de'pots for commerce. With Egypt he carried on a great trade in
linen-yarn, and imported chariots for his own use and for his sub-
ject kings. His grandeur reached its climax when the Queen of
Sheba (probably El- Yemen} came from the distant south to see his
glory and to try his wisdom with hard questions, and confessed that
"the half had not been told her" (1 Kings ix. ; 2 Chron. ix.).
The faults which clouded his latter years are summed up in
Milton's allusion to the altars set up
" By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large,
Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell
To idols foul"
His 700 wives and 300 concubines, taken from all the surrounding
nations with whom God had expressly forbidden intermarriage,
seduced him to set up sanctuaries for their gods, chiefly on the
Mount of Olives, the southern summit of which was hence called
the Mount of Offense. The punishment of these sins was already
preparing in another train of evils arising from the costly and des-
potic rule which laid grievous burdens on his subjects, and from the
external weakness which began to visit his luxury and advancing
age. For the third time God spoke to him ; but now to tell him
* Ophir was probably in Arabia, either contiguous to Sabaea, or situated
on some point of the southern or eastern coasts of Arabia.
B.C. 1015-975. SOLOMON'S TALL AND DEATH. 173
that his kingdom was forfeited, though for David's sake the judg-
ment was postponed to his son's time, and one tribe should still be
left to him (1 Kings xi. 1-13).
Meanwhile adversaries began to show themselves ; and Egypt,
the crown of which had passed to the warlike dynasty of Sheshonk
or Shishak (the 22d Dynasty), became a focus of plots against Sol-
omon. First, HADAD, prince of Edom, who had escaped to Egypt
from the massacre of Joab, returned to his land, and began a har-
assing war with Israel. Next, REZON, who after David's defeat
of Hadadezer. the Syrian king of Zobah, had gathered a band of
outlaws, and maintained himself against the whole power of Solo-
mon, succeeded in founding the great rival kingdom of Damascus.
Above all, JEROBOAM, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zereda,
and "a mighty man of valor," was plainly designated by the proph-
et Ahijah as the future king of the ten tribes of Israel, which had
always shown a jealousy of Judah. The matter reached the ears
of Solomon, who sought the life of Jeroboam ; but the latter fled to
Egypt, and remained there with Shishak till the death of Solomon
(1 Kings xi. 14-40).
Amidst such beginnings of impending trouble, Solomon ap-
proached the end of his course. The history says nothing of his
repentance ; but we have, in the Book of Ecdesiastes, a review of
the whole experience of his life, based on the fear of God. It gives
the experience of a man who has tasted every form of pleasure,
and pronounces all to end in disappointment ; and from this rest-
less search after every new excitement, the royal preacher comes
back to this simple result that true life consists in the discharge
of duty from religious motives : " Fear God, and keep his com-
mandments ; for this is the whole [life] of man " (Eccles. xii. 13).
Solomon died at Jerusalem, in the 4Qth year of his reign, and
was buried in the royal sepulchre in the City of David. The his-
tory of his reign was written by the prophets Nathan and Ahijah,
by Iddo the seer in his " Visions against Jeroboam," and in the
"Book of the Acts of Solomon." The first three works probably
formed the basis of the narrative in the First Book of Kings ; while
the substance of the last is preserved in epitome in the Second Book
if Chronicles (1 Kings xi. 41-43 ; 2 Chron. ix. 29-31)
Sebusttyeh, the ancient Samaria, fi
Behind the city are the mountains of Ephraim, verging on the Plain of
Sharon. The Mediterranean Sea is in the farthest distance.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE KINGDOMS OF JUDAII AND ISRAEL TO THE REIGNS OF
JEHO8HAPHAT AND AHAB. B.C. 975-892.
