Hoshea, the last King of Israel.-The Tribes of Israel carried away into Captivity.

РЕКАН,

2 KINGS XVII.

DEKAH, king of Israel, was slain by Hoshea, during the reign of Ahaz in Judah.

This Hoshea reigned nine years over Israel. He was not so bad as other kings of Israel, but he was not a pious king, and anything short of true piety is displeasing to God. Israel had now run great lengths in wickedness, and if he did not urge them on as others had done before him, he did not restrain them from sin, and so God now punished the nation severely for their sins. He is long-suffering, but when sinners do not repent, his wrath at length falls upon them, and then he is a "consuming fire."

put him in fetters, and thrust him into prison.

Shalmanezer was now king of Assyria, "and Hoshea became his servant and gave him presents," just as the king of Judah had done. He, however, tried to shake off the yoke of Shalmanezer, and Corresponded with the king of Egypt to invite him to be his friend, and neglected to pay to Assyria what he agreed to pay. Shalmanezer soon found out what he was doing, and fell upon him, took him away and

The king of Assyria then besieged Samaria, the capital city of Israel, which held out three years against him; and, having taken it, he carried the Israelites away into captivity, and scattered them in various parts of his dominions. So, even all the people of rank were made slaves and beggars, and this evil came upon them for trusting in false gods, living in the practice of sin, and neglecting the Lord God of Israel.

If you read from the seventh to the twenty-third verse of this chapter, you will see an account of the offences of these people against God, and how they hardened their hearts against his commandments and followed the

ways of the wicked heathen. And so "the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight."

Thus were the ten tribes of Israel scattered and lost on account of their sins, and they have never been recovered to this day; and thus their land became a habitation for idolaters.

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The good Hezekiah, King of Judah.

2 KINGS XVIII., XIX.

T the time that Israel were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, was king of Judah. He ascended the throne in the third year of the reign of Hoshea over Israel, at the age of twenty-five, and reigned in Jerusalem, over Judah, twenty

nine years.

God was pleased with this king, for "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did." "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves,' all of which were devoted to idolatry; and, among the rest, he "brake in pieces," or ground to powder, "the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for, unto those days, the children of Israel did burn incense to it:" and he called it "Nehushtan; "—which means, brass, a mere piece of brass, which it is the greatest folly to worship. "And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth,"-" he rebelled" and threw off the yoke of Assyria, which his father had submitted to, when he said to Tiglath-pileser "I am thy servant; and "he smote the Philistines," who in his father's time had marched into Judah and taken many places in it.

However, in order to try Hezekiah's trust in God, and to punish his wicked subjects, God suffered the king of Assyria, who had destroyed Israel, to march a large force against him, and he took his "fenced cities," or what we call the frontier towns or garrisons, on the borders of the country.

Hezekiah was frightened; and he sent to tell the king of Assyria that he was sorry for having given him offence, and entreated him to go back, and he would give him anything, for so doing, that he might desire. So he demanded a sum of money worth about two million dollars. This

obliged Hezekiah to empty the public treasures, and to take all the gold and silver of the temple, even to the ornaments of the posts" and the doors. Hezekiah was not right in paying all this money, for there was a prophet then in Judah, and had he gone to him he would have learnt that God could deliver him without this sacrifice. But, as I have told you, he was frightened; and, although he was a good king, he did

what was wrong.

Notwithstanding that Hezekiah had paid the king of Assyria to go back, yet, when he had got the money, he probably thought to himself, "Now Hezekiah's kingdom is surely mine. He has no money to pay an army, and, if he was so weak before as to be frightened, he must be more so now I have got his treasures." So this base cheating king, instead of withdrawing his army, as he had agreed to do, sent three generals, with a large host, against Jerusalem, and kept the money, too, which was paid him to go back.

Hezekiah now found it was in vain to treat with such a tyrant, and he did what he ought to have done before he rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth as a sign of humiliation, and he went to pray in the house of the Lord. He also sent messengers to Isaiah, the prophet, who then lived in Judah, and entreated him to pray that God would direct and protect him, for he knew not what to do.

