Читать книгу History of the Jews (Vol. 1-6) - Graetz Heinrich - Страница 16

Table of Contents

Condition of Judah​—​The Earthquake and the Famine​—​Uzziah's Rule​—​Overthrow of Neighbouring Powers​—​Fortification of Jerusalem​—​Navigation of the Red Sea​—​Jeroboam's Prosperity​—​The Sons of the Prophets​—​Amos​—​Prophetic Eloquence​—​Joel's Prophecies​—​Hosea foretells Ultimate Peace​—​Denunciation of Uzziah​—​Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem​—​Last Years of Uzziah​—​Contest between the King and the High Priest​—​Uzziah usurps the Priestly Functions​—​Uzziah's Illness.

805–758 B. C. E.

After the violent death of Amaziah, the kingdom of Judah or house of Jacob had become so excessively weakened, partly through internal dissensions and partly through foreign warfare, that it was a by-word among the nations. A contemporary prophet called it "the crumbling house of David," and oftentimes repeated, "Who will raise Jacob, seeing that he is so small?" And yet from out of this weakness and abasement Judah once more rose to such power that it inspired the neighbouring peoples with fear. First the internal dissensions had to be set at rest. The entire nation of Judah rose up against the nobles that had committed regicide a second time and created confusion. The young prince Azariah, or Uzziah, was made king. This king—who was only seventeen years old, and who, like his contemporary, King Jeroboam, enjoyed a long reign—possessed energy, determination and caution, which enabled him to restore the crumbling house of David. His first care was to transport the corpse of his father from Lachish, where it had been buried, to Jerusalem, where it was interred with the remains of the other kings of the house of David. Whether Uzziah punished the murderers of his father cannot be ascertained. He then proceeded to heal the wounds of his country, but the task was a difficult one, for he not only had to contend with enemies within the state itself and among the neighbouring nations, but also against untoward circumstances. The very forces of nature seemed to have conspired against the land, which was devastated by a succession of calamities calculated to reduce the staunchest heart to despair and apathy. In the first place, an earthquake occurred in Uzziah's time, which terrified the inhabitants of Palestine, who were unused to such occurrences. The people took to flight, shrieking with terror, expecting every moment to be engulfed in an abyss beneath the quivering earth. The phenomena accompanying the earthquake increased their terror. The sun was hidden by a sudden, thick fog, which wrapped everything in darkness, and the lightning flashes which, from time to time, illuminated it, added to the prevailing terror. The moon and stars appeared to have lost their light. The sea, stirred up in its depths, roared and thundered, and its deafening sound was heard far off. The terrors of the earthquake were intensified when the people recalled the fact that a prophet, belonging to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, had predicted the event two years before. The fulfilment of this awful prophecy filled all hearts with consternation; the end of the world seemed at hand.

Hardly had this terror subsided when a fresh misfortune broke upon them. The periodical falls of rain failed, no dew quickened the fields, a prolonged drought parched all vegetation, the springs dried up, a scorching sun transformed the meadows and pasture lands into a desert, man and cattle thirsted for refreshment and food, whilst wild beasts wandered panting about in the forest thickets. Inhabitants of cities in which the water-supply was exhausted set out for the nearest place, hoping to find a supply there, but were unable to satisfy their thirst. The drought, affecting extended areas of land, reached also the lava districts of Hauran in north-eastern Palestine, which are not unfrequently infested with swarms of locusts. In search of nourishment, these locusts now flew across the Jordan to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and devoured all that had not been withered by the dry rot. In heavy swarms which obscured the sun, they flew onward, and suddenly the vines, fig and pomegranate trees, the palms and the apple-trees were laid bare. These devastations by the locusts continued throughout several years.

