TITLE PAGE

CHAPTER I

AHAZIAH BEN-AHAB OF ISRAEL (B.C. 855-854)

A weak, shadowy, and faithless king--1. Relations between Judah and Israel--2. Alliance with Jehoshaphat--3. Revolt of Moab--Mesha and the Moabite Stone--4. The fall from the lattice--Baal-Zebub--Elijah calling down fire from heaven--How are we to judge respecting the Elijah-spirit?--Variations of moral standard.

CHAPTER II

THE ASCENSION OF ELIJAH

Uncertain date--The journey to Gilgal; to Bethel; to Jericho; to the Jordan--The double portion--Chariot and horses of fire--Elisha recrosses the Jordan--The young prophets and their search--Grandeur of Elijah.

CHAPTER III

ELISHA

Cycle of supernatural stories--Elisha and Elijah--The cure of the unwholesome fountain--"Go up, thou bald-head"--The children and the bears.

CHAPTER IV

THE INVASION OF MOAB

Death of Ahaziah--Jehoram Ben-Ahab of Israel--Good beginnings--Attempts to recover Moab--Alliance with Judah and Edom--The invasion--An army perishing of thirst--Elisha--Music--Trenches in the wâdy--Error of the Moabites--Their disastrous rout--Devastation of the country--Mesha propitiates Chemosh--"Great wrath against Israel"--The invading army retreats.

CHAPTER V

ELISHA'S MIRACLES

Their chronological vagueness--Difference between Elisha and Elijah--Contrasts and resemblances--Social life in Israel--1. The widow and the oil--2. The lady of Shunem--Her hospitality--Her reward--3. The boy's death--Her distress--The resuscitation--4. Death in the pot--5. The multiplied first-fruits.

CHAPTER VI

THE STORY OF NAAMAN

The little maid--The leper--Letter of Benhadad to Jehoram--His indignation--Elisha's message--Naaman's disappointment and anger--His servants--His healing--His gratitude--Bowing in the house of Rimmon--Mean cupidity of Gehazi--Stricken with leprosy--The axe-head.

CHAPTER VII

ELISHA AND THE SYRIANS

Syrian marauders--They are baffled--Anger of Benhadad--The vision at Dothan--Meaning of the promises--How fulfilled to God's saints on earth--Some are delivered, some are not--Elisha misleads the Syrians--His generosity to them--Its effects--A fresh Syrian invasion.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FAMINE AND THE SIEGE

Horrible straits of the besieged Samaritans--Stress of famine--The King of Israel--The miserable women--Sackcloth under the purple--The king's fury and despair--He threatens Elisha--The messenger--The king upbraids him--Prophecy of sudden plenty--The disbelieving lord--The extramural lepers--The Syrian camp--The king's misgivings--The lord killed in the rush of the people.

CHAPTER IX

THE SHUNAMMITE AND HAZAEL

The lady of Shunem leaves her estate--Her return--Gehazi talks with the king--Entrance of the Shunammite--Her estates restored--Elisha visits Damascus--A royal present--Benhadad's illness--Hazael--The dark prophecy--Unexplained death of Benhadad--Hazael's usurpation--Real meaning of Elisha's words to Hazael.

CHAPTER X

TWO SONS OF JEHOSHAPHAT

Jehoram (b.c. 851-843)--Ahaziah (b.c. 843-842)--Jehoram ben-Jehoshaphat of Judah--Perplexing uncertainty of minute chronological details--The blight of the Jezebel-alliance--The husband of Athaliah--His apostasies--Revolt of Edom--Narrow escape of Jehoram--Revolt of Libnah--Jehoram's murder by his brethren--Philistine invasion--Incurable disease--Ahaziah ben-Jehoram--Joins his uncle (Jehoram ben-Ahab) in the campaign against Ramoth-Gilead--Visits him at Jezreel--Shot down by Jehu.

