him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. . . . The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter," &c.

...

3. Micah, in Judah, a cotemporary of Isaiah, prophesied in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He spoke both of the divine judgments upon the people, and also of their deliverance which the Messiah would accomplish.

OBS."But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah (that is, families or divisions of the tribes, consisting of 1000 individuals), yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (5: 2.)

§ 102. Ahaz in Judah.—Overthrow of the Kingdom of Israel.

1. 2 Kings 16 (2 Chron. 27, 28; Isa. 7-12).—Jotham, who feared God, was succeeded by his son, the wicked Ahaz; the latter served Baal, made his children pass through the fire, and sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Pekah of Israel, and Rezin of Syria, besiege Jerusalem. Ahaz purchases the aid of Tiglathpileser of Assyria, in opposition to the words of Isaiah, who tells him to ask a sign of the Lord. When the unbelieving Ahaz refuses, the prophet indicates a remote sign—the Messiah born of a virgin; he, further, presents a pledge that this sign will be given, by referring to another which shall be speedily seen: namely, before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the two hostile kings shall depart from the land.Tiglath-pileser afforded aid to a certain degree by conquering Syria, carrying a portion of the people of Israel captive to other regions, and imposing a tribute on those who remained. Nevertheless, he soon afterwards came up against Jerusalem, as Isaiah had predicted, but could not, on that occasion, prevail. The temple of Jehovah was formally dedicated, by the influence of Ahaz, as a temple of idols.

OBS.-Those who passed through the fire (2 Kings 16 : 3, 2 Chron. 28: 3, &c.) were really consumed by it. The unholy human life was delivered over to fire as the true divine element, in order that, as it was supposed, all that was unholy in it might be consumed, and all that was divine in it might be cleansed and purified, and attain to communion with the Deity. The laws of Moses strictly prohibited this horrible form of idolatrous worship (see Lev. 18:21; 20: 2, &c.).

2. 2 Kings ch. 17.- Hoshea, who had murdered Pekah, ascended the throne of Israel after a period of anarchy and confusion which continued nine years. Relying on his covenant with So, the king of Egypt, he refused to pay tribute to the Assyrians. Shalmaneser besieged Samaria three years. After the capture of the city (722 B. C.), he carried the people of Israel to Media and Assyria, and caused pagans from other regions to occupy the country. These mingled with the Israelites who still remained, and were ultimately known as the Samaritans.-God sent lions among the people, which slew some of them, and thus taught them the necessity of knowing the manner of the God of the land. At their request, Shalmaneser sent one of the priests of Israel, who instructed the people. While they learned to fear Jehovah, they did not abandon their own idolatrous worship, but combined it with the worship of Jehovah.

OBS. 1.—A period of 253 years had now elapsed since Israel had separated from the house of David. The people continually resisted the Lord, and no chastisements produced a reformation. Seven dynasties had passed away; among the nineteen kings who successively reigned, not one is found of whom it could be said that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. Even Jehu maintained the worship of the golden calves. The measure of the iniquity of the people was now full, and the long-suffering of God was exhausted.

OBS. 2.-Among the Israelites who were carried captive to Assyria, the devout Tobit (§ 112. 2, OвS.) was unquestionably not the only one who had not bowed unto Baal; there were, doubtless, others associated with him in the heathen land to which they were carried, whose afflictions and general walk and conduct directed the attention of the Gentiles to Jehovah and his divine promises, and in this manner opened to them also the door of knowledge and of faith.

§ 103. Hezekiah, Manasseh and Amon.

1. 2 Kings 18-20. (2 Chron. 29-32; Isai. 36-39.)— Hezekiah, the devout son of the wicked Ahaz, commenced his reign, which continued twenty-nine years, by removing the high places, and extirpating the prevailing worship of idols. Among other acts, he destroyed the brazen serpent (called Nehushtan, that is, brazen) which Moses had made in the wilderness (§ 55. 3, Oвs), and to which the children of Israel burnt incense. After the temple, the priests and the people had been sanctified, he caused the passover to be kept with unusual solemnity, and assigned 14 days to its observance. The people of the kingdom of Israel, whom the final judgment, executed by Shalmaneser, had not yet overtaken, were formally invited to unite in the celebration, but in most instances treated the invitation with scorn. In consequence of his refusal to pay the customary tribute to the Assyrians, Sennacherib invaded the country with a powerful army. Although Hezekiah paid the enemy vast sums for the purpose of inducing him to depart, Sennacherib resolved to destroy Judah, in order that he might leave no enemy in the rear after he should have undertaken the invasion of Egypt which he already contemplated. The Assyrian general, Rab-shakeh, besieges Jerusalem, and, in the hearing of the people, utters words of scorn in reference to Jehovah and the king. Hezekiah prays to God, and Isaiah promises deliverance. In the mean time, Tirhakah (Tarakus) the king of Ethiopia, who then ruled over Upper Egypt, approached Sennacherib with a hostile army, and compelled him to depart from Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the promised deliverance did not proceed from Tirhakah, but directly from the Lord himself. The angel of the Lord destroyed, by means of a plague, 185,000 men in the camp of Sennacherib in one night. The latter escaped to Nineveh, where he was murdered in the temple of his idol by his own sons. In those days, Hezekiah was sick unto death; but when he prayed, the Lord added fifteen years to his life, and as a sign, caused the shadow on the sun-dial to go back ten degrees, according to the choice which Hezekiah had made. Isaiah directed that a lump of figs should be laid on the