In the land of Judah, which had been brought to the verge of destruction by the reverses of war, the consternation was deep. It seemed as though God had deserted His heritage, people, country and Temple, and had given them over to degradation and ruin. Public mourning and pilgrimages were instituted in order to avert the evil. The prophet Joel, the son of Pethuel, exhorted the people publicly in these days of trouble, and was largely instrumental in raising their sinking courage. His stirring exhortations could not help leaving a deep impression. Their effect was especially felt when the destruction caused by the drought and the locusts ceased. Once more field and garden began to burst into blossom, the brooks and cisterns were filled, and scarcity was at an end. The young king immediately availed himself of this auspicious change, in order to chastise the enemies of Judah. He first turned his arms against the Idumæans, who had laid his land waste. He defeated them, possibly because they were no longer aided by the Egyptians, and reduced Edom to subjection. The town of Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea, he re-annexed to Judah, and the maritime trade with Arabia and Ophir (India) could thus be renewed. The Maonites or Minites, who occupied a small territory in Idumæa, around the city of Maon (Maan), were subjugated by Uzziah, and compelled to pay tribute. He punished the Philistines for their hostile attitude towards Judæa during his minority, when they had delivered over the Judæan refugees and emigrants to the Idumæans. He conquered the towns of Gath, Ashdod, Jabneh, which lay nearest to the land of Judah, and razed their walls. In other portions of Philistia, which he annexed to his own territory, he erected fortified cities.

He especially devoted himself to the task of fortifying Jerusalem, which, owing to the destruction of 400 yards of the northern wall at the time of the war between his father and Jehoash of Israel, could offer no resistance to an invading enemy. Uzziah, therefore, had the northern wall rebuilt, and undoubtedly rendered it safer than before against attacks. He must have established friendly relations with Jeroboam II., or he would not have been able to commence the fortifications without risking a war. Uzziah had three towers built, each 150 yards in height, at the corner gate in the north, at the gate leading to the valley of Hinnom in the south, and at the gate Hananel; on the gates and on the parapets of the walls were placed machines (Hishbonoth), by means of which heavy stones could be hurled to great distances. Uzziah, in general, displayed great energy in making warlike preparations, the warriors being provided with shields, armour and spears. He also employed cavalry and war-chariots, like those brought from Egypt in Solomon's time.

Uzziah appears, in all respects, to have taken Solomon's kingdom as his model. The navigation of the Red Sea, from the harbour of Ailat, which Solomon had obtained from the Idumæans, was again resumed, and great vessels (ships of Tarshish) were fitted out for the purpose. Altogether, Uzziah attained a position of predominance over the neighbouring nations.

The kingdom of the Ten Tribes, at the same time, became possessed of great power under Jeroboam II., who was as warlike as Uzziah. In the latter part of his long reign he was engaged in continual warfare with the Syrians. He conquered the capital, Damascus, and pressed victoriously to the city of Hamath, which also fell before him. The nationalities which inhabited the district from Lebanon to the Euphrates, and which till then had paid allegiance to the kingdom of Damascus, became tributary to the king of Israel in consequence of these victories. Jeroboam had no longer any rival in his vicinity to contest the supreme power with him. The Phœnicians had become considerably weakened through dissensions between the city of Tyre and the descendants of King Ethbaal. During Jeroboam's government a civil war appears to have broken out in Tyre, in consequence of which the whole of Phœnicia lost the influential position which it had been occupying for a considerable time. The rich booty of war, and, perhaps, the renewed impulse to trade, brought wealth to the entire country of Samaria. Not only the king, but even the nobles and the wealthy classes, lived in luxury surpassing that of Solomon's time. King Jeroboam possessed a winter and a summer palace. Houses of broad-stone, adorned with ivory and furnished with ivory seats, became very common. In contemplating the increase of power in the two kingdoms, one might have been tempted to believe that the times of Solomon were not yet over, and that no change had occurred, except that two kings were ruling instead of one—that no breach had ever taken place, or that the wounds once inflicted had been healed. Jeroboam and Uzziah appear to have lived on terms of perfect peace with one another. Israelites were permitted to make pilgrimages to Beersheba. No doubt some of them also visited the Temple in Jerusalem. But it was only the last glimmer of a politically happy period. The corruption which prosperity helped to develop in the kingdom of Judah, and still more conspicuously in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, soon put an end to these happy days, and hastened the decadence of both states.