VERT shortly after the death of Solomon, the prophecy of Ahijab
was fulfilled ; his kingdom was rent in twain, and the parts, both
greatly weakened hy the disruption, formed the separate kingdomr
of JUDAH and ISRAEL'. The northern kingdom included ten
;ribes, about two-thirds of the population, and, with the region east
of Jordan, more than the same proportion of the land, and that
much the best in quality. But the powerful tribe of Judah retain-
ed the capital, with the accumulated treasures of Solomon ; and all
the moral and religious elements of greatness were on the side of
the southern kingdom. From the first, the blot of rebellion clung
to the cause of Israel ; for the divine selection of Jeroboam to pun-
ish Solomon did not justify his revolt. He was indeed assured
B.C. 975-892. DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOMS. 175
that obedience to God's law would be rewarded by the permanence
of his kingdom ; but his very first acts cut off Israel from the wor-
ship of Jehovah. His example was followed by his successors, of
whom, with scarcely an exception, we read, " he did evil in the
sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, who made Is-
rael to sin." His religious revolt drove all the priests and Levites
to Jerusalem, where the tribe of Judali was preserved from defec-
tion expressly to maintain God's worship at its chosen seat. With
the line of David remained the promise of the kingdom, leading up
to the Messiah ; and in that line the crown was handed down, gen-
erally from father to son ; while Israel presents a succession of
murders and usurpations. In the whole period of 255 years, from
the disruption to the captivity of Israel, twelve kings of Judah oc-
cupy the same space as nineteen kings of Israel ; and the moral su-
periority of the former was still more conspicuous. The two king-
doms were equally distinguished in their final fate. The sentence
of captivity was executed upon Israel about 130 years sooner than
on Judah ; and, while the Ten Tribes never returned to their land,
and only a scattered remnant of them shared the restoration of Ju-
dah, the latter became once more a small but powerful nation, not
free from the faults of their fathers, but worshipping God with a
purity and serving Him with an heroic zeal unequalled since the
days of Joshua, and preparing for the restoration of the true spirit-
ual kingdom under the last great Son of David.
The part of the history thus reviewed, down to the Captivity at
Babylon, may be marked out into three great periods : I. From the
disruption to the simultaneous deaths of the kings of Judah and
Israel by the hand of Jehu, in B.C. 884 ; II. To the captivity of
Israel by Shalmaneser (or rather Sargon), in B.C. 721 ; III. The
remaining history of Judah, down to the Captivity of Babylon, in
B.C. 586. We return to the thread of the history from the death
of Solomon.
I. REHOBOAM ("Enlarrjeroftfie People" B.C. 975-958)' was the
only known son of Solomon, by Naamah, an Ammonite princess,
and was 41 years old at his accession. The old jealousy between
Judah and the other tribes broke out at once, when the tribes were
convened at Shechem to settle the new kingdom ; and JEROBOAM
was sent for out of Egypt by the malcontents. Their demand for
a redress of the grievances they had suffered under Solomon was
supported by the late king's old counsellors ; but Rehoboam, taking
counsel with the young men that had grown up with him, replied,
1 Both to aid the memory, and for the sake of distinction, the kii:<*8 are
numbered from the division of the monarchy, those of Judali with Human,
those of Israel with Arabic, numerals.
] 76 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XIIL
*' My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins; my fa-
ther chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpi-
ons." Then Ephraim and all Israel raised again the old cry of
Sheba, disclaiming all inheritance in David, " To your tents, O Is-
rael! Now see to thine own house, David." Adoram, the chief
officer of the tribune, being sent to appease the tumult, was stoned
to death ; Rehoboam only escaped by fleeing in his chariot to Jeru-
salem ; and Jeroboam was proclaimed king over all Israel at She >
chem (1 Kings xii. 1-20 ; 2 Chron. x.).
Besides Judah, Benjamin adhered to Rehoboam. This tribe had
long been subordinate to Judah, whose ascendency was confirmed
when David took Jerusalem, which lay within the bounds of Benja-
min, from the Jebusites. The united forces of these two tribes,
amounting to 180,000 men of war, were called out by Rehoboam to
quell the revolt. The prophet Shemaiah forbade this attempt to
oppose the will of God ; but a state of war lasted for sixty years.
Rehoboam fortified the chief cities of Judah and Benjamin, and
placed his sons in command of them. The kingdom also em-
braced the lots of Dan (in the south) and of Simeon (which had
been taken out of Judah), and even a part of Ephraim, besides
holding Edom as a subject state as far as the Red Sea. It was
strengthened by the priests and Levites whom Jeroboam drove away,
and by the pious Israelites who came to worship at Jerusalem ; but
Rehoboam was corrupted, like his father, by his numerous harem;
and both kitig and people fell into idolatry and vice (1 Kings xii.
21-24; 2 Chron. xi.)-
The punishment came at once, in their invasion and conquest,
by Shishak (Sheshonk I.), in the fifth year of Rehoboam (B.C. 972
-1). This Pharaoh spoiled the temple and the king's palace, and
made Judah a tributary kingdom, " that they may know the differ-
ence" said the Lord by Shemaiah "between my service and the
service of the kingdoms of the countries." 3 Such a state of vassal-
age left the subject kingdom great freedom so long as the tribute
was paid ; and we are not surprised at reading next that, after the
king humbled himself before God, "things went well in Judah;
and Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem," during the
twelve years left to him. He reigned seventeen years in all, and
was buried in the city of David (1 Kings xiv. 21-31 ; 2 Chron. xii.).
