extent supplemented by the Assyrian records. Holy Scripture simply informs us that "in those days

Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah" (2

Kings 15:37).

It is a majestic and truly prophetic mode of viewing events, thus to recognize in such a league as

that of Rezin and Pekah the divinely -appointed judgment upon Judah. It is to pass from the

secondary and visible causes of an event straight to Him Who over-rules all, and Who with Divine

skill weaves the threads that man has spun into the web and woof of His dealings. In point of fact,

the Syro -Israelitish league against Judah ultimately embraced not only the Ammonites, who

refused to continue their tribute, but also the Edomites, the Philistines, and all the southern tribes

lately reduced to subjection (2 Chronicles 28:17, 18).

As already stated, Jotham only witnessed the commencement of this great struggle, or else he was

sufficiently strong still to keep in check what at first were probably only marauding expeditions. It

was otherwise when his wea k and wicked son Ahaz ascended the throne, in the seventeenth year

of Pekah, the son of Remaliah (2 Kings 16:1). He was probably twenty-five years of age* when he

succeeded his father.

* So, in 2 Chronicles 28:1, according to the reading of some Codd., s upported by the LXX. and

the Syr. The correctness of this reading appears from a comparison with 2 Chronicles 29:1. For if

Ahaz had, after sixteen years' reign, died at the age of thirty-six, and his son succeeded him at the

age of twenty-five, Ahaz must h ave been wedded when only ten years old. Similarly, we have to

correct in 2 Kings 16:2 the numeral 20 into 25.

The sixteen years of his reign were in every sense most disastrous for Judah. As throughout this

history, it is emphatically indicated that just as former successes had come from the help of the

Lord, so now the real cause of Judah's reverses lay in their apostasy from God. From the first, and

throughout, Ahaz "did not the right in the sight of the Lord." Nor should we omit to mark how the

sacred text when describing each successive reign in Judah brings its religious character into

comparison with that of David. This, not only because he was the founder of the dynasty, nor even

because in him centered the Divine promise to the royal house of Judah, but from the strictly

theocratic character of his public administration, which should have been the type for that of all

his successors, even as Jeroboam's became that for the kings of Israel.

It is impossible to determine whether the varied idolatry d escribed in 2 Chronicles 28:3, 4,

characterized the beginning of Ahaz's reign, or was only gradually introduced during its course.

More probably the latter was the case; and as the success of Syria was the avowed motive for

introducing its gods into Judah, so that of Israel formed at least the pretext for walking "in the

ways of the kings of Israel" (2 Chronicles 28:2). Indeed, there is not a single aspect from which

the character of the king could have commanded either respect or sympathy. Unbelieving as

regards the Lord and His power (Isaiah 7:11-13), he was nevertheless ready to adopt the most

abject superstitions. By making "molten images for Baalim," he not only followed in the ways of

the house of Ahab (1 Kings 16:32; 2 Kings 1:2; 3:2), but adopted the rites then practiced in Israel

(Hosea 2:13; 13:1). Connected with these was the service of Moloch [or more correctly, Molech],

who was only another form of Baal (comp. Jeremiah 19:3 -6; 32:35). Alike, in the service of the

one and the other, human sacrific es were offered: for which, indeed, Baal himself was supposed to

have given a precedent.*

* Comp. Euseb. Praepar. Evang. 1. 10, 44.

But this was to revive the old Canaanitish and Phoenician worship, with all its abominations and

all its defilements. The valley of Gihon, which bounds Jerusalem on the west, descends at its

southern extremity into that of Hinnom, which in turn joins at the ancient royal gardens the valley

of Kidron, that runs along the eastern declivity of the Holy City. There, at the junction of the

valleys of Hinnom and Kidron, in these gardens, was Topheth - " the spitting out," or place of