In the latter, the bull-worship was not only continued in Bethel and Dan, but even assumed greater proportions, when additional images of the bull were erected in Samaria and in Gilgal. Jeroboam appears to have elevated Bethel to the rank of a capital. Here the chief sanctuary was established. A sort of high priest, named Amaziah, ministered there, and appears to have been very jealous of his office. Unlike the Aaronites in Judah, he enjoyed a rich prebend in the possession of fields around Bethel. Either this perverted form of worship was not yet low enough to satisfy the cravings of its devotees, or the voluptuousness consequent upon the accession of wealth may have demanded new departures; at all events, the hideous worship of Baal and the immoral cult of Astarte were again introduced. It is extraordinary that this idolatry, which had been extirpated with so much energy by Jehu, was again promoted, and received fresh encouragement under his grandson. The idolatry thus newly re-introduced brought in its train every species of wickedness and corruption. In order to gratify the senses, all thoughts were bent on acquiring riches. The wealthy made usury their business, and pursued their debtors with such severity as to make slaves of their impoverished debtors or their children. Usurious trade in corn was especially prevalent. In years of famine the rich opened their granaries, and sold the necessaries of life on credit, not always without employing false weights and measures; and when the poor were unable to return what had been lent to them, they heartlessly took their clothes or even their persons in pledge. When these unfortunates uttered their complaint against such injustice in the national assemblies they found no ear to listen; for the judges were either themselves among the evil-doers, or had been bribed and made deaf to the voice of justice. The treasures thus extorted were wasted by their owners in daily revelry. The contemporary prophet Amos pictures in gloomy colours the debauched life of the rich and noble Israelites residing in the capitals in Jeroboam's time.20 The wives of the nobles followed the bad examples of their husbands, and urged them to be hard-hearted to the poor, demanding of them, "Bring, bring, and let us drink."

The people itself could not, however, be so much influenced by the moral depravity of the nobles as to allow it to obtain full sway. Morality, justice and pure worship of God still had followers, who protested more and more strongly against the vices practised by the great, and who, though in humble positions, knew how to obtain a hearing. Although almost a century had passed since the prophet Elijah, with flowing hair, declaimed against the sins of Ahab and Jezebel, the prophetic societies which he had founded still existed, and acted according to his spirit and with his energy. The young, who are generally readier to receive ideal impressions, felt a disgust at the increasing moral ruin which came on them, and assembled round the prophetic disciples in Bethel, Gilgal and Jericho. The generation which Elisha had reared and taught adopted the external symbols of prophecy, pursuing the same abstentious mode of life, and wearing long-flowing hair; but they did not stop at such outward signs, but raised their voices against the religious errors, against luxury and immorality. Sons became the moral judges of their fathers. Youths gave up drinking wine, whilst the men revelled in the drinking places. The youthful troop of prophets took the place of the warning voice of conscience. In the presence of king and nobles, they preached in the public assemblies against the worship of Baal, against immorality and the heartlessness of the great. Did their numbers shield them from persecution, or were there amongst the ranks of the prophets sons of the great, against whom it was impossible to proceed with severity? Or was King Jeroboam more patient than the accursed Jezebel, who had slaughtered the prophets' disciples by hundreds? Or did he disregard and ignore their words? In any case, it is noteworthy that the zealous youths remained unharmed. The revellers merely compelled them to drink wine and forbade them to preach; they derided the moral reformers who exposed their wrongdoings, but they did not persecute them.

