ii. Manasseh and Amon. (a) Manasseh reigns and undoes all that Hezekiah had done. xxi. I-10. (b) The doom of the land is sealed because of his sin. xxi. 11-18. (c) Amon follows in his father's steps. xxi. 19—22. (d) He is slain by a conspiracy of his servants. xxi. 23-26. Manasseh's repentance avails for himself, but not for the nation he has led so far astray. Yet 'God looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which is right and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man.' (Job xxxiii. 27-29.) But again of the perverse 'He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others; because they turned back from Him, and would not consider any of His ways.' (Job xxxiv. 25-27.) iii. Josiah. (a) Josiah succeeding repairs the temple. xxii. 1—7. (6) Finding of the book of the Law and the effect thereof. xxii. 8-11. (c) Huldah the prophetess consulted. Her answer. xxii. 12—20. (d) Josiah destroys idolatry out of the land and defiles the altar at Beth-el. xxiii. 1-20. (e) Keeps a solemn passover, and banishes superstitious rites. xxiii. 21-28. He is wounded at Megiddo and dies. xxiii. 29, 30. 'The remembrance of Josiah is like the composition of the perfume that is made by the art of the apothecary: it is sweet as honey in all mouths and as music at a banquet of wine.' (Eccles. xlix. 1.) iv. The falling away. 'The Lord could not pardon. (a) Jehoahaz succeeds and is made prisoner by the Egyptians. xxxiii. 31-33. (6) Jehoiakim set up by the Egyptians. xxiii. 34-37. (c) He submits to Nebuchadnezzar, but soon revolts and is punished. xxiv. 1—7. (d) Jehoiachin's brief reign. The beginning of the Captivity. xxiv. 8-16. (e) Zedekiah reigns and rebels against Babylon. xxiv. 17—20. (g) Burning of the city and deportation of spoil and captives. (2) Gedaliah the governor of the residue being slain by Ishmael the people flee to Egypt. xxv. 22—26. (2) Kindly treatment of Jehoiachin by Evil-merodach. 27-30. XXV. And so was brought to pass what Jeremiah had foretold, and enforced by an example constantly present before those to whom the prophet's message was all in vain (Jer. vii. 12—16) 'Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh...and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now because ye have done all these works...therefore will I do unto this house which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers as I have done to Shiloh...Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee.' iv. HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE BOOK OF KINGS. With the exception of two reigns, this book embraces the whole regal period of Israelite history. The reign of Saul, the first king, had been almost an utter failure, that of David in many points was a signal success. The work of the compiler of Kings commences at David's deathbed, but he opens his history without introduction, clearly designing it to be a continuation of the books of Samuel. Solomon was anointed and enthroned before the death of his father because of an attempt, that was made by another brother, to seize the succession for himself, in defiance of a promise (1 Kings i. 13) which David had given to Bathsheba that Solomon should reign after him. The new king had not been long crowned before he received the dying charge of his father, and when the fierce measures against certain individuals, which David counselled, had been carried into effect, Solomon became, as his name implies (1 Chron. xxii. 9) a man of peace. In strong contrast to the warlike times of David, is the recital of Hadad's apparently unopposed return to the throne of Edom, and of the establishment of Rezon as king in Damascus (1 Kings xi.). Yet though he engaged but little in war, Solomon introduced in many ways a new and splendid era for his people. In literature and science he was instructed beyond the most learned men of the time; in commerce he established relations not only with Tyre, and the Hittite and Syrian kingdoms close at hand, but with Arabia, Egypt and perhaps with India through his fleet on the Red Sea, while ships of his were also sailing along with those of Phoenicia to the various countries on the Mediterranean. In art he called to his aid the best architectural skill which Tyre and Sidon could supply, while the internal organization of the land was made in its character as complete as possible to supply the magnificence and luxury of a court the fame of which drew the queen of distant Sheba to Jerusalem, where she found the reality to overpass every report that had been made to her concerning it. Hence we need not be surprised that among his wives Solomon numbered, beside the daughter of Pharaoh, princesses from all the nations round about; nor is it to be wondered at, when they beheld the lavish expenditure which had been bestowed on the temple, that they asked and obtained from the king that some, if not with equal, magnificence should be exhibited in honour of the divinities of the lands from