placed unreservedly at the disposal of the priests on condition that they should apply them to the maintenance of the services and fabric of the temple:  the priests accepted the gift, but failed in the faithful observance of the conditions, so that in 814 B.C. the king was obliged to take stringent measures to compel them to repair the breaches in the sanctuary walls:* he therefore withdrew the privilege which they had abused, and henceforth undertook the administration of the Temple Fund in person.  The beginning of the new order of things was not very successful.  Jehu had died in 815, after a disastrous reign, and both he and his son Jehoahaz had been obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of Hazael:  not only was he in the position of an inferior vassal, but, in order to preclude any idea of a revolt, he was forbidden to maintain a greater army than the small force necessary for purposes of defence, namely, ten thousand foot-soldiers, fifty horsemen, and ten chariots.**

     * 2 Kings xii. 4-16; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 1-14.  The beginning
     of the narrative is lost, and the whole has probably been
     modified to make it agree with 2 Kings xxii. 3-7.

** 2 Kings xiii. 1-7.  It may be noticed that the number of foot-soldiers given in the Bible is identical with that which the Assyrian texts mention as Ahab’s contingent at the battle of Qarqar, viz. 10,000; the number of the chariots is very different in the two cases.  Kuenen and other critics would like to assign to the reign of Jehoahaz the siege of Samaria by the Syrians, which the actual text of the Book of the Kings attributes to the reign of Joram.

The power of Israel had so declined that Hazael was allowed to march through its territory unhindered on his way to wage war in the country of the Philistines; which he did, doubtless, in order to get possession of the main route of Egyptian commerce.  The Syrians destroyed Gath,* reduced Pentapolis to subjection, enforced tribute from Edom, and then marched against Jerusalem.  Joash took from the treasury of Jahveh the reserve funds which his ancestors, Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah, had accumulated, and sent them to the invader,** together with all the gold which was found in the king’s house.

* The text of 2 Kings xii. 17 merely says that Hazael took Gath.  Gath is not named by Amos among the cities of the Philistines (Amos. i. 6-8), but it is one of the towns cited by that prophet as examples to Israel of the wrath of Jahveh (vi. 2).  It is probable, therefore, that it was already destroyed in his time.

     ** 2 Kings xii. 17, 18; cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 22-24, where the
     expedition of Hazael is represented as a punishment for the
     murder of Mechariah, son of Jehoiada.