Antiquities — Book 9

Josephus · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

1. How Ahab's son Jehoram campaigned against the Moabites and conquered them. 2. How the man of the same name, Jehoram, who reigned over the people of Jerusalem, on taking over the whole kingdom killed his brothers and his father's friends. 3. How, when Idumea revolted and the Arabs marched against him, his whole army was destroyed, and his sons — except one still an infant — perished, and he himself, having become impious, brought his life to a wretched end. 4. The campaign of the king of the Syrians and of Damascus against Jehoram, king of the Israelites, and how, besieged in Samaria, he unexpectedly escaped the danger. 5. How Jehoram himself was killed by Jehu the cavalry commander, along with his family, and also Ahaziah, king of Jerusalem.

6. How after his death Jehu reigned over the Israelites, residing in Samaria, and his sons after him for four generations. 7. How a certain woman named Athaliah, of the people of Jerusalem, reigned for five years, and how the high priest Jehoiada killed her and proclaimed Ahaziah's son Joash king. 8. The campaign of Hazael, king of the Damascenes, against the Israelites, and how, after inflicting much harm on their land, and then, a little later, marching against the people of Jerusalem and taking much money from their king, he withdrew to Damascus. 9. How Amaziah, king of the people of Jerusalem, campaigned against the Idumeans and the Amalekites and defeated them. 10. How this same man, waging war against Joash, king of the Israelites, was defeated, was taken captive, and, after giving much money, was released again to his own kingdom, and how his son Uzziah subdued the surrounding nations. 11. The campaign of Jeroboam, king of the Israelites, against Syria, and his victory. 12. How the king of the Assyrians campaigned against Samaria and, after exacting much money from Pekah their king, returned home. 13. How Rezin, king of Damascus, campaigning against the people of Jerusalem, forced King Ahaz to send much money to the king of the Assyrians and persuade him thereby to campaign against Damascus. 14. How the king of the Assyrians took Damascus by storm and put its king to death, and, removing its people, settled them in Media, and settled other nations in Damascus. 15. How Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, campaigned against Samaria and, besieging it for five years, took the city, overpowering Hoshea, king of the Israelites, and killed him, 16. and how the Assyrian, having settled the ten tribes of the Israelites in Media, brought the nation of the Cuthaeans from Persia into their country — the people the Greeks call Samaritans. This book covers a period of one hundred and fifty years and seven months.

When King Jehoshaphat arrived in Jerusalem from the alliance he had furnished, as we said before, to Ahab, king of the Israelites, in his war against Hadad, king of the Syrians, the prophet Jehu met him and reproached him for that alliance as an impious and wicked man; for he said that God was displeased at this, yet had rescued him from the enemy despite his fault, because of his own good nature. The king then turned to give God thanks and offer sacrifices; afterward he set out to go around the whole country under his rule, teaching the people the laws given through Moses by God and reverence toward him. And having appointed judges in each city of those he governed, he charged them to judge the people with concern for nothing so much as justice, showing no favor either to gifts or to the standing of those thought superior for wealth or birth, but rendering equal justice to all, since God sees even what is done in secret.

Having taught this in each city of the two tribes, he returned to Jerusalem, where he likewise appointed judges from the priests, the Levites, and the leading men of the people, urging them to make all their judgments careful and just; and if any of their countrymen, disputing over greater matters, sent to them from other cities, they were to render judgment on these with still greater diligence and justice; for the judgments given in this city, where the temple of God stands and where the king resides, ought above all to be scrupulous and most just. As heads over them he appointed Amaziah the priest and Zebadiah, both of the tribe of Judah. In this way the king set these matters in order.

At this same time the Moabites and Ammonites campaigned against him, bringing with them also a great force of Arabs, and encamped near the city of Engedi, which lies on the Dead Sea, three hundred stades from Jerusalem; there the finest palms grow, and the balsam. When Jehoshaphat heard that the enemy had already crossed the lake and invaded the territory under his rule, he was afraid, and gathered the people of Jerusalem in assembly at the temple; standing before the sanctuary, he prayed and called upon God to grant him power and strength to punish those who had marched against him, for those who built his temple had asked precisely this of him — that he defend that city and take vengeance on any who dared come against it, who now came to strip away the land he had given them to dwell in.

As he prayed this he wept, and the whole multitude, together with their wives and children, joined in supplication. Then a prophet named Jahaziel, coming forward into the midst of the assembly, cried out, telling both the people and the king that God had heard their prayers and promised that he himself would fight their enemies. He ordered that the army go out the next day to meet the enemy, for they would find them on the ascent between Jerusalem and Engedi called the Ascent of Ziz; they were not to engage them, but only to stand and watch how the divine power fought on their behalf. When the prophet had said this, the king and the people fell on their faces, gave thanks to God, and worshiped, while the Levites went on singing hymns with their instruments.

At daybreak the king went out into the wilderness below the city of Tekoa and told the people that they must trust what the prophet had said and not form up for battle, but set the priests before them with the Levites and trumpets to give thanks, as though God had already delivered their land from the enemy. The king's counsel pleased them, and they did as he advised. And God cast fear and confusion upon the Ammonites, so that, mistaking one another for enemies, they killed each other, until not one of so great an army survived. Jehoshaphat, looking down into the ravine where the enemy had encamped and seeing it full of corpses, rejoiced at this unexpected help from God, since he had given them the victory without their having to labor for it themselves, and he allowed the army to plunder the enemy's camp and strip the dead. For three days they wearied themselves stripping the spoil, so great was the number of the slain; and on the fourth day all the people gathered in a certain hollow, ravine-like place and blessed the power and alliance of God, from which the place took the name Valley of Blessing.

From there the king led the army back to Jerusalem and turned to feasting and sacrifices for many days. And when news of the destruction of his enemies reached the foreign nations, they were all struck with terror of him, since it was now plain that God fought openly on his side. From then on Jehoshaphat lived in great glory, both for his justice and for his piety toward God; he was also a friend of Ahab's son, who reigned over the Israelites, and joined with him in building ships to sail to Pontus and the markets of Thrace, but he failed to gain anything from the venture, for the ships were wrecked by their own size; and because of this he no longer took any pride in ships. Such, then, was the state of affairs concerning Jehoshaphat, king of Jerusalem.

Ahaziah, Ahab's son, reigned over the Israelites, residing in Samaria; he was wicked, altogether like both his parents, and like Jeroboam, the first to break the law and lead the people astray. In the second year of his reign the king of the Moabites revolted from him and stopped paying the tribute he had formerly paid to his father Ahab — two hundred thousand sheep together with their fleece. It happened that Ahaziah, falling as he came down from the roof of his house, was injured, and being ill, he sent to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron — for this was the god's name — to inquire about his recovery. But the God of the Hebrews appeared to Elijah the prophet and ordered him to meet the messengers who had been sent and ask them whether the people of Israel had no god of their own, that their king should send to inquire of a foreign god about his recovery, and to command them to turn back and tell the king that he would not escape his illness. When Elijah had done as God commanded, the messengers, on hearing his words, at once turned back to the king.

The king, wondering at the speed of their return and asking the reason, was told that a man had met them and stopped them from going further, and told them to turn back and say to him, by order of the God of Israel, that his illness would grow worse. When the king ordered them to describe the man who had said this, they said he was a hairy man, girded with a leather belt. Understanding from this that the one the messengers described was Elijah, he sent a captain with fifty soldiers, with orders to bring him. The captain, finding Elijah seated on the mountaintop, ordered him to come down and go to the king, saying that the king commanded it, and that if he was unwilling, he would compel him by force.

Elijah answered him that, to test whether he was truly a prophet, he would pray for fire to fall from heaven and destroy both the soldiers and himself — and he prayed, and a thunderbolt came down and destroyed the captain and those with him. When this destruction was reported to the king, he was enraged and sent another captain with as many soldiers as had gone with the first. When this one too threatened the prophet that he would take him by force if he refused to come down, Elijah prayed against him, and fire consumed him just as it had the captain before him. Learning what had befallen this one as well, the king sent a third.

This man, being prudent and quite reasonable in character, came to the place where Elijah was and addressed him kindly, saying that he knew Elijah had not come there willingly to serve the king's command, and that those sent before him had come not of their own will but for the same reason; he therefore asked him to have mercy on him and on the soldiers with him, and to come down and follow him to the king. Elijah, accepting the graciousness of his words and the courtesy of his character, came down and followed. Arriving before the king, he prophesied to him, declaring what God said: since you judged him to be no god, unable to foretell the truth about your illness, and instead sent to ask the god of the Ekronites what the outcome of your illness would be, know that you will die.

And indeed, after a very short time, he died just as Elijah had foretold, and his brother Jehoram succeeded to the kingdom, since he had died childless. This Jehoram, resembling his father Ahab in wickedness, reigned twelve years, given over to every kind of lawlessness and impiety toward God; for neglecting to worship him, he revered foreign gods, though he was otherwise a vigorous man. At that time Elijah vanished from among men, and to this day no one knows of his death; he left behind Elisha as his disciple, as we have already shown. Concerning Elijah, and Enoch, who lived before the flood, it is written in the sacred books that they became invisible, and no one knows of their death.

