Though Jehu submitted to the Assyrians, the power and spirit of Hazael was not broken by his defeat or by the siege of Damascus. Shalmanesar speaks of a new campaign against the cities of Hazael in the year 839 B.C. He does not tell us that he has reduced Damascus, he merely remarks that Sidon, Tyre, and Byblus have paid tribute; and again, under the year 835 B.C. he merely notes in general terms that he has received the tribute of all the princes of the land of Chatti (Syria). Hazael remained powerful enough to take from Jehu, who, though a bloody and resolute murderer, was a bad ruler, all the territory on the east of the Jordan which Ahab and Joram had defended with such vigour.[462] Under Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu (815-798 B.C.), the power of Israel sank lower and lower. Hazael, and after him his son, Benhadad III., pressed heavily upon him. Jehoahaz was compelled to purchase peace by further concessions;[463] his whole fighting force was reduced to 10 chariots of war, 50 horsemen, and 10,000 foot-soldiers, while Ahab had led 200 chariots into the field.
The devastation caused by Damascus in Israel was terrible. The Books of Kings represent Elisha as saying to Hazael, "The fortresses of Israel thou shalt set on fire, their young men thou shalt slay with the sword, their children thou shalt cut in pieces, and rip up their women with child;"[464] and in the prophet Amos we are told that the Damascenes had thrashed Israel with sledges of iron. In the prophecies of Amos, Jehovah says: "Therefore I will send fire into the house of Hazael, to consume the palaces of Benhadad, and break the bars of Damascus, and destroy the inhabitants of the valley of idols."[465]
The Assyrians brought relief to the kingdom of Israel. In the Books of the Kings we are told, "Jehovah gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Aramaeans (Syrians), and they dwelt in their tents as yesterday and the day before."[466] It was Bin-nirar III., king of Asshur, who threatened Damascus and Syria. In the year 803 B.C. the canon of the Assyrians notices a campaign of this king against Syria, and in his inscriptions he mentions that he had conquered Mariah, king of Damascus (who must have been the successor of Benhadad III.), and laid heavy tribute upon him.[467] Though Israel (the house of Omri), as well as Sidon, the Philistines, and Edomites, had now to pay tribute to the conqueror of Damascus, yet in the last years of the reign of Jehoahaz the land was able to breathe again, and Joash, the grandson of Jehu (798-790 B.C.[468]), was able to retake from the enfeebled Damascus the cities which his father had lost,[469] and make the weight of his arms felt by the kingdom of Judah.
In Judah, as has been mentioned, Jehoram's widow, Athaliah, the mother of the murdered Ahaziah, had seized the throne (843 B.C.). She is the only female sovereign in the history of Israel. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab of Israel and Jezebel of Tyre; like her mother, she is said to have favoured the worship of Baal. As the prophets of Israel had prepared the ruin of the house of Omri in Israel, the high priest of the temple at Jerusalem, Jehoiadah, now undertook to overthrow the daughter of this house in Judah. Ahaziah's sister had saved a son of Ahaziah, Joash, while still an infant, from his grandmother (p. 255). He grew up in concealment in the temple at Jerusalem, and was now seven years old. This boy the priest determined to place upon the throne. He won the captains of the body-guard, showed them the young Joash in the temple, and imparted his plan for a revolt. On a Sabbath the body-guard and the Levites formed a circle in the court of the temple. Jehoiadah brought the boy out of the temple and placed the crown upon his head; he was anointed, and the soldiers proclaimed him king to the sound of trumpets. The people agreed. Athaliah hastened with the cry of treason into the temple. But at Jehoiadah's command she was seized by the body-guard, taken from the temple precincts, and slain in the royal palace. Then the boy was brought thither by the Levites and solemnly placed upon the throne. "And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was at rest," say the Books of Kings (837 B.C.).
The victory of the priesthood had the same result for Judah as the resistance of Elijah and the prophets against Ahab, and the overthrow of his house, had introduced in Israel, i. e. the suppression of the worship of Baal. The temple of Baal at Jerusalem was destroyed; the high priest of it, Mathan by name, was slain. Yet the number of the worshippers in Jerusalem must have been so considerable, and their courage so little broken, that it was thought necessary to protect the temple of Jehovah by setting a guard to prevent their attacks.[470] Jehoiadah continued to act as regent for the young king, and the prophecies of Joel, which have come down to us from this period,[471] prove that under this regency the worship of Jehovah became dominant, that the festivals and sacrifices were held regularly in the temple at Jerusalem, and that the ordinances of the priests were in full force. When Joash became ruler he carried on the restoration of the temple, which had fallen into decay, even more eagerly than the priesthood. His labours were interrupted. It was the time when Israel could not defend themselves against Damascus. Marching through Israel, Hazael invaded Judah, and besieged Jerusalem. Joash was compelled to ransom himself with all that his fathers, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, had consecrated to Jehovah, and what he himself had dedicated in the temple, and with the treasures of the royal palace.[472]
Like his father and his grandmother, Joash died by a violent death. Two of his servants murdered him (797 B.C.); but his son Amaziah kept the throne, and caused the murderers of his father to be executed. He commenced a war, for what reason we know not, with Israel, who was now fighting with success against Damascus. Joash of Israel defeated him at Bethshemesh; Amaziah was taken prisoner and his army dispersed. The king of Israel occupied Jerusalem, plundered the temple and the palace, and did not set the king of Judah free till the walls of Jerusalem were thrown down for a space of 400 cubits from the gate of Ephraim, i. e. the western gate of the outer city to the corner gate, at the north-west corner of Jerusalem, and the Judæans had given hostages to keep the peace for the future. Against the Edomites Amaziah contended with more success. He defeated them in the Valley of Salt; 10,000 Edomites are said to have been left on the field on that day. The result of the victory was the renewal of the dependence of Edom on Judah, though not as yet throughout the whole extent of the land. Amaziah also fell before a conspiracy. It was in vain that he escaped from the conspirators from Jerusalem to Lachish; they followed him and slew him there. But the people placed his son Uzziah (Azariah), though only 16 years old, on the throne of Judah (792 B.C.).[473]
FOOTNOTES:
[427] 1 Kings xi. 26 ff place the rebellion of Jeroboam in the time when Solomon built Millo (p. 186), and give him asylum with Shishak, king of Egypt. Solomon built Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, and the fortifications (p. 186) when the building of the palace was finished (1 Kings ix. 10, 15, 24). The building of the palace was completed in 970 B.C. (p. 186); hence the building of Millo must have begun about this time. It can hardly have lasted more than 10 years. Jeroboam's rebellion, therefore, and Shishak's accession are not to be placed after, but a little before, 960 B.C. Lepsius puts Shishak's accession at 961 B.C.
[428] 1 Kings xii. 22; xiv. 30.
[429] O. Blau in "Zeitschr. D. M. G." 10, 233 ff, and below. The shield which Champollion read Judaha Malek is read Jehud by Blau, who refers it to Jehud, a place of the Southern Danites. Even the occurrence of names of towns belonging to the kingdom of Ephraim would not exclude the possibility that Shishak's campaign was undertaken in favour of Jeroboam. Jeroboam acknowledged the supremacy of Egypt in the meaning of the Pharaoh when he called on Egypt for help, and therefore, after the manner of Egyptian monuments of victory and inscriptions, his cities could be denoted as subject to Egypt. Hence Makethu, as Brugsch reads (Gesch. Ægyptens, s. 661), may be Megiddo or Makedu in the north of Judah; in the first case the explanation given holds good. Jerusalem is not found among the names which can be read and interpreted.