SECTION I. THE FIRST CENTURY AFTER THE DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. A. THE FIRST FIVE DYNASTIES OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. I. JEROBOAM AND HIS SON. The reign of the first king of the Ten Tribes lasted twenty-two years, and was terminated only by his death, but his house was overthrown after his son had reigned barely two years; and the fate of the first dynasty was a sort of premonition of what awaited all that came after. But the internal constitution, and the external position of the kingdom towards Judah and other states, received essentially from the strong hand of its first king the form which they retained more or less unchanged under his successors. Some facts of great importance belonging to the reign of Jeroboam are known to us with certainty, and others may be determined with great probability; but unfortunately we are no longer able to assign to a particular date the most important events of his reign of twenty-two years. It may be readily supposed that the sovereign of the new kingdom had to contend with many ignorant or even impossible claims, and many internal disturbances. Clear evidence of this may still be found in his frequent changes of the royal residence. He first selected the ancient sanctuary of Shechem, where he had been chosen king, as his capital; and no city could have been more suitable, in part from its high importance in ancient times,' and again, from the fact that through all ages down to the present day (when Nablûs lies upon the same spot) it has maintained its position as one of the principal places of the sacred land. But some cause, with which we are no longer acquainted, induced him to remove the seat of government to Penuel, on the other side of the Jordan, a city which, like Shechem, possessed a primeval sanctity for Israel.2 In the end, however, he returned to the west of the Jordan, and Tirzah, formerly the seat of a petty Canaanite prince, became his permanent residence. 1 Vol. ii. p. 278 sqq. 2 Vol. i. p. 304, note. No sacred associations from ancient compared with the passing remark in xiv. 17, and further with xv. 21, 33, xvi. 6. 8 All this follows from 1 Kings xii. 25 sq., 15-18, 23; Josh. xii. 24. times attached to this city, the exact site of which has only been recently discovered.' It now became, however, for a period of forty to fifty years, the regular residence of the kings of the Ten Tribes; and its splendid buildings gave it such speedy glory that it was even placed side by side with Jerusalem as a model of beauty. The palace which Zimri afterwards burnt down over his own head, was probably erected by Jeroboam, who also expended great labour in constructing fortifications, and kept three hundred war chariots.3 1. Of the relations of the countries subdued by David and Solomon towards Jeroboam, we have no longer any definite information. Many were, no doubt, still kept by his arm under the sway of Israel, such as Moab, which did not revolt till after the death of Ahab. Others, on the contrary, probably regained their independence, like Damascus, which, as the centre of the Aramean power west of the Euphrates, became shortly after of very great importance, and exercised a most powerful influence on the fortunes of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. The danger of its hostility now increased in proportion to the sufferings it believed itself to have sustained under the rule of David and Solomon, and the efforts it made to avert a resumption of supremacy by Israel. Damascus must soon have united all the other Aramean countries west of the Euphrates under its sway; and was thus enabled, in the course of the following century, to undertake a regular war of extermination against Israel, while thirty-two tributary princes rendered military service to its king. The revolt of the Aramean countries from Israel was In his last journey (Bib. Res. iii. 302, ed. 1856) Robinson believes he has discovered it in a hitherto unknown Tellûzah, not very far north of Mount Ebal. According to this it would have been situated very near the ancient Shechem, and the reason which decided the king to prefer it to the latter, must have been the more urgent. 2 As Cant. vi. 4 shows, where it is to be observed that Tirzah is even named before Jerusalem. Both these statements rest on the certainly somewhat confused additions of the LXX, Cod. Vat. to 1 Kings xii. 24; what the χάραξ was which he constructed is too obscurely indicated. have been a powerful kingdom at any rate as early as the last years of Jeroboam. The same conclusion may be drawn from the reference of Benhadad's genealogy to his grandfather; according to this passage he was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, and consequently his father, who was still on the throne in Jeroboam's time, must have had a not undistinguished predecessor. This may raise the question whether and (cf. iii. p. 218) may not be only two different readings of the same original name? Ancient readers must have surmised it, for the LXX, Cod. Vat. in 1 Kings xi. 14, read Εσρώμ ἐν Ραμά, and in the same way an ancient Greek version in 1 Kings xv. 18 has υἱόν Τὰβ ἐν Ραμάν, although for it has here 'AÇahλ and the LXX have 'Av. But the present state of our knowledge does not permit us to go off here on a mere enquiry. 