palzira), was the throne-name which he bore in Assyria, as monarch of that country, and Pul (Pulu) was the throne-name which he bore in Babylonia, as king of Babylon. The double nomenclature was not readily understood by foreigners; and it may be doubted whether the compilers of either Kings or Chronicles were aware of the fact that it was the same monarch who bore the two appellations. We are indebted for the identification to a cuneiform document.2 It was probably soon after Tiglath-Pileser had acquired the sovereignty (B.C. 745), that he made his first expedition into Syria, to advance his interests there, and especially to punish the audacity of Menahem. Apparently, he led his expedition in person. Now for the first time did the well-armed and highly disciplined troops of Assyria, inured to warfare, tread the soil of the Holy Land, and threaten the northern portion of it with subjugation. Isaiah's prophecy received a first fulfilment:—“ Jehovah shall lift up to the nations an ensign from far, and shall hiss unto them from the end of the earth and behold they shall come with speed swiftly: none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind: their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it" (Isa. v. 26-29). It was felt that resistance was hopeless—that in submission lay the only chance of escape from entire destruction. Accordingly, Menahem sent an embassy, and made request that the Great King would be pleased to accept his submission, and to confirm the authority which he had ventured to assume under peculiar circumstances, but which he would henceforth be content to hold as an Assyrian feudatory (2 Kings xv. 19; Hos. v. 13). The request was granted. Menahem was allowed to purge his past misconduct by the payment of a thousand talents of silver (nearly a quarter of a million of our money), and the promise—as appears from the Assyrian Inscriptions 3-of a further annual tribute. He I See I Chron. v. 26. 2 See P. 75. Transactions of the Society of Bibl. Archæology" for 1884, 3" Eponym Canon," p. 120, 1. 29. was then left in peace, the Assyrian monarch withdrawing into his own country (2 Kings xv. 20). Shortly afterwards Menahem died-apparently, a natural death—and was buried in Samaria, leaving his crown to his son, Pekahiah, the last Israelite monarch who could boast that he was not a usurper. CHAPTER XXV. PEKAHIAH AND PEKAH. Accession of Pekahiah-His murder by Pekah-Pekah's ability-He crushes his domestic foes-Designs a confederacy to resist AssyriaJoins with Rezin in an attack on Ahaz-Called in by Ahaz, TiglathPileser conquers Damascus, and brings the reign of Pekah to an end -Pekah murdered by Hoshea. PEKAHIAH held the throne for no longer a space than two years (2 Kings xv. 23; comp. ver. 27). Nothing is recorded of him except that he maintained the calf-worship, like his predecessors, doing "that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, by not departing from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" (ibid. ver. 24), and that he was barbarously murdered by one of his captains-Pekah, the son of Remaliah. The scene of his slaughter was the royal palace in Samaria, where he was attacked by Pekah at the head of a band of fifty Gileadite desperadoes, who slew him in his harem, with the two attendants who alone were faithful to him, Argob and Arieh. Pekahiah probably deserved his fate. At any rate, he was unfit for his position, which required a man of vigour and energy. Pekah was far more suited for the situation; and, if Israel had been so circumstanced as to make her preservation as a kingdom possible, it might have been expected that Pekah would have accomplished the task. He was, as Ewald says,' I 66 so far as warlike prowess combined with skill in diplomacy could qualify any one, the one man of the day best fitted to ward off for a little while longer the ruin of the decaying kingdom." Internal History of Israel," vol. iv. p. 157. 66 troubles are what every usurper must expect to encounter. Pekah met and crushed those which gathered around him in the earlier years of his reign with a determination and a force that at once terrified his domestic foes, and secured him the respect of his foreign neighbours. He is thought to be the shepherd" described by a prophet, as "eating the flesh of the fat and tearing their hoofs in pieces, with the sword ever upon his arm and upon his right eye," who slays, instead of gently chastising, the people. Certainly, he seems to have succeeded, very soon after his accession, in so far securing tranquility and obedience at home, that he was able to turn all his attention to the dangers which threatened him from abroad, and to devise means whereby he hoped to bid defiance to the impending perils, and to preserve to his country a continuance of independ ence. The expedition of Pul, or Tiglath-Pileser, into Samaria in the reign of Menahem, and the success which had attended it, far from contenting that ambitious prince, had only whetted his appetite for more. It must have been tolerably early in the reign of Pekah that he a second time took the field, and marched into Palestine, with the determination to conquer at least a part of the Samaritan kingdom. His attack fell especially upon the north, where he took " Ijon, and Abel-beth-Maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead (perhaps Gaulanitis), and Galilee—all the land of Naphtali—and carried them captive to Assyria” (2 Kings xv. 29)—thus commencing the "Captivity" which had been so long and often threatened. A foreign population was probably settled in the tract conquered, to take the place of the deported Israelites, and the whole of it was formally added to the territories of Assyria, Assyrian governors being placed over it.3 It was then that Pekah took alarm. He saw that, unless a powerful confederation could be formed in the Palestinian region, Assyria would to a certainty, little by little, absorb the entire country, enslave or deport its people, put down its kings, and extend its own hated sway from Nineveh to the borders of Egypt. He therefore set himself to work to induce the principal Palestinian states to join together and form a confederacy, or league, whereby the Assyrian arms I See Zech. xi. 16, and Ewald. l. s. c. 2 Hos. ix. 3, xi. 5; Amos v. 27, vi. 7, vii. 17 ; &c. might be resisted, and the subjugation of the country prevented, or at any rate deferred. According to the ordinary ideas which govern human policy, it was a wise and prudent thought. A century earlier the advance of Assyria had been checked by the league between Damascus, Phoenicia, and Hamath. Why might it not be again checked, or even rolled back, by a union of Damascus, Samaria, and Judah? Pekah would no doubt have created a more effectual barrier, could he have reformed his people, turned them from their idolatries, and so restored them to the Divine favour and the Divine protection; but perhaps corruption had progressed too far for this to be possible. Acting according to his lights, he did perhaps what was best under the circumstances. He entered into close alliance with Rezin, king of Damascus (2 Kings xv. 37, xvi. 5; Isa. vii. 1), who was even more exposed to the attacks of the Assyrians than himself; and the two agreed to fall upon Judah conjointly, and either force it to join the league under its existing king, who appears to have been Ahaz, or dethrone him, and set up in his stead a creature of their own, who would be ready to do their bidding. The individual selected was a certain Ben-Tabeal, who is thought to have been a Syrian.' Pekah and Rezin, after failing to take Jerusalem, seem to have fallen upon Ahaz separately (2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 6), both of them gaining victories, and carrying off large bodies of captives 2 (ibid. vers. 5, 8). Hereupon, Ahaz, greatly alarmed, sent an embassy to Nineveh, with rich gifts in gold and silver, offering to become an Assyrian feudatory (ibid. vers. 7, 8), and beseeching TiglathPileser to come to his aid, and “save him out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who were risen up against him." To this call it was impossible for the Assyrian monarch to turn a deaf ear, so deeply was he interested in frustrating Pekah's schemes, and preventing the formation of the triple confederacy designed by him. He therefore at once took the field, and marching against Damascus, as the nearest of the hostile powers, engaged in a war with Rezin, which seems to have lasted for some years and of which he gives the following account :-3 Ewald, "History of Israel," vol. iv. p. 158. 2 2 The Israelite captives were, however, allowed to return to their homes (2 Chron, xxviii. 15). 3 See "Eponym Canon," p. 121, lines 1-15. |