Having taken the kingdom, Jehoram resolved to campaign against the king of the Moabites, named Mesha; for his brother, as we said before, had let him revolt and stop paying the tribute of two hundred thousand sheep together with their fleece that he used to pay to their father Ahab. So, gathering his own forces, Jehoram sent word to Jehoshaphat, urging him — since he had been a friend to his father from the beginning — to join him in the war he intended to wage against the Moabites, who had revolted from his rule. Jehoshaphat promised not only to help in person but also to compel the king of Idumea, who was under his authority, to join the campaign. When such messages about the alliance had reached him from Jehoshaphat, Jehoram took his army and came to Jerusalem, and, being splendidly entertained by the king of the people of Jerusalem, it seemed best to them to march against the enemy through the wilderness of Idumea, since the enemy would not expect their approach by that route. So the three kings set out from Jerusalem — Jehoram himself, the king of the Israelites, the king of Idumea — and after circling about for seven days' march, they fell into want of water for both the cattle and the army, their guides having lost the way, so that all were in distress, above all Jehoram, who in his grief cried out to God, asking what evil he had done that he should lead the three kings to surrender themselves without a fight to the king of the Moabites. But Jehoshaphat, being a righteous man, encouraged him, and having sent to the camp, ordered them to find out whether any prophet of God had come along with them, so that through him they might learn from God what they should do. And a certain servant said...

Joram had someone at hand who could tell him that Elijah's disciple Elisha, son of Saphat, was to be found nearby, so on Jehoshaphat's advice the three kings went to see him. They came to the prophet's tent — he happened to be camped outside the army lines — and asked what the future held for the expedition, Joram most of all. Elisha told him not to trouble him but to go to the prophets of his father and mother, for they were the true ones. Joram begged him to prophesy and save them anyway.

Elisha swore that he would not have answered Joram at all if it were not for Jehoshaphat's holiness and justice. He had a man brought who knew how to play the harp — for he asked for one himself — and as he played, the prophet was filled with the god and directed the kings to dig many pits in the streambed. "Though no cloud will form, no wind will rise, and no rain will fall," he said, "you will see the riverbed full of water, enough to save the army and the pack animals from thirst. And this will not be the only thing you receive from God: you will also defeat your enemies and take the finest and strongest cities of the Moabites. You will cut down their cultivated trees, ravage their land, and block up their springs and streams."

When the prophet had said this, the next day, before sunrise, the streambed ran full — for it happened that God had sent a heavy downpour three days' journey away in Idumea — so that the army and the pack animals found abundant water to drink. When the Moabites heard that the three kings were marching against them through the desert, their king at once gathered an army and ordered camp pitched on the border, so the enemy could not slip into the country unnoticed. But when they saw, at sunrise, the water in the streambed — for it was not far from Moab — looking the color of blood (for at that hour the water reddens most strongly in the light), they got the mistaken idea that the enemy kings had killed each other out of thirst and that the river now ran with their blood.

Taking this to be so, they begged their king to let them go plunder the enemy, and all of them rushed out as if toward an easy prize and came to the enemy's camp expecting to find them destroyed. But this hope proved false: the enemy surrounded them, and some were cut down while others scattered in flight to their own country. The kings then invaded Moab, destroyed its cities, plundered the fields and ruined them by filling them with stones from the streambeds, cut down the finest trees, blocked up the springs of water, and tore down the walls to their foundations.

The king of Moab, hard-pressed by the siege and seeing his city in danger of being taken by force, set out with seven hundred men to break through the enemy's camp at the point where he thought their guard was weakest. He tried, but could not escape, for he ran into a section that was closely watched, and turned back into the city. There he did a deed of despair and dire necessity: he took his eldest son, the one who was to succeed him as king, brought him up onto the wall where he would be visible to all the enemy, and sacrificed him as a burnt offering to his god. The kings, seeing this, pitied his desperate state, and moved by something human and merciful, broke off the siege and each returned to his own land.

Jehoshaphat came back to Jerusalem, and after living a little longer in peace following that campaign, he died — having lived sixty years in all and reigned twenty-five of them. He received a magnificent burial in Jerusalem, for he had modeled himself on the deeds of David. He left behind a good number of sons, but named his eldest, Joram, as his successor — the same name as his wife's brother, who was king of the Israelites and son of Ahab.

When the king of the Israelites returned from Moab to Samaria, he had with him the prophet Elisha, whose deeds I now wish to relate, for they are splendid and worth recording, as we have learned from the sacred books. It is said that the wife of Obadiah, Ahab's steward, came to him and said that he surely knew how her husband had saved the prophets from being killed by Ahab's wife Jezebel — for she said he had borrowed money to feed a hundred of them in hiding — and that now, after her husband's death, she and her children were being taken by their creditors into slavery on account of that very debt. She begged him, in return for her husband's work, to have pity and provide some help.

When he asked what she had in the house, she said she had nothing else, only a little oil in a jar. The prophet told her to go and borrow many empty jars from her neighbors, shut the doors of the room, and pour the oil into all of them, for God would fill them. The woman did as she was told, having her children bring her each jar in turn, and when all were full and none remained empty, she went to the prophet and reported this. He advised her to go and sell the oil, pay her creditors what was owed, and use what remained from the sale to support her children's living. In this way Elisha freed the woman from her debts and from the abuse of her creditors.

Elisha soon sent word to Joram warning him to guard a certain place, for some Syrians were lying in ambush there to kill him. So the king no longer went out to hunt, heeding the prophet. Ader, finding his plot had failed, as though his own men had betrayed the ambush to Joram, grew furious, summoned them, called them traitors to his secrets, and threatened them with death, since a plan he had entrusted only to them had become known to the enemy. When one of those present said he was mistaken, that they had not betrayed to the enemy his plan to send men to kill him, but that he should know it was Elisha the prophet who revealed everything to him and made known all his schemes,

Ader ordered men sent to learn in which city Elisha happened to be staying. Those sent returned reporting that he was in Dothan. So Ader sent against the city a great force of cavalry and chariots to capture Elisha. They surrounded the whole city by night and kept it under guard. At dawn the prophet's servant learned of this, and that the enemy sought to capture Elisha, and told him, running to him with shouting and alarm. Elisha calmed his servant's fear and prayed to God — whose alliance he trusted so fully that he himself felt no dread — asking that he reveal to the servant, as far as possible, his own power and presence, to give him confident hope of escape.

God, listening to the prophet's prayers, let the servant see a multitude of chariots and horses surrounding Elisha, so that his fear left him and he took heart at the sight of what he took to be this divine alliance. Afterward Elisha also asked God to darken the eyes of the enemy, casting a mist over them so that they would not recognize him. When this too had happened, he went out among the enemy and asked whom they were seeking. When they said the prophet Elisha, he promised to hand him over if they would follow him to the city where he happened to be. And they, their sight and understanding darkened by God, followed the prophet eagerly as their guide. Elisha led them to Samaria, where he ordered King Joram to shut the gates and surround the Syrians with his own force,

and he prayed to God to clear the enemy's sight and remove the mist from their eyes. Freed from that blindness, they saw themselves standing in the midst of their enemies. In the terrible shock and helplessness natural to men caught in so divine and extraordinary an event, King Joram asked the prophet whether he should order them shot down with javelins. Elisha forbade this: it was just, he said, to kill men taken lawfully in war, but these men had done his country no harm, having come against it by divine power without even knowing it. He advised instead that they be given a share of food and released unharmed from the table. So Joram, obeying the prophet, entertained the Syrians most splendidly and generously and sent them back to Ader, their king.

When they arrived and told him what had happened, Ader marveled at the extraordinary event, at the manifestation and power of the God of the Israelites, and at the prophet to whom the divine was so plainly present, and he decided he could no longer move against the king of Israel in secret, fearing Elisha, but resolved to make open war, trusting to overcome the enemy by the size and strength of his army. So he marched against Joram with a great force. Joram, not thinking himself a match for the Syrians, shut himself up in Samaria, relying on the strength of its walls. Ader, reckoning that he would take the city, if not by siege engines, then by famine and lack of provisions, attacked and besieged it.

So completely did supplies fail Joram that the shortage in Samaria grew so extreme that a donkey's head sold for eighty silver coins, and the Hebrews were buying a measure of dove's dung for five silver coins to use in place of salt. Joram, in fear that someone might betray the city to the enemy because of the famine, went round the walls and the guards every day, to see whether anyone among them was watching for such a chance — hoping that being seen and watched over would remove not only the will but the means to carry out such a plan, in case someone had already conceived it.

When a certain woman cried out, "Have pity, my lord," thinking she was about to ask for food, he grew angry and cursed her, calling on God to leave him with no threshing floor and no winepress from which he might give her anything she asked. She said she needed none of that and was not troubling him over food, but asked that judgment be given between her and another woman. When he ordered her to speak and explain what she sought, she said that she had made an agreement with the other woman, a neighbor and friend of hers, that since the famine and want had made things impossible, and each had a young son, they would kill and eat their children, one each day, to feed each other in turn.

