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CHAPTER 9 - HOSHEA, (TWENTIETH) KING OF ISRAEL.
Summary of this History - Accession of Hoshea - Religious Character of his Reign -
Death of Tiglath-pileser and Accession of Shalmaneser IV. - Expedition into Palestine
and Submission of Hoshea - Attempted Alliance of Israel with Egypt - Hoshea made a
Prisoner - Siege of Samaria - Account of it in the Assyrian Inscriptions - Accession of
Sargon - Capture of Samaria -Deportation of Israel - Localities of their Exile - The new
Colonists of Samaria and their Religion - Lessons of this History. (2 KINGS 17)
THERE is a strange Jewish tradition to the effect that from the time when Reuben, Gad,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh were deported, the observance of Jubilee years ceased*
(Arakh. 32 b; Fer. Shebh. 39 c; Fer. Gitt. 45 d).
- That is, as of Biblical institution; not, as afterwards, of Rabbinic ordinance.
Whatever of truth there may be in this notice, other peculiarities connected with this
period are of such interest and importance in this history, alike retrospectively and
prospectively, that we group them together in an orderly form before proceeding with our
narrative.*
- In the following summary we are largely following Caspari, Uber d. Syr. Ephraem.
Krieg, pp. 1-27.
When we turn to the first and most prominent factor in this history, Israel, we are
impressed with this, that now, for the first time since the separation of the brother-
nations, the northern kingdom had entered into a formal league against Judah with a
heathen nation, and that its hereditary foe, Syria. And the significance of this fact deepens
as we remember that the final object was not merely to conquer Judah, but to dethrone
the house of David, and substitute for it a Syrian, presumably a heathen ruler. So
forgetful had Israel become of its great hope, and of the very meaning of its national
existence. For the first time also, at least in the Biblical record, does the Assyrian power
now appear on the scene of Palestine, first to be bought off by Menahem (2 Kings 15:19,
20); then to be invoked by Ahaz, with the result of rendering Judah tributary, and finally
of overthrowing Israel.
When we pass from Israel to Judah, we find that the country had now attained a state of
national prosperity greater even than in the time of Solomon. But in its train had come
luxury, vice, idolatry, and heathen thoughts and manners, to the utter corruption of the
people. In vain did the prophets call to repentance (Joel 2:12-14; Isaiah 1:2-9, 16-20); in
vain did they speak of nearing judgment (Micah 2:3; Isaiah 1:24; 3:1-8; 3:16-4:1:5:5-to
end); in vain seek to woo by promises of mercy (Micah 4:1-5; Isaiah 2:2-5). Priests and
people boasted in an outward and formal observance of ritual ordinances, as if these were
(^)