CHAPTER XI

THE REVOLT OF JEHU (B.C. 842)

Misery of Jehoram's reign--Thwarted invasion of Moab--Aggression of Benhadad--At Ramoth-Gilead--The young prophet--The two kings absent from the camp--The dangerous commission--The assembled captains--Jehu secretly anointed--His accession enthusiastically welcomed by the army--His sudden enthronement--His swift resolution--The watchman at Jezreel--The two horsemen--The two kings--Their murder--Ferocity of Jehu--Elijah's prophecy--Jezebel--She is hurled down--Jehu drives over her body--The curse fulfilled.

CHAPTER XII

JEHU ESTABLISHED ON THE THRONE (B.C. 842-814)

His politic subtlety--The murder of the seventy princes--The ghastly heaps--Hypocritic ferocity.

CHAPTER XIII

FRESH MURDERS--THE EXTIRPATION OF BAAL-WORSHIP (B.C. 842)

Wading through blood to a throne--The ride to Samaria--The brethren of Ahaziah of Judah--The corpse-choked tank of the shepherds--The Bedawy ascetic--The scene of slaughter in the temple of Baal--Did Elisha approve of these atrocities?--Prophetic judgment on Jehu--Ravages of Hazael--Jehu's anguish--He pays tribute to Assyria.

CHAPTER XIV

ATHALIAH (B.C. 842-836)--JOASH OF JUDAH (B.C. 836-796)

The murderess-daughter of Jezebel--Fierce ambition--Jehosheba--The rescued child--Reared in the Temple--The high priest's plot--The coronation of the boy-king--Athaliah enters the Temple--Her murder--The fate of Baal's high priest--Proposed restoration of the Temple--Joash calls to task the defaulting priests--Death of Jehoiada--Defection of Joash--Murder of Zechariah--Bad record of the line of Jewish priests--Hazael attacks Judah--Defeat of Joash and plunder of Jerusalem--Murder of Joash--Names of the murderers.

CHAPTER XV

AMAZIAH OF JUDAH (B.C. 796-783[?])

The House of David--Amaziah brings to justice the murderers of his father, but spares their children--Grounds for this--Different views taken of him by the historian and the chronicler--Splendid victory of Amaziah in the Valley of Salt--Expansion of the story in the Chronicles--His defiance of Joash--His defeat and murder.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DYNASTY OF JEHU--JEHOAHAZ (B.C. 814-797)--JOASH (B.C. 797-781)

Israel at its nadir--Calf-worship--Oppression of Hazael--Disappearance of Elisha--Repentance of Jehoahaz--Joash of Israel visits the death-bed of Elisha--"The arrow of the Lord's deliverance"--Three victories over the Syrians--Death of Elisha, and posthumous marvels--Joash and Amaziah--Contemptuous answer to the King of Judah--Crushing defeat of Judah.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DYNASTY OF JEHU (CONTINUED)--JEROBOAM II. (B.C. 781-740)

Jeroboam II. the greatest of the kings of Israel--His conquests and wide dominion--A dying gleam of prosperity--Cause of his success--Relations with Assyria--Dawn of written prophecy--Jonah.

CHAPTER XVIII

AMOS AND HOSEA--ZACHARIAH BEN-JEROBOAM (B.C. 740)

Amos describes the condition of Israel--Growth of usury and vice--Humble origin of Amos--His burdens--Degenerations of the "calf-worship"--Uncompromising denunciation--Collision of Amos with Amaziah the high priest at Bethel--His expulsion from Bethel--The curse denounced--His justification of his mission--Hosea the saddest of the prophets--His pictures of Ephraim--Jeroboam II.--His death--His son Zachariah--His desertion and shameful end.

CHAPTER XIX

UZZIAH OF JUDAH (B.C. 783[?]-737)--JOTHAM (B.C. 737-735)

Wane of Assyria--Uzziah a wise and good king--His other name Azariah--Expansion of the story of his conquests in the Chronicles--Training of his army--Defeated by the Assyrians (?)--Stricken with leprosy--The story--Jotham acts as his public representative--Diminished power of Judah under Jotham--Beginning of Isaiah's prophecies--Death of Jotham.