"I," she said, "killed my son first, and yesterday we both ate him. But now she will not do the same, and has hidden her son away." This grieved Joram terribly to hear; he tore his clothes and cried out in horror, and then, filled with rage at the prophet Elisha for not asking God to grant them relief and a way out of the evils surrounding them, he set out to kill him, sending a man at once to cut off his head.

This man hurried off to carry out the killing of the prophet. But the king's anger did not escape Elisha's notice; sitting at home with his disciples, he told them that Joram, son of a murderer, had sent a man to take his head. "But you," he said, "when the man given this order arrives, watch for him, and as he is about to enter, press him against the door and hold him fast, for the king himself will follow close behind, coming to me, having changed his mind."

And they did as he ordered when the man sent by the king to kill Elisha arrived. Joram, meanwhile, regretting his anger at the prophet and fearing that the man he had sent would kill him before he could stop it, hurried to prevent the murder and save the prophet. Coming to him, he blamed him for not asking God to deliver them from their present troubles, but instead overlooking them as they perished. Elisha replied that by the next day, at that very hour when the king had come to him, there would be great abundance of food — two measures of barley selling in the marketplace for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour bought for a shekel.

This turned Joram and those present to joy, for they had learned to trust the prophet, being unwilling to doubt him because of the truth of his earlier predictions, and even the present want and misery of that day felt lighter to them in expectation of what was coming. But the captain of the third division, a friend of the king who was then supporting him, leaned toward disbelief and said, "You speak, prophet — but just as it is impossible for God to pour down torrents of barley or fine flour from heaven, so it is impossible for what you have just said to happen." The prophet answered him, "You will see this come to pass with your own eyes, but you will not taste any of it."

So the things Elisha had foretold came about in this way. There was a law in Samaria that those with leprosy, and others unclean in body from such conditions, must remain outside the city. Four men, kept outside the gates for this reason, with no one bringing them any food any longer because of the extremity of the famine — forbidden by the law from entering the city, and reckoning that even if they were allowed in they would perish miserably from hunger, while staying where they were meant the same fate for want of food — decided to give themselves up to the enemy: if they were spared, they would live, and if killed, they would at least die a quick death. Having settled on this plan, they came by night to the enemy's camp. But God had already begun to terrify and confound the Syrians, filling their ears with the sound of chariots and horses, as of an approaching army.

and reached their ears, bringing the suspicion even closer to them. In this way they were so affected by it that they abandoned their tents and ran to Ben-hadad, telling him that Joram king of the Israelites had hired the king of the Egyptians and the king of the islands as allies and was bringing them against them; for as these approached, they could hear the noise. So they told Ben-hadad this, and since he too was already assailed in his own ears by the same din as the multitude, he took heed, and in great disorder and confusion, abandoning in the camp their horses and pack animals and abundant wealth, they took to flight.

Now the lepers who had withdrawn from Samaria to the camp of the Syrians, of whom we made mention a little before, when they came near the camp saw a great stillness and silence there. They went inside, and rushing into one tent found no one; they ate and drank, carried off clothing and much gold, and brought it out and hid it outside the camp. Then, going into another tent, they likewise carried out its contents, and they did this four times, with no one at all confronting them. From this they concluded that the enemy had withdrawn, and they reproached themselves for not reporting this to Joram and the citizens.

So they went to the wall of Samaria and, calling out to the guards, disclosed to them the state of the enemy. The guards reported this to the king's guards, and Joram, learning it from them, summoned his friends and commanders. When they came before him he said he suspected the withdrawal was an ambush and a stratagem devised by the king of the Syrians, who, having despaired of destroying us by famine, wanted us to go out to plunder the camp as though the enemy had fled, so that he might suddenly fall upon us, kill us, and take the city without a fight. "For this reason," he said, "I urge you to keep guard over it and not to grow careless because the enemy have withdrawn."

But when someone said that he had guessed most wisely and shrewdly, yet advised sending two of the horsemen to scout the whole road as far as the Jordan, so that if they were caught by the enemy lying in ambush and destroyed, this would serve as a warning to the army not to suffer the same fate by advancing without suspicion — "and you may," he said, "count the horsemen among those who have already died of famine, even if they perish, caught by the enemy" — the king, pleased with this counsel, then sent out men to reconnoiter. They found the road empty of the enemy, but full of provisions and weapons, which the Syrians, to be lighter for flight, had thrown down and abandoned.

On hearing this the king let the multitude loose to plunder what was in the camp. And they profited not a little or in trifling measure, but got much gold, much silver, herds of every kind of livestock, and moreover such quantities of wheat and barley as they had not even hoped for in their dreams. Having obtained these, they were freed from their former hardships and had such abundance that two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, in accordance with Elisha's prophecy. (The seah holds a modius and a half by Italian measure.)

Only the commander of the third division did not enjoy these good things; for having been stationed by the king at the gate to restrain the multitude in its great rush and prevent them from being trampled to death by pressing on one another, he suffered this fate himself and died in this manner, in fulfillment of Elisha's prophecy of his end — for when he alone of all had refused to believe what Elisha had said about the coming abundance of provisions, the prophet had foretold that he would die.

Ben-hadad, king of the Syrians, having escaped safely to Damascus and learned that it was God who had cast him and his whole army into that terror and confusion, and that it had not come from an enemy attack, was deeply disheartened at having God as his enemy and fell into illness. At that time Elisha the prophet happened to be away in Damascus, and Ben-hadad, learning of this, sent Hazael, the most trusted of his servants, to meet him and bring him gifts, instructing him to ask about the illness and whether he would escape the danger from it.

So Hazael, with forty camels carrying the finest and most precious of the goods produced in Damascus and kept in the palace, as gifts, went to meet Elisha, greeted him warmly, and said that he had been sent by King Ben-hadad to bring him gifts and to inquire about the illness, and whether he would recover from it. The prophet told Hazael to report nothing bad to the king, but said privately that he would die. And while the king's servant was grieved to hear this, Elisha wept and was overcome with many tears, foreseeing the evils the people were destined to suffer after Ben-hadad's death.

When Hazael asked him the reason for his distress, he said, "I weep in pity for the multitude of the Israelites, for the terrible things they will suffer at your hands: you will kill their best men and burn their strongest cities, you will destroy their children by dashing them against rocks, and you will rip open their pregnant women." When Hazael said, "What power so great could ever come to be mine, that I should do these things?" Elisha replied that God had revealed to him that Hazael was destined to be king of Syria.

So Hazael, coming back to Ben-hadad, reported to him the more favorable things concerning his illness, but on the following day, throwing a soaked net over him, strangled him to death, and himself took over the kingdom, being an energetic man and enjoying great goodwill among the Syrians and the people of Damascus. Because of this, down to the present day both Ben-hadad himself and Hazael, who ruled after him, are honored as gods for their benefactions and for the temples they built, with which they adorned the city of Damascus. The people parade every day in honor of these kings and take pride in their antiquity, not knowing that they are more recent, and that these kings are not yet eleven hundred years old.

Joram, king of the Israelites, on hearing of Ben-hadad's death, breathed a sigh of relief from the fears and terror he had felt on his account, and gladly embraced peace. Joram, king of Jerusalem — for he too, as we have said before, bore this same name — on taking over the kingdom, immediately proceeded to the slaughter of his brothers and of his father's friends, who were also commanders, making this the beginning and demonstration of his wickedness, and differing in no way from those kings of the people who were the first to transgress against the ancestral customs of the Hebrews and the worship of God.

He was taught to be wicked in other respects, and in particular to worship foreign gods, by Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, who lived with him as his wife. And God, because of his covenant with David, did not wish to destroy this man's line entirely, but Joram did not cease, day after day, from inventing new impieties and corrupting the customs of the land. At that time the Idumaeans revolted from him, killing the king who had formerly obeyed his father and setting up in his place the man they themselves wanted. Joram, with his horsemen and chariots, invaded Idumaea by night, and destroyed those who lived around the borders of his own kingdom, but advanced no further.

This action, however, gained him nothing at all; for all the Idumaeans revolted from him, as did also those who inhabited the region called Libnah. He was so given over to madness that he compelled the people to climb to the highest of the mountains and worship strange gods there. While he was doing this, and had utterly cast the ancestral laws out of his mind, a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, declaring that God would exact great punishment from him, because he had not become an imitator of his own fathers, but had followed the impieties of the kings of Israel and had forced the tribe of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem to abandon the holy worship of the god of their land and to serve idols, just as Ahab had compelled the Israelites; and because he had murdered his brothers and killed good and righteous men.

The prophet declared in the letter the punishment he was to undergo for these things: the destruction of the people and the ruin of the king's own wives and children, and that he himself would die of a disease of the bowels, tormented for a long time, his entrails rotting away from the excess of the corruption within, so that, seeing his own misfortune and unable to do anything to help himself, he would in this manner die. Such were the things Elijah made known through the letter.

Not long after, an army of Arabs who lived nearest to Ethiopia, together with the Philistines, invaded Joram's kingdom, plundered the land and the king's house, and moreover slaughtered his sons and his wives; only one of his children escaped the enemy and survived, a boy named Ahaziah. After this disaster, Joram himself contracted the disease foretold by the prophet, and after being ill for a very long time — for God's wrath had struck his belly — he died miserably, watching his own bowels rot away.

