THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. XXIX. THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM.-AHIJAH AND IDDO. XXX. THE HOUSE OF OMRI-AHAB AND ELIJAH. XXXI. THE HOUSE OF OMRI-ELISHA. XXXII. THE HOUSE OF OMRI.-JEHU. XXXIII. THE HOUSE OF JEHU.-JEROBOAM II. AND JONAH. XXXIV. THE FALL OF SAMARIA.-AMOS AND HOSEA. THE AUTHORITIES ARE, I. 1. The 'Chronicles, or State Papers, of the Kings of Israel,' men tioned especially in the cases of Jeroboam (1 Kings xiv. 19), Nadab (xv. 31), Elah (xvi. 14), Omri (xvi. 27), Ahab (xxii. 39), Jehu (2 Kings x. 34), Jehoahaz (xiii. 8), Joash (xiii. 12, xiv. 15), Jeroboam II. (xiv. 28), Zachariah (xv. 11), Pekah (xv. 31), Shallum (xv. 15), Menahem (xv. 21), Pekahiah (xv. 26). 2. The Book of the Kings of Israel,' 2 Chr. xx. 34. 3. The 'Visions of Iddo against Jeroboam' (2 Chr. ix. 29); the 'Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite' (ib.); the 'Transactions (lit. words) of Shemaiah the Prophet and Iddo the Seer' (xii. 15); the 'Story (Midrash) of Iddo' (xiii. 22); and of Jehu the son of Hanani (xx. 34, probably 1 Kings xxii.); a prophecy of Jonah (2 Kings xiv. 25). II. The Prophetical book, originally one book (Jerome, Prol. galeatus), though now divided into two, called 'Kings' (Hebrew) and 'Kingdoms' (LXX.), or called after its first words, 'And King David,' grecised into Ouammelech David (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. vi. 25); with a few additions from the Book of Chronicles. (1.) 1 Kings xii. 1-xiv. 20; 2 Chr. x. 1—xi. 17, xiii. 1—20 (Jeroboam); 1 Kings xv. 25-xvi. 20 (Baasha and Zimri). (2.) 1 Kings xvi. 21—2 Kings viii. 15; 2 Chr. xviii. xxii. 6–12 (House of Omri). (3.) 2 Kings ix. 1-x. 36, xiii. 1-25, xiv. 8-16, 23-29, xv. 8-12 (House of Jehu). (4.) 2 Kings xv. 13-26, 27-31, xvii. 1-23; 2 Chr. xxviii. 6-15 (Close of the Monarchy). III. Illustrations from Zechariah ix. 1-xi. 17; Hosea; Amos; Nahum; Isaiah vii. 1-ix. 21, xv. xvi. xxviii.; Micah i. 5–9; Jonah; Psalms lxxvii. (see verse 15), lxxx. (verses 1, 2), lxxxi. (verse 5), lxxxiii. (verse 4?), lxxxv. (verse 1?). IV. Illustrations from the Assyrian Inscriptions. These are collected in Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures (Lect. iv.); and Five Great Monarchies, chaps. vii. viii. ix. V. Jewish traditions in Josephus (Ant. viii. 8-ix. 14), Jerome (Quæst. Hebraica), and the Seder Olam. 263 LECTURE XXIX. THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM.-AHIJAH AND IDDO. THE period of the Jewish monarchy on which we now enter is broken into two portions; the first consisting of the three centuries during which the northern kingdom existed, and occupied the most prominent position; the second, of the remaining century, during which the Kingdom of Judah was left alone. Partly from this natural division of time, chiefly because there is a real unity and distinctness of design in the history of each of the two kingdoms, I propose to keep them apart from each other. 6 dom of The name by which the northern kingdom was called The Kingcarries with it a fulness of meaning which we sometimes Israel. overlook. It was the Kingdom of Israel.' It must have appeared at the time, and it was, to a great degree, the kingdom of the whole nation. It was a national watchword, and not the war-cry of a single tribe, which led the revolt: 'What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance with the son of Jesse: To your tents, O Israel: See to thine own house, David.' As after the death of Saul, Abner took Ishbosheth. . . . Its national character. ' and made him king .. over all Israel,' while the men of 'Judah ... anointed David king over the house of‘ Judah,' so it came to pass that all Israel... made Jeroboam king ' over all Israel; there was none that followed the house 1 2 Sam. ii. 8, 9, 4. Its Prophetical character. ' of David, but the tribe of Judah