* Amos vii. 9.

** The nameless prophet, whose prediction is handed down to us in Zech. ix.—­xi., speaks of three shepherds cut off by Javeh in one month (xi. 8); two of these were Zechariah and Shallum; the third is not mentioned in the Book of Kings.

     *** 2 Kings xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-15.

**** 2 Kings xv. 16.  The Massoretic text gives the name of the town as Tipsah, but the Septuagint has Taphot, which led Thenius to suggest Tappuakh as an emendation of Tipsah:  Stade prefers the emendation Tirzah.

All the defects of organisation, all the sources of weakness, which for the last half-century had been obscured by the glories of Jeroboam II., now came to the surface, and defied all human efforts to avert their consequences.  “Then,” as Hosea complains, “is the iniquity of Ephraim discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood:  and the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.  And they consider not in their hearts that I (Jahveh) remember all their wickedness:  now have their own doings beset them about; they are before My face.  They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes with their lies.  They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker....  They... devour their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calleth unto Me."* In Judah, Azariah (Uzziah) had at first shown some signs of ability; he had completed the conquest of Idumsea, Edom, and had fortified Elath,** but he suddenly found himself stricken with leprosy, and was obliged to hand over the reins of government of Jotham.***

     * Sos. vii. 1-4, 7.

** 2 Kings xiv. 22; in 2 Ghron. xxvi. 6-15 he is credited with the reorganisation of the army and of the Judsean fortress, in addition to campaigns against the Philistines and Arabs.

     *** 2 Kings xv. 5; cf. 2 Ghron. xxvi. 19-21.  Azariah is also
     abbreviated into Uzziah.  Tappuakh was a town situated on the
     borders of Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. xvi. 8; xvii. 7, 8).

His long life had been passed uneventfully, and without any disturbance, under the protection of Jeroboam; but the very same defects which had led to the ruin of Israel were at work also in Judah, and Menahem, in spite of his enfeebled condition, had nothing to fear in this direction.

[Illustration:  232.jpg TIGLATH-PILESER III.  IN HIS STATE CHARIOT]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Layard.

The danger which menaced him came rather from the east and the north, where Damascus, aroused from its state of lethargy by Rezon [Rezin] II., had again begun to strive after the hegemony of Syria.*