One of the prophets in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes made use of this freedom of speech; he was the first of a succession of prophets who combined great and poetic thought with evenly flowing rhythm of diction, and made kings and grandees as well as the people wince under their incisive words of truth. It was Amos of Tekoa. Amos did not belong to the prophetic guild, he was no prophetic disciple, and probably neither wore a garment of haircloth, like Elijah, nor let his hair grow long, but was a simple herdsman and planter of sycamores. Whilst tending his herds, the prophetic spirit came mightily upon him, and he could not refrain from appearing in public. "God spake to him, and in him, how should he not prophesy?" The prophetic spirit urged him to repair to Bethel, and there, in the temporary capital of King Jeroboam II., he declaimed against the perversions and vices of the nobles, and opened their eyes to the consequences of their evil deeds. That a countryman, clad in shepherd's garb, dared speak publicly, could not help creating sensation in Bethel. A high degree of culture must have prevailed in those days in Samaria, when a shepherd was able to speak in beautiful, rhythmic utterances, and was understood, or at least expected to be understood, by the people. The speeches of Amos and those of his successors combine the eloquence and comprehensibility of prose with the metre and the rhythm of poetry. Metaphors and imagery lend additional solemnity to their diction. It is therefore difficult to decide whether these utterances should be classed as prose or as poetry. In place of a more suitable description, they may be designated as beautifully formed poetic eloquence. The orations of Amos, however, did not fail to betray his station. He used similes taken from his shepherd life. They showed that, while tending his flocks, he often listened to the roaring of the lion, and studied the stars in his night-watches. But these peculiarities only lent a special charm to his speeches. Amos came to Bethel before the earthquake occurred, and he predicted the event in words of prophetic foresight. The earthquake thereupon followed, with all its accompanying terrors, and carried desolation everywhere. The subsequent plagues of drought, sterility, and locusts afflicted the kingdom of the Ten Tribes equally with the kingdom of Judah. Amos, and with him all right-minded people, expected that these visitations would effect a reform, putting an end to the hideous excesses of the wealthy and their cruel oppression and persecution of the poor. But no improvement took place, and Amos inveighed against the impenitent sinners in the severest terms. He reproved the men who ridiculed his prophetic utterances. He denounced those who, relying on their power or their piety or their nobility of descent, felt themselves unassailable. (Amos v. 4–15, vi. 1–8.)

Against such daring speeches, directed even against the royal house, the high priest of Bethel, Amaziah, felt it his duty to take measures. Either from indifference or out of respect for the prophet, King Jeroboam seems hitherto to have allowed him unlimited sway; but even now, when Amaziah called his attention to the prophet's dangerous upbraidings, he appears to have remained unmoved. At all events, the prophet was not interfered with, except that the high priest, probably in the king's name, said to him, "Go thou, haste to Judah; eat thy bread and prophesy there, but in Bethel thou mayest not remain, for it is the sanctuary of the king, and the capital of the kingdom." Amos did not permit himself to be interrupted in his preaching further than to say, "I am no prophet and no prophetic disciple, but only a shepherd and planter; but the Lord spake unto me, 'Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.'" In the strongest language, he concluded with a threat of punishment. It is noteworthy that he did not protest against the evil deeds in Judah with the same energy, but rather displayed a certain leniency towards the kingdom governed by the house of David. He entered into no particulars concerning the sins which were rife there, but only spoke of them in general terms. He predicted a happy future for the kingdom of Judah, while predicting woe to Israel.

"Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord."

When contemplating in his prophetic vision the new plagues which would descend upon the land, he interceded with prayer in behalf of Judah, exclaiming, "Lord God, cease, I beseech thee; how shall Jacob rise, since he is so small?" (Amos vii. 2, 5.)

The state of weakness into which Judah had fallen since the death of Amaziah, and from which it had not yet recovered in the first years of Uzziah's reign, filled the prophet Amos with compassion. He did not wish to discourage the nation and the court still further, but prophesied the future reunion of the tribes under the house of David.