only." From the extreme north down to the very confines of the fastnesses of Judæa; from the Mediterranean sea to the Assyrian desert, and even to the Euphrates, the Kingdom of Israel still reached. It included not only the territory which centred round Ephraim, but reached far away north and south: to the distant Naphtali beyond the sources of the Jordan; to the tribes beyond the Jordan; through the whole valley of the Jordan down to its exit into the Dead Sea; to the corner of Dan on the sea-coast. The frontier tribes of Simeon and of Benjamin, which were almost enclosed within the dominion. of Judah, gave divided allegiance to both kingdoms. It embraced the chief seats of secular and of religious greatness, Bethel, Shechem, Mahanaim, Jericho, Gilgal, at times even Beersheba.3 Only the patriarchal burial-place of Hebron and the Davidic capital of Jerusalem were beyond its reach. With the neighbouring state of Phoenicia, and with its maritime neighbours of the Mediterranean, through Acre, and through Jaffa, Israel, and not Judah, was brought into connexion. Even though Damascus for a time broke loose, yet the commerce of Palmyra and Baalbec must have continued. Moab and Ammon, so far as they were held in check at all, were dependent on Israel, not on Judah. The Kingdom of Israel was the National Kingdom, and the Church of Israel was the National Church. In the later Prophetical books written during the decline of the northern kingdom, when the trans-Jordanic tribes were carried off, it was known by the name of its chief tribe, Ephraim,' and of its chief city, Samaria. But in the Historical books it is always Israel,' and in the earlier Prophetical books it is 11 Kings xii. 20. 2 Zorah belonged to Judah (2 Chr. xi. 10). Amos v. 5, viii. 14; on the other hand, 1 Kings xix. 3. Ewald, iii. 412. The name occurs many times in Hosea and Zechariah; in three passages in Isaiah (vii. 2, xi. 13, xxviii. 1, 3); and in one Psalm (lxxviii. 9). ... usually Israel," or the children of Israel,' or else bears the still more significant names of Jacob,'' Isaac,' and Joseph." The original idea of the disruption was that it was a Divine dispensation. The thing was from the LORD.'3 It was as much part of the Divine economy of the national destinies as the erection of the monarchy itself, or as the substitution of the House of David for the House of Saul. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom 'out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. . . . I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according 'to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.' 'I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee ' prince over my People Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee.' So spoke the two chief prophets of the period, Shemaiah and Ahijah. They were the supports of the new dynasty of Jeroboam, as Samuel had been of the new dynasty of David. Jeroboam seemed to them to furnish the promise of a future David; and, although this was not fulfilled, yet the Prophetic hopes were still recruited from the ranks of Israel. Dynasty after dynasty was raised up with the Prophetic sanction. Of Baasha, no less than of Jeroboam and of David, it was said the Lord exalted him out of the dust, and made him prince over His people Israel.'6 Over the head of Jehu, as over the head of Saul, of David, and of Solomon, was poured the sacred oil of consecration, with the words, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold I have anointed thee to be king over the people of the LORD, even over 'Israel.' There is no indication even amidst the worst crimes of the rulers of Israel, of a desire to return to the 1 'Israel' is for the first time used for Judah, after the destruction of Samaria, Zech. xii. 1. 2 Amos iii. 13, vi. 8, vii. 2, 5, 9, 16; Hosea xii. 2; Amos vi. 6. 3 1 Kings xii. 15, 24. Ibid. xiv. 7, 8. |