- 72-
Yet in all this Ahaz found a servile instrument in the high priest Urijah (2 Kings 16:11-
16). Assuredly the prophet's description of Israel's "watchmen" as "ignorant," "dumb
dogs -loving to slumber," "greedy dogs," "insatiable shepherds," only bent on gain and
steeped in vice, was true to the letter (Isaiah 56:10-12). And with this corresponds the
same prophet's account of the moral and religious condition of the people (Isaiah 2:6-9;
5:7-23). In view of this, King Ahaz can only be regarded as the outcome of his time and
the representative of his people. Accordingly the judgments announced in these
prophecies of Isaiah read only as the logical sequence of the state of matters.
The account of these judgments comes to us equally from the Books of Kings and
Chronicles, which here supplement one another, and especially from the prophecies of
Isaiah, which in chapter 7 give the most vivid description of the condition of things. The
Syro-Israelitish league had been formed at the close of the reign of Jotham (2 Kings
15:37), although its full effects only appeared when Ahaz acceded to the throne. In its
development the confederacy embraced also the Edomites and Philistines, although
probably at a later period - in all likelihood after the early victories of the Syrian and
Israelitish armies (2 Chronicles 28:17, 18). The purpose of the two chief allies is easily
understood. No doubt it was the desire of Syria and Israel, which Tiglath-pileser had so
deeply humbled, to shake off the yoke of Assyria. And as, after a period of decadence,
the Assyrian power had only lately been restored by the usurper Pul, a hope may have
been cherished that a powerful league might huff Tiglath-pileser from his throne. But for
this object it was necessary first to secure themselves against any danger from the south,
especially as there is some indication in the Assyrian inscriptions of a connection existing
between Judah and Assyria since the days of Uzziah.
In point of fact, the expedition was rather against Ahaz than against Judah,* and we are
distinctly informed that it was the purpose of the allies to depose the house of David, and
to place on the throne of Judah a person of low origin, "the son of Tabheel," whose name
indicates his Syrian descent** (Isaiah 7:6).
- The personal character of the war appears not only in such expressions as 2 Kings 16:5:
"They besieged Ahaz," but to an attentive reader throughout the whole account of it, both
in Kings and Chronicles.
** We gather that he was of low origin, from the contemptuous designation, "the son of
Tabheel" - like "the son of Remaliah." Probably he was a Syrian captain. Tabheel (in
pausa, Tabheal) = "good is God" in Aram, a name kindred to Tabrimmon. But it is a
mistake to suppose that it occurs in another form (Itibil or Tibil) on an Assyrian tablet. It
is also the name of a Persian official in Ezra 4:7.
It is only when realizing this purpose of making a full end of the house of David, with all
the Messianic promises and hopes bound up with it, that we fully understand how it
(^)