At this time another prophet arose in Jerusalem, named Joel, the son of Pethuel. Most of the prophets were of obscure origin, and returned to obscurity without leaving a trace of their individuality, which was entirely merged in their deeds or works. Joel appeared at a time when all minds had been terrified and driven into a condition of despair bordering on stupor, by the repeated attacks of the Idumæans and neighbouring nations, and the subsequent plagues of earthquake, drought and locusts. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and the country were wearing themselves away in long fasts and lamentations; they tore their garments as a sign of mourning, and assembled around the Temple with cries and supplications to avert Divine anger, and the priests were equally despondent. Joel, therefore, had a different task from that of Amos; not to censure and blame the people was his mission, but to raise and cheer up the despondent, and to arouse those whom despair had stupefied. He did not openly denounce, but merely hinted at the sins and errors of the nation, alluding to the drunkards now left without wine, pointing to the external repentance which contented itself with torn garments and left the heart untouched, and scorning the popular notion that the Deity could not be appeased without sacrifices. Joel had to exert the whole power of his eloquence in order to convince the nation that God's mercy had not departed from them, that Zion was yet His holy mountain; that He would not deliver up His people to disgrace; that He was long-suffering and full of mercy, and would relieve them from their misfortunes without their burnt-offerings and fasts.

Joel's oratorical power was, perhaps, even greater than that of Amos. His highly coloured description of the ravages of the locusts and the accompanying calamities is a stirring picture; the reader feels himself to be an eye-witness. The extant production of Joel's prophetic eloquence, with its rhythm and metre and even a certain strophic structure, also occupies the middle between poetry and prose. The only speech of his which has been preserved is divided into two halves; in the one half he describes the misfortunes of the nation, blames their perverted ideas, and points out wherein their conversion must consist; and in the other, he seeks to fill their hearts with a joyous hope for the future. Joel endeavoured to carry his trembling, wailing and despondent hearers, who had collected on the Temple Mount, beyond the narrow boundaries of their present sorrow to a higher view of life. He told them that God had sent the plagues as forerunners of a time full of earnestness and awe, of a day great and fearful, destined to purify them and lead to a higher moral order. The sorrows of the present would pass away and be forgotten. Then the great day of the Lord would dawn.

Joel also predicted political changes, when the enslaved Jews of Judah and Jerusalem, whom Philistines and Tyrians had sold to the slave-trading Ionians, who again on their part had scattered them far and wide, should again return. The peoples who had committed acts of cruelty would be severely punished in the Valley of Justice (Emek Jehoshaphat), where God would pronounce judgment on all nations. Then Egypt and Idumæa would become deserts, because they had shed the innocent blood of the Judæans; but Judah and Jerusalem would be inhabited throughout all generations. Then a higher moral order would begin, and all creatures would be filled with the divine spirit of prophecy.

"And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel iii. 1–2.)

The wish which has been attributed to Moses (Numbers xi. 29) will, according to Joel's prophecy, be realized at some future time. Not only Israelites born in the land, but also the strangers, who lived as slaves in their families, would have a share in this kingdom of God, and would become worthy of the gift of prophecy. Thus the prophetic vision began to roam beyond the national barriers.

Hosea, son of Beeri, the third prophet of Jeroboam's and Uzziah's times, spoke yet more decidedly against the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and in favour of the house of Jacob. Nothing is known of his life and actions; we are not even told in which kingdom he delivered his speeches. It is, however, probable that the scene of his activity was Bethel or Samaria. Whilst Amos made moral corruption the main object of his rebuke and scorn, Hosea declaimed against the religious defection of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, which had returned to the worship of Baal. He did not possess the wealth of expression nor the metrical evenness of his two contemporaries. His eloquence comes nearer the form of common prose; it is more amplified, more fluent, but also more artificial; it likes the interweaving of allegorical names, in which Hosea probably followed the style of the prophetic school from which he appears to have come. He started from one simile, which he applied in a twofold manner. He represented the introduction of the Baal worship in the Ten Tribes as the conduct of a faithless wife, and compared the future return of the people to God, which he predicted, to the return to the path of duty of a repentant and abashed adulteress. This his theme he premised with an introduction. In a prophetic vision, he said, he received the command to take to himself an adulterous wife. Following this command, he married a woman of evil repute, who bore him three children—a son, Jezreel, a daughter, whom he called "Unloved" (Lo-Ruchamah), and a second son, named "Not-My-Nation" (Lo-Ammi). The prophet explained these metaphorical names; thus, Jezreel meant two things—in the first place, that God would visit on the house of Jehu the blood that their forefather had shed in Jezreel; and further, Jezreel denoted that God would destroy the armies of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. The name of the daughter meant that God would no longer care for the house of Israel; and, lastly, the name of the second son denoted that the God of Israel had deserted the nation, and would no longer be its God. After this introduction and its interpretation, the prophet began his address:

