s, 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; [23] 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.

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.

3. N