II. AuuAH, 3 the son of Rehoboam and Maachah, the daughter
s Respecting this conquest, and the mention of Yuda Melchi, " The Royal
City of Judah," in the great sculptures of Sheshonk at Karnak, which forms
one of the chief points of contact between Scripture History and the records
of the Egyptian monuments, see the " Smaller Ancient History," chap. xi.
3 The name signifies " will of Jehovah," or " he whose father is Jhovh ;'
\he form Abijam in " Kings " is probably erroneous.
B.C. 975-892. SCHISM OF JEROBOAM. 177
of Absalom, succeeded his father in the 18th year of Jeroboam, and
reigned three years (B.C. 958-95G). 4 He gained a great victory
over Israel at Zemaraim, in Mount Ephraim. "He walked in all
the sins of his father," and especially imitated his polygamy ; but
" for David's sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem,
to set up his son after him." How great a light and glory that son
was to Judah will presently appear ; meanwhile we return to the
northern kingdom (1 Kings xv. 1-8; 2 Chron. xiii.).
1. JEROBOAM I. (i. e., " whose jieople is many"), the son of Nebat,
raigneo over Israel twenty-two years (B.C. 975-954). He fortified
Shechem and Penuel, west and east of Jordan, but fixed his own
residence at the beautiful town of Tirzah. The ten tribes which
adhered to him are probably to be reckoned by taking Joseph
(Ephraim and Manasseh) as one, and excluding Levi and Judah.
The secession of Benjamin still left the number ten, by counting
Ephraim and Manasseh separately. Dan remained in the number,
in virtue of its possessions in the North. Simeon was actually in-
cluded in the kingdom of Judah; but the tribe seems to have sunk
into such insignificance as to be numbered among the ten only by
a sort of negative computation. Beyond the old limits of Pales-
tine, Moab was attached to Israel ; and Ammon would naturally
preserve its family alliance with Rehoboam, to whom, as we have
seen, Edom was also subject; but a common interest soon prompted
these tribes to union against both the kingdoms. As for the allies
and tributaries of Solomon in Phoenicia and Syria, though now cut
off from Judah, they are not at all likely to have submitted to the
King of Israel. We hear of no further connection with Phoenicia,
Ccele-Syria, and the Lebanon ; and we soon find the Syrian king-
dom of Damascus, whose rise we have already noticed, a most formi-
dable enemy of Israel.
It was Jeroboam's policy to make the separation of the kingdoms
irrevocable by a complete religious schism, and to give his people
places of worship without their going up to Jerusalem. Resorting
to the form of idolatry which he hnd witnessed in Egypt, and fol
lowing the example of Aaron, whose very words he used (comp. 1
Kings xii. 28 with Exod. xxxii. 4, 8).
4 The regnal years (in Eastern annal* generally) are usually given in such a
nnnner as to include incomplete years ; just as we commonly say that George
tlL, who came to the throne in October, 1700, and died in January, 1820,
reigned 60 years. Hence to compute the dates H.O. by adding reign to reign
will often mislead. Thus George IV. reigned 10 years and nearly a half;
eal! it 11, and add to 1820, and we get 1881 for the accession of William IV.
instead of June, 1830. In the Hebrew annals the correction is usually sup-
plied, as we are told in what year of each king of Israel each king of Judah
came to the throne, and vice vcrtta.
M
178 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XIII
"The rebel king
Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox."
He set up two golden calves, the symbols of the Heliopolitan deity
Mnevis, in the ancient sanctuaries of Dan and Bethel, at the north-
ern and southern extremities of his kingdom. At the latter the
king imitated the dedication of the temple, hut " in a month which
he had devised of his own heart ;" and he appointed priests " from
the lowest of the people," in place of the Levites.
