After this signal success, encouraged by the assurances of the prophet Azariah, Asa resolved to continue his religious reforms, and on his arrival at Jerusalem convoked an assembly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as of the strangers sojourning amongst them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and in the 3rd month of the 15th year of his reign, renewed with solemn sacrifices a national Covenant. With a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets, the assembly swore fealty to their God and king, and vowed to put to death all who proved unfaithful to Jehovah (2 Chr. xv. 1–15).
The peace which his kingdom now enjoyed was soon disturbed by the hostility of Baasha, who marched against Asa, and having recovered the territory which he had lost, fortified Ramah, about 6 miles north of Jerusalem,not only to annoy his enemy, and stop the tide of emigration from his own kingdom into that of Judah, but also to cut off Asa’s communications with the central portion of Israel. On this that monarch resolved to purchase the aid of the king of Syria, Benhadad I.[349], and persuade him to break off his alliance with his rival. Sending, therefore, all the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the Temple to the Syrian monarch, he succeeded in inducing him to fling an army into northern Palestine, which smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-Maachah, Cinneroth, and all the land of Naphtali. This forced Baasha to withdraw his forces, and retire to Tirzah; whereupon Asa summoned all Judah, and having destroyed the works at Ramah, used the stones and timber to fortify two towers, Geba and Mizpeh, as checks to any similar attempts in future. This is the first instance of a Hebrew king courting an alliance with a heathen power in a great crisis of the national fortunes, and it did not pass unnoticed by the prophetical order. Hanani the seer denounced such faithless leaning on an arm of flesh, and foretold that from henceforth he should have wars. The outspoken rebuke roused the anger of Asa. He flung the bold prophet into prison, and oppressed some of the people, who probably sympathised in his denunciations. In other respects he had ruled his kingdom with energy, loyalty, and piety, and after a severe attack of gout, died in the 41st year of his reign, and was committed to the tomb amidst general sorrow, bequeathing his throne to his son Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. xvi. 7–14), B.C. 914.
Meanwhile there had been great vicissitudes in the kingdom of Israel. After destroying the whole houseof Jeroboam, Baasha made the beautiful city of Tirzah[350] his capital, and in spite of the warnings of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani (1 K. xvi. 1–7), persisted in walking in the ways of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin. His reign of 24 years was chiefly distinguished by his persistent hostility to his rival Asa, which cost him, as we have seen, several cities in the northern part of his dominions, in consequence of Asa’s alliance with Benhadad. He was succeeded in the year B.C. 930 by his son Elah; who had barely reigned for the brief space of a year, when on the occasion of a riotous feast in the house of his steward at Tirzah, he was assassinated by Zimri, the captain of half his chariots, B.C. 929. The usurper signalized his accession by ruthlessly murdering every member of the family of Baasha, but had barely occupied the throne for seven days, when Omri, captain of the army then besieging Gibbethon, attacked him at Tirzah. Despairing of aid Zimri anticipated the wishes of his rival by firing the palace over his head, and perished in the flames.
But the claims of the usurper to his blood-stained throne were not universally acknowledged. Half the people sided with him, and half with another aspirant, Tibni the son of Ginath (1 K. xvi. 21). For 5 years the latter reigned as rival king, and the land was desolated with civil discord. At length the faction of Omri prevailed,and Tibni dying, he became sole king of Israel, and founder of its third dynasty. For 6 years he made Tirzah, though now in ruins, his capital, and then in spite of its proverbial beauty (Cant. vi. 4) determined to remove his residence elsewhere. About 6 miles north-west of Shechem was “an oval-shaped isolated hill, rising by successive terraces 600 feet above the surrounding plateau, and combining in union not elsewhere found in Palestine, strength, beauty, and fertility.” This hill Omri purchased of Shemer, its owner, for two talents of silver, and on its “long flat top” built a city, which instead of naming after himself, he called after the name of its owner Shomrôn, “the city of Shemer,” afterwards corrupted into the Chaldee Shemrin, and thence into the Greek Samaria[351]. In his new capital Omri reigned 6 years more. A vigorous and unscrupulous ruler, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord more than all his predecessors on the throne. He not only courted an alliance with Benhadad I. and surrendered to him some border towns (1 K. xx. 34), and admitted a resident Syrian embassy[352] into Samaria, but gave his son and successor Ahab in marriage to Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon (1 K. xvi. 31), thus introducing the worship of Baal as the recognised religion of his kingdom.
KINGDOMS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL.
PART II.
Period of mutual alliance, and hostility to Syria.
CHAPTER I.
REIGN OF AHAB. ERA OF ELIJAH.
1 Kings xvii.–xix. 2 Chr. xvii. B.C. 918–915.
THE first act of Jehoshaphat, who succeeded Asa on the throne of Judah, was to fortify and garrison the fenced cities in his dominions, as well as the towns in Ephraim, which his father had captured (2 Chr. xvii. 2). With much zeal for the national faith he next endeavoured to put down the high places and groves, and sent a commission of princes, priests, and Levites to traverse the various towns, and instruct the people out of the Book of the Law (2 Chr. xvii. 6–9). His pious zeal did not go unrewarded. The Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and gave him peace round about. Not only his own subjects, but even the Philistines and Arabians brought him tribute (2 Chr. xvii. 5, 11), which enabled him to build castles and store-cities in Judah, and maintain a large standing army (2 Chr. xvii. 12–19).
Meanwhile, very different scenes were enacted in the rival kingdom of Israel.