boil from which the king suffered: he was then restored to health. Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, who had recently released himself from the yoke of Assyria,.sent ambassadors to congratulate Hezekiah on account of his two-fold deliverance; the latter ostentatiously displayed all his treasures to them, but was informed that not only all these, but his children (descendants) also should be carried to Babylon.

2. 2 Kings 21. (2 Chron. 33.)-Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, reigned 55 years; he introduced all the abominations of idolatry, and was exceedingly wicked. Esar-haddon, Sennacherib's successor, who had re-conquered Babylon, carried Manasseh thither captive. But when he had sincerely repented, God restored him to his kingdom; after his return he suppressed the worship of idols. His son Amon, who restored that worship, was slain after the expiration of two years.

OBS.-If the apocryphal book of Judith is founded on an historical fact, the latter necessarily occurred during the captivity of Manasseh. In this case, the name of Nebuchadnezzar is to be considered as an additional title of Esar-haddon, according to & 89. OBS. III. Note.

1. 2 Kings 22, 23. (2 Chron. 34, 35.) - Josiah, Amon's son, ascended the throne when he was eight years old; in his sixteenth year he began to seek after the Lord; in his twentieth year (2 Chron. 34 : 3), he commenced a thorough theocratic reformation of the religious state of the people. At the same time he fulfilled the prediction respecting the altar in Beth-el (§ 90. 2), which had been pronounced nearly four centuries before his day. While Hilkiah, the high-priest, was superintending the repairs of the temple, he found the book of the laws of Moses, which had been almost entirely forgotten, but which now furnished a foundation for the proposed reformation. While Shaphan, the king's scribe, was examining the writing, his glance fell on the curses which Moses had recorded in reference to the apostasy of the people; these he read before the king. The prophetess

Huldah, who was consulted, declared that all the things which were threatened, would come to pass. Josiah now caused a solemn assembly of the people to be held, and commanded that all the words of the book of the covenant should be read before them. He also gave directions that the passover should be kept; it was observed in a manner so solemn and so strictly conformed to the provisions of the Law, that no celebration of that festival since the days of Samuel fully equalled it. When Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria, Josiah unnecessarily opposed him and was slain in battle by him at Megiddo, 609 B. C. His guilty subjects were filled with terror when he died, for they were conscious that the deserved judgment of God had been delayed solely on account of their devout king; God had called his righteous servant out of the world, in order that he might not see the calamities which were at hand. (2 Kings 22: 20.)

2. 2 Kings 24-25 21 (2 Chron. 36; Jerem. 39 and 52).— The people made Jehoahaz, a younger son of Josiah, their king. Three months afterwards, Necho, who had now conquered Phenicia, gave the throne to his elder brother, Eliakim, whom he named Jehoiakim, and carried Jehoahaz himself captive to Egypt. After Jehoiakim had reigned eleven years, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who had defeated Necho near Carchemish (Circesium), 606 B. c., appeared before Jerusalem. Jehoiakim surrendered himself to him; the king of Babylon seized various vessels of the temple, which he carried with him, and also conducted several noble youths as captives to Babylon, among whom was Daniel. This first deportation or removal of captives is the beginning of the Captivity of seventy years, which Jeremiah had already predicted (ch. 25: 11, 12; 29: 10). Soon afterwards, Jehoiakim rebelled, and the Chaldees again besieged Jerusalem; he lost his life, and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, who reigned three months only, when he, too, surrendered to the king of Babylon. He and his family, together with the princes of the kingdom, the military men, the craftsmen and the smiths, were carried into captivity to Babylon; Ezekiel the prophet was also among the captives. — Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, the youngest son of Josiah, king of Judah, and changed