HOW ZACHARIAH SHALLUM, MENAHEM PEKAHIAH AND PEKAH TOOK THE
GOVERNMENT OVER THE ISRAELITES ; AND HOW PUL AND TIGLATH-PILESER MADE AN
EXPEDITION AGAINST THE ISRAELITES.
HOW JOTHAM, THE SON OF UZZIAH REIGNED
OVER THE TRIBE OF JUDAH; AND WHAT THINGS NAHUM PROPHESIED AGAINST THE ASSYRIANS.
FJAJ 9.57
1. Now when Zachariah, the son of Jeroboam, had reigned six months over
Israel, he was slain by the treachery of a certain friend of his, whose
name was Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who took the kingdom afterward, but
kept it no longer than thirty days; for Menahem, the general of his army,
who was at that time in the city Tirzah, and heard of what had befallen
Zachariah, removed thereupon with all his forces to Samaria, and joining
battle with Shallum, slew him; and when he had made himself king, he went
thence, and came to the city Tiphsah; but the citizens that were in it
shut their gates, and barred them against the king, and would not admit
him: but in order to be avenged on them, he burnt the country round about
it, and took the city by force, upon a siege; and being very much displeased
at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah had done, he slew them all, and spared
not so much as the infants, without omitting the utmost instances of cruelty
and barbarity; for he used such severity upon his own countrymen, as would
not be pardonable with regard to strangers who had been conquered by him.
And after this manner it was that this Menahem continued to reign with
cruelty and barbarity for ten years
But when Pul, king of Assyria, had
made an expedition against him, he did not think meet to fight or engage
in battle with the Assyrians, but he persuaded him to accept of a thousand
talents of silver, and to go away, and so put an end to the war
This sum
the multitude collected for Menahem, by exacting fifty drachme as poll-money
for every head; (22)
Dr. Wall, in his critical notes on 2 Kings 15:20, observes, "that
when this Menahem is said to have exacted the money of Israel of all the
mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give Pul,
the king of Assyria, a thousand talents, this is the first public money
raised by any [Israelite] king by tax on the people; that they used before
to raise it out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, or of their
own house; that it was a poll-money on the rich men, [and them only,] to
raise £353,000, or, as others count a talent, £400,000, at
the rate of £6 or £7 per head; and that God commanded, by Ezekiel,
ch. 45:8; 46:18, that no such thing should be done [at the Jews' restoration],
but the king should have land of his own."
after which he died, and was buried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah
his successor in the kingdom, who followed the barbarity of his father,
and so ruled but two years only, after which he was slain with his friends
at a feast, by the treachery of one Pekah, the general of his horse, and
the son of Remaliah, who laid snares for him
Now this Pekah held the government
twenty years, and proved a wicked man and a transgressor
But the king
of Assyria, whose name was Tiglath-Pileser, when he had made an expedition
against the Israelites, and had overrun all the land of Gilead, and the
region beyond Jordan, and the adjoining country, which is called Galilee,
and Kadesh, and Hazor, he made the inhabitants prisoners, and transplanted
them into his own kingdom
And so much shall suffice to have related here
concerning the king of Assyria. FJAJ 9.58
2. Now Jotham the son of Uzziah reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem,
being a citizen thereof by his mother, whose name was Jerusha
This king
was not defective in any virtue, but was religious towards God, and righteous
towards men, and careful of the good of the city (for what part soever
wanted to be repaired or adorned he magnificently repaired and adorned
them)
He also took care of the foundations of the cloisters in the temple,
and repaired the walls that were fallen down, and built very great towers,
and such as were almost impregnable; and if any thing else in his kingdom
had been neglected, he took great care of it
He also made an expedition
against the Ammonites, and overcame them in battle, and ordered them to
pay tribute, a hundred talents, and ten thousand cori of wheat, and as
many of barley, every year, and so augmented his kingdom, that his enemies
could not despise it, and his own people lived happily. FJAJ 9.59
3. Now there was at that time a prophet, whose name was Nahum, who spake
after this manner concerning the overthrow of the Assyrians and of Nineveh:
"Nineveh shall be a pool of water in motion (23)
This passage is taken out of the prophet Nahum, ch. 2:8-13, and is the
principal, or rather the only, one that is given us almost verbatim, but
a little abridged, in all Josephus's known writings: by which quotation
we learn what he himself always asserts, viz. that he made use of the Hebrew
original and not of the Greek version]; as also we learn, that his Hebrew
copy considerably differed from ours. See all three texts particularly
set down and compared together in the Essay on the Old Testament, page
187.
so shall all her people be troubled, and tossed, and go away by flight,
while they say one to another, Stand, stand still, seize their gold and
silver, for there shall be no one to wish them well, for they will rather
save their lives than their money; for a terrible contention shall possess
them one with another, and lamentation, and loosing of the members, and
their countenances shall be perfectly black with fear
And there will be
the den of the lions, and the mother of the young lions! God says to thee,
Nineveh, that they shall deface thee, and the lion shall no longer go out
from thee to give laws to the world." And indeed this prophet prophesied
many other things besides these concerning Nineveh, which I do not think
necessary to repeat, and I here omit them, that I may not appear troublesome
to my readers; all which thing happened about Nineveh a hundred and fifteen
years afterward: so this may suffice to have spoken of these matters. FJAJ 9.60