"Contend with your mother, contend,

For she is not my wife,

And I am not her husband;

Let her put away her prostitution from her face,

And her adulteries from her bosom." (Hosea ii. 4–6.)

Then the prophet depicts the entire extent of the faithlessness of the house of Israel,—that adulteress who pursues her lover (Baal), in the belief that her riches and her plenty had come from him, forgetting that God had endowed her with the corn and wine, the silver and gold which she was wasting on the idol Baal; God would therefore deprive her of everything, and not leave her even sufficient clothes to cover her body. In her need she would be overcome by repentance, and say, "I will return to my first love, for then it was better with me than now." The prophet then pictures the return of the faithless wife, who would remorsefully recognise the whole extent of her past wickedness, and, turning to her husband, would call him "My husband," for the name "lord" (Baal) would have become hateful to her. (Hosea ii.)

Reconciled with his betrothed (the nation), the Lord would again show mercy to her, as in the days of the exodus from Egypt; from the desert he would again lead her to her land, and she would once more sing psalms of praise as in the time of her youth, and in the days when she went forth from Egypt. The renewed covenant between her God and her would shield her from the wild beasts, and bow and sword and war would be no more. Jezreel, the ominous name, would receive an auspicious meaning (planted in the land); the "Unloved" would be once more the "Beloved," and "Not-My-Nation" would again become "My-Nation" and would acknowledge his God.

In unrolling a glowing picture of the future of the Ten Tribes, Hosea did not desire to mislead his hearers into the belief that such a time was close at hand. In a second oration, which has probably not been fully preserved, he predicts that many unhappy days would intervene before the return of the Ten Tribes and their expiation. This speech he also introduced with the account of a vision. God had commanded him again to take a much-beloved, yet faithless wife. She was not to bear him children, but he was to keep himself apart from her, nor permit her to associate with other men. This vision denoted that, though God loved the Israelitish nation, she had, forgetting all ties of honour and duty, given her love to other gods. And it denoted further, that the sons of Israel would remain long without a king or a prince, without an altar or columns, without an ephod, as well as without house-gods (Teraphim); till at last, purified by severe trials, she would return to her God—in the latter days. Hosea prophesied the total destruction of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. On the other hand, he laid even more stress than his contemporaries on the continuance of the house of David and the kingdom of Judah, at the same time reproaching King Uzziah for the importance which he attached to his warlike preparations.

Corruption in the one kingdom and misfortunes in the other brought from the hidden depths the precious ore of prophetic eloquence, which was destined to obtain wide-reaching influence. The sins of Ahab and Jezebel aroused Elijah; the evil deeds of Jeroboam II. and his nobles drew Amos away from his flocks, and brought Hosea out of his quiet life into publicity, to communicate in a fascinating form the thoughts which possessed their souls. Their fears and hopes, their thoughts and convictions, became thenceforth the common property of the many whom they inspired and ennobled. Anxiously listening disciples of the prophet imprinted these prophetic lessons on their memories or recorded them in writing. They formed the first pages of that prophetic literature, which was destined to stir up the indolent nations of the earth. By picturing, though only in dim outlines, the prospect of a better future, the prophetic wizards, Amos, Hosea and Joel, have insured the permanence of the nation from which they sprung; for a nation which looks confidently forward to a happy future is safe against destruction, and does not permit itself to be crushed by the most terrible trials of the present. One of these prophets—Joel or Hosea—pictured an ideal of the future, to which the noblest minds have clung, and to which they still hold fast. (Isaiah ii. 2–4.)

