Usurpers in Israel; Nahum’s Prophecy

When Zechariah the son of Jeroboam had reigned six months over Israel, he was killed through the treachery of a friend of his named Shallum, the son of Jabesh, who took the kingdom afterward but kept it no more than thirty days. For Menahem, the general of his army, who was at that time in the city of Tirzah, heard what had happened to Zechariah, and moved at once with all his forces to Samaria, joined battle with Shallum, and killed him. When he had made himself king, he went from there to the city of Tiphsah. But the citizens in it shut their gates and barred them against the king and would not let him in. To take revenge on them, he burned the country around it and took the city by force after a siege. He was so angry at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah had done that he killed them all, sparing not even the infants, and he left out none of the utmost acts of cruelty and savagery; for he treated his own countrymen with a severity that would not be pardonable even toward foreigners he had conquered. In this way Menahem went on reigning with cruelty and savagery for ten years. When Pul, king of Assyria, marched against him, he did not think it wise to fight or give battle to the Assyrians, but persuaded him to accept a thousand talents of silver and go away, and so put an end to the war. The people raised this sum for Menahem by levying fifty drachmae a head as a poll tax. After this he died and was buried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah to succeed him in the kingdom. Pekahiah followed his father’s savagery, and so ruled only two years. After that he was killed with his friends at a feast through the treachery of one Pekah, a commander of a thousand and the son of Remaliah, who plotted against him. This Pekah held the government twenty years, and proved a wicked man and a lawbreaker. But the king of Assyria, whose name was Tiglath-pileser, marched against the Israelites and overran all the land of Gilead and the region beyond the Jordan, and the adjoining country called Galilee, and Kadesh and Hazor; and he took the inhabitants prisoner and moved them into his own kingdom. This is enough to have told here about the king of Assyria. [a]

Jotham the son of Uzziah reigned over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem; he was a citizen of the city through his mother, whose name was Jerusha. This king lacked no virtue. He was devout toward God and just toward men, and careful for the good of the city, for whatever part of it needed repair or adornment he magnificently repaired and adorned. He also set up colonnades and gateways in the temple, repaired the walls that had fallen down, and built very great towers that were almost impregnable; and if anything else in his kingdom had been neglected, he took great care of it. He also marched against the Ammonites, beat them in battle, and ordered them to pay tribute every year: a hundred talents, sixty thousand bushels of wheat, and as many of barley. So he enlarged his kingdom, so that his enemies could not despise it and his own people lived happily. [f]

There was at that time a prophet named Nahum, who spoke in this way about the overthrow of the Assyrians and of Nineveh: “Nineveh will be a pool of water in motion; so will all her people be troubled and tossed, and go away in flight, while they say to one another, ‘Stand, stand still, and seize gold and silver for yourselves!’ But no one will be willing, for they will rather save their lives than their possessions. For a terrible strife will seize them, one against another, and lamentation, and loosening of the limbs, and their faces will be utterly black with fear. Where will the den of the lions be, and the mother of the cubs? God says to you, Nineveh, ‘I will blot you out, and lions will no longer go out from you to give orders to the world.’” And indeed this prophet prophesied many other things besides these about Nineveh, which I do not think it necessary to repeat; I leave them out here so as not to seem tedious to my readers. All these things happened to Nineveh a hundred and fifteen years afterward. So this is enough to have said about these matters. [h]