CHAPTER XX

THE AGONY OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM--SHALLUM, MENAHEM, PEKAHIAH, PEKAH (B.C. 740-734)

Shallum, an usurping murderer--Rapid disappearance of kings--Distracted epoch--The prophet Zechariah and the three shepherds--Zechariah's prophecies--The cruel shepherd, Menahem--His savage deeds--Portentous appearance of the Assyrians in Israel--Menahem pays tribute--Tiglath-Pileser--Fulfilment of Hosea's prophecy--Pekahiah--His murder--Pekah--His alliance with Rezin against Judah--Ahaz appeals to Assyria--Defeat and death of Rezin--Fulfilment of prophecy of Amos--Beginning of the captivity of the Ten Tribes--Tiglath-Pileser's successors--Murder of Pekah by Hoshea--Horrible state of Israel as described by Isaiah.

CHAPTER XXI

KING HOSHEA AND THE FALL OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM (B.C. 734-725)

The name Hoshea--The king and the prophet--Occasional gleams of hope and promise--A humiliating reign--Death of Tiglath-Pileser--Hoshea revolts to Sabaco of Egypt--Seized by Shalmaneser--Samaria besieged--Terrible state of the city--Sabaco renders no help--Usurpation of Sargon--Capture of the city--Greatness of Sargon--Fall of the Northern Kingdom--Blighted destiny--God's mercy--"God, and not man"--Despoliation of the tribes--Moral of the story--Assyria and Egypt--The strength and weakness of a nation--Machiavelli--Mixture of alien emigrants--Their worship--The lions--Strange syncretism--The Jews and the Samaritans.

CHAPTER XXII

THE REIGN OF AHAZ (B.C. 735-715)

The chronology--A distracted kingdom--Dark pictures from Isaiah--No sign of repentance--Grapes and wild grapes.

CHAPTER XXIII

ISAIAH AND AHAZ

Isaiah--Rezin and Pekah--Ahaz meets Isaiah--He receives a promise of deliverance--He refuses a sign--The sign given him--Immanuel--Birth of Messianic prophecy--Maher-shalal-hash-baz--The promised Deliverer.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE APOSTASIES OF AHAZ

Moloch-worship--Sacrifice of children--Ahaz appeals to Assyria for help--Ruin of Damascus and death of Rezin--Ahaz does homage to Tiglath-Pileser at Damascus--Records of Tiglath-Pileser--The new altar--Complaisance of the priest Urijah--Unpopularity of Ahaz--Further misgivings--His death.

CHAPTER XXV

HEZEKIAH (B.C. 715-686)

Dates--Importance of the reign--Hezekiah's age--His character--His reformation--Partial suppression of the bamoth--Removal of the matstseboth and Asherim--Destruction of the brazen serpent--Trust in Jehovah--Psalm xlvi.--Chastisement of the Philistines--Three parties in Jerusalem--1. The Assyrian party--2. The Egyptian party--3. The national party--Its attitude to the others--Micah--Mockery of Egypt--Anger and insults of the priests against Isaiah--Confidence of Isaiah--Waverings of Hezekiah.

CHAPTER XXVI

HEZEKIAH'S SICKNESS--THE BABYLONIAN EMBASSY

The story of Hezekiah's illness misplaced--At the point of death--Isaiah's message--The king's agony of mind--The prayer--The reprieve--The sun-dial of Ahaz--The king's gratitude and thanksgiving--Merodach-Baladan--Rising power of Babylon--Object of the embassy--The king's action--The prophet's reproof--The king's humble submission.

