Jehovah keeps his promise that Jehu's sons would reign to the fourth generation. The last is promptly replaced, and the pattern continues for all but one of the last kings of Israel. The people continue ignoring the prophets, and chaos descends on the nation, both kingdoms.
2 Kings 15:8-12 -- In 753 BC, late in the year, Zechariah succeeds his father Jeroboam II on the throne of Israel. His reign is marked by a continuation of the sins of Jeroboam I. He keeps the temples at Dan, Gilgal-ephraim and Bethel active. As the last of four generations in Jehu's dynasty (ch. 10:30) he lived a short six months. He was assassinated publicly, which serves to indicate the nobles weren't upset with it. The obvious reason would be the complete lack of justice noted by the prophets.
15:13-14 -- The usurper was named Shallum, and he lasted a full month during the year 752 BC. Tradition says it was the general of the army, Menahem, that opposed him. Quartered with the troops in the old capital city of Tirzah, he mobilized the army as soon as he heard of Shallum's act. We have no record of a battle, but it's quite certain Shallum had the support of the Palace Guard, or he could not have seized the throne. At any rate, the throne of Israel had long ago become a military position. When the royal line dies out, succession went to the commander of the army, so he was merely asserting his rights.
15:15-22 -- In his first act as King, Menahem dealt with the only challenge to his rule, the city of Tiphsah, near Tirzah. Most likely there was some grudge involved that was not recorded. They attempted to hold out against his demands, and he destroyed the city and brutally murdered the inhabitants. His reign lasted a brief ten years. During that time, Assyria comes back under the command of Pul (Pulu, also known as Tiglath-pileser III). We know from records that Menahem led troops into battle around 743 BC, probably defending Israel's hold over Hamath far to the north. His ally, Rezin of Damascus, was not enough help, for they lost the battle. Menahem tried to escape, was capture and brought back to Samaria as a puppet ruler under Assyria.
15:23-26 -- Apparently Menahem died of natural causes, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah in 742 BC. His two-year reign coincides with the last two years of Uzziah of Judah. He, too, followed the same hideous evil noted by the Prophet Hosea. Things are a little confused at this point, for we find that Menahem's adjutant and commander of the Royal Bodyguard, Pekah, was already serving with some sort of co-regency powers, under both Menahem and Pekahiah. Pekah's assassination of the King was a simple matter of ordering the bodyguard to remove the puppet heir. This serves only to highlight the complete lack of honor in that society.
15:27-31 -- Pekah's reign was the longest of the last kings of Israel, twenty years (752-732 BC) claiming the years of his two predecessors. He was no better than any previous King of Israel. Thus, no one should be surprised that Tiglath-pileser came back. Since Israel was already a vassal kingdom of his, he was ready to complete his plans for domination. Throughout his empire, he kept the practice of displacement. Once a people were conquered, he would take as much tribute as they possessed. Then, in due time he came back with troops and wagons and moved the most dangerous part of the population to some other place in his empire. This served to dampen any enthusiasm folks might have to revolt. Most pagans divided their worship between gods of the land and gods of their nation. If these were the same gods, it was a bonus for Assyria, For most pagan nations, it meant weakening their allegiance to their regional gods at least, forcing them to adopt the local gods of the place to where they were moved. In the process, every warrior of any value was drafted into the imperial service. The whole process was so demoralizing and unsettling the empire never faced serious internal threat. The first wave of resettlement involved the northern half of Pekah's realm.
15:32-38 -- Beginning with his father's retirement from public life because of leprosy, Jotham succeeded Uzziah on the throne of Judah in 750 BC. He obeyed the Law as had is father, without the error of trying to play priest. From the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 27, we learn that Jotham added a new gate to the Temple complex, and reinforced the city walls extensively in Jerusalem. He also built new forts and repaired old ones throughout the realm. During his last three years he was taking tribute from Ammon. He had already place his son Ahaz as co-regent and commander, probably mimicking Israel somewhat. When he died in 732 BC, his son had already led several battles.
16:1-9 -- The reign of Ahaz is considered to have begun in 735 BC (paralleled in 2 Chronicles 28). Assyria had not come down to relocate the population of Israel yet. We are told he was an evil king, walking in the most hideous acts of depraved pagan worship. He began early on reviving the nasty cult of Molech, using the original site in the Valley of Hinnom below the Old City. He offered there at least one of his children on the heated bronze oven-altar to Molech. For his sins, he was delivered to his enemies. Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus had allied together to face Assyria. They demanded Ahaz join them, but he refused. They both came down in force and laid seige to Jerusalem. They didn't have time to finish the seige before facing Assyria again. However, Syria sent troops down to Ezion-geber on the Gulf of Aqaba and drove out the troops and workers of Judah. This thrilled the Edomites, who promptly took over the facilities. Edom had already stopped paying tribute to Judah during her troubles. Ahaz sent a delegation to Assyria and requested help with the situation. This served to notify Assyria her two vassals were planning to revolt. She came down and destroyed Damascus first, shipping all the inhabitants out right away.
While they had managed to hold out until Assyria came, the land of Judah was ravaged by Israel and Damascus. Some 120,000 troops were killed, and a great company of people and spoil were taken from several cities. Having dragged the whole lot to Samaria, they were accosted by the prophet Obed. He warned that the army had over-stepped their bounds. The military loss alone was by the hand of Jehovah, punishing the sins of Ahaz and the people of Judah who followed him in it. Taking plunder was okay, but making of their own nation captive slaves was going too far. He warned the punishment on Israel would be greater than that of Judah. A significant party of leaders demanded the warriors release the captives. From the spoil, any naked captives were clothed; any weak or lame were given a riding beast. The rest of the plunder stayed, but the captives were escorted to Jericho for repatriation.
16:10-16 -- Traveling north to meet Tiglath-pileser, Ahaz met his troops at Damascus after the battle. He also asked for help with the revolting Edomites. Edom had invaded and taken another bunch of captives to sell as slaves. On top of that, the Philistines took some of the lower cities on their border with Judah. Assyria declined to help with that. However, they made plans to come down and collect some more tribute from Judah. Meanwhile, Ahaz saw there a very large altar and trappings of Syria's chief god. We are told in the parallel passage he decided since the god of Damascus had given them victory over his troops (despite surviving the seige) he should switch his allegiance to that god. He created a schematic of the altar and sent it back by messenger to a priest in Jerusalem, who constructed a copy, finished and ready before Ahaz returned. He had the altar of Jehovah moved aside, and replaced it with his new altar. He ordered the priest to use that altar exclusively. Urijah's complicity in this matter indicates the depths to which the whole system had sunk quickly.
16:17-20 -- We are told he stripped down the original furnishings of the Temple to meet the increased demands from the Assyrians who came back with him from Damascus. The priestly bath was dropped down onto the pavement. With no gold or silver left, Assyria's representatives settled for several tons of brass and bronze, all the cast work of Solomon's artisans. We also know that Isaiah prophesied of God's power and provision, but Ahaz ignored him. What was left of the Temple furnishings were stripped out for an ever-growing number of new pagan shrines. The Temple was sealed and neglected for quite some time. When Ahaz died in 716 BC, he was not buried in the royal tombs. His unfaithfulness was beyond measure.
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Ed Hurst
23 April 2005
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