER, king of Assyria, having invaded Israel, Hoshea became tributary to him, and gave him presents. When Hezekiah, king of Judah, circulated earnest and fervent appeal to the inhabitants of Israel, as ell as to those of his own dominions, to return to the worship Jehovah, many of the former went up to Jerusalem, and does not appear that any impediment was offered to their ing so;§ which forbearance may account for the remark of the cred writer, that although Hoshea did that which was evil in e sight of Jehovah, it was not as the kings of Israel that were 'fore him. On their return home the Israelites brake the ages in pieces, and cut down the groves, and threw down the gb places, and the altars in Ephraim and Manasseh, until ey had utterly destroyed them all.¶ Hoshea having imprudently omitted to pay his tribute to almaneser, and entered into an alliance with So,** king of rypt, the Assyrian monarch marched against him, and ing him prisoner, besieged Samaria, and took it†† after ree years, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed * Or Enemessar, Tobit, i. 2. Or Shalmon, Hosea, x. 14. He was son of Tiglath Pileser. Isaiah calls him the "rod of God's ger," (ch. x. 5.) + 2 Kings, xvii. 3. § 2 Chron. xxx. 1. 5, 6. 11. + See p. 185. || 2 Kings, xvii. 2. 2 Chron. xxxi. 1. That is, such of the remnants of idolatry as d been left by Tiglath Pileser, or Shalmaneser, for the former d taken away the golden calf which Jeroboam bad set up in Dan, d the latter that in Beth-el. Seder Olam Rabba. Prid. i. 36. 2 Kings, xvii. 4. Or Sabacon, the Ethiopian, who having Bevaded Egypt, and killed Boccaris, the king of that country, he igned over the same in his stead by the name of So. Prid. i. 40. tt Hos. x. 4. 8. Micah, i. 6. them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes.* The sacred writers do not inform us how Hoshea end his days, and we may therefore suppose he died in captivity but they conclude the sad and mournful history of the ap tacy of the Israelites, by a declaration of the cause of all the misfortunes, as though to justify the ways of God, and every mouth be stopped before his awful majesty, and s solemn warning to all the nations and rulers of the earth "Because they obeyed not the voice of Jehovah, their Go but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses, the serva of Jehovah, commanded, and would not hear them ne them."+ Whatever remnant of the Israelites had been left by Sha maneser, were about fifteen years afterwards taken aw by Esarhaddon,+ his grandson, who planted the cities Israel with colonies from his own dominions, viz.: Babyk Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim,§ instead of *2 Kings, xvii. 4-6. xviii. 9-11. "This deportation of N ten tribes was A. M. 3993, the year before the Christian æra. being two hundred and fifty-four years after the dismal rent m of that kingdom in Rehoboam's time, which was in 3739. It is of the strangest things that have been in any history, sacred or see lar, that there is no plainer account what became of this people, afte they were carried away into Media.”—Dr. Wall in loco. See not p. 621. + 2 Kings, xviii. 12. and much more at length, 2 Kings, xvii. 7–8 See p. 266. Ezra, iv. 2—10. There called the most noble Asnapper. § In Ezra, v. 6. some of the companions of Tatnai and Shetharboznai are called the Apharsachites; but who they were or why s called, our commentators do not tell us. R. Watson, in his Biblica and Theological Dictionary (sub voce) expressly says they were the people sent by the kings of Assyria, to inhabit Samaria in the roo of the Israelites; but Joachim Langius, in his invaluable Clavis ། children of Israel. And so it was at the beginning of their thewelling there, that they feared not Jehovah; therefore Jehovah sent lions among them, which slew some of them. "Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land; therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared Jehovah, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrifice for them in the house of the high places. They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. Unto this day they do after the former manners; they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment 廚 Halle, 1720, calls them merely presides, or lieutenants. And that there were such or similar officers under the command of Tatnai, seems very probable, from Ezra, vi. 6. See p. 313. See A. Clarke on the names of these idols, at the end of 2 Kings, xvii. |