The people even dishonored his corpse; for reasoning, I suppose, that a man who had died in this way, by the wrath of God, did not deserve a funeral befitting kings, they neither buried him in the tombs of his fathers nor thought him worthy of any other honor, but buried him as a commoner, after he had lived forty years and reigned eight. The people of Jerusalem handed over the kingdom to his son Ahaziah.

Joram, king of the Israelites, after Ben-hadad's death, hoping to take the city of Ramoth in Gilead from the Syrians, marched against it with a great force, and during the siege, having been wounded — not fatally — by one of the Syrians, withdrew to the city of Jezreel to be healed there of his wound, leaving the whole army at Ramoth under the command of Amasa, son of Jehu, for he had already taken the city by force. He intended, once he was cured, to continue the war against the Syrians.

Elisha the prophet gave one of his disciples the holy oil and sent him to Ramoth to anoint Jehu and to tell him that God had chosen him king; he instructed him also to say other things besides these, and ordered him to make his journey in the manner of a fugitive, so that he might slip away from there unnoticed by everyone. Arriving in the city, he found Jehu seated among the commanders of the army, in their midst, just as Elisha had told him he would; approaching, he said he wished to speak with him about certain matters.

When Jehu rose and followed him into an inner chamber, the young man took the oil and poured it over his head, and said that God appointed him king for the destruction of the house of Ahab, and so that he might avenge the blood of the prophets who had been unlawfully put to death by Jezebel, in order that this house might be utterly destroyed for its impiety, in the same manner as that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha, and that no offspring of the house of Ahab might be left. Having said this, he dashed out of the chamber, taking care to be seen by none of those in the army.

Jehu then came forward to the place where he had been sitting with the commanders. When they asked and pressed him to say why the young man had come to him, and moreover said that he was mad, he replied, "You have guessed rightly enough, for indeed he spoke like a madman." When they eagerly pressed to hear it, he told them that he had said God had chosen him king over the people. On hearing this, each man stripped off his own garment and spread it beneath him, and they sounded the trumpets with their horns to signal that Jehu was king.

Having gathered the army, he was about to set out against Joram at the city of Jezreel, where, as I said before, he was being healed of the wound he had received at the siege of Ramoth. It happened that Ahaziah, king of Jerusalem, had also come to Joram — for he was the son of his sister, as we have already said — having come, on account of the kinship, to see how he was faring from his wound. Jehu, wishing to fall upon Joram's party by surprise, insisted that not even a soldier who might desert should reveal this to Joram; for this, he said, would be a splendid proof to him of their goodwill and of their being so disposed as to show him to be king.

They, delighted with what he said, guarded the roads so that no one might slip through to Jezreel and inform those there of him. And Jehu, taking with him the choice of the horsemen and mounting a chariot, made his way to Jezreel. When he had drawn near, the watchman whom king Joram had stationed to look out for those coming to the city, seeing Jehu approaching with a multitude, reported to Joram that a troop of horsemen was riding toward them. He at once ordered one of the horsemen to be sent out to meet them and to find out who it was that was approaching.

So the horseman came to Jehu and asked about affairs in the camp, for the king wished to learn of them; but Jehu ordered him not to concern himself at all with these matters, but to follow him. The watchman, seeing this, reported to Joram that the horseman had mingled with the approaching multitude and was coming along with them. The king sent a second man, who did the same thing at Jehu's order. When the watchman reported this too to Joram, he finally mounted his chariot himself, together with Ahaziah, king of Jerusalem — for he was present, as I said before, to see how he was faring from his wound because of their kinship — and went out to meet him. Jehu rode more slowly and in good order.

Overtaking him in the field of Naboth, Joram asked whether all was well in the camp; but when Jehu answered him with bitter abuse, going so far as to call his mother a sorceress, the king, alarmed at his state of mind and suspecting that he intended nothing sound, turned his chariot around as it was and fled, telling Ahaziah that they had been outmaneuvered by ambush and treachery. Jehu shot him with an arrow, striking him down, the shaft passing through his heart. And

Joram fell at once to his knees and gave up his life. Jehu ordered Badakos, the commander of the third division, to throw Joram's corpse into Naboth's field, reminding him of Elijah's prophecy, which he had delivered against Ahab, Joram's father, when Ahab killed Naboth: that he and his line would perish in that very plot of ground. Jehu himself, seated behind Ahab's chariot, had heard the prophet say this, and now it came to pass exactly as he had foretold.

When Joram fell, Ahaziah, fearing for his own life, turned his chariot onto another road, hoping to escape Jehu's notice. But Jehu pursued him, caught up with him on a slope, and shot him with an arrow, wounding him. Ahaziah abandoned his chariot, mounted a horse, and fled from Jehu to Megiddo, where he was treated but died of the wound not long after. He was carried to Jerusalem and buried there, having reigned one year; he had proved wicked, and worse than his father.

When Jehu entered Jezreel, Jezebel adorned herself, stood on the tower, and called down, "How fine you look, you slave who kills his master!" He looked up at her and asked who she was, and ordered her to come down to him; then at last he commanded the eunuchs to throw her from the tower. As she fell, her blood spattered the wall, and she was trampled by the horses and died in this way.

After this Jehu went into the palace with his friends and refreshed himself from the journey, both otherwise and at table. He ordered his servants to take up Jezebel and bury her, on account of her lineage, for she was of royal blood. But those charged with the burial found nothing of her body except the extremities alone; all the rest had been devoured by dogs. On hearing this, Jehu marveled at Elijah's prophecy, for he had foretold, at Jezreel, that she would perish in exactly this way.

Ahab had seventy sons, who were being raised in Samaria. Jehu sent two letters, one to their tutors and the other to the officials of Samaria, saying that they should set up the bravest of Ahab's sons as king; for he had a multitude of chariots and horses and weapons, an army, and strong cities at his disposal, and that once they had done this they should exact justice on behalf of their master. He wrote this because he wanted to test the disposition of the Samaritans.

When the officials and the tutors read the letter they were terrified, and reckoning that they could do nothing against him, for he had overpowered two of the greatest kings, they wrote back acknowledging him as their master and promising to do whatever he ordered. He wrote back in turn, ordering them to obey him and to cut off the heads of Ahab's sons and send them to him.

The officials summoned the children's guardians and ordered them to kill the boys, cut off their heads, and send them to Jehu. They did this without any pity at all, and having put the heads into wicker baskets, they sent them off to Jezreel. When these arrived, word was brought to Jehu, who was dining with his friends, that the heads of Ahab's sons had been delivered. He ordered two heaps of them set up in front of the gate, one on each side.

When this had been done, at daybreak he went out to view them, and having seen them, he began to address the people present, saying that he himself had made war on his own master and killed him, but that he had not killed these others; he wanted them to understand, concerning the house of Ahab, that everything had happened according to God's prophecy, and that his house had perished just as Elijah had foretold. Having also destroyed the horsemen of Ahab's kin found among the people of Jezreel, he set out for Samaria.

On the way he met some of the household of the king of Jerusalem, Ahaziah's men, and questioned them as to why they had come. They said they had come to greet Joram and their own king Ahaziah, for they did not know that both had been murdered by him. Jehu had these men too seized and put to death, forty-two of them in number.

After this a good and righteous man named Jonadab met him, an old friend of his, who greeted him and began to praise him for having done everything according to God's will in destroying the house of Ahab. Jehu invited him to mount the chariot and come with him into Samaria, saying he would show him how he would spare no wicked man, but would punish the false prophets and the false priests and those who had deceived the people into abandoning the worship of the greatest God and bowing down to foreign ones; for it was the finest and most pleasing of spectacles for a good and just man to see the wicked punished. Persuaded by this, Jonadab mounted the chariot and came to Samaria.

There Jehu searched out and killed all of Ahab's relatives. Wishing that none of the false prophets or priests of Ahab's gods should escape punishment, he seized them all by trickery and deceit: gathering the people together, he said he wished to worship twice as many gods as Ahab had introduced, and asked that their priests and prophets and servants also be present, since he intended to offer costly and great sacrifices to Ahab's gods, and that any priest who failed to appear would be punished with death. Ahab's god was called Baal.

Having set a day on which he intended to hold the sacrifices, he sent throughout the whole land of Israel men to bring the priests of Baal to him. Jehu ordered the priest to give garments to them all; and once they had taken them, he went in with his friend Jonadab and ordered a search made to see that no foreigner or stranger was among them, since he did not wish any outsider to be present at their rites.

When they said that no stranger was present, and the sacrifices had begun, he stationed eighty men, whom he knew to be the most trustworthy of his soldiers, around them and ordered them to kill the false prophets, and now at last to avenge the ancestral customs that had been so long neglected, threatening that if any escaped, the soldiers' own lives would be forfeit for them. They slaughtered all the men and, setting fire to the house of Baal, cleansed Samaria in this way of foreign customs. This Baal was a god of the Tyrians.

Ahab, wishing to gratify his father-in-law Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, had built him a temple in Samaria, appointed prophets for him, and allowed him every form of worship. Once this god had been destroyed, Jehu permitted the Israelites to worship the golden calves.

