prey to other people, against which their mutual agreement and united forces might have fecured them. It is obfervable, that many of the kings of Ifrael came to the throne by violence, and not by rightful fucceffion; whereas the kings of Judah, being the pofterity of David, all reigned by right of inheritance, each king fucceeding his father in the throne, according to God's promife to David, that he would fet up his feed after him . Amongst the kings of Judah, thefe fix, Afia, Jehofhophat, Azariah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Jofiah, were religious; all the reft idolaters. Of all the kings of Ifrael, only Jehoram and Jehu are noted to have done fome good, in deftroying the image of Baal. & The As we read this hiftory, we may make the following reflections: First, How great was the apoftacy and impiety of fome of those kings and people, after all the mighty works God had wrought for them, ever fince their fathers came out of Egypt! Infomuch that when Rehoboam bad established the kingdom, he forfook the law of f And the the Lord, and all Ifrael with him prophet Elijah complained unto God, children of Ifrael have forfaken thy covenant, and thrown down thine altar, and flain thy prophets : Nay, he thought that himfelf was the only perfon left of all God's prophets and fervants, and they fought his life alfo. Manaffeh, one of the later kings of Judah before their captivity, feems to have taken up a refolution, even to deftroy the very name of the true God, and his fervice, from off the earth, and to establish idolatry, though he repented Lastly, Whofo repented before his death h. ever reads 2 Kings xxiii. 4-15. would fufpect that the people had even received the idols of all nations to worship them: And therefore no wonder God was fo incenfed against them, as we read he was. Yet we find that in thofe general apoflacies, many were preferved by God from the evil of the times, though they durft not openly prof.fs him; fo he tells Elijah, Yet have I left me feven thousand in Ifrael, which have not bowed unto Baal. In the fecond place, we may, in reading this hiftory, reflect on the juftice of God fhewn upon wicked kings and people, and his favours to the good; the many troubles of his fervants; and how he delivered them by his power, ordaining all things for the good of his church and people; and likewife punifhing all thofe who neglected his fervice, and provoked him by their fins. Although the law had been much neglected dur ing the reigns of the idolatrous kings, yet copies thereof must have been in many hands, there being divers in the moft corrupt times who did not forfake the fervice of the true God: And the people who cleaved thereto, were enjoined a conftant daily ftudy in the divine laws. Moreover the priests, who were very numerous, and were to be teachers and interpreters of the law, must have each of them, at leaft, one copy for that purpose, or, however, many copies amongst them all. The book which Hilkiah the high priest found in the reign of Jofiah, at the reading whereof the king is reprefented to be fo muchí VOL. I. aftonished N n i 2 Kings xxiii, 1 Deut, vi. 7. aftonished m, is no objection against this. The cafe appears to be thus: Mofes had ordered that the book of the law, which himself had wrote, fhould be put and kept on the fide of the ark, in the holy of holies ", which book, it feems, was, in after-ages, hid elsewhere, in fome other part of the temple, left it fhould be destroyed by the idolatrous princes: And when Jofiah had appointed Hilkiah to fee the temple repaired, it was then found and fent to the king. And no wonder that the divine laws, which had been fo neglected, and were now found written by Mofes's own hand, fhould exceedingly move fo tender and well-inclined a prince. Lastly, It is remarkable, that, although the Affyrians had been for the main the chief lords of Afia, in which part of the world Canaan did lie; yet the Ifraelites lived undisturbed by them, till after the divifion of their kingdom, and increase of idolatry among them: And then they were forely diftreffed by the Affyrian and Chaldean monarchs; as we fhall fee in the remaining part of their history. After these two kingdoms had continued about two hundred and thirty-five years, God was highly offended by the idolatries and other fins of that part which made up the kingdom of Ifrael, (being ten tribes,) and having in vain oftentimes forewarned them. by his prophets, he punifhed them, in the first place, on the following occa fion; Ahaz, king of Judah, being in diftrefs, because Rezin, king of Damafcus, in Syria, and Pekah, king of Ifrael, had joined in a confederacy against him, he fent to Arbaces, who was alfo called Tiglath Tiglathpilefer king of Affyria, for aid against thofe two confederate kings. Tiglathpilefer, accepting the invitation, and having flain Rezin, marched against Pekah king of Israel. But this was from God; for he is said to ftir up the Spirit of Tiglathpilefer, king of Affyria, to fubdue and carry away captive into his own country, a great number of the fubjects of the kingdom of Ifrael, who inhabited beyond Jordan, and in part of Galilee P. The Jews alfo affirm, that the Affyrians at that time took away the golden calf which was in Dan ". And about nineteen years afterwards, (or two hundred and fifty-four years in the whole, from the first establishment of the feparate kingdom of Ifrael,) upon their further provocations, it pleased God to permit Shalmanefer (being the next king of Affyria to the forementioned, and also his fon) to put an end to the kingdom of Ifrael. It seems Shalmanefer had been offended, because he understood that Hofea, then king of lfrael, and who had been tribrutary to him, entered into a fecret treaty with the king of Egypt, and neglected the yearly prefent, or tribute, with a defign, no doubt, to throw off his fubjection; upon which he befieged Samaria, the head city of the kingdom of Ifrael, and took it; whereby the kingdom of Ifrael was extinct, and the greatest part of the people were led into captivity, and difperfed into ftrange countries, as of the Medes and Parthians. Shalmanefer alfo took away their other golden calf which was in Bethel, as the Jews fay; whereby Hofea's prophecy was fulfilled: Thy calf, O Sa Nn 2 S maria, • Dean Prideaux's Connection, part I. book i. fub An. 739. 2 Kings xv. 29. and 1 Chron. v. 25. Pocock on Hofea viii. 6. p. 402. • Hofea viii. 5. 4 Dr. r Pocock, ibid t maria, has caft thee off; (could not uphold thes, as being no God:) And, The calf of Samaria fhall be broken in pieces. However, it seems fome of the kingdom of Ifrael were left in their own country; but even the most part of these, about forty-four years after, were alfo carried captive into Affyria by Efarhaddon, (otherwife called Afnappar,) then king of Affyria; whence the body of them never returned ; whereby was fully completed the captivity of Ifrael, and the prophecy of Ifaiah,Within threefcore and five years fhall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people, that is, from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, which was fixty-five years before this time. We have no certain account of this people's ftate and fortune afterwards. Jofephus writing the Hiftory of the Jewish Wars, fomewhat above forty years after our Saviour's paffion, gives us the fpeech of Agrippa to the Jews, in which he exhorted them to fubmit to the Romans: Unless (fays he) you flatter yourselves with the hopes of affiftance from your countrymen, the Adiabenians, on the other fide of the Euphrates; but fuppofing they could be guilty of fuch an overfight, the Par thians themselves (to whom it seems they were fubject) would not countenance a war against the Romans". The fame author, mentioning the Jews return from the Babylonian captivity, adds, But the Ifraelites chofe rather to continue in that country; and this is the reafon, that there are only two tribes to be found in Afia and Europe fubject to the Romans: As for the other ten tribes, they are, 2 Kings xvii. See Uffer. Annal. A. M. ▾ Ifa. vii, viii. w Jofephus's Wars, book II. W t Ver. 6. 3327. chap. xvi. towards the end of Agrippa's Speech. phus's Antiquities, book XI. chap. v. nen the beginning. X * Jofe |