- 36-
- 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 Chronicles 13:3), in that of Asa (2 Chronicles 14:8), or
in that of Jehoshaphat* (2 Chronicles 17:14-8).
- But see on those numbers the remarks in Vol. 5. of this History.
Besides raising a native Judaean army, Amaziah had recourse to the novel device of
hiring 100,000 Israelitish mercenaries, at the enormous cost of 100 talents - presumably
silver talents,* amounting to about. 37,500 pounds of our money.
(^)