For having accomplished this and taken care to punish the impious, God, through the prophet, foretold that his sons would reign over the Israelites for four generations. Such, then, was the history of Jehu.

Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, on hearing of the death of her brother Joram, of her son Ahaziah, and of the destruction of the royal line, was eager to leave no one of the house of David surviving, and to wipe out the whole family, so that not a single one of them might ever become king again. And she accomplished this, as she believed; but one son of Ahaziah survived, and escaped death in the following way.

Ahaziah had a half-sister named Jehosheba, who was married to the high priest Jehoiada. She went into the palace and, among the slaughtered, found the infant Joash, for that was the child's name, then a year old, hidden away with his nurse; she took him up together with the nurse and shut them away in a storeroom for beds, and there she and her husband Jehoiada raised him in secret for six years, while Athaliah reigned over Jerusalem and the two tribes.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada took certain men into his confidence, five captains of a hundred in number, and having persuaded them to join in the plot against Athaliah and to secure the kingship for the boy, he took oaths by which the loyalty of his collaborators was assured, and from then on he grew confident in his hopes against Athaliah. The men whom the priest Jehoiada had taken as partners in the undertaking went throughout the whole country, gathered from it the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the tribes, and brought them to Jerusalem, to the high priest.

He required of them a sworn pledge that they would keep secret whatever they learned from him, since it required both silence and cooperation. Once they had bound themselves by oath, so that it was safe for him to speak, he brought forward the boy of David's line whom he had been raising, and said, "Here is our king, from that house which you know God has prophesied will reign for all time. I advise that a third of you guard him in the temple, a third stand at all the gates of the sacred precinct, and the next third keep watch at the gate that opens and leads to the palace; let the rest of the people remain unarmed in the temple, and let no armed man be allowed to enter except the priest alone."

He further ordered that some of the priests and Levites be stationed around the king himself, with swords drawn, guarding him, and that anyone who dared to enter the temple armed be killed on the spot; and that they should stand by the king's guard without any fear. Those whom the high priest had advised followed his counsel and made their intention clear by their action.

Jehoiada opened the armory in the temple that David had built, and distributed to the captains, the priests, and the Levites everything he found in it, spears, quivers, and whatever other kind of weapon he came upon, and stationed them, armed, in a circle around the temple, joining hands, so as to wall off the entrance from those who had no right to it. Bringing the boy into their midst, they set the royal crown upon him, and Jehoiada anointed him with oil and proclaimed him king; and the people, rejoicing and clapping, shouted, "Long live the king!"

Athaliah, hearing the uproar and the acclamations against her expectation, was thrown into great confusion of mind and rushed out of the palace with her own troops. When she arrived at the temple, the priests let her in, but those standing in the circle, under the high priest's orders, barred the armed men following her from entering. Seeing the boy standing on the platform with the royal crown set upon him, Athaliah tore her clothes and, crying out in horror, ordered the death of the one who had plotted against her and hurried to take away her rule.

Jehoiada summoned the captains and ordered them to lead Athaliah away to the Kidron valley and kill her there, for he did not wish the temple to be defiled by punishing the accursed woman on the spot. He further ordered that anyone who came to her aid be killed as well. Those charged with her execution seized Athaliah, led her to the Gate of the Mules, and there put her to death.

When the affair of Athaliah had been managed in this way, Jehoiada assembled the people and the soldiers in the temple and bound them by oath to be loyal to the king, to look after his safety and the continuance of his rule, and then required the king himself to swear to honor God and not to transgress the laws of Moses. After this they ran to the house of Baal, which Athaliah and her husband Joram had built in insult to the ancestral God and in honor of Ahab, tore it down, and killed Mattan, who held its priesthood.

Jehoiada entrusted the care and guarding of the temple to the priests and Levites, according to the ordinance of King David, ordering them to offer the prescribed burnt-offering sacrifices twice a day and to burn incense in accordance with the law. He also appointed some of the Levites as gatekeepers to guard the sacred precinct, so that no one defiled might slip past unnoticed.

Having arranged all this with the captains and commanders and the whole people, he brought Joash out of the temple and led him to the palace, and when he had taken his seat on the royal throne the people acclaimed him, and turning to feasting they celebrated for many days; the city, however, kept quiet over Athaliah's death. Joash was seven years old when he took the kingdom; his mother's name was Zibiah, and she was from Beersheba. He kept careful watch over the laws and showed great devotion to the worship of God throughout the whole time Jehoiada lived. When he came of age he married two wives, given him by the high priest, by whom he had both sons and daughters. Such, then, is what we have set forth concerning King Joash, how he escaped Athaliah's plot and took the kingdom.

Hazael, king of the Syrians, waging war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, ravaged the region across the Jordan to the east belonging to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, and also Gilead and Bashan, burning and plundering everything and using violence against all who fell into his hands. For Jehu did not manage to defend his country against him, having also grown contemptuous of things divine and scornful of holiness and the laws. He died after reigning twenty-seven years over the Israelites, and was buried in Samaria, leaving his son Jehoahaz as successor to the kingdom.

Joash, king of Jerusalem, was seized by an impulse to restore God's temple, and summoning the high priest Jehoiada, ordered him to send the Levites and priests throughout the whole land to collect a half-shekel of silver for each head, for the repair and renewal of the temple, which had fallen into ruin under Joram and Athaliah and her sons. The high priest did not do this at once, understanding that no one would readily give up the money; but in the twenty-third year of the reign, when the king summoned him and the Levites and reproached them for disregarding his orders, commanding them to see to the repair in future,

Since the people were glad to see money collected for the repair of the temple, the high priest devised the following scheme for gathering the funds. He had a wooden chest built, sealed shut on every side, with a single opening cut into it. He set this in the temple beside the altar and ordered that everyone who wished should drop into it, through the opening, as much as he pleased toward the repair of the temple. The whole people took kindly to this, and vying with one another in their generosity they contributed and amassed a great quantity of silver and gold.

Whenever the chest was emptied, the scribe and the priest in charge of the treasuries counted what had been collected in the king's presence and then put it away in the same place; and they did this every day. When the amount of money seemed sufficient, the high priest Jehoiada and King Joash sent and hired stonecutters and builders, and bought timber, choosing the finest and largest they could find.

Once the temple had been repaired, they used the gold and silver that was left over — and it was no small amount — to make mixing bowls, wine jugs, cups, and the rest of the temple vessels, and they kept up costly sacrifices day after day, enriching the altar continually. This state of affairs lasted for as long as Jehoiada lived and gave it the attention it deserved.

When Jehoiada died, at the age of a hundred and thirty, a man who had proved himself just and good in every way, he was buried among the tombs of the kings in Jerusalem, because he had restored the kingdom to the line of David. Once the king had lost his guardian's care for the things of God, the leading men of the people fell into ruin along with him, so that they came to regard as best whatever was contrary to justice and to their own established customs.

God, displeased at this change in the king and in the others, sent prophets to bear witness against what was being done and to check them in their wickedness. But so violent a passion and terrible a craving for that wickedness had seized them that they were moved neither by the punishments that had befallen, whole households and all, those before them who had transgressed the laws in the same outrageous way, nor were they persuaded by what the prophets foretold, to repent and turn back from the lawless course into which they had strayed.

Indeed the king even ordered Zechariah, the son of the high priest Jehoiada, to be stoned to death in the temple, forgetting the benefits he had received from his father — because Zechariah, whom God had appointed to prophesy, had stood in the midst of the assembly and urged him and the king to act justly, warning them that they would suffer great punishment if they did not obey. As he was dying, Zechariah, perishing bitterly and violently at the hands of Joash in return for his good counsel and for the services his father had rendered him, called on God to be witness and judge of what he was suffering.

The king did not have long to wait before paying the penalty for his lawless acts. Azael, king of the Syrians, invaded his country, overran and plundered Gitta, and then marched against him toward Jerusalem itself. Joash, terrified, emptied out all the treasures of God and of the royal palace and stripped away the votive offerings, and sent them to the Syrian, buying with them his safety from siege and from danger to his whole kingdom. Azael, won over by the sheer abundance of the money, no longer led his army against Jerusalem.

Joash then fell into a grievous illness, and his own friends, who wished to avenge the death of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, conspired against the king and killed him. He was buried in Jerusalem, but not among the tombs of his ancestors, since he had proved impious. He lived forty-seven years, and his son Amaziah succeeded him on the throne.

In the twenty-first year of Joash's reign, Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, took over the rule of the Israelites in Samaria, and held it for seventeen years. He did not imitate his father, but was impious in the same way as those before him who had shown contempt for God. The king of the Syrians humbled and reduced him from so great a force to ten thousand infantry and fifty horsemen, after making war on him, taking from him many great cities, and destroying his army.

This is what befell the people of Israel in accordance with Elisha's prophecy, when he foretold that Azael would become king of the Syrians and of Damascus by killing his master. Being in such desperate straits, Jehoahaz took refuge in prayer and supplication to God, begging him to rescue him from the hands of Azael and not to allow him to fall entirely under his power. God, who welcomes repentance as a virtue and prefers to admonish those he could destroy outright rather than do so, granted him deliverance from the war and its dangers. Once the land had gained peace it recovered its former condition again and prospered.