CHAPTER XXVII

HEZEKIAH AND ASSYRIA (B.C. 701)

Greatness of Sargon--His campaigns--Defeat of Egypt at the battle of Raphia--Ashdod--Defeat of Merodach-Baladan--Grandeur of Sennacherib--His invasion of Judæa--Earlier collisions--His campaigns--1. Against Babylon--2. Against Elam--3. Against the Hittites and Philistines--Defeat of the Ethiopian Tirhakah at Altaqu--Heavy mulct imposed on Hezekiah--Siege of Lachish--Sennacherib breaks his compact--Distress of Jerusalem.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE GREAT DELIVERANCE (B.C. 701)

Embassy of the Turtan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh--Misery and licence in the city--The conference--Oration of the Rabshakeh--Its effect on the king's ministers and on the people--Taunting insults of the Rabshakeh--Faithfulness and self-control of the people--Heroic faith of Isaiah--Failure of the embassy--Sennacherib's threatening letter--Hezekiah's prayer--Isaiah promises deliverance in the name of Jehovah--The sign--The angel of death--Scene of the catastrophe--The Egyptian tradition of Sethos and the mice--Death and burial of Hezekiah--The campaign as recorded on the Assyrian monuments--The triumph of indomitable faith--Grandeur of Isaiah--Wane of Assyria--Beautiful tolerance of Isaiah.

CHAPTER XXIX

MANASSEH (B.C. 686-641)

The name Manasseh--His tender age--Influence of evil counsellors--Heathenising party--Their dislike of Hezekiah's reformation and of the exclusive worship of Jehovah--Tendency to trust in sacrifices and asceticism--Sanctification of licence--Arguments of the heathenisers--Disparagement of the work of Isaiah--Doubts and disbelief--Influence of the bamoth-priests--Reliance on Assyria--The immoral and idolatrous reaction--1. Restoration of the bamoth, and arguments in their favour--2. Adoption of Phoenician nature-worship--3. Assyrian Sabaism and star-worship--Connivance of the priests--4. Canaanite Moloch-worship--5. Mesopotamian Shamanism--6. The Asherah--Denunciation of the prophets--Persecution and the shedding of innocent blood--Asserted captivity, repentance, and reforming energy of Manasseh--Difficulties of the story--Reign of Amon (b.c. 641-639)--Wretchedness of his reign--Zephaniah and Jeremiah--Murder of Amon.

CHAPTER XXX

JOSIAH (B.C. 639-608)

Three vast movements--Jeremiah's earlier prophecies--The state of society--The Scythians--Prophecies of Ezekiel--Herodotus--The fate of Nineveh--Rise of the Chaldæans--Habakkuk.

CHAPTER XXXI

JOSIAH'S REFORMATION

Growth of Josiah's character--Repairs of the Temple--Hilkiah finds the Book of the Law--Intense effect produced on mind of the king--His message to the prophetess Huldah--Great assembly--Renewal of a solemn league and covenant with Jehovah--The bamoth-priests degraded--Defiling of Tophet--He carries the reformation into Samaria--Its stringency and severity--The Passover--Suppression of heathen corruptions--Jeremiah's share in the reformation--Its dangers and disappointing results--Jeremiah's warnings against all trust in externals--The prophecy of a new covenant--Note to Chapter XXXI.: The Book found in the Temple.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE DEATH OF JOSIAH (B.C. 608)

Prosperity and happiness of Josiah--Accession of the great Pharaoh Necho II.--His excursion against Carchemish--Josiah determines to bar his path--Warnings of Pharaoh Necho--Disaster at Megiddo and death of Josiah--Mistaken hopes--God's dealings with men and nations--Distress among Josiah's subjects--The king's burial--Misgivings respecting the future--Sorrow of Jeremiah--Ultimate fulfilments.

CHAPTER XXXIII

JEHOAHAZ (B.C. 608)

Four sons of Josiah--Shallum chosen by the people of the land--Elegy of Ezekiel--Change of name from Shallum to Jehoahaz--Conquests of Pharaoh Necho II.--Jehoahaz summoned to Riblah--Carried captive by Pharaoh to Egypt--Tribute imposed on Judæa.

