(12) Assassination of Jehoash. The assassi nation of Jehoash in his bed by 'his own servants' is described in the Chronicles as a revenge taken upon him by the priestly party for his murder of 'the sons' of Jehoiada; and the same fate. from the same influence, fell upon his son Amaziah, if we may so interpret the words in 2 Chron. xxv :27.
(13) Amaziah, Uzziah, and Ahaz. 'From the time that Amaziah turned away from following Jehovah they made a conspiracy against him,' etc. Thus thc house of David appeared to be committing itself, like that of Saul, to permanent enmity with the priests. The wisdom of Uzziah, during a long reign, averted this collision, though a symptom of it returned towards its close. No further mischief from this cause followed, until the reign of his grandson, the weak and unfortu nate Ahaz; after which the power of the kingdom rapidly moldered away.
The struggle of the crown against priestly con trol was perhaps the most immediate cause of the ruin of Judah. Ahaz was probably less guided by policy than by superstition, or by architectural taste, in erecting his Damascene altar (2 Kings (14) Ruinous Conduct of Manasseh. But the far more outrageous proceedings of Manasseh seem to have been a systematic attempt to extir pate the national religion because of its supporting the priestly power ; and the 'innocent blood very much,' which he is stigmatized for shedding (2 Kings xxi:t6), was undoubtedly a sanguinary attack on the party op,posed to his impious and despotic innovations. The storm which he had raised did not burst in his lifetime ; but two years after it fell on the head of his son Amon; and the disorganization of the kingdom which his mad ness had wrought is commemorated as the cause of the Babylonish captivity (2 Kings xxiii :26; xxiv :3, 4). It is also credible that the long
continued despotism had greatly lessened patriotic spirit ; and that the Jewish people of the declining kingdom were less brave against foreign invaders than against kindred and neighbor tribes or civil opponents.
(15) Fatal Decline. Faction had become very fierce within Jerusalem itself (Ezek. xxii), and civil bloodshed was common. Wealth, where it existed, was generally a source of corruption, by introducing foreign luxury, tastes, manners, su perstitions, immorality, or idolatry; and when consecrated to pious purposes, as by Hezekiah and Josiah, produced little more than a formal and exterior religion.
The appointment of Hilkiah to the office of high-priest seems to mark the era at which (by a reaction after the atrocities of Manasseh and Amon) the purer priestly sentiment obtained its triumph over the crown. But the victory came too late. Society was corrupt and convulsed within, and the two great powers of Egypt and Babylon menaced it from without. True lovers of their God and of their country, like Jeremiah. saw that it was a time rather for weeping than for action ; and that the faithful must resign themselves to the bitter lot which the sins of their nation had earned. F. W. N.