After the death of Jehoahaz, his son Joash succeeded to the rule. It was in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Joash of the tribe of Judah that this Joash took the throne of the Israelites in Samaria — for he bore the same name as the king of Jerusalem — and he held it for sixteen years. He was good, and utterly unlike his father in character.

At that time the prophet Elisha, now an old man, had fallen ill, and the king of Israel came to visit him. Finding him at the point of death, he began to weep in his presence, wailing and calling him father and shield; for it was because of him, he said, that he had never needed to use weapons against his enemies, but had overcome them without a fight through Elisha's prophecies. Now, he said, Elisha was departing from life and leaving him unarmed against the Syrians and the enemies that came from them; nor, he said, was it safe for him any longer to go on living himself, but it would be well to set out and depart from life together with him. As the king lamented in this way, Elisha comforted him and ordered a bow to be brought and strung.

When the king had made the bow ready, Elisha took hold of his hands and told him to shoot. After he had loosed three arrows and then stopped, Elisha said, "Had you loosed more, you would have utterly rooted out the kingdom of the Syrians; but since you were content with three only, you will likewise prevail in only as many battles when you engage the Syrians, so as to recover the land your father lost." Hearing this, the king went away.

Not long afterward the prophet died, a man renowned for his righteousness and evidently cherished by God; for he performed wonderful and extraordinary deeds through his prophetic power, deeds judged worthy of splendid remembrance among the Hebrews. He was also given a magnificent burial, such as was fitting for a man so beloved of God to receive.

It happened at that time too that some robbers, throwing into Elisha's tomb a man they had killed, found that the corpse, on touching Elisha's body, came back to life. So much, then, for what we have already related about the prophet Elisha, both what he foretold while living and how, even after his death, he still possessed divine power.

When Azael, king of the Syrians, died, the kingdom passed to his son Adad. Joash, king of the Israelites, made war against him, and after defeating him in three battles took from him the whole territory, along with all the cities and villages of the kingdom of Israel that his father Azael had seized — and this happened in accordance with Elisha's prophecy. When Joash in turn died, he was buried in Samaria, and the rule passed to his son Joash.

In the second year of the reign of Joash over the Israelites, Amaziah, of the tribe of Judah, became king in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Joadan, a native of the city. He showed a remarkable regard for justice even while still young. On taking control of affairs, he decided that he must first punish those who had murdered his father Joash and take vengeance on the friends who had conspired against him.

He had them all arrested and put to death, but did no harm to their children, following the law of Moses, which did not sanction punishing children for the sins of their fathers. He then chose an army from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, men in their prime, about twenty years old, and mustered some three hundred thousand of them, over whom he appointed centurions.

He also sent to the king of Israel and hired a hundred thousand armed men for a hundred talents of silver, for he had resolved to campaign against the nations of the Amalekites, the Edomites, and the Gebalites. But when he had made his preparations for the campaign and was about to set out, the prophet advised him to dismiss the Israelite troops, for it would be impious, and God foretold defeat for him if he made use of these men as allies; God would grant victory over the enemy even if he fought with only a few men, provided this was God's will.

The king was distressed at having already paid the wages to the Israelites, but the prophet urged him to do whatever seemed good to God, promising that much money would come to him from God in return. So he dismissed the men, telling them he was giving up their wages as a gift, and he himself campaigned against the nations mentioned with his own forces.

He defeated them in battle, killing ten thousand and taking just as many alive; these he led to the great rock that is by Arabia and hurled them down from it, and he carried off much plunder and abundant wealth from those nations. While Amaziah was thus occupied, the Israelites whom he had dismissed after hiring them grew indignant, considering their dismissal an insult — for they would not have suffered this, they reasoned, had they not been held in contempt — and they invaded his kingdom, advancing as far as Beth-horon, where they plundered the country, seized many pack animals, and killed three thousand people.

Amaziah, elated by his victory and successes, began to disregard God, who had granted him these successes, while continuing to worship the gods he had brought back from the land of the Amalekites. The prophet came to him and said he was amazed that he considered these gods, which had done nothing to help their own worshippers or to save them from his hands, but had looked on while many of their people perished and they themselves were taken captive — for they had been brought to Jerusalem in the same manner that one leads a captured enemy in chains.

This roused the king's anger, and he ordered the prophet to keep silent, threatening to punish him if he continued to meddle. The prophet said he would be silent, but declared that God would not fail to punish him for the rebellious course he had undertaken. Amaziah, unable to restrain himself amid the good fortune he had received from God and grew arrogant over, being now filled with pride, wrote to Joash, king of the Israelites, ordering him to submit to him along with his whole people, just as his ancestors had once submitted to David and Solomon, or else, if he was unwilling to be reasonable, to know that the matter of the kingdom would be decided by war.

Joash wrote back as follows: "King Joash to King Amaziah. There was on Mount Lebanon a cypress of enormous size, and a thornbush. The thornbush sent to the cypress, asking for its daughter in marriage to its son. While it was still speaking, a wild animal passing by trampled the thornbush underfoot.

Let this, then, be an example to you not to reach for things beyond your station, nor, because you have had success in your battle against the Amalekites, to grow proud over it and bring dangers upon yourself and your kingdom." On reading this, Amaziah was only further provoked to war — God, I think, spurring him on toward it, so that he might exact punishment from him for his lawless deeds.

When he led out his forces against Joash and the armies were about to join battle, a sudden fear and terror, of the kind that God sends when he is not favorably disposed, threw Amaziah's army into flight; and before they came to close quarters, his men, scattered by their fear, left Amaziah alone, and he was taken captive by the enemy. Joash threatened him with death unless he persuaded the people of Jerusalem to open their gates and receive him and his army into the city.

Under compulsion, and out of fear for his life, Amaziah arranged for the enemy to be let in. Joash broke down a section of the wall, about four hundred cubits, and drove through the breach in a chariot into Jerusalem, bringing Amaziah with him as a captive.

Having in this manner become master of Jerusalem, he seized the treasures of God and carried off all the gold and silver that belonged to Amaziah in the royal palace; and having done this, he released Amaziah from captivity and withdrew to Samaria. This took place in the fourteenth year of Amaziah's reign over the people of Jerusalem. Afterward, plotted against by his friends, Amaziah fled to the city of Lachish, but was killed there by the conspirators, who sent men to put him to death.

His body was brought to Jerusalem and given a royal burial. Thus Amaziah ended his life, through his rebellious neglect of God, having lived fifty-four years and reigned twenty-nine. He was succeeded by his son, named Uzziah.

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah's reign, Jeroboam, son of Joash, became king of the Israelites in Samaria, and reigned forty years. This king was terribly insolent and lawless toward God, worshipping idols and engaging in many strange and outlandish practices, yet he proved the source of countless benefits to the people of Israel. A certain Jonah prophesied to him that he must make war on the Syrians and overpower their forces, extending his kingdom in the north as far as the city of Hamath, and in the south as far as the Dead Sea — for these had originally been the boundaries of Canaan, as the general Joshua had marked them out.

Jeroboam therefore campaigned against the Syrians and conquered the whole of their territory, just as Jonah had prophesied. I have thought it necessary, having promised to hand down an accurate account of events, to relate as well what I have found written about this prophet in the Hebrew books. Commanded by God to go to the kingdom of Nineveh and, once there, to proclaim in the city that it would lose its dominion, he was afraid and did not go, but fled from

fled God, going down to Joppa, where he found a ship and boarded it, sailing for Tarsus in Cilicia. But a violent storm came up, and as the vessel was in danger of sinking, the sailors, the helmsmen, and the ship's owner himself began making vows of thanksgiving, hoping to escape the sea, while Jonah lay hidden below, covering himself, doing none of the things he saw the others doing.

As the swell grew still greater and the sea more violent under the force of the winds, they suspected that one of those on board must be responsible for the storm, and agreed to cast lots to find out who it was. When the lots were cast, the prophet was chosen. Asked where he was from and what business he was on, he said that by race he was a Hebrew, a prophet of the greatest God. He then advised them, if they wished to escape the danger they were in, to throw him into the sea, for he was the cause of the storm for them.

At first they did not dare to do it, judging it an impious act to cast into open destruction a stranger who had entrusted his life to them, but at last, as the disaster grew overwhelming and the ship was on the verge of going under, driven on both by the prophet himself and by fear for their own safety, they threw him into the sea. At once the storm subsided. As for Jonah, the story tells that he was swallowed by a sea monster, and after three days and as many nights was cast up alive on the shore of the Euxine Sea, with no part of his body harmed. There, having begged God's forgiveness for his offenses, he went to the city of Nineveh, and standing where he could be heard, proclaimed that before long they would again lose their dominion over Asia. Having declared this he returned home. I have gone through the account concerning him just as I found it recorded.

King Jeroboam, having lived his whole life in complete prosperity and having reigned forty years, died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Zachariah succeeded him on the throne.

