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lion" (comp. 1 Chronicles 12:8), fell, probably in defending the king. As we read it,
Pekah, with fifty of the Gilead guard, pursued the king into the castle, or fortified part of
his palace at Samaria, and there slew him and his adherents. The crime vividly illustrates
the condition of public feeling and morals as described by the prophet Hosea (4:1, 2). The
murderer of his master was not only allowed to seize the crown, but retained it during a
period of thirty years.*
- The Biblical text has 20, k , which seems to be a transcriber's error for l , 30. The latter
number seems required by a comparison of 2 Kings 15 32 + 33 + xvii. 1. The only
alternative seems to interpose an interregnum of ten years between Pekah and Hoshea, of
which, however, the Biblical text does not give any indication.
This revolution had taken place in the last (the fifty-second) year of Uzziah. He was
succeeded in Judah by his son Jotham, in the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah.
Jotham was twenty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and his reign is said to
have extended over sixteen years. But whether this period is to be reckoned from his co-
regency (2 Kings 15:5; 2 Chronicles 26:21), or from his sole rule, it is impossible to
determine. And in this may lie one of the reasons of the difficulties of this chronology.*
- Riehm, in the elaborate Art. Zeitrechnung (in his Hand-W.) maintains that the sixteen
years of Jotham's reign consisted of twelve years of co-regency with Uzziah, and only
four years of sole rule. If there had been four years of sole rule a confusion of this
number with the sixteen years of his reign may have led a transcriber to the erroneous
notice about the "twentieth year of Jotham" (2 Kings 15:30).
The reign of Jotham was prosperous, and only clouded towards its close. Both religiously
and politically it was strictly a continuation of that of Uzziah, whose co-regent, or at least
administrator, Jotham had been. According to the fuller account in the Book of
Chronicles (2 Chronicles 27.), Jotham maintained in his official capacity the worship of
Jehovah in His Temple, wisely abstaining, however, from imitating his father's attempted
intrusion into the functions of the priesthood. Among the people the former corrupt forms
of religion were still continued, and had to be tolerated. Naturally this corruption would
increase in the course of time. Among the undertakings of the former reign, the
fortifications of Jerusalem, the inward defense of the country, and its trans-Jordanic
enlargement, were carried forward. As regards the first of these, the wall which defended
Ophel, the southern declivity of the Temple-mount, was further built.*
- Comp. 2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 3:26, 27; Jos. Jew. War. 6, 1, 3. From Ophel the
"water-gate" opened into Gihon and the Valley of the Kidron. Comp. here the prophecy
Isaiah 32:14, where for "the forts" (in the A.V.) translate "Ophel."
At the same time the sacred house itself was beautified by the rebuilding of the "higher"
[or upper] gate on the north side of the Temple, where the terrace runs from which it
(^)