In the very midst of the ceremony, a man of God, sent by the
word of Jehovah out of Judah, confronted Jeroboam at his altar,
on which he prophesied that a son of David, named Josiah, should
one day offer the bones of the idolatrous priests who sacrificed upon
it ; and he added a sign, that the altar should be rent and the ashes
on it poured out upon the ground. The enraged king called on
his guards to seize the prophet, 'and put out his own hand to lay
hold of him ; but the hand was withered and fell helpless, and an
earthquake rent the altar. On the prophet's prayer, entreated by
the king, his hand was restored, and he begged the man of God to
accept his hospitality and a reward ; which he refused, and depart-
ed by another way, as he had been commanded. How he yielded
to an aged brother prophet the consent he had refused the king,
how he was slain by a lion for his disobedience and buried by the
old prophet, who entreated that his bones might be laid beside him,
to preserve them from the fate denounced on the idol priests, is one
of the most beautiful episodes of Scripture familiar to our earliest
recollections. Another such is the sickness and death of the king's
son, Abijah, the only one of his house " in whom there was found
some good thing towards Jehovah, the God of Israel," and the fear-
ful prophecy of Ahijah, to whom the wife of Jeroboam resorted in
disguise, to pray for the child's life. The same prophet who had
designated Jeroboam to the kingdom, though now blind, at the first
sound of the queen's feet upon the threshold, addressed her by
name, and, recounting all the sins of Jeroboam, foretold the speedy
extinction of his race, and the coming captivity of Israel. Jwo-
boam died soon after his son (1 Kings xii. 25-33; xiii. ; xiv. 1-
20).
2. NADAB (B.C. 954-3), the remaining son of Jeroboam, succeed-
ed his father in the second year of Asa, king of Judah, and was mur-
dered in the next year, with all his father's house, by Baasha, his
captain of the host ; thus fulfilling the prophecy of Ahijah (1 Kings
xv. 25-31). With the extinction of the first dynasty, the crown of
Israel passed from the tribe of Ephraim to that of Issachar ; but the
second dynasty also lasted for only two generations.
B.C. 975-892. OMKI AND SAMARIA. 179
3. BAASHA, the son of Ahijah, became the third king of Israel in
the third year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned at Tirzah four-
and-twenty years (B.C. 953-930). His entire addiction to the sins
of Jeroboam brought upon his house the same fate as theirs, which
was denounced upon him by the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani.
His constant wars with Asa were inflamed by the continual deser-
tion of pious Israelites to Jerusalem. In the 13th year of his reign,
his attempt to prevent this, by fortifying Baniah on the frontier,
first brought Israel into conflict with the Syrian kingdom of Damas-
cus. Ben-hadad I. invaded Galilee at the call of Asa, and so drew
off Baasha from Ramah, the fortifications of which were demolished
by the Jews. Baasha returned to Tirzah, where he died and was
buried in the 26th year of Asa (1 Kings xv. 32-xvi. 7 ; and xv.
16-21).
4. His son ELAH reigned for only parts of two years (B.C. !)30-
929), and was killed at Tirzah, in a state of intoxication, with all
his house, by Zimri, a captain of his chariots ; and thus the second
dynasty of Israel became extinct (1 Kings xvi. 8-10).
5. ZIMRI enjoyed his usurpation only seven days. Being besieged
in Tirzah by Omri, and the whole army which he had commanded,
and which had proclaimed him king, Zimri burnt the palace over
his head. But another competitor, Tibni, wns only defeated and
killed after a civil war of four years (B.C. 92!)-925).
6. The twelve years of OMRI are to be dated from the death of
Elah (B.C. 929-918) ; his full recognition being placed in the 31st
year of Asa (B.C. 925). The civil war is included in the six years
which he spent at Tirzah ; and then he abandoned that residence,
and built the new and long-famous capital of SAMARIA (in Hebrew
Shomeron) (1 Kings xvi. 15-28). Here he founded a dynasty which
fasted for three generations and four kings, but which equally sur-
passed all that had gone before in wickedness, so that " the statutes
of Omri " became a by-word for a course opposed to the law of Jeho-
vah (Micah vi. 16). Of the particular events of Omri's reign, we are
only able to infer from a subsequent allusion that the Syrian king
of Damascus, Ben-hadad I., continued the war with Israel, and
forced his own terms on Omri, who consented to receive a resident
envoy in hin new capital of Samaria (1 Kings xx. 34). Israel wns
fast losing the power of an independent state ; but the kingdom was
still adorned with much wealth and luxury, when Omri left it to his
son AIIAK, in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, to whose
long reign we now return.
III. ASA, the third king of Judah, succeeded his father, Ahijah,
in the twentieth year of Jeroboam I., king of Israel, and reigned for
the long period of forty-one years (B.C. 956-916). His name, whick
180 SCRIPTURE HISTORY. CHAP. XIII
signifies curing or physician, was significant of his work. Himself a
worthy son of David, and having "his heart perfect with Jehovah
all his days," he reformed the religious and moral abuses of the three
preceding reigns. He destroyed the idols, and cut down and burnt
the Asherah, which his mother had set up, and strewed its ashes on
the brook Kidron. Still, however, the old hill-sanctuaries were re-
tained as places of worship. He repaired Shishak's plunder of tlte
temple by rich offerings of gold and silver, in addition to those dedi-
cated by his father, probably in the early part of his reign, but since
transferred to the heathen shrines. The commerce established by
Solomon with Arabia and the East, and with the silver-producing
regions of Western Europe, must have continued to flourish.
