against Syria.

In the second year of the reign of Jehoash over Israel, Joash, king of Judah, was succeeded by his

son Amaziah. The reign of that monarch, who ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five,

extended over twenty-nine years. Its beginning was marked by a continuance of what on the whole

might, as in the case of his father Joash, be characterized as doing that which was "right in the

sight of Jehovah:"* To this the Book of Kings adds, however, the qualification, "Yet not as David

his father," which the Book of Chronicles explains by the expression, "not with a perfect heart."

* We mark, as regards this and other Judaean monarchs of this period, that their mothers were "of

In truth his religious bearing during that period was (as both the historical records note) like that of

his father Joash, and included the toleration of worship and services in "the high places." But even

this qualified adherence to the religion of his fathers did not continue during the latter part of his

Ascending the throne after a palace-revolution t o which his father had fallen victim (2 Kings

12:20, 21), it must have been some time before "the kingship [royal rule] was confirmed in his

hand."*

* This explanation is both natural and sufficient. There is not any reason for thinking of a

"confirmation" of his accession by the king of Assyria, or that Judah was at that time "a fief" of

that empire.

So soon as this first necessity was secured, he punished the authors of the late revolt by executing

the murderers of his father. The sacred text especially notes that in so doing he spared their

children, in conformity with the Mosaic law (Deuteronomy 24:16), which in this, as in so many

other respects, differed from the common practice of ancient times.*

* See for ex. Herodotus iii. 119. Curtius (vi. II) speaks of it as a legal provision that the relatives

of regicides were executed along with the actual criminals; comp. Cicero ad. Brut. 15. In the same

heathen spirit had Jehu acted (2 Chronicles 22:8).

But the promise of this good beginning failed only too soon. As one has aptly remarked, "with a

perfect heart" Amaziah was only a soldier, and even this rather in the sense of a cruel and boastful

Eastern monarch than of a wise or brave general. It seems not improbable that the successes of the

king of Israel against Syria had awakened in Amaziah lust for military glory. For the attainment of

this object he made preparations of the most extensive character. His first aim was again to reduce

Edom to the vassalage which it had cast off during the reign of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:20-22).*

* Comp. Vol. 6. of this History.

In prospect of this expedition, he reorganized the forces of Judah, that had been shattered by the

Syrians in the time of his father Joash (2 Chronicles 24:23, 24). From the account in 2 Chronicles

25:5, 6, he seems to have made a levy en masse, calling to arms the whole population capable of

military service.*

* "From 20 years old and above."

The national character of this measure appears even from the circumstance that the officers of the

new army were first appointed according to the old arrangement of tribe, clans, and families (2

Chronicles 25:5), and that these chiefs then conducted the levy of the people. The grand total so

called to arms appears large; but it is considerably smaller than that in the time of Abijah (2