HOW ZERAH, KING OF THE ETHIOPIANS, WAS BEATEN BY ASA; AND HOW ASA, UPON BAASHA'S MAKING WAR AGAINST HIM, INVITED THE KING OF THE DAMASCENS TO ASSIST HIM; AND HOW, ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF BAASHA ZIMRI GOT THE KINGDOM AS DID HIS SON AHAB AFTER HIM. FJAJ 8.82
1. Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was of an excellent character, and
had a regard to God, and neither did nor designed any thing but what had
relation to the observation of the laws
He made a reformation of his kingdom,
and cut off whatsoever was wicked therein, and purified it from every impurity.
Now he had an army of chosen men that were armed with targets and spears;
out of the tribe of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of the tribe
of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, two hundred and fifty thousand.
But when he had already reigned ten years, Zerah, king of Ethiopia, (31)
The reader is to remember that Cush is not Ethiopia, but Arabia. See Bochart,
B. IV. ch. 2.
made an expedition against him, with a great army, of nine hundred thousand
footmen, and one hundred thousand horsemen, and three hundred chariots,
and came as far as Mareshah, a city that belonged to the tribe of Judah.
Now when Zerah had passed so far with his own army, Asa met him, and put
his army in array over against him, in a valley called Zephathah, not far
from the city; and when he saw the multitude of the Ethiopians, he cried
out, and besought God to give him the victory, and that he might kill many
ten thousands of the enemy: "For," said he, (32)
Here is a very great error in our Hebrew copy in this place, 2 Chronicles
15:3-6, as applying what follows to times past, and not to times future;
whence that text is quite misapplied by Sir Isaac Newton.
"I depend on nothing else but that assistance which I expect from
thee, which is able to make the fewer superior to the more numerous, and
the weaker to the stronger; and thence it is alone that I venture to meet
Zerah, and fight him." FJAJ 8.83
2. While Asa was saying this, God gave him a signal of victory, and
joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it,
he slew a great many of the Ethiopians; and when he had put them to flight,
he pursued them to the country of Gerar; and when they left off killing
their enemies, they betook themselves to spoiling them, (for the city Gerar
was already taken,) and to spoiling their camp, so that they carried off
much gold, and much silver, and a great deal of [other] prey, and camels,
and great cattle, and flocks of sheep
Accordingly, when Asa and his army
had obtained such a victory, and such wealth from God, they returned to
Jerusalem
Now as they were coming, a prophet, whose name was Azariah,
met them on the road, and bade them stop their journey a little; and began
to say to them thus: That the reason why they had obtained this victory
from God was this, that they had showed themselves righteous and religious
men, and had done every thing according to the will of God; that therefore,
he said, if they persevered therein, God would grant that they should always
overcome their enemies, and live happily; but that if they left off his
worship, all things shall fall out on the contrary; and a time should come,
wherein no true prophet shall be left in your whole multitude, nor a priest
who shall deliver you a true ,answer from the oracle; but your cities shall
be overthrown, and your nation scattered over the whole earth, and live
the life of strangers and wanderers
So he advised them, while they had
time, to be good, and not to deprive themselves of the favor of God
When
the king and the people heard this, they rejoiced; and all in common, and
every one in particular, took great care to behave themselves righteously.
The king also sent some to take care that those in the country should observe
the laws also. FJAJ 8.84
3. And this was the state of Asa, king of the two tribes
I now return
to Baasha, the king of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Nadab,
the son of Jeroboam, and retained the government
He dwelt in the city
Tirzah, having made that his habitation, and reigned twenty-four years.