He used the ten years' peace, secured by his father's great victory
over Jeroboam, to fortify his cities anew and to raise a numerous
army (2 Chron. xiv. 1-8). 5 With this force he encountered and
routed " Zerah the Cushite" {Ethiopian), who had invaded Judah
at the head of half a million of men. The invader is thought to
have been a king of Egypt ; and, at all events, Asa seems to have
thrown off the tributary yoke imposed by Shishak on Rehoboam.
The joy of this victory was used by the prophet Azariah as the oc-
casion for summoning king and people to the great religious refor-
mation, which Asa accomplished in his 15th year (B.C. 942).
The attendance of worshippers from Ephraim, Manasseh, and
other tribes at this great convocation, led to the attack of Baasha
upon Ramah ; when Asa not only called in the heathen king of
Syria, but purchased his help with the treasures of the temple. His
want of faith was reproved by the seer Hanani, the father of that
Jehu who prophesied also both to Baasha and Jehoshaphat. Ha-
nani was imprisoned by Asa in his rage, and others of the people
were oppressed for the same cause. The king's conduct is to be
attributed partly to unbroken prosperity and partly to the irritation
of pain, for in his last years he suffered from the gout. Asa sank
under the disease in the forty-first year of his reign, having been
contemporary with all the first seven kings of Israel. His body
was laid in a bed of spices, in a sepulchre he had prepared for
himself in the City of David, and precious odors were burnt for him
in great abundance, as was the custom at the funerals of worthy
kings (1 Kings xv. 9-24 ; 2 Chron. xiv. 15).
IV. JEHOSHAPHAT, the fourth king of Judah, was the son of Asa
and Azubah. At the age of thirty-five he succeeded his father,
in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel, and reigned at Jerusalem
* The numbers 580,000, of whom 300,000 vere men of Jndah, and 280,000
Benjamite archers seem to be exaggerated, like others in this part of the
Hebrew text.
B.C. 975-832. KEIGN OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 181
twenty-five years (B.C. 916-892). He followed his father's piety,
and possessed an energy which makes him the most like David of all
the other kings of Judah. He raised the kingdom to the highest
point that it had reached since the disruption ; but his unhappy al-
liance with Ahab went far to neutralize all his excellences, and
brought ruin upon his successors. In the third year of his reign,
he gave a commission to his chief princes, in conjunction with cer-
tain Levites and priests, to teach the people and to read the book
of the Law in all the cities of Judah. His piety was rewarded with
prosperity. He had peace with all the surrounding nations. Even
the Philistines paid him tribute, and the Arabians brought the im-
mense flocks of rams and goats which David had described in the
72d Psalm. He continued to fortify and garrison the cities ; at
Jerusalem he had a band of captains, like those of David ; and un-
der their command was a greater army than had yet been raised.
His power had become too great for the king of Israel to hope for
success in a new war ; and the growing strength of the Syrian king-
dom of Damascus may have prompted the disastrous alliance which
was now formed between Jehoshaphat and Ahab, and which requires
us to look back to the history of Israel (1 Kings xxii. 41-46 ; 2
Chron. xvii.).
It will be convenient, however, to anticipate the sequel of Je-
hoshaphat's reign, further details of which have to be related in the
history of the house of Ahab. The lesson taught by his narrow es-
cape from the battle of llamoth-gilead, and enforced by the prophet
Jehu, caused him to address himself with renewed zeal to the work
of reformation. He went in person through his kingdom, from
Beer-sheba to Mount Ephraim, reclaiming the people to the God
of their fathers. He appointed judges in all the fortified cities,
and in Jerusalem he established a court of priests and Levites and
heads of houses, for the final decision of all ca^js relating to the
law of Jehovah. At the head of the latter he set the high-priest,
Amariah, for all religious causes, and Zebadiah, son of Ishmael, the
prince of Judah, for matters relating to the king. To both he gave
a charge worthy of his name, which signifies the "judgment of Je-
hovah " (2 Chron. xix.).
Meanwhile the disaster of Ramoth-gilead encouraged the old
enemies on the eastern frontier. The Moabites, the Ammonites,
with the people of Mount Seir, and the tribes of the neighboring
desert, threw off the yoke which they had borne since the time of
David. We rend of two campaigns, the first ngainst Jehoshaphat
by a league of all these tribes, and the second against Jchoram,