In the same manner Uzziah, son of Amaziah, in the fourteenth year of Jeroboam's reign, became king of the two tribes in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Achiah, a native of the city. He was good and just by nature, high-minded, and most diligent in attending to affairs. He campaigned against the Philistines and, defeating them in battle, took by force their cities Gath and Jamnia and demolished their walls. After this campaign he marched against the Arabs bordering Egypt, and having founded a city on the Red Sea, stationed a garrison there. He then subdued the Ammonites, imposed tribute on them, and having brought under his control the whole territory as far as the borders of Egypt, he turned his attention to Jerusalem for the rest of his reign.

Whatever parts of the walls had fallen down, whether through time or through the neglect of the kings before him, these he rebuilt and restored, along with what had been thrown down by the king of the Israelites when he took his father Amaziah captive and entered the city. He also built onto the walls many towers, each fifty cubits high, and stationed garrisons in the deserted regions, and dug many channels for water. He possessed also an immense number of pack animals and other livestock, for the land was well suited to pasture. Being very devoted to agriculture, he took care of the land, cultivating it with plants and all kinds of seed. He kept about him a select army of three hundred and seventy thousand men, whose commanders — generals, captains, and colonels — numbered two thousand men, brave and irresistible in strength. He organized his whole army into phalanxes and armed each man with a sword, a shield, a bronze breastplate, a bow, and a sling. In addition to these he had many engines built for siege warfare — stone-throwers, spear-throwers, grappling hooks, drag-hooks, and the like.

Having reached this state of organization and preparation, his mind was corrupted by conceit, and puffed up by mortal abundance, he came to disregard the strength that is immortal and lasting through all time — namely, piety toward God and observance of the laws. He was tripped up by his own success and fell into the same sins as his father, into which the brilliance of his achievements and the greatness of his affairs had likewise led his father, since he too had been unable to bear them well.

When a notable day came, one on which a public festival was held, he put on priestly vestments and entered the sanctuary to offer sacrifice to God on the golden altar. The high priest Azariah, with eighty priests present with him, tried to stop him, saying it was not lawful for him to offer sacrifice, since only those of the line of Aaron were permitted to do this. They cried out for him to leave and not to transgress against God. Enraged, he threatened them with death if they did not keep silent. At that very moment a great earthquake shook the ground, and as the temple split apart a brilliant flash of sunlight burst out and struck the king's face, so that leprosy immediately spread over it. Before the city, at the place called Eroge, half of the mountain on the western side broke off and, rolling four stades, came to rest against the eastern mountain, so that the roads were blocked, as were the royal gardens.

When the priests saw the king's face overtaken by leprosy, they told him of the disaster and ordered him to leave the city as one accursed. Out of shame at what had happened, and because he no longer had the standing to resist, he did as he was told, thus paying a wretched and pitiable penalty for his more-than-human pride and the impieties toward God that resulted from it. For some time he lived outside the city as a private citizen, while his son Jotham took over the government; then, from grief and despondency over what had happened, he died, having lived sixty-eight years, of which he had reigned fifty-two. He was buried alone in his own gardens.

Zachariah, Jeroboam's son, reigned over the Israelites for six months and then died, murdered by a friend of his named Shallum, son of Jabesh, who took over the kingship after him but held it no longer than thirty days. For the general Menahem, who was at that time in the city of Tirzah, on hearing what had happened to Zachariah, set out with his whole army and came to Samaria, and joining battle killed Shallum, made himself king, and from there marched to the city of Tappuah.

Its inhabitants barred the gates and would not admit the king. In retaliation he ravaged the surrounding country and took the city itself by storm. Bitterly resenting what the people of Tappuah had done, he put every one of them to death, sparing not even the infants, leaving no excess of cruelty or savagery untried — deeds that it would not even have been pardonable to inflict on some foreigners taken captive, yet he committed them against his own countrymen.

Having become king in this way, Menahem remained for ten years wicked and the cruelest of all men. When Pul, king of the Assyrians, marched against him, he did not go out to face the Assyrians in battle, but persuaded him to withdraw by giving him a thousand talents of silver, and so ended the war. This sum was raised for Menahem from the people, at fifty drachmas a head. After this he died and was buried in Samaria, leaving his son Pekahiah as successor to the kingdom, who, following his father's cruelty, ruled for only two years. He then died, murdered at a banquet with friends by a certain Pekah, a colonel, who plotted against him — Pekah being the son of Remaliah.

This Pekah held power for twenty years, and was impious and lawless. Then Tiglath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, campaigned against the Israelites, subdued the whole of Gilead and the territory across the Jordan, along with the neighboring region called Galilee, and Kedesh and Hazor, and carrying off their inhabitants captive, resettled them in his own kingdom. Let this suffice for what concerns the king of the Assyrians.

Jotham, son of Uzziah, became king of the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem; his mother was a native of the city, named Jerusha. This king lacked no virtue: he was pious toward God and just toward men, and attentive to the affairs of the city. Whatever needed repair or adornment he carried out zealously, setting up colonnades in the temple and gateways, and rebuilding the fallen sections of the walls with towers of enormous size and difficult to capture, and he took great pains over anything else in the kingdom that had been neglected. He campaigned also against the Ammonites and, defeating them in battle, imposed on them a yearly tribute of a hundred talents, ten thousand cors of wheat, and the same amount of barley. He so increased the kingdom that it was not to be despised by its enemies and was prosperous for its own people.

At this time there was a prophet named Nahum, who prophesied concerning the downfall of the Assyrians and of Nineveh, saying that Nineveh would become like a pool of water stirred up, and that the whole people, thrown into turmoil and tossed about, would flee, people saying to one another, "Stand and stay," and "seize for yourselves gold and silver." But no one would be willing, for they would wish to save their own lives rather than their possessions; terrible strife would seize them against one another, and lamentation, and limbs going slack, and their faces would become utterly black from fear.

"Where now will be the dwelling place of the lions, and the lioness of the cubs? God says to you, Nineveh, that I will make you vanish, and no longer will lions go out from you to give orders to the world." This prophet foretold many other things besides concerning Nineveh, which I have not thought necessary to relate, lest I seem tiresome to my readers, and so I have passed over them. All that had been foretold concerning Nineveh came to pass a hundred and fifteen years later. Let this suffice for our account of these matters.

Jotham died, having lived forty-one years, of which he had reigned sixteen, and was buried in the royal tombs. The kingdom passed to his son Ahaz, who, becoming most impious toward God and transgressing the ancestral laws, imitated the kings of the Israelites, setting up altars in Jerusalem and sacrificing on them to idols, to whom he even burned his own son whole, according to the customs of the Canaanites, and committed other similar acts. While he was in this state, deranged as he was, Rezin, king of the Syrians and Damascenes, and Pekah, king of the Israelites, marched against him, for they were allies.

Driving him into Jerusalem, they besieged it for a long time but accomplished nothing, owing to the strength of the walls. The king of the Syrians, however, took the city of Elath on the Red Sea, killed its inhabitants, and settled Syrians there. He also destroyed those in the fortresses, as well as the Jews in the surrounding country, and driving off a great deal of plunder, withdrew with his army to Damascus.

The king of Jerusalem, learning that the Syrians had gone home and thinking himself a match for the king of the Israelites, led out his forces against him, and joining battle was defeated through the wrath of God, which he had incurred on account of his many and great impieties. For a hundred and twenty thousand of his men were killed by the Israelites on that day, among them Amaziah, the king's son, whom their general killed in the encounter; and they took captive Ercham, steward of the whole kingdom, and Elkanah, general of the tribe of Judah, and led away women and children from the tribe of Benjamin, and after seizing much plunder withdrew to Samaria.

But a certain Oded, who at that time was a prophet in Samaria, met the army before the walls and declared with a loud cry that the victory had come to them not through their own strength but through the wrath of God against King Ahaz. He rebuked them for not being satisfied with their success against him, but daring also to take captive their own kinsmen of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

He advised them to release these captives unharmed to their own homes, for if they disobeyed God they would pay the penalty. The people of the Israelites, gathering in assembly, deliberated over the matter. A man named Berechiah, one of those held in honor in public life, stood up, along with three others with him, and said they would not allow the soldiers to bring the captives into the city, "lest we all perish at the hands of God; for it is enough that we have sinned against him, as the prophets say, and we must not commit impieties even worse than these."

On hearing this the soldiers agreed to let the men do as they thought best. So the men named above took the captives, set them free, saw to their care, gave them provisions, and released them unharmed to their own country; and four of them went along with them and, escorting them as far as Jericho, not far from Jerusalem, then turned back to Samaria.

King Ahaz, having suffered this at the hands of the Israelites, sent to Tiglath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, asking him to come to his aid in the war against the Israelites, Syrians, and Damascenes, promising to give him a great deal of money, and he sent him splendid gifts as well. When the ambassadors reached him, he came as an ally to Ahaz, and campaigning against the Syrians ravaged their country, took Damascus by storm, and killed their king Rezin. He resettled the people of Damascus in upper Media, and transferring some of the Assyrian nations, settled them in Damascus. As for the...