whence they had come. Solomon was rich and manifestly fond of state. So there arose outside the city on the hill, afterwards known in consequence as the Mount of Offence, temples to Ashtoreth, whose worship his Zidonian artizans may have made well known to Israel, as well as to those other gods whom the writer of Kings terms 'the abominations' of Moab and of Ammon. To meet the outlay needed for his buildings, and for the costly service of his court Solomon made heavy exactions from his people both in money and in forced labour. Hence his reign though glorious had been burdensome. Yet for David's son, a monarch of such wide extended fame, burdens were for a long time patiently endured, but when Solomon's son succeeded his father a cry went up from the whole land 'Make our heavy burdens lighter.' Rehoboam was headstrong and, following foolish advice, spake not of relaxation but of greater severity, and in consequence of his words ten out of the twelve tribes fell away from David's house, and made them a king of their own. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the man whom they set up, was one who had been employed by Solomon to superintend the taskwork of his forced labourers. He seems to have sympathised with the murmurs which that service evoked and in some way or other to have sided with those who desired to be delivered from it. He also was encouraged by one of the prophets (1 Kings xi. 31) to take part with those who were the adversaries of Solomon. Hence before Solomon's death Jeroboam had been forced to flee into Egypt, but he appears to have returned about the time of that event, and to have been welcomed and accepted by the revolting tribes as their fittest leader. A separate kingdom was established with its capital at Shechem, and the new king, that his people might not be won over to Rehoboam by going up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple, instituted two shrines in his own dominions, where he set up golden calves and persuaded the people to accept them as symbols of the Jehovah who had brought them out of Egypt. For this he is constantly branded by the writer of Kings as 'the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin.' Rehoboam failed to win back his revolted subjects, but Jeroboam's action, in fortifying Penuel on the other side of the Jordan, seems to shew that he did not feel altogether secure on his throne, and would prepare for himself a stronghold in the mountainous region of Gilead. The reign of Rehoboam was in other respects not prosperous. The king of Egypt, Shishak, invaded the land (1 Kings xiv. 25), and plundered the temple of much of its wealth, while Jeroboam with the forces of the northern kingdom harassed Judah exceedingly (1 Kings xiv. 30). These attacks were successfully repelled by Abijam (2 Chron. xiii. 19), Rehoboam's son, while Asa his grandson so strengthened his army as to be able to resist not only the northern power but also an invasion of the Ethiopians, who appear to have meditated an invasion of Judah similar to that of Shishak in the previous generation (2 Chron. xiv. 12). Meanwhile in Israel Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, had turned his arms against the Philistines (1 Kings xv. 27), but in the course of the war was slain by one of his own people, Baasha; who also made himself king, and did to death all that belonged to Jeroboam. This fate had been proclaimed beforehand by the mouth of the same prophet (Ahijah) who had encouraged the founder of the new kingdom in his first revolt against Solomon. Kings in Israel succeeded one another with great rapidity, the throne being nearly always reached, as in Baasha's case, through the blood of a predecessor. In the reign of Omri, the sixth king, however, the power and influence of the ten tribes increased, and so great a mark did this sovereign make in the affairs of the neighbouring nations that in the Assyrian records the kingdom of Israel is continually spoken of as 'the house of Omri.' Omri built him a new capital, which he named Samaria, a name which ultimately came to be applied to the whole kingdom. From the Moabite stone we learn about the conflicts between him and his neighbour Mesha, the king of Moab, and the victory seems for a while to have been on the side of Israel, though the conquests of Omri and his son Ahab were all retaken by Moab in the days of Ahaziah, Ahab's son and successor. We find, too, that Omri was not always victorious against the Syrians, as after one defeat (1 Kings xx. 34) the Syrian monarch made streets for himself in the new-built city of Samaria. The son of Omri seems to have gone beyond his father in his desire to adorn the land with magnificent buildings. He was the Solomon of the northern kingdom, both in his architectural tastes and in his connexion with Phoenicia. He had for wife a daughter of the king of Zidon; hence he could attract to his country workmen of the greatest skill of that period, and |