God spoke to the prophet's mind, and he told Hezekiah not to fear; for the wicked king, who had despised the name of God, should be suddenly and totally subdued by his almighty power.

As Hezekiah did not send any message to the king of Assyria, he received another insolent message from him. And he told him, "Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?"

When Hezekiah received his letter, he went and spread its contents before the Lord. God knew what it contained, but this was a sign that he wished to have God's direction.

God heard Hezekiah's prayer, and the very night after the blasphemous message had been sent from the king of Assyria "the angel of the Lord went out, and smote, in the camp of the Assyrians, a hundred four-score and five thousand," or a hundred and eighty-five thousand; "and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses!"

Hezekiah would have been afraid to fight such an army, but God fought for him. "The angel of the Lord" is said to have done this, and God perhaps employed a glorious spirit in this work, but anything that does his purpose is his angel or messenger. The Scripture does not say what kind of a death this army suffered; some think that they died by a plague, for there are plagues that carry people off in much less time than an hour: a dreadful pest lately destroyed many inhabitants of Europe, and God could then have sent it into a whole army.

However, while we may be innocently curious to find out in what way Sennacherib the king of Assyria was vanquished, the word of God came to pass, and he escaped among the few that remained alive, and returned whence he came. This ought to have convinced him that the God

ASSYRIAN CROWNS.

of Israel was the true God, but he returned to his wicked idolatry, and, "while he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god," two of his sons "smote him with the sword," and "Esar-haddon, his son, reigned in his stead." The Jews say that the reason why his two sons slew him was because he was going to sacrifice them to his god; he was, indeed, idolater enough, and tyrant enough, to do so, but of this we have no account in the Scriptures.

Thus, in Sennacherib you see how God can cast down the proud; and in Hezekiah, how he can raise up the humble.

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Hezekiah's severe Sickness and wonderful Recovery.

2 KINGS XX.

OOD king Hezekiah was taken very ill, and had a bad boil, and the prophet Isaiah went to him and told him to prepare to die. He was then but a young man and was aiming to improve the condition of his country, and no doubt felt much pained to leave it before he could do more in the service of God. When, therefore, he heard he was to die, he wept, and he earnestly begged of God to lengthen his life. God immediately

heard his earnest prayer, and the prophet went back to tell him that God would add fifteen more years to his life. He was the only man who ever knew exactly how long he should live; and, most likely, he improved the remainder of his days by still more diligently serving God; though, in one instance, he gave way to pride, and did not render to God, who had made him what he was, all the honor and glory which was due to his name. This instance I shall soon mention. Isaiah now told the king that although God would spare his life, he must use means to cure his disorder: so the prophet told him to take a lump of figs and to apply it to his boil, and by this remedy he would cure it.

At this time, the king of Babylon, a heathen, wished to make a friend of Hezekiah, and sent messengers to him with letters of friendship and a present. Hezekiah received them very kindly, but foolishly and vainly displayed all his treasures, and showed them how rich he was, that they might report it to their master.

Then Isaiah visited the king, and told him, that all his treasures should, by-and-by, go to the king of Babylon; and his children, of another generation, should be made slaves in his palace. This was to humble Hezekiah's pride, and if his children had been humbled too, the king of Babylon would not have overcome them; but they were as proud as their father of their treasures, without his pious disposition to humble them as he was humbled, and so the king of Babylon, knowing how rich they were, went to war with them, and conquered them, as you will hereafter learn.

Manasseh's exceedingly wicked Reign in Judah.-Amon's wicked Reign.

2 KINGS XXI.

N the death of Hezekiah, Manasseh, his son, then twelve years old, succeeded him. It is supposed that a part of Hezekiah's distress in that sickness recorded in the twentieth chapter was due to the fact that he had then no heir. He probably married Hephzibah, the mother of Manasseh, soon after his recovery from this sickness, and Manasseh was born three years later; the prophet Isaiah, the lifelong friend of Hezekiah, in his joy at this auspicious marriage and the birth of an heir to the throne, wrote that beautiful prophecy of the future glory of Zion (Isaiah, chap. lxii.), in which, in the fourth verse, he brings in the name of the queen, in its full significance-" but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." But the good