CHAPTER XXXIV

JEHOIAKIM (B.C. 608-597)

Eliakim--His change of name--Ignored by Ezekiel--Evil influences--Æsthetic selfishness and oppressive greed--Denunciation by Habakkuk--Denunciation by Jeremiah--Murder of Urijah--Threatened murder of Jeremiah averted by Ahikam--Fall of Nineveh--Utterances of the prophets--Rise of the Chaldæans--Nabopolassar--Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadrezzar--His return to Babylon--His invasion of Judæa--Beginning of the Babylonian captivity--Jehoiakim revolts to Egypt in spite of Jeremiah's warnings--Imprisonment of Jeremiah--Baruch--The menacing roll--Alarm of the princes--Rage of the king--He cuts the scroll to pieces and burns it--Wretchedness of the times--A great drought--Captives of Jerusalem--Miserable death of Jehoiakim--"That which was found in him."

CHAPTER XXXV

JEHOIACHIN (B.C. 597)

Bad influence over him--His brief reign--Allusions to him by Jeremiah at Jerusalem--Second captivity--Regret felt for Jehoiachin--Did he die childless?

CHAPTER XXXVI

ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH (B.C. 597-586)

His oath to the King of Assyria--Ezekiel's prophecies--The exiles and the remnant--Weakness of Zedekiah--Continuance of idolatry as described by Ezekiel--The king breaks his oath with Assyria--Indignation and warnings of Jeremiah--The false prophet Hananiah--The wooden and iron yokes--Death of Hananiah--False prophets--The broken covenant--Advance of Nebuchadrezzar--Belomancy and Babylonian divinations--Siege of Jerusalem--Gloom of Jeremiah's prophecies.

CHAPTER XXXVII

JEREMIAH AND HIS PROPHECIES

Pathos of Jeremiah's lot--The sad epoch in which he lived--Religious changes--Arrest of Jeremiah--Progress of the siege--Zedekiah sends for the prophet--His hardships alleviated--Horrors of famine--Wicked defiance--A sudden death--Anger of the priests and nobles against Jeremiah--He is thrust into a miry pit--Compassion of Ebed-Melech--Purchase of a field at Anathoth--Secret interview with Zedekiah--It becomes known--Distress of Zedekiah.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM (B.C. 586)

Nebuzaradan and the Babylonians--The final captivity--Dreadful fate of Zedekiah--Prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah--Sack of the city--Massacre of the chief inhabitants--Burning of the city and Temple--Desolation--Respect shown by the Babylonian general to Jeremiah--He decides to remain with the remnant in Judæa.

CHAPTER XXXIX

GEDALIAH (B.C. 586)

Sad parting from the exiles--The wail at Ramah--Gedaliah's appointment as satrap perhaps due to Jeremiah--Desolation of Jerusalem--The seat of government removed to Mizpah--A respite and a gleam of hope--Guerilla bands--Johanan warns Gedaliah against Ishmael--Unsuspecting generosity of the governor--He receives Ishmael and his confederates with hospitality--He is brutally murdered--Massacre of the pilgrims from Shiloh--The horrible well--Johanan pursues Ishmael--His escape-- Proposal to migrate to Egypt--Jeremiah consulted--His advice refused--Prophecy of Jeremiah at the khan of Chimham--Kindness shown by Evil-Merodach to Jehoiachin.

EPILOGUE

The interest of the preceding history and the great moral lessons which it involves--The central conceptions of Hebrew prophecy--The end of the whole matter.

APPENDIX I

THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA, AND SOME OF THEIR INSCRIPTIONS

APPENDIX II

INSCRIPTION IN THE TUNNEL OF THE POOL OF SILOAM

APPENDIX III

WAS THERE A GOLDEN CALF AT DAN?

APPENDIX IV

DATES OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, AS GIVEN BY KITTEL AND OTHER MODERN CRITICS