He devastated the land of the Israelites and took many captives from it. Once he had done this to the Syrians, the king took the gold that was in the royal treasuries and the silver in the temple of God, and whatever finest votive offering there was, carried it off, went to Damascus, and gave it to the king of the Assyrians according to their agreement; and having acknowledged his gratitude for it all, he returned to Jerusalem.

The king was so foolish and so incapable of weighing his own advantage that even while the Syrians were making war on him he did not stop worshiping their gods, but kept venerating them as though they would grant him victory. When he was defeated again, he began to honor the gods of the Assyrians instead, and seemed likely to honor practically anyone before his ancestral and true God, who in fact, angered at his defeat, was the one responsible for it. He carried his contempt and disdain so far that he even closed the temple entirely, forbade the customary sacrifices to be offered, and stripped it of its votive offerings. Having thus insulted God, he died, having lived thirty-six years, of which he had reigned sixteen, leaving his son Hezekiah as his successor.

At about the same time Pekah, king of the Israelites, also died, through the plot of a friend of his named Hoshea, who seized the throne and held it for nine years, being wicked and neglectful of what was owed to God. Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, campaigned against him and overpowered him -- for Hoshea did not have God's favor -- and made him a subject-ally, imposing on him a fixed tribute to pay.

In the fourth year of Hoshea's reign, Hezekiah began to reign in Jerusalem, son of Ahaz and of Abijah, a woman of citizen birth. His character was good, just, and pious; for on first coming to the throne he judged nothing more urgent or more advantageous, both for himself and for those he ruled, than the worship of God.

So he called together the people, the priests, and the Levites, and addressed them, saying: "You are well aware that because of the sins of my father, who transgressed the reverence and honor owed to God, you suffered many great evils, your minds corrupted by him and persuaded to worship as gods those he himself supposed to be gods. Since you have now learned by experience

how terrible impiety is, I urge you to put that behind you now, and to purify yourselves from the former defilements -- priests and Levites alike -- and, once assembled, to open the temple, and having purified it with the customary sacrifices, to restore it to its ancient and ancestral honor. For in this way we would make God favorable to us again, once he has set aside his anger." When the king had said this,

the priests opened the temple, and having opened it, cast out the vessels and defilements of God's house, and offered the customary sacrifices at the altar. The king then sent throughout the country under his rule, summoning the people to Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread, which had lapsed for a long time because of the transgressions of the kings mentioned earlier. He also sent word

to the Israelites, urging them to abandon their present way of life and return to the ancient custom of worshiping God; he would permit them, if they came to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of unleavened bread and celebrate it together with his own people. He said he was urging this not so that they would obey him against their will, but for their own good, since they would be blessed by it. But the Israelites,

when the envoys arrived and delivered the message from their own king, were not only unpersuaded but even mocked the envoys as fools, and likewise scorned the prophets who gave them the same counsel and foretold what they would suffer if they did not turn to the reverence of God -- and in the end they seized the prophets and killed them. Nor did their lawlessness stop even there, but they devised things

worse than what has been described, and did not stop until God, avenging their impiety, made them subject to their enemies. Of this we shall speak again later. Many, however, from the tribe of Manasseh, and from Zebulun and Issachar, were persuaded by what the prophets had urged toward piety and changed their ways. All of these came together to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, so as to worship God. When they arrived,

king Hezekiah went up to the temple with the leaders and all the people, and sacrificed on his own behalf seven bulls, as many rams, seven lambs, and as many goats. The king himself and the leaders laid their hands on the heads of the victims and allowed the priests to carry out the sacrifice properly. Some were offering sacrifices and

whole burnt offerings, while the Levites stood in a circle around them with musical instruments, singing hymns to God and playing as they had been taught by David, and the rest of the priests, holding trumpets, sounded them in accompaniment to the singers of the hymns. While this was happening, the king and the multitude threw themselves face down and worshiped God. He then sacrificed seventy oxen, a hundred rams, two hundred

lambs, and for the feasting of the people he generously gave six hundred oxen and three thousand other animals; and the priests carried out everything in accordance with the law. Delighted with all this, the king feasted together with the people, acknowledging his gratitude to God. When the feast of unleavened bread began, they sacrificed what is called the Passover offering and continued performing the remaining sacrifices for

seven days. Beyond what they themselves had properly sacrificed, the king gave the people two thousand bulls and seven thousand other animals. The leaders did the same, giving them a thousand bulls and a thousand forty other animals. In this way the festival, which had not been kept in this manner since the time of Solomon, was for the first time celebrated with such splendor and generosity.

When the observance of the feast had come to its conclusion, the people went out into the countryside and purified it, and cleansed the city of every defilement from idols. The king ordered that the daily sacrifices be carried out from his own resources according to the law, and fixed that tithes be given to the priests and Levites by the people, along with the firstfruits of the crops, so that

they might always remain devoted to worship and never be cut off from the service of God. The people brought in produce of every kind to the priests and Levites, and the king, having built storehouses and chambers for it, distributed it to each of the priests and Levites and to their children and wives; and in this way they returned once more to the ancient worship. Having settled these matters in the manner described, the king

went to war against the Philistines and, having defeated them, took possession of all the enemy's cities from Gaza to Gath. The king of the Assyrians then sent word threatening to overturn his entire realm unless he paid the tribute his father had originally paid. Hezekiah paid no attention to the threats, but took courage from his

piety toward the divine and from the prophet Isaiah, from whom he learned with precision everything that was to come. Let this suffice for the present concerning this king. Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, on learning that Hoshea, king of the Israelites, had secretly sent word to So, king of the Egyptians, urging an alliance against him,

was provoked and campaigned against Samaria in the seventh year of Hoshea's reign. Since the king would not surrender to him, he besieged Samaria for three years and took it by force in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign -- the seventh of Hezekiah, king of the people of Jerusalem -- and utterly wiped out the rule of the Israelites, resettling the whole people in Media and Persia, among whom

he also took king Hoshea alive. He then transferred other nations from a place called Cutha -- for there is a river in Persia bearing this name -- and settled them in Samaria and the land of the Israelites. Thus the ten tribes of the Israelites were removed from Judea after a span of nine hundred and forty-seven years from the time their

ancestors had left Egypt, and eight hundred years from the time they had taken possession of this land under the leadership of Joshua; and from the time they revolted from Rehoboam, grandson of David, and handed the kingdom over to Jeroboam, as I have shown earlier, it was two hundred forty years, seven months, and seven days. Such was the end that overtook the Israelites, who had transgressed the laws and disregarded the prophets who had foretold

this calamity for them if they did not cease their impieties. The beginning of their troubles was the sedition they raised against Rehoboam, grandson of David, when they set up Jeroboam, his own servant, as king over themselves -- a man who, having sinned against the divine, made himself their enemy through this act, which they imitated by copying his own lawlessness. He, at least, suffered the punishment he deserved. The king of the Assyrians

went on to make war throughout all of Syria and Phoenicia as well, and this king's name is recorded in the archives of the Tyrians, for he campaigned against Tyre while Elulaeus was reigning there. Menander, who composed the chronicle and translated the archives of the Tyrians into the Greek language, also confirms this, stating as follows: "And when Elulaeus, on whom

they had conferred the name Pyas, had reigned thirty-six years, the people of Kition revolted, but he sailed against them and brought them back under his authority. In his time Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, invaded and made war on all of Phoenicia; and having made peace with all its cities, he withdrew again. But Sidon, Ake, old Tyre, and many other cities broke away from the Tyrians and surrendered themselves to the king of the Assyrians. Because the Tyrians would not submit,

the king turned back against them once more, the Phoenicians having supplied him with sixty ships and eight hundred oarsmen. The Tyrians sailed out against these with twelve ships, scattered the enemy's fleet, and took about five hundred men captive; and from this the standing of everyone in Tyre was raised. Because of this the king of the Assyrians withdrew, having stationed guards at the river and the aqueducts to keep the Tyrians from drawing water,

and this went on for five years, during which they held out by drinking from dug wells." Such is what is recorded in the Tyrian archives concerning Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians. As for those resettled in Samaria, the Cuthaeans -- for they have used this name down to the present, having been brought from a region called Cutha, which is in Persia, where there is also a river

bearing this same name -- each people brought its own god into Samaria, and there were five of these gods; and by worshiping them according to their ancestral custom, they provoked the greatest God to anger and wrath. He therefore sent a plague upon them, and being destroyed by it and finding no remedy for their troubles, they learned by an oracle to worship the greatest God, since this alone would bring them deliverance. So they sent

envoys to the king of the Assyrians, asking him to send them priests from among the Israelite captives he had taken in the war. When he sent one and they were instructed in the customary laws and the reverence due to this God, they worshiped him zealously and immediately the plague ceased. Continuing to observe these same customs to this day, they are called, in the Hebrew tongue, Cuthaeans, but in Greek,

Samaritans -- people who, whenever it suits a change of fortune, call themselves kinsmen of the Jews when they see them prospering, claiming descent from Joseph and an original kinship with them on that basis; but whenever they see them meeting misfortune, they say they have no connection with them whatsoever, and that no goodwill or kinship is owed to them, declaring themselves instead to be foreign settlers. Of these matters we shall have a more fitting occasion to speak.

← All of Josephus: The Complete Works