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THE TWO KINGDOMS CHASTISED
Afflicted with leprosy, Uzziah was unfit to reign as king, and
Jotham administered the affairs of Judah for twenty-five years
before the death of his father. (37) Jotham possessed so much piety
that his virtues added to those of two other very pious men suffice
to atone for all the sins of the whole of mankind committed from
the hour of creation until the end of all time. (38)
Ahaz, the son of Jotham; was very unlike him. "From first to last
he was a sinner." (39) He abolished the true worship of God,
forbade the study of the Torah, set up an idol in the upper room of
the Temple, and disregarded the Jewish laws of marriage. (40) His
transgressions are the less pardonable, because he sinned against
God knowing His grandeur and power, as appears from his reply to
the prophet. Isaiah said to him: "Ask a sign of God, as, for
instance, that the dead should arise, Korah come up from Sheol, or
Elijah descend from heaven." The king's answer was: "I know thou
hast the power to do any of these, but I do not wish the Name of
God to be glorified through me." (41)
The only good quality possessed by Ahaz was respect for Isaiah.
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To avoid his reproaches, Ahaz would disguise himself when
he went abroad, so that the prophet might not recognize him. (43)
Only to this circumstance, joined to the fact he was the father of a
pious son and the son of an equally pious father, is it to be ascribed
that, in spite of his wickedness, Ahaz is not one of those who have
forfeited their portion in the world to come. But he did not escape
punishment; on the contrary, his chastisement was severe, not only
as king but also as man. In the ill-starred war against Pekah, the
king of the northern kingdom, he lost his first-born son, a great
hero. (44)
Pekah, however, was not permitted to enjoy the fruits of his
victory, for the king of Assyria invaded his empire, captured the
golden calf at Dan, and led the tribes on the east side of Jordan
away into exile. The dismemberment of the Israelitish kingdom
went on apace for some years. Then the Assyrians, in the reign of
Hoshea, carried off the second golden calf together with the tribes
of Asher, Issachar, Zebulon, and Naphtali, leaving but one-eighth
of the Israelites in their own land. The larger portion of the exiles
was taken to Damascus. After that Israel's doom overtook it with
giant strides, and the last ruler of Israel actually hastened the end
of his kingdom by a pious deed. After the golden calves were
removed by the Assyrians, Hoshea, the king of the north, abolished
the institution of stationing the guards on the frontier between
Judah and Israel to prevent pilgrimages to Jerusalem. But the
people made no use of the liberty granted them. They persisted in
their idolatrous cult, and this quickened their punishment. So long
as their kings had put obstacles in their path, they could excuse
themselves before God for not worshipping Him in the true way.
The action taken by their king Hoshea left them no defense. When
the Assyrians made their third incursion into Israel, the kingdom of
the north was destroyed forever, and the people, one and all, were
carried away into exile. (45)
The heathen nations settled in Samaria by the Assyrians instead of
the deported Ten Tribes were forced by God to accept the true
religion of the Jews. Nevertheless they continued to worship their
olden idols: the Babylonians paid devotion to a hen, the people of
Cuthah to a cock, those of Hamath to a ram, the dog and the ass
were the gods of the Avvites, and the mule and the horse the gods
of the Sepharvites. (46)
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