He became more wicked and impious than Jeroboam or his son
He did a great
deal of mischief to the multitude, and was injurious to God, who sent the
prophet Jehu, and told him beforehand that his whole family should be destroyed,
and that he would bring the same miseries on his house which had brought
that of Jeroboam to ruin; because when he had been made king by him, he
had not requited his kindness, by governing the multitude righteously and
religiously; which things, in the first place, tended to their own happiness,
and, in the next place, were pleasing to God: that he had imitated this
very wicked king Jeroboam; and although that man's soul had perished, yet
did he express to the life his wickedness; and he said that he should therefore
justly experience the like calamity with him, since he had been guilty
of the like wickedness
But Baasha, though he heard beforehand what miseries
would befall him and his whole family for their insolent behavior, yet
did not he leave off his wicked practices for the time to come, nor did
he care to appear other than worse and worse till he died; nor did he then
repent of his past actions, nor endeavor to obtain pardon of God for them,
but did as those do who have rewards proposed to them, when they have once
in earnest set about their work, they do not leave off their labors; for
thus did Baasha, when the prophet foretold to him what would come to pass,
grow worse, as if what were threatened, the perdition of his family, and
the destruction of his house, (which are really among the greatest of evils,)
were good things; and, as if he were a combatant for wickedness, he every
day took more and more pains for it: and at last he took his army and assaulted
a certain considerable city called Ramah, which was forty furlongs distant
from Jerusalem; and when he had taken it, he fortified it, having determined
beforehand to leave a garrison in it, that they might thence make excursions,
and do mischief to the kingdom of Asa. FJAJ 8.85
4. Whereupon Asa was afraid of the attempts the enemy might make upon
him; and considering with himself how many mischiefs this army that was
left in Ramah might do to the country over which he reigned, he sent ambassadors
to the king of the Damascenes, with gold and silver, desiring his assistance,
and putting him in mind that we have had a friendship together from the
times of our forefathers
So he gladly received that sum of money, and
made a league with him, and broke the friendship he had with Baasha, and
sent the commanders of his own forces unto the cities that were under Baasha's
dominion, and ordered them to do them mischief
So they went and burnt
some of them, and spoiled others; Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmain (33)
This Abelmain, or, in Josephus's copy, Abellane, that belonged to the land
of Israel, and bordered on the country of Damascus, is supposed, both by
Hudson and Spanheim, to be the same with Abel, or Ahila, whence came Abilene.
This may he that city so denominated from Abel the righteous, there buried,
concerning the shedding of whose blood within the compass of the land of
Israel, I understand our Savior's words about the fatal war and overthrow
of Judea by Titus and his Roman army; "That upon you may come all
the righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel
to the blood of Zacharias son of Barnchins, whom ye slew between the temple
and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon
this generation," Matthew 23;35, 36; Luke 11:51.
and many others
Now when the king of Israel heard this, he left off building
and fortifying Ramah, and returned presently to assist his own people under
the distresses they were in; but Asa made use of the materials that were
prepared for building that city, for building in the same place two strong
cities, the one of which was called Geba, and the other Mizpah; so that
after this Baasha had no leisure to make expeditions against Asa, for he
was prevented by death, and was buried in the city Tirzah; and Elah his
son took the kingdom, who, when he had reigned two years, died, being treacherously
slain by Zimri, the captain of half his army; for when he was at Arza,
his steward's house, he persuaded some of the horsemen that were under
him to assault Elah, and by that means he slew him when he was without
his armed men and his captains, for they were all busied in the siege of
Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines. FJAJ 8.86
5. When Zimri, the captain of the army, had killed Elah, he took the
kingdom himself, and, according to Jehu's prophecy, slew all the house
of Baasha; for it came to pass that Baasha's house utterly perished, on
account of his impiety, in the same manner as we have already described
the destruction of the house of Jeroboam
But the army that was besieging.
Gibbethon, when they heard what had befallen the king, and that when Zimri
had killed him, he had gained the kingdom, they made Omri their general
king, who drew off his army from Gibbethon, and came to Tirzah, where the
royal palace was, and assaulted the city, and took it by force
But when
Zimri saw that the city had none to defend it, he fled into the inmost
part of the palace, and set it on fire, and burnt himself with it, when
he had reigned only seven days
Upon which the people of Israel were presently
divided, and part of them would have Tibni to be king, and part Omri; but
when those that were for Omri's ruling had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over
all the multitude
Now it was in the thirtieth year of the reign of Asa
that Omri reigned for twelve years; six of these years he reigned in the
city Tirzah, and the rest in the city called Semareon, but named by the
Greeks Samaria; but he himself called it Semareon, from Semer, who sold
him the mountain whereon he built it
Now Omri was no way different from
those kings that reigned before him, but that he grew worse than they,
for they all sought how they might turn the people away from God by their
daily wicked practices; and oil that account it was that God made one of
them to be slain by another, and that no one person of their families should
remain
This Omri also died in Samaria and Ahab his son succeeded him. FJAJ 8.87
6. Now by these events we may learn what concern God hath for the affairs
of mankind, and how he loves good men, and hates the wicked, and destroys
them root and branch; for many of these kings of Israel, they and their
families, were miserably destroyed, and taken away one by another, in a
short time, for their transgression and wickedness; but Asa, who was king
of Jerusalem, and of the two tribes, attained, by God's blessing, a long
and a blessed old age, for his piety and righteousness, and died happily,
when he had reigned forty and one years; and when he was dead, his son
Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the government
He was born of Asa's wife
Azubah
And all men allowed that he followed the works of David his forefather,
and this both in courage and piety; but we are not obliged now to speak
any more of the affairs of this king. FJAJ 8.88