That grand picture of everlasting peace—to be founded on the teachings of Israel—which will transform the deadly instruments of war into implements of life-giving labour, excels all works of art that will ever charm the eyes and hearts of mankind. The Israelitish prophets have predicted that this high morality of the nations of the earth will be the outcome of the law which will go forth to them from Zion.

The hostile attitude which the two prophets of the kingdom of Israel assumed towards the house of Jehu was not without effect. Just as Elisha and his disciples raised up an enemy against the Omris, so were the attempts against the last of the Jehuides probably the outcome of Amos's and Hosea's fiery opposition.

Jeroboam II. died in peace, at an advanced age and after a long and happy reign, but no sooner had his son Zechariah ascended the throne (769), than a conspiracy was formed against him. The ringleader was Shallum, son of Jabesh, who killed the fourth descendant of Jehu in Ibleam. Zechariah reigned only a few months. His murderer, following the example set by Jehu in dealing with the house of Ahab, destroyed the house of Jeroboam II., sparing neither women nor children. Shallum then went to Samaria in order to take possession of the throne and kingdom, but he maintained his position only one month. A conspiracy was also instituted against him by Menahem, the son of Gadi, a former inhabitant of the capital Tirzah. He proceeded towards Samaria, and was admitted into the capital without difficulty. He killed Shallum (768), but no doubt met with greater opposition than he expected. Although the capital opened its gates to him, other towns did not immediately submit. The town of Tiphsah (Tapuach) shut its doors against him. Menahem, however, was more daring than his predecessor, and united with his courage the utmost hardness of heart. He laid siege to the rebellious city, and, having compelled it to surrender, he executed the entire population—men, women, and children, not even sparing pregnant women. After this massacre he proceeded to Samaria, where he seized upon the throne of the Jehuides. A chief who displayed cruelty such as this could hardly expect to win all hearts. Menahem appears to have abolished the worship of Baal. The worship of the bull, however, was still continued. During his reign the fate of the Ten Tribes was influenced by a powerful kingdom which was destined to put an end to the house of Israel.

If the better elements of that house might have felt inclined to follow the intimations of the prophet, and turn to the house of Judah for remedy, they met here with conditions equally repulsive. Internal dissensions broke out under Uzziah, which, it appears, were purposely ignored. Uzziah's aim was wholly and solely directed to military affairs—the acquisition of bows, shields, and spears. Spiritual interests were far from his mind, or perhaps were even distasteful to him. To the Aaronides he undoubtedly gave frequent offence, the former harmony between royalty and priesthood having received a severe shock in the latter days of his grandfather Joash. Any endeavour on the part of the king to extend his sway over the Temple would have met with the opposition of the anointed high priests, whose authority rested on claims equal to those of the descendants of David. It is certain that in the latter years of Uzziah's government conflicts arose between him and the high priest Azariah, similar to those between King Joash and Zechariah. In order to deprive the high priest of his prestige, Uzziah took a bold step. He entered the sanctuary and began to light the incense-burner on the golden altar, an act which was the especial privilege and duty of the high priest. The indignation of the Aaronides ran high. The high priest, Azariah, who together with eighty priests hastened after the king into the sanctuary, angrily reproved him, saying, "It is not for thee, O Uzziah, to bring incense, but only for the anointed priest of Aaron's family. Leave the sanctuary: thou art guilty of desecration, and it will not be for thy honour from the Lord."

What followed is wrapt in obscurity. Uzziah in the latter years of his reign was attacked by leprosy, and had to be kept in a special house for the rest of his days. The nation considered this illness as a divine punishment for his daring to perform the rites of the priesthood.

In this contest between the sacerdotal and royal houses the former was triumphant, for it possessed the law as its weapon, and this was of greater avail than the sword. But another spiritual power was soon to enter the contest against the priesthood.