1 Kings xx. 1 sqq. certainly soon followed by that of Ammon, which had at an earlier period closely allied itself with Damascus ;1 and its geographical position enabled it to break loose sooner than Moab. It was all the easier for these nations to regain their independence, as the main efforts of Jeroboam, like those of his successors down to Omri and Ahab, were all directed against Judah alone, the possession of which they deemed indispensable to the restoration of the kingdom of Saul;2 just as Saul's son Ish-bosheth had commenced by attacking it.3 The war, however, not being so easily brought to a close, Jeroboam appears to have called in the aid of Egypt, then under the rule of a new dynasty, against Jerusalem. We only arrive at this conclusion from a consideration of all the circumstances; but the campaign of the Egyptians against Jerusalem (to be described below) is otherwise without any apparent cause. Moreover, recourse to Egyptian aid in danger continued to be one of the leading principles of the northern kingdom; and an alliance with the more distant neighbour in order the more easily to harass the nearer has been in all ages the detestable device of the reckless ruler. In this plight, the feeble Judah, in its turn, to secure itself against a coalition of such enemies, would watch with pleasure Damascus and other nations revolt from Israel, and would even (as we know was the case with Damascus) seek to enter into an alliance with them against it. And thus the empire of David was shattered to its very foundations. 2. But little time, in fact, could be required, to convince many of the leading citizens of the northern kingdom how greatly they had deceived themselves in the expectation of enjoying under Jeroboam a still better government than that of David. Among the people the change of feeling expressed itself in the increase of the numbers that began again to resort to the temple at Jerusalem;5 and Jeroboam soon became alarmed lest these frequent pilgrimages to the Davidic sanctuary should renew their affection for the house of David, and incite them to rebellion against him. The best means of securing the permanence of his power could not long be doubtful, when its origin, and that of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes 1 Vol. iii. p. 152 sqq. 2 1 Kings xiv. 30, xv. 6 sq., 16–22, 32. 3 Vol. iii. p. 113 sqq. From 2 Chron. xi. 17 we might conjecture that the arrangements described in 1 Kings xii. 26-32 were instituted three years after the establishment of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes; but that date is too closely connected in the Chronicles with the older narrative of the great event of the fifth year after the disruption of the monarchy (see below). 5 This follows clearly from the words of the older narrator, 1 Kings xii. 26 sq., even independently of the later representation 2 Chron. xi. 16 sq. 2 itself, was considered. If, in the absence of all restraint, it went back to the spirit of the age before David, or even of the Judges, an opportunity was afforded for establishing in its midst, in direct opposition to Jerusalem, a Jahveh-worship which might openly relieve the suffocating pressure of obscure and gloomy views, and at the same time flatter the ideas and passions of the majority, as soon as the existence of such a cultus in the age of the Judges could be recalled. But it was still quite within the memory of men that a large portion of the nation in the period of the Judges had worshipped Jahveh under the form of an image. There is certainly no historical evidence that the image employed in those times was that of a bull, or calf, now selected by Jeroboam; so that it might be conjectured that Jeroboam was imitating some sort of animalworship which he had seen during his long sojourn in Egypt, and did so the more readily, as he was advised to seek an alliance with Egypt. But a more careful consideration points to the belief that Jeroboam, looking to the origin and tendency of his kingdom in its antagonism to the principles prevailing in the latter part of Solomon's reign and in Rehoboam's, was desirous of rigidly guarding against actual heathenism and the introduction of new deities, while he sufficiently met the dark impulse of his people, as well as the prevailing love of pomp and sensual attraction, by making the worship of Jahveh himself appeal