m little by little, the success of his usurpation being
entirely due to the ruthless energy invariably and everywhere displayed
by him; as, for instance, when Tappuakh (Tiphsah) refused to open
its gates at his summons, he broke into the town and slaughtered its
inhabitants.****

* Amos vii. 9.

** The nameless prophet, whose prediction is handed down to
us in Zech. ix.--xi., speaks of three shepherds cut off by
Javeh in one month (xi. 8); two of these were Zechariah and
Shallum; the third is not mentioned in the Book of Kings.

*** 2 Kings xiv. 23-29; xv. 8-15.

**** 2 Kings xv. 16. The Massoretic text gives the name of
the town as Tipsah, but the Septuagint has Taphot, which led
Thenius to suggest Tappuakh as an emendation of Tipsah:
Stade prefers the emendation Tirzah.

All the defects of organisation, all the sources of weakness, which for
the last half-century had been obscured by the glories of Jeroboam II.,
now came to the surface, and defied all human efforts to avert their
consequences. "Then," as Hosea complains, "is the iniquity of Ephraim
discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood:
and the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
And they consider not in their hearts that I (Jahveh) remember all their
wickedness: now have their own doings beset them about; they are before
My face. They make the king glad with their wickedness and the princes
with their lies. They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by
the baker.... They... devour their judges; all their kings are fallen;
there is none among them that calleth unto Me."* In Judah, Azariah
(Uzziah) had at first shown some signs of ability; he had completed the
conquest of Idumsea, Edom, and had fortified Elath,** but he suddenly
found himself stricken with leprosy, and was obliged to hand over the
reins of government of Jotham.***

* Sos. vii. 1-4, 7.

** 2 Kings xiv. 22; in 2 Ghron. xxvi. 6-15 he is credited
with the reorganisation of the army and of the Judsean
fortress, in addition to campaigns against the Philistines
and Arabs.

*** 2 Kings xv. 5; cf. 2 Ghron. xxvi. 19-21. Azariah is also
abbreviated into Uzziah. Tappuakh was a town situated on the
borders of Ephraim and Manasseh (Josh. xvi. 8; xvii. 7, 8).

His long life had been passed uneventfully, and without any disturbance,
under the protection