to the senses as much as possible. It was certainly, therefore, ancient recollections of the mode in which Israel worshipped its God in Egypt and from time to time subsequently, that decided Jeroboam to select this form. He had two large golden images of this kind constructed, but he was careful to choose two places to set them up in, which had been holy since ancient times. One was the primitive sanctuary 1 Vol. ii. p. 347 sqq. 2 The narrative in Ex. xxxii. (cf. ii. p. 182 sqq.) proves only, it may be said, that Levites occasionally worshipped Jahveh in ancient times in the form of an image; but the particular image of a bull was perhaps only introduced into the representation of the fourth narrator of the primitive history with reference to the image-worship established by Jeroboam, just as the expression Ex. xxxii. 4 actually agrees with 1 Kings xii. 28. In other passages where an image of Jahveh is mentioned, Judges viii. 27, xvii. 4 sq., 1 Sam. xix. 13-16, it can only be explained by reference to the ancient Penates, and was consequently in a human form, as the 3 narrative in 1 Sam. xix. also presupposes, (comp. iii. p. 77). But in these cases it is properly only the God of individual houses, not a national God that is spoken of; and as the narrative of Moses' image of the serpent stands quite by itself (ii. p. 176 sq.), it can excite no surprise that there is little mention of another image dating back to the Mosaic age. Comp. further the remarks in ii. p. 182. 3 The expression 'these be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of Egypt,' 1 Kings xii. 28, really only contains in its polytheistic form the narrator's idea that image-worship was very closely allied to polytheism. at Bethel, on the southern frontier of the kingdom; the other was Dan, on the northern, which had been made a holy place in the age of the Judges.' His next step was to forbid his subjects to visit the temple at Jerusalem any more. It soon appeared how well adapted the new arrangements were for the sensual nature of the lower classes; for even to Dan, in the extreme north, the people flocked like one man. The transposition of the great autumn festival from the seventh to the eighth month, which was resolved upon at the same time, was probably especially acceptable to the people in the north, as they had then got their harvest completely over.3 In Bethel, however, as the older and more important sanctuary, the king erected round the image of Jahveh a splendid temple, called in Canaanite style a 'House of the Heights,' where the national sacrifices were henceforth to be publicly offered. This temple evidently lasted many years, and might have been intended to rival the one in Jerusalem; nor did it lose its importance subsequently, but it continued to be the great sanctuary of the realm, until after the fall of the kingdom. Similar temples were erected all over the country.6 The worship of Jahveh was therefore to be the only recognised cultus in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes; but in a form which had from the first followed the light of the true religion only as a shadow, and which did away with all those spiritual elements which gave it a unique place among the religions of the world. It contained the germ of an ever-deepening corruption of the national faith; and Hosea was justified in the bitter irony with which he called the God of this kingdom its calf. How the second of the Ten Commandments was to be 1 Vol. ii. p. 348. 2 The words 8 in 1 Kings xii. 30, which were misunderstood even by the LXX, can scarcely mean anything different from, see note on Ps. lxxxii. 7 in the Dichter des A. B. 2nd ed., cf. also, Num. xiv. 15; Ezr. iii. 1, Neh. viii. 1; the article should for this reason be struck out, having been introduced by mistake into ver. 30 from ver. 29. On ef. 1 Sam. i. 16. 3 See the Alterth. p. 389. 4 Vol. iii. p. 306. 5 1 Kings xii. 31, 2 Kings xxiii. 15, Amos ix. I. In the first passage, however, the words 'n are to be understood as plural, according to 2 Kings xvii. 29, 32 and Lehrb. § 270c; cf. 2 Kings compared with 2 Kings xvii. 29, 32, and many passages in the prophets. The Hos. viii. 5, xiii. 2. On the other hand, the expression that Jeroboam ordained priests for the altars of the heights, for the demons (satyrs), and for the calves,' 2 Chron. xi. 15 is to be explained simply from the style of the peculiar language of the Chronicles. complete confusion of the calf with the Astarte Bad, Tob. i. 5 (and somewhat differently in Rom. xi. 4, cf. the Alterth. p. 261), is of a much later date. Compare which evidently belonged to citizens of the two recently discovered seal rings, the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, as they bear a representation of the calf, one with the words yy, the other figured in the ; לנתניהו בן עבדיהו with xxiii. 19. |